Three Questions to Ask Before an AI Answers Your Business Phone

Every demo of an AI receptionist sounds good. Demos are controlled. Your phone line isn’t. Before you hand it over, three questions will tell you more than any feature list.

What does it cost when the phone is busy?

Per-minute, per-call, and flat-rate plans behave very differently once your volume changes. A slow week and a storm week can produce bills that look nothing alike. Ask for the price at three times your normal volume, and ask what’s included in the number: transfers, minutes spent on hold, extra phone numbers.

Where does the call data go, and for how long?

Recordings and transcripts contain customer names, addresses, and sometimes payment or health details. You should know where they’re stored, who can access them, and when they’re deleted. If the answer is “we keep everything indefinitely,” that’s a risk you’re taking on with your customers’ information.

How fast can I be live, and who can change what it says?

Setup should take days, not a quarter. You should be able to listen to actual conversations, not curated samples, and fix a wrong answer yourself without opening a support ticket and waiting a week. A system you can’t review or correct is one you can’t trust with your front door.

What the answers tell you

None of these questions needs technical knowledge. They test whether a vendor has thought about the unglamorous parts: cost, data, and control. If the answers are clear and specific, that’s a good sign. If they’re vague, that is the answer.

Oleksii Kocherev

CEO, Optima Voice

AI Voice Agents for Business, Education & Government

Originally published on Medium.