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Calls and customer service

AI receptionists, missed calls and customer messages: what works for a small UK business.

• Are AI phone answering services any good?
  They're good at answering every call, taking details and booking simple jobs, day or night. They're weaker with emergencies, strong accents, complex quotes and angry customers, so set clear rules for when to pass a call to you. Prices on providers' own pages ran from a free 25-call plan to about £57 a month when we checked.
• Can AI make and answer phone calls?
  Yes. AI voice agents can answer your phone, take bookings and make outbound calls, such as appointment reminders or follow-ups. Be careful with marketing: under PECR, automated marketing calls need the person's specific prior consent, and an AI voice call is likely to count as automated. Service calls, like confirming a booking, carry less risk.
• Can an AI receptionist take restaurant bookings?
  Yes, if it can see your availability. An AI receptionist can answer the phone, take the party size, date, time and name, and book the table, but only reliably when it connects to your booking system or calendar. Without that, it can take a request and text you to confirm. Hand allergy questions, complaints and large parties to a person.
• Can I use ChatGPT for customer service?
  Yes, as a drafting assistant. ChatGPT is good at writing polite, clear replies to enquiries and complaints, and at building an FAQ from questions you're asked every week. Keep a person reading replies before they go out, keep customers' personal details out of personal accounts, and be careful about putting an unsupervised chatbot in front of customers.
• Can Otter AI record phone calls?
  Not directly. Otter says Apple and Google stop third-party apps recording phone calls, so a live Otter recording pauses when a call starts. Instead, record the call with your phone's built-in recorder, then share the audio file to Otter to transcribe and summarise it. In the UK, tell the other person you're recording and why.
• Does Gemini have voice chat like ChatGPT?
  Yes. Gemini Live is Google's voice chat, similar to ChatGPT's voice mode. You talk, Gemini answers out loud, and you can interrupt it or change topic mid-sentence. It's free in the Gemini mobile app, and you can share your camera or screen so Gemini can see what you're looking at. It isn't available in the Gemini web app.
• Does Otter AI work with Teams, Zoom and Google Meet?
  Yes. Otter Notetaker automatically joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings once you connect your Google or Microsoft calendar, then records, transcribes and summarises them. For in-person meetings, record on the Otter phone or desktop app. Otter's Notetaker help page doesn't list Webex, so record those another way and import the audio.
• Does WhatsApp have AI?
  Yes. WhatsApp has Meta AI built in: you can chat with it, mention @Meta AI in a group, or ask it from the search bar. It can't be removed, but Meta says it only reads messages shared with it. For businesses, Meta is rolling out Meta Business Agent, which answers customers in the WhatsApp Business app.
• How do I contact ChatGPT customer service?
  Use the chat bubble at the bottom right of help.openai.com. You'll talk to OpenAI's virtual assistant first, and a human agent can join if it can't solve the problem. OpenAI lists an automated phone line for the US, Canada and Australia only, and that line can't connect you to a person. We found no UK phone number for support.
• Is AI voice realistic?
  Yes. The best AI voices now sound natural, with realistic pauses, emotion and accents, and many listeners can't tell them from a person on a short clip. Quality varies: cheaper voices can still sound flat on long scripts or unusual names. That realism helps with voiceovers and phone answering, but it also fuels voice-clone scams.
• What is an AI receptionist and how does it work?
  An AI receptionist is software that answers your business phone with a natural-sounding voice when you can't. It greets callers, answers common questions from information you give it, takes a message or books a slot, then texts or emails you a summary. It suits trades and sole traders who miss calls while working.
• What is an AI voice agent?
  An AI voice agent is software that talks on the phone for you. It answers calls in a natural voice, works out what the caller wants, and takes a message, answers common questions, books a slot or puts the call through. Unlike a voice assistant such as Siri or Gemini Live, which helps you, a voice agent talks to your customers.
• Will a chatbot replace human customer service?
  Not fully. AI chatbots and voice agents now answer many simple questions, such as opening hours, prices and bookings, at any hour. People are still better at complaints, unusual jobs, vulnerable customers and building trust. For a small business, the best setup is AI for the first answer and a quick, easy route to a person.

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