A new enquiry rings at 12:40, while the only person on reception is at lunch and both partners are in meetings. It goes to voicemail. The caller doesn't leave a message, because they've got four other firms' numbers from the same search. An AI receptionist for professional services is meant for exactly that moment. It answers, asks the questions your team would ask, books a consultation if the enquiry fits, and gives your fee-earners a clear note instead of a missed call.
This page is for partners, practice managers and owners at law firms, accountancy practices, estate and letting agents, insurance brokers, financial advisers, and the creative businesses that live on enquiries, such as photographers and event planners. It covers the calls these firms actually get, what an AI can take off your hands, and where it has to stop. That boundary matters more here than in most industries, because the moment a receptionist strays into advice, a regulator may take an interest.
The short version of that boundary: the assistant collects information and books meetings. It never gives legal advice, tax advice or financial advice, never recommends a product or a policy, and never tells someone whether they have a case. Anything like that goes to a qualified person on your team.
What an AI receptionist for professional services does
Klugon's AI receptionist for small business answers your phone line, your website chat and, if you connect them, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It works from the material you give it: the services you offer and don't offer, your fees, your intake questions, your opening hours, your team's availability and your documents. In a professional services firm, that turns into five jobs.
First-contact intake. It asks your intake questions and saves the answers as a lead. Those are the type of matter or service, the key dates, the other parties involved, the property address, the size of the business, how the person heard about you. Your team picks up a written summary rather than a "please call me back" voicemail.
Fit screening. It checks the enquiry against what you do. A firm that doesn't do criminal work can say so politely and suggest the caller looks elsewhere, rather than leaving a solicitor to ring back and say the same thing.
Booking. It books initial consultations, discovery calls, valuations, viewings and review meetings into Klugon's built-in calendar. It uses each person's working hours, each meeting type's length, buffers between appointments and minimum notice. Conflicts are checked per staff member. On a call it can cancel a booking and offer a new slot. In chat and messaging it can also move a booking in one step.
Standing answers. Your consultation fee, your fixed fees, the documents a new client needs to bring, how long a probate matter typically takes at your firm, your office address and parking. All of it comes from your own information, and it says it doesn't know when the answer isn't there.
Handing over. When a conversation needs a person, the assistant hands the conversation to your team. Existing clients asking about their matter, anything advisory, complaints and anything urgent all count. That means it marks the conversation as needing a person and shows it in your inbox with a "Needs a person" banner. On Business plans and above it also posts an alert to Slack or Zapier. It doesn't transfer the call to a fee-earner. Someone on your team calls back from your own phone.
It answers around the clock whenever your number is routed to it, in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Arabic.
And what it doesn't do: no outbound calls, no texts, no reminder messages, no automatic confirmation emails (the client gets a booking reference in the conversation), no call recordings, and no connection to case management, practice management or property software such as Clio, LEAP, Xero Practice Manager or Reapit. If you use HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce or Pipedrive, the assistant can send leads there once you've connected it on a Business plan or above, but it isn't automatic for every lead.
The calls professional firms get
Every firm thinks its phone traffic is unique, and in the detail it is. But across professional services the calls fall into the same handful of groups.
New enquiries
The most valuable calls, and the ones most often lost. Someone has a problem, such as a dismissal, a divorce, a house sale, a tax return they're behind on, a business that needs insurance or a pension they don't understand, and they're ringing several firms to see who answers. Most of them want three things on the first call: do you do this, roughly what will it cost, and when can I talk to someone.
Existing clients chasing progress
"Has the other side replied?" "Has my tax return gone in?" "Any news on the offer?" "When's completion?" These calls take up a lot of the day, and an AI receptionist can't answer them. It has no access to your matter files and shouldn't have. What it can do is take a clear message, confirm who's calling, and hand it to the right person, so the fee-earner returns one call with the answer instead of three rounds of phone tag.
Third parties
The other side's solicitor. A lender. A surveyor. HMRC. A buyer's agent. These callers usually want a named person, and the assistant should take a message and hand over rather than discuss anything about a client's affairs.
Appointments and admin
Booking, moving and cancelling meetings. Directions. Parking. Which documents to bring. Whether you do video calls. Whether you're open on Saturday. This is the routine middle of the day, and it's the easiest part to give to an AI.
Urgent calls
They exist in every one of these businesses, and they look different in each. A client arrested overnight. An injunction hearing tomorrow. A tenant with no heating, or a gas smell. An insurance client whose shop has just flooded. A completion that has gone wrong on the day. These need a person fast, and your instructions should make sure the assistant recognises them and points them to the right route.
Busy hours and seasons
Most firms see the phone peak mid-morning and again after lunch, while enquiries from the public cluster in the evening and at weekends, when people finally have time to deal with the thing they've been putting off.
