How it works
One call, from the first ring to your summary
Ringhero answers the calls your carrier forwards to it. Here is what happens on every one of them, in order.
What the animation shows, in order:
- Incoming call to Harbour Plumbing, after hours.
- Caller: "Hi, I think I smell gas by the furnace in the basement."
- The call is flagged: Emergency · gas smell.
- AI assistant: "Please leave the building now and call your gas utility or the emergency number from outside. I'm alerting the on-call technician right now."
- The owner's phone gets a text from Ringhero alerts: "EMERGENCY Gas smell near the furnace. Dana MacLeod, 902 555 0142, 14 Spring Park Rd, Charlottetown. Told to leave and call the gas utility from outside. Call back now."
- A lead card, "Gas smell near the furnace" from Dana MacLeod, slides into the "New lead" column of the CRM pipeline, marked as an emergency.
The call
Seven steps, every call
Step 1
Your carrier forwards the call
You keep your number. When you are busy, do not answer, or are closed, your phone company forwards the call to your private receptionist number. Callers never see that number.
Forwarding modes: overflow, after hours, or always.
Step 2
It greets the caller and says it is an AI
The greeting names your business and discloses the AI assistant. It also tells the caller the call is transcribed. Ask it whether it is a robot and it answers honestly.
AI disclosure is a universal rule. It cannot be switched off.
Step 3
It works out why they are calling
New job, quote, emergency, existing job, maintenance request, billing question, a sales call, or a request for a person. Each intent has its own required details and its own action.
Intents come from the template for your trade.
Step 4
It uses tools, not guesses
Hours, service area, price ranges, and policies are looked up in your business profile and the documents you uploaded. If the answer is not there, it says the team will confirm and takes the details.
Every tool has a spoken fallback, so a slow lookup never breaks the call.
Step 5
It escalates when it matters
On an emergency trigger it gives the scripted safety line first, then sends an urgent alert to your on-call contact and can transfer the call live. When it is unsure whether something is an emergency, it treats it as one.
If a transfer fails, it takes a message and sends an urgent alert.
Step 6
You get a summary within 60 seconds
After the caller hangs up you get a text and an email: who called, what they need, how urgent it is, and what was promised. Before ending, it confirms the name, callback number, and address back to the caller.
The target is 60 seconds from hang-up.
Step 7
The call lands in your dashboard
Every call is kept as a record with its intent, urgency, outcome, and captured details, so the office can follow up in order.
Transcripts are kept 90 days, then deleted. The summary stays.
The playbook
Structured settings, not a blank prompt
A playbook is the set of rules your receptionist follows. You start from a template for your trade and change what you need. Every published change is a new version, so you can go back to an earlier one.
Persona and greeting
The name it uses, its tone and pace, and what it says during and after business hours.
Intents and required details
The reasons people call you, and the details it must collect for each one before it ends the call.
Escalation matrix
Which words trigger an emergency, the safety line for each, who gets alerted, and who gets the transfer at which hours.
Objections
How it responds to a price complaint, a request for same-day service, or a caller who wants a person.
Caller conduct
When to give a warning to an abusive caller and when to end the call politely. It never ends a call during an emergency.
Closing and after the call
The next step it promises, and whether you get a text, an email, or both.
intent: new_service_requestexample
- required
- name, callback number, service address, issue, preferred window
- action
- capture the lead
- if incomplete
- ask again, then take a message
escalation: gas smellexample
- safety line
- Leave the building now and call your gas utility or 911
- action
- urgent alert and live transfer
- if transfer fails
- take a message and send an urgent alert
Safety decisions are fixed rules. Tone and phrasing are left to the voice model.
Universal rules
Twelve rules nobody can switch off
These are built into every receptionist on every plan. They are not settings.
It says it is an AI
The greeting discloses the AI assistant for your business. Asked directly, it answers honestly.
It never invents prices, availability, or policies
It looks them up. If the answer is unknown it says the team will confirm and captures the details.
Safety comes first
On an emergency trigger it gives the scripted safety line, then escalates. It never troubleshoots a hazard.
It confirms details back
Name, callback number digit by digit, and address, before the call ends.
One question at a time
Short turns, the way people talk on the phone.
Callers can interrupt
It stops and listens, and it does not repeat the whole menu.
It does not argue
It acknowledges, reframes, and offers a next step.
It stays in scope
No legal, medical, or insurance advice, and no discussion of other customers.
When unsure, it treats it as an emergency
The fail-safe direction is to escalate.
It closes with a concrete next step
The caller hears what happens next and the timeframe from your playbook.
It speaks like a person at your business
It never mentions vendors, systems, or internal names to a caller.
Emergency numbers are localized
911 in Canada and the United States, taken from your country setting.
Ringhero is not an emergency service. It gives scripted safety lines and alerts the people you name. Read the terms and set up your emergency contacts before you go live.
Hear it answer your business
Upload your price list to the demo and talk to it in under a minute, or set up Ringhero in about 15 minutes and call your own number.