Thoughts from the other side of the phone. Honest, occasional writing on virtual reception, small business, and what good customer service really looks like.
I use AI in my business every day. Just not to answer the phone.
I use AI in my business every day. Just not to answer the phone.
That probably sounds contradictory coming from someone who runs a virtual reception service.
But there is a distinction worth making, and it is one I rarely hear in conversations about AI phone answering for small business.
Where AI actually helps
I use AI to track calls coming in on an hourly basis across client accounts, so I can spot patterns and pick up anything unusual. I use it to keep on top of social media metrics and website stats. It helps me stay organised across numbers I could not track manually.
These are back of house tasks. Admin. Analysis. The kind of work that happens before and after the phone rings, not during the call itself.
That distinction matters.
What a virtual receptionist does that AI cannot
A few months ago, I took a call from an elderly woman. She was ringing to cancel an appointment. Her husband was unwell. You could hear it before she said it.
An AI call agent would have processed the cancellation. Maybe confirmed it with a reference number. Done.
What actually happened was a conversation. A moment of acknowledging what she was going through, making sure she felt heard before the call ended.
That is not a feature you can build into a bot. It is not something you can script. It comes from paying attention, from reading the tone of a call, and responding as a human being.
That call is one of many I think about whenever I hear someone talk about how good AI phone answering has gotten. It may be getting better at handling transactions. But it cannot pick up on emotion or read the tone of someone’s voice.
What it feels like on the other end of the phone
You call a business, you are already a bit stressed, and you are met with a voice menu asking you to repeat yourself. That frustration is not irrational. It is a reasonable response to feeling like the business does not think your call is worth a real person’s time.
For small service businesses, that first impression can be the whole impression. A caller who feels dismissed does not usually ring back. And here is the difficult part for a business owner. You often do not know it is happening.
The flip side is just as powerful. When a real person answers, there is a chance to do something an AI never can. Recognise a voice. Remember a name. Pick up that someone seems a bit off today. That kind of familiarity turns a one off call into a relationship, and a caller into a regular.
Where I land on this
AI has made parts of my business genuinely easier. I am not dismissing it.
But phone calls are different. They are where trust is built or lost, where a caller decides whether your business feels like somewhere they want to keep coming back to. That is not something I am willing to hand over to an algorithm.
If you are weighing this up for your own business, I am happy to talk it through. No pitch, just a straightforward conversation about what virtual reception actually looks like.
Email info@officeworkforyou.com.au or call 02 6130 0244, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm AEST.