An AI phone receptionist for the calls you can't get to

The phone rings while you're with a customer. Or halfway up a ladder, or in the middle of a colour, or locking up for the night. You let it go, promising yourself you'll call back, and by the time you do the caller has booked with someone else. Most small businesses don't lose work because they're bad at it. They lose it because nobody was free to pick up.

An AI phone receptionist is a way to make sure somebody always is. Klugon answers your business number with a natural-sounding AI voice, talks to the caller in plain language, answers from what you've taught it, books appointments into your calendar and writes down the details your team needs to follow up. It works through the night and at weekends, with no break for lunch.

This page explains exactly how that works with Klugon: what happens on a call, how you set it up and forward your existing number, what the AI does on its own and what it leaves for a person, what it costs, and where its limits are. We've tried to be specific, including about the things it can't do yet, because those are the details that decide whether it fits your business.

What an AI phone receptionist actually does on a call

Strip away the marketing and a phone receptionist does four jobs. It answers in your name. It gives callers the information they want. It books them in when they want to come. And when something needs a person, it takes a proper message. Klugon's AI does each of those, with some boundaries worth knowing in advance.

It answers in your business's name

When a call reaches your Klugon number, the AI answers with your greeting. If you haven't written one, the default is "Hello! Thank you for calling" followed by your business name and "How can I help you today?". We'd recommend writing your own (more on that in the setup section), not least because the default doesn't say that the caller is speaking to an AI.

From there, the caller just talks. There's no "press 1 for opening hours". They can ask a question the way they'd ask a person, change their mind, or cut in while the AI is still speaking. When the caller starts talking, the AI stops and listens, which matters more than it sounds. Nothing makes an automated line feel more robotic than a voice that carries on over the top of you.

It answers from what you've taught it

The AI doesn't guess at your prices or invent a parking policy. It answers from your own material: the services and prices you've entered, your business profile (address, opening hours, contact details) and your knowledge base, which can hold uploaded documents, pasted text and pages imported from your website. During a call it can search that knowledge base and look up your services and products.

That makes the quality of its answers a direct reflection of the quality of what you give it. If your cancellation policy isn't written down anywhere it can read, it can't quote it. When it doesn't have an answer, the right behaviour is to say so and take the caller's details, and that's how you should set it up.

It books into your calendar

For appointment-based businesses, booking is usually the main reason to have an AI phone receptionist at all. Klugon's AI can list your services, check which slots are free, create a booking and cancel one, all during the call. Availability comes from Klugon's built-in booking calendar, which uses your opening hours, your timezone, how long each service takes, which staff member does it, the buffer you want between appointments and how much notice you need. The caller gets a booking reference before they hang up.

If you'd rather run your diary in another calendar, Klugon can also check Google, Outlook or Apple calendars and send Calendly links, once you've connected them on the Business plan or above. The AI appointment booking page covers the booking side in detail, including how the external calendars work and where they don't.

It takes details for your team

Some calls need you. A complaint, a quote for an unusual job, a supplier, a question it doesn't have an answer for. On those, the AI's job is to take the caller's name, number and what they need, save it as a lead, and tell them honestly that someone will get back to them. It can't put the caller through to you (we'll come back to this, because it's the most important limit on this page). What it can do is make sure the message is complete and in one place, instead of on a sticky note or a voicemail you'll listen to on Thursday.

How Klugon's AI phone answering service works behind the number

You don't need to understand the technology to use it, but knowing the sequence helps you set it up well and spot problems.

1. A call arrives at your Klugon number. That's either a number you got from Klugon, or your existing number forwarded to a Klugon number by your phone provider. Businesses on the Business plan or above can also point their own SIP trunk at Klugon.
2. The AI answers with your greeting in the language and voice you've chosen for that assistant.
3. It listens and replies in a normal back-and-forth. The caller can interrupt at any point.
4. It uses tools when the conversation needs them. These are the actions available on a call: list your services, check available slots, create a booking, cancel a booking, search your products, search your knowledge base, read your business profile and capture a lead.
5. The call is saved to your inbox as a phone conversation, with its duration and a log of the conversation.
6. Bookings and leads land in your dashboard, and if you've connected Slack or Zapier (Business plan and above), new leads and bookings are posted there too.

