AI receptionist
An AI receptionist for the calls you cannot answer.
A missed call is often a missed customer. An AI receptionist picks up every call, handles the routine ones and puts a person on the line when a caller needs one. Here is what that looks like, industry by industry, and where it stops.
What an AI receptionist does
When a call comes in, the AI answers in a natural voice, finds out what the caller wants, and either handles it or routes it. Typical jobs include answering common questions from your own information (hours, services, directions, policies), taking a message with the caller's details, booking or rescheduling an appointment, qualifying a new lead with a few questions, and transferring the call live to a person when it is urgent, sensitive or outside what the AI should handle.
NOVAM's voice product is Novam Caller. It answers, qualifies and follows up, and supports live warm transfer to your team. You can try it through Novam Caller rather than committing to a long contract.
By industry: what the calls actually look like
The calls a receptionist handles differ a lot between businesses, so the setup does too. These are examples of how we would configure it, not guarantees of results.
Law firms
New-matter intake: capture the caller's name, contact details and the type of issue, flag possible conflicts for attorney review, and book a consultation. The AI does not give legal advice, and urgent or deadline-driven calls transfer to a person.
Healthcare practices
Appointment booking, directions, office hours and refill-line routing. Clinical questions and anything urgent go to staff. Health information needs care: ask any vendor, us included, how call recordings and data are stored and who can access them.
Restaurants
Reservations, hours, menu and allergy-process questions, and takeout order routing during the rush, when no one can reach the phone.
Contractors and home services
Estimate requests with job type, address and urgency, emergency routing for things like leaks, and scheduled callbacks. Missed calls here are often a customer who calls the next contractor.
Salons and spas
Booking, rescheduling and cancellations while hands are busy, plus service and pricing questions from your own price list.
Real estate
Listing enquiries, showing requests and buyer or seller qualification, with a hot lead handed to the agent along with what the caller said.
What it will not do
- It is not a replacement for people on calls that need empathy, judgment or authority. It escalates those.
- It does not give legal, medical or financial advice. It answers from the information you give it and says so when it does not know.
- It may mishear a name or an address. We recommend confirming key details by reading them back, and we review call logs with you in the first weeks.
- Recording and disclosure rules vary by state. You should tell callers they are speaking to an AI where required and check your own obligations; we will help configure the greeting.
Getting started
- Tell us your hours, services, common questions and who should get urgent calls.
- We configure the greeting, the information the AI may answer from and the transfer rules.
- You test it on real calls with a short trial before deciding.
- We review the call logs with you and tune the answers.
Phone agent or chat agent?
If most of your enquiries arrive on your website rather than by phone, a chat or FAQ agent may be the better first step. Novam Agents lets you configure either, and we can build a combined setup that books from both channels into one calendar.
Frequently asked questions
Will callers know they are talking to an AI?
Many will notice. We recommend a clear greeting that says it is an AI assistant, which is also required in some places, and an easy way to reach a person.
What happens if the AI cannot help?
It can take a message or transfer the call live to the number you choose. Urgent or sensitive topics are routed to a person by rule.
Can it book appointments on my calendar?
Appointment booking is a supported use case. We connect it to your scheduling setup during configuration; tell us which calendar you use.
Is it HIPAA compliant?
Compliance depends on how the whole setup is configured, not only the software. If you handle protected health information, raise it at the start and we will scope what is needed, including agreements with any third-party services involved.
How do I try it?
Use the Novam Caller link on our products page or contact us and we will set up a short trial.
Stop losing calls.
Tell us about your business and call volume and we will set up a trial.