What Happens Between Signing Up and Going Live

Your part in this entire setup is about 20 minutes of your time. Not a project. Not a learning curve. Here is everything we need before we build anything:

Your existing business phone number. We forward it. You keep the same number, don't reprint cards and don't need to tell anyone. Same number, smarter answering.

Calendar access. We connect to the calendar you already use: Google Calendar, a job management system or a shared calendar. No new app to download.

Your service list with typical price ranges. Leak call-outs at £100–£250. Emergency boiler repairs at £150–£400. New boiler installs at £2,500–£4,500. We use these figures to set how the AI qualifies each caller and how urgently it routes each call type.

Emergency escalation preference. Some owners want genuine emergencies, like a burst pipe at 2 a.m. or no heating in January, texted straight to their mobile. Others want the AI to book a same-day slot. You decide once. We set it up.

Business hours and out-of-hours behaviour. What counts as a business-hours call? What changes at 6 p.m. on Friday? Do you want out-of-hours jobs booked into tomorrow's diary or offered an emergency rate? Tell us once and we set it up for good.

That is the complete list. Once we have those five things, your involvement in setup is done. Everything else is our job.

Once your details are in, setup starts straight away. You will not see any of it: no dashboards, no approval screens. Here is what is being built in the background:

Call flow scripting. Using your service list, we write the conversation the AI uses for every incoming call. It is not a generic script. A plumbing call gets different qualification questions from a heating call. A blocked drain enquiry gets different urgency prompts from a full replumb request. Every service type gets its own path.

Lead qualification logic. For each service, we set the exact questions the AI asks before booking: location (are they in your area, based on postcode?), description of the problem, how urgent it is, and whether they are a homeowner or a landlord or letting agent. Poor leads do not get booked. Qualified leads go straight into your calendar.

Calendar integration. We connect the AI to your booking calendar so it checks real-time availability and books slots without you. When a caller says Tuesday morning works, the AI confirms the slot and books it, all in the same call.

Emergency routing. If a caller's situation meets your emergency criteria, the system triggers your escalation path immediately: a text to your mobile, a call to your out-of-hours line, or an emergency booking slot.

Missed-call text back. Every missed call, whether the caller hung up early or lost signal, triggers an automatic text within two minutes. That text invites them to book directly. You stop losing calls to whoever picks up next.

By the end of hour 24, the full system exists. It has not been tested yet. That comes next.

Nothing goes live until it passes a full internal test. Every scenario you are likely to face in the first week is run through before a real caller ever hears the system.

Full call flow for every service type. We run test calls for every service on your list. Each call follows the complete path: greeting, qualification questions, availability check, booking confirmation. If any step does not behave correctly, we fix it before moving on.

Qualification edge cases. What happens when a caller is outside your area? What if they cannot describe the problem clearly? What if they need a same-day visit and your diary is full? Every edge case gets a set response. The AI does not guess.

Calendar booking end to end. We book test appointments into your actual calendar, check they appear correctly, and remove them before go-live. If you glance at your calendar during this window and see a test appointment, that is normal. It will be gone before launch.

Emergency escalation. We trigger the emergency path and check it works correctly: the right contact, the right timing, the right message.

If testing shows anything that needs changing, such as a service type we missed, phrasing that does not suit your area, or a calendar clash, we fix it in this window. You go live with a system that has already been put through its paces, not one being tested on your real customers.

When testing passes, we switch it on. You get a direct confirmation, by message or email, that the system is live and your call forwarding is active.

The first real incoming call is monitored on our end in real time. We check the live system behaves exactly as it did in testing.

Here is what your experience looks like on that first real call: your phone does not ring. The AI answers. The caller gets qualified. If they are a good fit, a new booked appointment appears in your calendar. You might not know it happened until you check your diary and see a new job sitting there.

That is how it works from then on. Calls come in. Appointments appear. You turn up and do the work. You do not manage the phone system, check a portal or change any script. That is our job, permanently, not just during setup.

Day three is not when our work ends. It is when the monitoring phase starts.

Call performance tracking. We watch every call the system handles: how many it answered, how many led to a booked appointment, how many were turned away and why, and how many missed calls triggered the text back and converted.

Qualification logic changes. Real call patterns do not always match what we expected during setup. Maybe a service you listed as low volume turns out to be your busiest call. Maybe callers from a particular town are consistently outside your area. We adjust the logic as patterns emerge, proactively, without waiting for you to ask.

Service list updates. When your work changes, say you add a service or stop taking a job type in winter, you tell us once. We update the entire call flow within 24 hours. No settings page. No instructions to follow.

Monthly performance summary. Once a month, you get a plain-English report: calls answered, appointments booked, estimated revenue recovered, and missed calls that converted through text back. No dashboard login. No jargon.

Your job after day three: turn up to booked appointments. Tell us when your services change. That is the entire scope of your ongoing involvement.

Tracking starts the moment your first live call is handled, not from your sign-up date and not from when we started building.

From day one, we track recovered revenue: appointments booked by the AI that would have gone to voicemail, missed calls that converted through text back, and emergency calls that were escalated and won. Every booked job is logged with its call source, so it is clear what the system produced.

Think about what a single missed emergency call is worth. An emergency boiler repair is typically £150–£400. A missed enquiry that turns into a new boiler can be £2,500–£4,500. If you are taking 30 or 40 calls a week, every one that goes to voicemail is work that may go to the next tradesperson who picks up.

AI Receptionist monthly plans start from £497 a month, depending on the size of the business. We confirm the exact price after a free call. Other services are quoted after a free call. We control the setup from start to finish, and your monthly summary shows exactly what the system has booked.

Full details on how recovered revenue is defined and how calls are tracked are on the results tracking page.