Let AI Answer Your Phone 24/7 With AI Front Desk
You're a one-person operation or a small team and you can't answer every call — especially evenings, weekends, and when you're with a customer. AI Front Desk is an AI phone receptionist that answers, handles FAQs, and books appointments around the clock. No humans, no voicemail, no missed leads.
Tools You'll Need
| Tool | What It Does | Cost | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Front Desk | AI phone receptionist that answers calls, handles common questions, books appointments, and sends summaries — 24/7 | $65 – $100/month | Get it → |
The Walkthrough
Step 1: Sign Up and Train the AI
What to do: Go to AI Front Desk and create your account. Enter your business information: name, services, hours, pricing, location, and the most common questions callers ask. The AI uses this to build a knowledge base for answering calls.
Why you’re doing it: The more information you give the AI upfront, the better it handles real calls. Think about every question you get on the phone — hours, pricing, availability, location, parking, cancellation policy — and enter them all.
Use this prompt to write your phone FAQ content: Ask Claude: “Write phone FAQ answers for [business name], a [business type]. Cover: hours and location, how to book an appointment, pricing and payment methods, what to expect on a first visit or call, cancellation policy, and the top 3 questions specific to my business: [list them]. Each answer should be 1-3 sentences — the AI receptionist will speak these aloud, so they need to sound natural when read out loud.”
What to expect: 20 minutes. Be thorough — every detail you add now is a call the AI handles perfectly later.
Step 2: Set Up Call Forwarding
What to do: Forward your business phone to the AI Front Desk number. You can forward all calls, only when you don’t answer, or only after hours. Most carriers and VoIP providers support conditional forwarding.
Why you’re doing it: Start with overflow or after-hours forwarding so you can hear how the AI handles calls before sending everything through it. Once you’re confident, switch to forwarding all calls and free yourself from the phone entirely.
What to expect: 5 minutes. Test it by calling your business line from another phone.
Step 3: Connect Your Calendar
What to do: Link your scheduling tool (Google Calendar, Calendly, etc.) so the AI can book appointments directly during calls. Set your available hours, appointment types, and duration.
Why you’re doing it: An AI that takes messages still creates work for you — you have to call people back. An AI that books appointments converts callers into customers in real time, even at 2 AM on a Saturday.
What to expect: 10 minutes. Appointments appear in your calendar automatically.
Step 4: Review and Refine
What to do: AI Front Desk sends you call summaries with transcripts. Review the first 10–20 calls to see how the AI is performing. If it’s getting a question wrong, add the correct answer to your knowledge base. If callers ask questions you didn’t anticipate, add those too.
Why you’re doing it: No AI is perfect out of the box. The first few days are training — real caller data shows you exactly where to improve. Most businesses have the AI handling 90%+ of calls confidently within the first week.
What to expect: 5–10 minutes per day for the first week, then occasional check-ins.
Confidence Level
This workflow is Beta — Based on Best Available Knowledge. AI Front Desk is designed specifically for service businesses and has straightforward setup. AI phone receptionists are a rapidly evolving category.
What to Do If It Doesn’t Work
- AI gives wrong answers: Update your knowledge base with the correct information. The AI can only be as good as the data you give it.
- Callers hang up frustrated: Add a “transfer to a human” option for complex inquiries. AI handles routine calls; you handle exceptions.
- Need more help? AI Front Desk Support or email us at hello@thenewsbakery.com.