It's inbound only. Klugon answers calls; it doesn't make them. There are no outbound calls, no callbacks placed by the AI and no text messages.

It also answers whenever your plan is live and calls are routed to it. There's no built-in schedule that switches it on at 6pm and off at 9am. If you only want it to take certain calls, you control that with your phone provider's forwarding settings, which we cover in the setup section and in more depth on the after-hours answering service page.

Languages and voices

You set the language per assistant. On calls, Klugon answers in English (US or UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Arabic. If a lot of your callers speak one of those, you can set up a second assistant in that language. Every plan includes unlimited assistants, but Starter allows one phone number, so a second number for another language needs Business (three numbers) or Scale.

There are ten voices to choose from. They're AI-generated and sound natural, but they are not a recording of a person and we don't claim callers can't tell. Pick one that suits how your business sounds on the phone, then call it yourself a few times before you settle.

The first thing callers hear

Your greeting carries more weight than any other line. It's heard on every call, it sets the tone, and it's the best place to be upfront that the caller is talking to an AI assistant. Klugon lets you write your own. A good one is short, says who's answering and invites the caller to say what they need:

Read it aloud before you save it. If it takes more than one breath, it's too long.

A sample call

Juniper Lane Hair is an imaginary three-chair salon. It has entered its services with prices and durations, set opening hours of Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm, and pasted its policies into the knowledge base, including "All new colour clients need a patch test at least 48 hours before their appointment." It's on the Business plan with Slack connected. The call comes in on a Monday evening, when the salon is closed.

AI: Thanks for calling Juniper Lane Hair. You're through to our AI assistant. I can book appointments and answer questions about our services. How can I help?

Caller: Hi, I'd like to book a cut and colour, probably Saturday if you have anything.

AI: I can help with that. Have you had colour with us before?

Caller: No, first time.

AI: Then you'll need a patch test at least 48 hours before the colour appointment. It's a quick visit. Would you like me to book the patch test as well?

Caller: Oh, right. Yes, okay. What does the cut and colour cost?

AI: A cut and full colour is 95 pounds and takes about two and a half hours. For Saturday, I have 9:30 with Priya or 11:00 with Tom.

Caller: 9:30 please. And for the patch test?

AI: Patch tests can be booked from tomorrow. I have Wednesday at 10:15 or Thursday at 4:40.

Caller: Wednesday's fine.

AI: Can I take your name and a phone number?

Caller: Maya Collins, 07700 900123.

AI: Thanks, Maya. You're booked for a patch test on Wednesday at 10:15, and a cut and full colour with Priya on Saturday at 9:30. Your booking references are J-4821 and J-4822.

Caller: Great. Can you text those to me?

AI: I'm not able to send texts, I'm sorry. If you note the references down now, the salon can find your bookings with them or with your name.

Caller: No problem. Is there parking nearby?

AI: There's a pay-and-display car park on Mill Street, about two minutes' walk from the salon.

Caller: Lovely. One more thing, I had a bad experience with a colour elsewhere and wanted to talk to someone about my hair before Saturday.

AI: That makes sense. I can't put you through to a stylist from here, but I can pass this on so the salon calls you back. Would 07700 900123 be the best number?

Caller: Yes.

AI: I've passed that on. Someone from the salon will call you back when they're in. Is there anything else I can help with?

Caller: No, that's everything, thanks.

What happened after the call

On Tuesday morning, the salon owner finds the following in the dashboard, without having listened to anything:

• The call in the inbox, marked as a phone conversation, with its duration.
• Two new entries in bookings, with Maya's name and number, one with Priya on Saturday and one for the patch test on Wednesday.
• A new lead with the note that Maya wants to talk to a stylist about a previous colour problem before Saturday.
• Slack messages for the two bookings and the new lead, because the salon connected Slack.

Then someone at the salon calls Maya back. That last step is the one the AI can't do for you, and it's the one that wins the client's trust.

Notice what the AI didn't do in this example. It didn't promise a text, a reminder or an email, because Klugon doesn't send any of those. It didn't pretend to transfer the call. And it didn't improvise an answer about Maya's previous colour, which is a stylist's judgement, not a receptionist's.

