Terry answers your phone
If your workspace has it switched on, Terry answers your business number as a disclosed AI assistant. It hears what the caller needs, checks your service area, texts a booking link only after the caller says yes, hands emergencies and anyone who asks for a person to your team, and starts a flow when a call reaches the checkpoint you pick.
What it does
When someone calls your business number, Terry picks up and:
- says first, every time, that it is Terry, your company's AI assistant, and that the call is recorded;
- asks what the caller needs and where (their ZIP code), and checks it against your service area;
- offers to text a link to pick an arrival window, and sends it only after the caller says yes to a text on this number;
- hands the call to a person when the caller asks for one, on a relay (711) call, and on any emergency;
- never quotes a price, diagnoses a fault, promises an arrival time or says a visit is booked.
After the call, the person's timeline shows Incoming call, Terry answered with the notes, the transcript and the checkpoints the call reached. A caller you did not have on file becomes a new person, with their number and nothing else: a call is not permission to email them or to text them later.
Set it up
Admins open Settings, then Phone answering, under Sending. The page exists only while the beta is on. The Phone answering card sums up what Terry does now; press Edit for a short guide in four steps:
- When to answer. Open hours, the Time zone, the Transfer number (open hours) and the On call number (after hours).
- What Terry says. The first sentence is fixed and shown as Always said first. Add your own greeting after it if you like.
- What Terry does.
- Service area ZIP codes and Services.
- Booking: Offer to text a booking link (after the caller says yes), with Your booking page (optional), or The team calls them back.
- Emergency words. Gas and carbon monoxide are always recognised. For those Terry says only "Please leave the building now and call 911 or your gas company from outside" and transfers the call. It gives no other safety advice.
- Hand relay calls (711) to a person.
- Actions. Terry only uses an action you approve here: check the service area, text a booking link, take a message. Transferring a call is always on, because an emergency must reach a person. If an action changes in a later release, it needs approving again, and the card says how many to approve again. Every use is logged.
- Check and save.
The Checkpoints card below lists the moments a call can reach.
Checkpoints and flows
Each call records the moments it reaches: we know who is calling, we know what they need, they are in the service area, they asked for a visit or a quote, they said yes to a text, an emergency was reported, they booked a time.
In the flow editor, the box When a call reaches a checkpoint adds the caller to that flow at the moment you pick. The starter Incoming call: quote follow-up does this for callers who asked for a visit: a day later, anyone who has not booked and said yes to a text gets one reminder with your booking link, and everyone else goes to a person to call back.
Reaching a checkpoint is not consent. A Text box in the flow still needs a Branch: Do we have texting consent? in front of it, and only the caller's own yes on the call passes it.
Good to know
- The yes to a text is kept as proof: the question Terry asked, the caller's words, the time and the call.
- A text held by your texting hours waits on Tasks, under Approve, for a person, and Terry tells the caller the team will send it.
- Terry never hangs up on silence quickly, and gives relay calls extra time.
In Classic
Open Phone answering at `/settings/receptionist`. All the settings are on one page: what callers hear first, the transfer and on call numbers, service area ZIP codes and services, booking, emergency words, open hours and your time zone, and what Terry may do on a call. A held text waits in Review.