The seasons are more distinctive. Accountants know what January looks like, with the self-assessment deadline on 31 January bringing a late wave of new clients who've left it to the last minute. Year ends and VAT quarters bring their own bulges. Property moves with spring and autumn, and the run-up to Christmas brings buyers and sellers trying to complete before the holidays. Wedding photographers and event planners take most of their bookings in the months after the engagement season around Christmas and New Year, then spend the summer shooting and running events, with little time for the phone.
Where it stops: no legal, tax or financial advice
The assistant gives information you have approved. It never gives advice. In a regulated profession that line is not a matter of taste.
What counts as advice
A good working test: if the answer depends on the caller's own circumstances, it's advice, and the assistant must not give it. The following are all advice, and all go to a person:
- "Do I have a case?" or "Is that unfair dismissal?"
- "Should I accept the offer?"
- "Can I claim this as a business expense?"
- "Is it better to transfer my pension or leave it?"
- "Which policy should I take, the cheaper one or the one with more cover?"
- "Is that a fair valuation for my house?"
- "Do I need to register for VAT?"
Information is different. "Our initial employment consultation costs £150 plus VAT and lasts 45 minutes." "We act for landlords and tenants on deposit disputes." "Our fixed fee for a basic self-assessment return starts at £250." "We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and our firm reference number is on our website." These are your published facts, and the assistant can repeat them.
How to write the instruction
Put the boundary into the assistant's behaviour in plain words. It must not give legal, tax, financial or insurance advice, or express any view on the merits of someone's situation. When asked, it says that only a qualified member of the team can advise on that, offers to book a consultation or take a message, and hands over.
Then add the cases specific to your firm. A conveyancing practice might add: never confirm, give or change bank details, and tell anyone asking about payment details to ring the office on the number on our website. Payment fraud is a well-known risk in property transactions, and your receptionist, human or AI, should never be the weak link. A financial adviser might add: never comment on any investment, pension or product, even in general terms.
Test it before clients reach it
During the trial, spend an hour trying to get advice out of it. Ask whether your dismissal sounds unfair. Ask whether you can claim mileage. Ask whether you should fix your mortgage. Ask whether the asking price on a listing is negotiable. Each answer should be a polite refusal, an offer of a consultation, and a handover. Repeat the exercise whenever you change its instructions or knowledge.
What a handover is, and isn't
Klugon can't put a caller through to a person. The assistant flags the conversation for your team, it shows in your inbox, and on Business plans and above it alerts Slack or Zapier. The assistant also isn't paused after a handover, so if the client keeps talking it keeps replying, within the same rules. Decide who watches for handovers, how quickly they call back, and what happens out of hours. Our guide on handing calls from an AI to your staff goes into that process.
Law firm intake and conflict checks
Law firms get their own section because intake has a professional duty attached that other businesses don't have: the conflict check.
Why intake order matters
Before a firm acts, it has to check it isn't already acting for someone whose interests conflict. The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors deals with conflicts of interest in paragraphs 6.1 and 6.2. The SRA's guidance on conflicts of interest explains how they apply. The Code also sets out duties of confidentiality, which include information you hold about current and former clients.
The practical consequence for intake is about order. You want enough information to run a conflict check before a prospective client tells you everything about their matter. If they pour out the whole story and you then find you act for the other side, you've received information you may not be able to use and may not be able to ignore.
That's exactly what an AI receptionist can be told to do consistently, every time, at any hour.
What the assistant should collect
For a typical first-contact intake, configure the assistant to collect:
- the prospective client's full name and contact details;
- the type of matter, in a few words (for example "employment, dismissal" or "residential purchase");
- the names of the other parties, such as the employer, the other spouse, the landlord, the seller or the company in dispute;
- any related people or businesses you'd also check, such as a co-owner or a parent company;
- the property address, for property matters;
- any date the caller says is urgent, recorded as they give it.
What it should not collect
Tell it explicitly not to ask for the detail of what happened, and to steer the caller away from giving it: "Thanks. Please don't go into the details yet. The solicitor will take you through that once we've done our standard checks." It should never ask for documents, evidence or a full account. And it should never imply that the firm has agreed to act. Booking a consultation is not taking on a client.
How it fits your conflict process
The intake lands as a lead with the parties' names on it. Your team runs the conflict search in your case management system as usual, then confirms the consultation or declines. Klugon doesn't connect to case management systems, so this step is still manual. But it starts from a complete, consistent set of names rather than whatever the person on reception thought to ask.
Fees and price transparency
If your firm offers services covered by the SRA's price transparency rules, you already publish cost information for them. Those include residential conveyancing, uncontested probate and certain employment tribunal claims. The SRA's guidance on transparency in price and service sets out what's expected. Give the assistant the same published figures, word for word, so what it says on the phone matches your website. Don't let it improvise a quote.