What it handles and what it hands to your team

An AI phone receptionist earns its keep on the routine calls, the ones you could answer in your sleep, so that people only spend time on the calls that need them. The useful exercise is to sort your calls in advance.

Calls the AI phone agent handles on its own

One gap to know about: on calls, the AI can book and cancel, but it can't reschedule an existing booking in one step. In chat and messaging it can. If moving appointments is a big part of your phone traffic, test how your assistant deals with it before going live, and expect some of those calls to end up as a message for your team.

What "handing over" means in practice

This is where people's expectations of an AI answering service most often differ from what Klugon does, so it's worth being exact.

Klugon can't transfer a live call to a person. There's no "please hold while I put you through". The AI can't ring your mobile, can't connect the caller to a colleague and can't conference anyone in. When a call needs a human, the AI hands the conversation to your team by taking the caller's details and the reason for the call, saving it as a lead, and telling the caller someone will get back to them.

Your team then picks it up from:

• The leads list, where the caller's name, number and notes appear. Leads have statuses (new, contacted, converted, lost) so you can track who has been called back.
• The inbox, where every call appears as a phone conversation.
• Slack or Zapier, if you've connected them on the Business plan or above. New leads and bookings are posted automatically, so the person on duty sees them without logging in. With Zapier you can route them on to wherever your team already works.
• The insights page, which keeps a to-do list including leads that haven't been contacted after two days.

What Klugon does not do is email you or send a push notification when a call comes in. On the Starter plan, which doesn't include Slack or Zapier, that means you check the dashboard yourself. Build that into your routine: first thing in the morning and after lunch is a sensible start.

The callback itself is up to you. We have a longer post on handing calls to staff with scripts for both sides of that handover.

Calls you should keep away from it

An AI receptionist is a receptionist. It shouldn't be doing the job of your qualified staff, and there are calls where the right answer is "a person will call you back", every time. Write these down and add them to your knowledge base as a plain instruction, so the AI knows to take details and not to answer:

• Anything clinical or safety-related. Symptoms, medication, "is this an emergency?". The AI must not triage. If you run a clinic, practice or pharmacy, say in your greeting and your instructions that anyone with an urgent medical problem should hang up and call the emergency services.
• Legal or financial advice. It can book a consultation and take the outline of the matter. It must not tell anyone what to do about it.
• Complaints and disputes. Take the details, acknowledge them, pass them on. A person should own the reply.
• Anything involving payment. Klugon doesn't take payments on calls. Don't let callers read card numbers to it.
• Emergencies for trades. A burst pipe at midnight needs a human decision. Klugon can take the address and the details, but it can't ring your phone, so if you offer an emergency service you need a separate route for it. Our page for plumbers, electricians and other trades goes through the options.

Setting up AI call answering

Setup is mostly about your business information, not about technology. The technical part, getting calls to the AI, is a few minutes of work once your plan allows it. Teaching the AI properly takes longer and is the part that decides how good it sounds.

Before you start: the trial and phone numbers

Klugon's voice product has a 7-day free trial. A card is required to start it. You're charged when the trial ends unless you cancel before then, and cancelling during the trial costs nothing.

During the trial you can't get a phone number. You build and test your assistant in the browser, talking to it through your computer's microphone, and your number activates once the trial has ended and your plan is paid. That's deliberate on our side, and it means you get a week to teach and test the AI before any real caller hears it.

Step 1: teach it about your business

Start with what callers actually ask. Go through your last few weeks of calls, emails and messages and write down the twenty questions that come up most, with the answer you'd give. Then add them to the knowledge base. You can:

• Paste text, which is the best format for FAQs and policies.
• Upload files in PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD or CSV format, up to 20 MB each. Scanned PDFs that are only images can't be read, so use the original document.
• Import a single web page, such as your prices page. It's read once, so if the page changes you add it again.
• Scan your website, which reads your homepage and up to seven key pages such as contact and about. It isn't a full-site crawl, so don't rely on it for deep pages.

If you have several assistants, they share the same knowledge base, so you only need to do this once. Our post on what to teach your AI receptionist has a fuller list.

