Preview. Details still being decided are marked TBD.

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How it works

AlloPlace answers your phone the way a good front desk would. It knows your business, it books into your calendar, and it knows when to get you on the line.

Setting it up is mostly telling it things you already know.

Setting it up

1. Tell it about your business

Add your business name, opening hours, services and the questions people ask you all the time. If you have a website, give it the address and AlloPlace will read your pages for you. You can also upload documents, like a price list or a policy sheet.

It answers from what you give it, and only that. If a caller asks about something you haven't covered, it tells them it doesn't know and offers to take a message.

2. Call it yourself

Before you pay anything, make a test call from your browser. Ask about your hours. Try to book something. Ask the strange question your customers always ask. If an answer is off, fix it in the dashboard and call again.

The free plan gives you 30 minutes of test calls, with no card needed.

3. Connect your calendar

Connect Google Calendar and set your booking rules: which services can be booked, how long each one takes, and when you're available. If you'd rather approve every booking yourself, it can take requests instead and you confirm them.

4. Get a number

Pick a plan and choose how calls reach AlloPlace:

  • Get a new number. Local or toll-free. Good for a new line, a second location, or a number on your truck.
  • Forward your existing number. Keep the number your customers already know and forward it to AlloPlace, all the time or only in certain cases.

5. Choose when it answers

  • Every call. It's your front desk.
  • After hours. You take calls during the day, it takes them at night and on weekends.
  • When you're busy or don't pick up. Your phone rings first. If the line is busy or nobody answers, the call goes to AlloPlace. Most phone carriers call this conditional forwarding, and we'll show you how to turn it on.

You can change this whenever you want. TBD: confirm how each mode is set in the product, and write carrier-specific forwarding guides for Bell, Vidéotron, Rogers, Telus and the main US carriers.

What happens on a call

Here's a typical call to a heating company on a Saturday night.

  1. The phone rings and AlloPlace picks up. The caller hears your business name, not ours.
  2. It says what it is. A short notice tells the caller they're talking to an AI assistant and that the call is recorded and transcribed. TBD: wording of the fixed notice, in English and French, approved by counsel.
  3. It listens. The caller says the furnace stopped and the house is getting cold. The caller can interrupt or change their mind halfway through a sentence, like on any normal call.
  4. It does what you've told it to. You've set a rule that no-heat calls in winter are urgent, so it offers to put the caller through to the on-call tech and transfers the call.
  5. Or it books. If it's a routine tune-up, it checks your calendar and offers real times. It doesn't say "you're booked" until the booking has actually gone through.
  6. The caller gets a text. A confirmation with the date and time, and if they agree, a reminder the day before.
  7. You get the summary. The call shows up in your inbox with a recording, a transcript and a one-line summary. Urgent calls can also send you an email or a text alert.

When a caller wants to change a booking

Anyone can call and say "I need to move my appointment", so AlloPlace checks first. It finds the booking, sends a one-time code by text to the phone number on the appointment, and only reschedules or cancels once the caller reads the code back. If you'd rather handle cancellations yourself, it can take a cancellation request instead.

When it can't help

Some calls need you. When that happens, AlloPlace either puts the caller through or takes a clear message with their name, number and what they need, and alerts you.

It sticks to what you've told it. It won't guess at a price you haven't given it or promise a time that isn't free in your calendar. TBD: add "It won't give medical, legal or safety advice" once that rule is built into the receptionist's instructions.

After the call

Everything lives in one place:

  • Calls, with recordings, transcripts and summaries
  • Appointments it booked or changed
  • Messages it took
  • Contacts, so you can see everyone who has called before
  • Text messages sent to callers

You can invite your team, so the office manager and the on-call tech see the same thing.

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