By default the AI Receptionist does not transfer calls. It takes a complete message and creates a follow-up task for your team, and no caller is ever told "I can't transfer you." If you want it to connect certain callers to a person, you turn that on under Settings → Phone → Receptionist → Transfers and decide exactly who, when, and in which situations.
Default: a message, not a switchboard
When a caller wants to "talk to someone" and transfers are off, the receptionist says something like:
"Nobody's available at the office right this second — but I can take down everything you need and someone will call you right back. What's going on?"
It gathers the caller's name and number, the reason for the call, how urgent it is, and the best time to call back. That shows up on the call in Conversations → AI, with the details under Captured details and To-dos from this call, and your team calls the customer back.
Before you start
- Owners and admins set up transfers.
- Transfers work on calls that come in on your Run a Call business line and reach the receptionist through your call routing or a call flow. If you forward another provider's line to the receptionist, it takes messages instead.
- Outside numbers (a cell, an answering service) must be verified before you can activate: click Verify next to the number, we call it, and the person presses 1.
Turning transfers on
Go to Settings → Phone → Receptionist and click the Transfers tab. Transfers are off until you switch on Let the receptionist transfer calls, fill in the sections, save, and click Activate transfers. Nothing changes until that button.
| Section | What you decide |
|---|---|
| Who answers | Office team (whoever is online), a specific teammate, a field tech's verified cell, a ring group, On-call tech (from the schedule), or a verified outside number such as the owner's cell. Add steps in order, each with its own ring time; everyone in a step rings at once. Outside numbers always press 1 to accept, so a cell phone's voicemail never swallows the call. |
| When | During business hours, Always, day and night, or Custom hours. Treat company holidays as closed is on by default. Outside the window the receptionist says the office isn't taking transfers and takes a message. |
| In which situations | Switches with editable wording: the caller asks for a person, an emergency, an existing customer, a booking the receptionist couldn't complete, a billing question, an upset caller, a new-system quote, or someone asked for by name. Plus your own Also transfer when… and Never transfer when… lines. Two switches shape the conversation: Ask what it's about and try to help before transferring (a caller who just needs a booking gets it without interrupting the office; emergencies skip this) and Get the caller's name and number before transferring. |
| What people hear | What the receptionist says before connecting, the hold line, the whisper the person answering hears (with the caller's name and a one-line summary), and what the caller hears if nobody picks up. |
| If nobody picks up | Send them to a voicemail box, Back to the receptionist to take a message (counts as a second receptionist call), or Text them and hang up (needs Texting). Never silence. |
Recent transfers at the bottom lists the last 20 with the reason the receptionist gave and how each ended (for example Asked for a person, Nobody picked up → voicemail), so you can tighten the wording.
To stop transferring, switch transfers off. The receptionist goes back to taking messages on its next call and your settings stay saved.
What the caller experiences
- The receptionist recognises one of your situations and confirms the caller wants to be connected. If you asked it to, it takes their name and number first.
- It says your connecting line, then the caller hears "Please hold" and ringing.
- The person answering hears the whisper (on a cell) or sees the caller's name and the receptionist's summary on their screen (in the app). Once they pick up, the call continues as a normal call: one record in Conversations, one recording, the receptionist's transcript attached.
- If nobody picks up, the fallback you chose runs.
Guardrails
- The receptionist is told at the start of every call whether a transfer is possible right now, so it never offers one it cannot make.
- Your rules are enforced on our side, not only in the receptionist's instructions. A caller cannot talk it into a transfer outside your hours or to nobody.
- One transfer per call. A second request becomes a message.
- Blocked numbers are never transferred. Switch on Don't transfer callers with hidden numbers to keep those as messages too.
- Office team (whoever is online) only rings people signed in to the app. Add the on-call tech or an outside number so after-hours transfers have somewhere to go.