Step 2: set up services and opening hours

Enter each service with its price and how long it takes, and assign staff if different people do different services. Set your opening hours and timezone, then the booking rules: the slot interval (from 10 minutes up to 2 hours, 30 minutes by default), any buffer after appointments, minimum notice (an hour by default), how far ahead people can book (60 days by default) and the dates you're closed. The AI books inside these rules, so spending ten minutes on them saves you from a 7:45am booking on a bank holiday.

Step 3: choose a voice and write a greeting

Pick the language and one of the ten voices, then write your greeting. Keep it under three sentences. Say the business name, say it's an AI assistant and say what it can help with.

Step 4: test it in the browser

Call it yourself, and get someone else to as well. Don't just ask the easy questions. Try:

• A question it shouldn't know the answer to, to check it says so instead of guessing.
• A booking outside your opening hours.
• Changing your mind halfway through a booking.
• Interrupting it mid-sentence.
• Asking for a person.
• Asking for something on your "keep away" list.

Every gap you find now is a call that goes better later.

Step 5: get a number or forward your existing one

Once the trial has ended, you have three ways to connect a real phone line:

• Get a new number from Klugon. It costs $9 a month. The number search defaults to US numbers.
• Keep your existing number and forward it. Klugon gets you a dedicated number (the same $9 a month), and you set up call forwarding with your phone provider so calls to your public number go to it. This is how most businesses keep the number that's on their van, website and Google listing.
• Bring your own number over a SIP trunk. If you already have a business phone system with SIP, you can point it at Klugon. This needs the Business plan or above.

Klugon doesn't port numbers. Your number stays with your current provider, and forwarding or a SIP trunk sends the calls on.

Call forwarding codes for common carriers

Forwarding is set on your phone line, not in Klugon. You have two broad choices:

• Forward all calls, so the AI answers everything. Good if you want it as your front desk.
• Forward only calls you don't answer (often called "no answer" or "conditional" forwarding), so your phone rings first and the AI picks up what you miss. Good if you like answering yourself when you can.

The codes depend on your carrier and the kind of line. These are the codes the carriers publish themselves; check the linked page before you dial, as carriers do change them.

Two practical points. Your provider may charge for forwarded calls, because technically your line is making a call to the Klugon number; BT, for example, says diverted calls are charged at its standard rates unless your plan includes them. And after you've set forwarding, ring your business number from another phone to check it lands where you expect. Our post on keeping your number with call forwarding walks through the common snags.

Step 6: connect notifications

On the Business plan or above, connect Slack or Zapier so new leads and bookings reach your team without anyone logging in. The Slack integration takes an incoming webhook URL from your Slack workspace. On Starter, decide who checks the dashboard and when.

Setup checklist

• Start the voice trial and create your assistant.
• Write down your twenty most common questions with answers and add them to the knowledge base.
• Add your policies (cancellations, lateness, parking, payment methods) as pasted text.
• Write your "keep away" list and the instruction to take details instead.
• Enter services with prices, durations and staff.
• Set opening hours, timezone, buffers, minimum notice and closed dates.
• Choose a language and voice and write a greeting that says it's an AI assistant.
• Test in the browser, including the awkward questions.
• When the trial ends, get a number or set up forwarding.
• Ring your own number from another phone to check routing.
• Connect Slack or Zapier, or set a time to check the dashboard.
• Read every call in the first week and fill the gaps in the knowledge base.

Pricing for the AI phone receptionist

Phone calls come under Klugon's AI voice agent product. Prices are in US dollars. Full details, including the chat and social products, are on the pricing page.

On top of the plan:

• Each phone number is $9 a month, whether it's a new number or the one you forward to.
• Extra voice minutes are $15 for each started block of 100 minutes over your allowance.
• Yearly billing is 20% cheaper than monthly and charged once a year.

What changes between plans, beyond minutes and numbers:

• Business adds Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar and Calendly connections, HubSpot, Zoho and Pipedrive, Slack and Zapier notifications, bringing your own number over SIP, and removes the Klugon branding.
• Scale adds Salesforce, custom read-only lookups in your own database and unlimited phone numbers.

Every plan includes unlimited assistants, booking, lead capture, the knowledge base and the inbox. You can compare all three side by side on the plans table.

A worked cost example

Numbers make this easier to judge. Here's one worked through with every assumption stated, so you can swap in your own.