Time limits and urgency
Some matters have short deadlines. Employment tribunal claims are the classic example. The assistant must not tell anyone what their deadline is, because that's advice. But it can be told to ask "Is there a date you've been told is important, or a deadline coming up?", to record the answer, and to hand the conversation over as a priority when there is one. For criminal matters, such as someone in police custody, most firms will want the assistant to point the caller to the firm's out-of-hours number, or simply to hand over immediately.
Regulators and rules for each profession
Nothing here is legal or compliance advice. It's a starting map of what to check with your compliance officer before an AI starts talking to your clients.
Solicitors and the SRA
Covered above: conflicts, confidentiality and price transparency. Two more points. Your complaints procedure should apply to anything said by the assistant, just as it would to anything said by your receptionist. And your website will normally already say that you're authorised and regulated by the SRA. Give the assistant that exact statement so it can repeat it when asked.
Financial advisers, mortgage advisers, insurance brokers and the FCA
If you're authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, the line between information and a personal recommendation is a regulatory line. Configure the assistant to arrange meetings and collect contact details only, and never to discuss products, rates, performance or suitability.
Be careful with what you put in its knowledge too. Anything the assistant says about your services is communication with the public, and if it describes investments or regulated products it may fall under the FCA's rules on financial promotions. The safe course is to give it only your already-approved wording about your services and fees, and to have your compliance function sign off the knowledge you upload.
Callers sometimes ask whether you're regulated. The assistant can give your firm's name and FCA reference number, and point them to the Financial Services Register to check it themselves. That's a good habit to encourage.
For insurance brokers, claims calls deserve their own rule. A client reporting a burst pipe or a break-in wants a person, and fast. The assistant should take the essentials, give the insurer's claims line if you've supplied it, and hand over. It must never say whether something is covered.
Estate and letting agents and Propertymark
Many agents are members of Propertymark, whose professional standards include its Conduct and Membership Rules and client money protection. Estate agency businesses are also supervised by HMRC for anti-money-laundering purposes. None of that changes what an AI receptionist can do, but it shapes what it shouldn't. It shouldn't take payments or discuss client money. It shouldn't describe a property in ways your listing doesn't support. And it shouldn't pass on offers or say whether a seller will accept one. Offers and negotiations always go to a negotiator.
Letting agents managing properties have a different urgent category: repairs. A tenant reporting a gas smell should be told to call the gas emergency number, 0800 111 999 in Great Britain, and to leave the property if they feel unsafe. A tenant with no heating in January needs your out-of-hours contractor or your on-call number. Write those routes into the assistant's instructions.
Accountants and tax advisers
Accountancy is regulated differently depending on the professional body and the work. But the same two points apply everywhere. The assistant gives no tax advice, and new-client onboarding involves identity and anti-money-laundering checks that your team runs, not the assistant. It can tell a new client which documents to bring, from your own list.
Data protection and client confidentiality
Professional firms hold some of the most sensitive data there is. Employment and family matters often involve health information. Criminal matters involve criminal offence data. Financial advisers hold details of people's entire financial lives. The ICO explains which kinds of information are special category data and the extra conditions that apply to them.
Here's what you need to know about Klugon for your assessment:
- Klugon is operated by Softaar Technologies UG, a German company, under the GDPR.
- Its sub-processors include Google Firebase, OpenAI and Telnyx. The privacy policy lists them as US-based, with transfers covered by Standard Contractual Clauses. We don't claim data stays in the EU or UK.
- Klugon is not certified for SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
- Each firm's data is kept separate, and knowledge search is filtered to your firm only.
- Calls aren't recorded. Each call appears in your inbox with its duration and a message log, which may show only the assistant's side.
- You can export records as CSV and delete individual records. Full erasure is by email request.
The most effective safeguard is collecting less. The conflict-check approach above, with names and matter type but no story, also happens to be the data-minimising approach. Tell the assistant never to ask for account numbers, national insurance numbers, policy numbers or dates of birth at first contact. Your team can collect what it needs through your own secure onboarding once you've agreed to act.
Finally, write a greeting that says the caller is speaking to the firm's AI assistant. Klugon's default greeting doesn't say so. Clients of a professional firm will reasonably expect to know who, or what, they're telling things to.
Two sample conversations
Both are samples written for this page. The firms and people are made up, and the conversations are not recordings. Klugon's voices are AI-generated.
Sample 1: an employment enquiry at a law firm
A sample call. Calder & Webb is a made-up four-solicitor firm. Phone call, Thursday 18:55.
What to notice: the assistant gave no view on the claim and deliberately held the caller back from telling the story. It collected the names a conflict search needs, including the group company and the manager. It recorded the dismissal date without commenting on any time limit, and handed over because a recent date was mentioned. It was also clear that booking a consultation isn't the same as the firm agreeing to act.