Which plan fits your minutes

Say you run a small salon and forward all your calls to the AI.

• Assumption: 12 calls a day, six days a week, so about 310 calls a month.
• Assumption: the average call lasts 3 minutes, which is plausible for "do you have anything Saturday?" and a booking.
• That's about 930 minutes a month, inside Starter's 1,000.
• Cost: $99 for Starter plus $9 for the number, so $108 a month, or $88 a month billed yearly.

Now say it's busier, 1,250 minutes in a month. You'd be 250 minutes over, which is three started blocks of 100, so $45 extra and $153 for the month. That's still well under Business.

The crossover is around 2,300 minutes a month. Below that, Starter plus extra minutes costs less than Business. Above it, Business at $299 (with 3,600 minutes included) is cheaper, before you count the Slack, Zapier and calendar connections it also includes. If you need those, Business is the plan regardless of minutes.

What missed calls are worth to you

The cost of the AI is only half the sum. The other half is what you lose today.

• Assumption: you miss 8 calls a week that you never manage to call back in time.
• Assumption: 1 in 4 of those would have booked.
• Assumption: an average booking is worth $70.
• That's 2 bookings a week, about $140 a week, or roughly $600 a month in work that went elsewhere.

If those assumptions are anywhere near your reality, the AI only has to save two missed bookings a month to pay for Starter. If you rarely miss a call and nobody books by phone, the sum doesn't work, and you probably don't need this yet. We go further into this calculation in our guide to what missed calls cost.

Comparing it with a person on the desk

An AI phone receptionist doesn't replace everything a good receptionist does, so treat this comparison with care. But it does help to know the scale.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for receptionists in May 2025 was $18.27 an hour, or $38,010 a year, before taxes, benefits and holiday cover. In the UK, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour from April 2026, so even 20 hours a week of front-desk cover at the legal minimum comes to over £1,000 a month.

A person brings judgement, warmth and the ability to do other work between calls. The AI brings cover at hours when nobody is there, on a monthly plan with minutes included. Many businesses use both: staff answer when they can, and the AI picks up what they miss. We look at the trade-offs in AI receptionist versus human receptionist.

Measuring whether it's working

Give it a month and look at the numbers, not just the feeling. The analytics page shows:

• Phone calls and minutes talked, compared with the previous period, plus average call length.
• Bookings made, not counting cancelled ones.
• Leads captured, and how many you've converted.
• Busiest hours and weekdays, which tells you when calls actually come in. If a large share arrive in the evening, you've learnt something about your customers.
• How much the assistant handled without a person, as a percentage.

The insights page adds two lists that are worth checking weekly: questions without a good answer, which are gaps in your knowledge base, and most asked questions over the last 30 days, which tell you what to put on your website.

Then read the calls themselves. In the first fortnight, read every one. After that, read a sample and every call that ended with a message for your team. Each poor answer usually points to one missing line of knowledge.

Signs it's working: bookings appear that came in when you were closed or busy, the leads list fills with complete details, and you stop hearing "I tried to call but nobody answered". Signs it isn't: many short calls with no booking or lead, the same unanswered question showing up again and again, or callers asking for a person in the first few seconds. That last one usually means the greeting needs work.

Limits, stated honestly

Every AI answering service has limits. Here are Klugon's, in one place, so nothing surprises you after you've forwarded your number.

• No live call transfer. The AI can't put callers through to you or anyone else. It takes their details and your team calls back.
• No outbound calls. It doesn't call customers, place callbacks or run call campaigns.
• No texts or emails to callers. No SMS, no booking confirmations by email or WhatsApp, no reminders. The booking reference is given on the call.
• No email or push alerts to you. Notifications go to Slack or Zapier on the Business plan and above. On Starter you check the dashboard.
• No call recordings. Calls aren't recorded.
• Partial call logs. Every call appears in your inbox with its duration, but the conversation log may not include everything the caller said word for word. Don't rely on it as a full two-sided transcript.
• No rescheduling on calls. The AI can book and cancel by phone, but can't move an existing booking. In chat and messaging it can.
• No payments on calls. Callers can't pay over the phone through the AI.
• No replies from the inbox to phone calls. You can reply to WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram conversations from the inbox, but phone calls are followed up by calling back.
• No number porting. Keep your number with your provider and forward it, or use a SIP trunk.
• No phone number during the trial. You test in the browser for the first 7 days.
• No business-hours switch. It answers every call routed to it. Use your carrier's forwarding to decide which calls that is.
• It doesn't always say it's an AI unless your greeting does. Write a greeting that says so.
• It's as good as your knowledge base. It answers from what you've given it and should take a message when it doesn't know, but no AI is perfect. Read the calls and fill the gaps.

None of these are hidden in small print. If any of them change, we'll update this page.

When an AI phone receptionist is a good fit

It tends to fit well if:

• You regularly miss calls because you're with customers or on a job.
• A lot of calls are the same handful of questions.
• People book appointments by phone.
• Calls come in when you're closed and nobody can get to them.

It's a weaker fit if:

• Most of your calls need a professional judgement on the spot.
• You need calls transferred live to staff, which Klugon can't do today.
• You get very few calls and always answer them.

If you also get messages on your website, WhatsApp or Instagram, the same assistant can answer those, with the same knowledge, through Klugon's website chat widget and WhatsApp. Those are separate products with their own plans. And if you're still weighing up the idea itself, our guide to AI receptionists covers the basics. The voice technology underneath is described on the AI voice agent page.

AI phone receptionist versus a virtual phone receptionist service

"Virtual receptionist" usually means a team of people in a call centre answering in your name. It's a real alternative and, for some businesses, the better one. A human service can use judgement on difficult calls, and some offer live transfer to your phone. You usually pay per minute or per call, so the bill grows with your call volume, and booking into your diary can be an extra.

An AI phone receptionist answers at any hour on a monthly plan with a set number of minutes included, books directly into your calendar and keeps every call in one inbox. It's strongest on routine calls and weakest on the calls that need a person, which is exactly why the handover matters so much. We compare the two models in more detail in AI answering service versus a call centre.

Frequently asked questions

Can the AI transfer a call to me?

No. Klugon can't transfer a live call to a person. When a caller needs someone, the AI takes their name, number and reason for calling, saves it as a lead and tells them your team will call back. On the Business plan and above, new leads are posted to Slack or Zapier so you see them quickly.

Do I have to change my phone number?

No. You can keep your existing number and forward calls to a Klugon number using your phone provider's call forwarding. You can forward all calls, or only the ones you don't answer. Klugon doesn't port numbers, so your number stays with your current provider.

Can I try it before giving it a real number?

Yes. The 7-day trial lets you build and test your assistant in the browser. A card is needed to start the trial, and you're charged when it ends unless you cancel. Phone numbers can only be added once the trial has ended.

Will callers know they're talking to an AI?

Only if you tell them, which we recommend. The default greeting doesn't mention it, so write your own that says the caller is speaking to your AI assistant. The voices are AI-generated and sound natural, but being upfront avoids awkward moments and builds trust.

Which languages can it answer calls in?

English (US or UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Arabic. You set the language for each assistant, and you can have as many assistants as you like.

Does it send booking confirmations or reminders?

No. The AI gives the caller a booking reference during the call. Klugon doesn't send confirmation texts, emails or reminders, so if you want reminders you'll need to send them another way.

Can I listen to recordings of the calls?

No. Calls aren't recorded. Every call appears in your inbox with its duration and a conversation log, but the log may not capture everything the caller said word for word.

What happens if I go over my voice minutes?

Extra minutes are billed at $15 for each started block of 100 minutes over your plan's allowance. If you're regularly over by more than about 1,300 minutes on Starter, the Business plan works out cheaper.

What does it do when it doesn't know the answer?

It should say it doesn't know and take the caller's details for your team. It answers from your own services, business profile and knowledge base, so the fix for a gap is to add the answer there. The insights page lists questions it couldn't answer well.

How long does setup take?

The phone side is quick once your trial has ended: get a number or set up forwarding. The time goes into teaching the AI about your business and testing it. Budget an afternoon for a first version, then a week of reading calls and filling gaps.

If you want to hear it answer as your business, you can start a trial from the sign-up page and test your own assistant in the browser before any customer calls it. The rest of the product, including chat and messaging, is on the AI receptionist for small business home page.