Sample 2: a viewing request on an estate agent's website chat
A sample chat. Marlow Street Homes is a made-up estate agency. Website chat, Sunday 21:20.
What to notice: the viewing was booked from real availability and the buyer's position was captured for the negotiator. The offer question was refused and handed over rather than answered. In chat, the assistant can move the booking later in one step, which it can't do on a phone call.
The firm types under this hub
Each of these pages goes deeper into one kind of firm: its calls, its rules, its busy seasons and its sample conversations.
Law firms
Solicitors and law firms, from high-street practices to specialist firms in employment, family, conveyancing, wills and probate. The AI receptionist for law firms page covers intake by practice area, conflict-check scripts, calls from the other side and urgent criminal matters.
Accountants
Accountancy practices, bookkeepers and tax advisers, with the January rush and year-end peaks. The accountant AI receptionist page covers onboarding questions, fee enquiries, and why the assistant must never answer "can I claim this?".
Estate and letting agents
Sales and lettings, with viewings, valuations, portal enquiries and tenant repair calls. The real estate AI receptionist page covers booking viewings, capturing buyer positions and out-of-hours repair routes.
Insurance brokers
Personal and commercial brokers handling quotes, renewals and claims calls. The insurance broker AI assistant page covers first-contact details for quotes, claims calls and the FCA boundary.
Financial advisers
Independent and restricted advisers, planners and mortgage advisers, where most calls are about arranging an initial meeting or a review. The page on financial adviser AI scheduling covers discovery meetings, annual reviews and keeping the assistant well clear of personal recommendations.
Photographers
Wedding, portrait, family and commercial photographers, where enquiries are mostly about date availability, packages and what's included. The photographer booking chatbot page covers date checks, consultation calls and peak-season enquiries.
Event planners
Wedding and event planners and coordinators handling date, venue and budget enquiries. The event planner AI assistant page covers first-contact questions, discovery calls and enquiries that arrive at all hours.
Setup checklist for a professional services firm
Work through it in this order. Most of the effort is writing down what your best receptionist already knows.
Decide the scope
- Which calls go to the assistant: after hours only, overflow when your lines are busy, or everything.
- Which channels: phone, website chat, WhatsApp, or a mix.
- Who checks the inbox for handovers, how often, and who covers weekends.
- Whether your compliance officer, COLP or data protection lead needs to sign off first. In most regulated firms, they do.
Write the rules
- The no-advice instruction, with your firm's specific examples.
- What it must never discuss: other clients' matters, bank details, offers, product recommendations.
- Your intake questions for each service, in the order you want them asked.
- For law firms: conflict-check details first, no story at first contact, and booking doesn't mean acting.
- Your urgent routes: an out-of-hours number, an emergency repairs contractor, an insurer's claims line, or simply an immediate handover.
- A greeting that says the caller is speaking to the firm's AI assistant.
Add your firm's information
- The services you offer and the ones you don't, with where to send people for the latter, if you have a referral list.
- Fees and fixed fees, word for word from your published price information.
- Meeting types with their lengths, who offers each, and whether they're in person or by video.
- Each person's working hours, closed dates and minimum notice.
- Documents new clients need to bring, office address, parking and access.
- Your regulatory status statement, if you're regulated.
Connect and test
- Start the 7-day trial. A card is needed, and you're charged when it ends unless you cancel. During the trial, test the assistant in the browser.
- Run the advice tests from the section above. Every one should end in a refusal and a handover.
- Add the website chat by pasting one script tag on your site.
- After the trial, get a Klugon number and forward your line to it. Numbers can't be ported, so forwarding keeps your existing number as the one clients dial.
- On a Business plan, connect Slack for handover alerts and your CRM if you use HubSpot, Zoho or Pipedrive. Salesforce needs the Scale plan.
First month
- Read every handed-over conversation in the first week.
- Check the insights page for questions without a good answer, and fill the gaps.
- Re-run the advice tests after every change.
What it costs: worked examples
Klugon's prices are in US dollars. The voice product is $99 a month on Starter (1,000 minutes), $299 on Business (3,600 minutes) and $499 on Scale (6,000 minutes), or 20% less on yearly billing. Each phone number is $9 a month, and extra minutes are $15 per started 100. The website chat is a separate product from $49 a month. Full details are on the pricing page. The examples below use stated assumptions, so swap in your own.
Example 1: a four-solicitor high-street firm
Assumptions:
- The assistant takes calls after 17:30, at weekends, at lunchtime, and whenever the receptionist's line is busy.
- About 10 calls a day reach it, averaging 4 minutes, because intake takes a little longer than a booking.
- Calls spread over roughly 26 days a month.
Minutes: 10 × 4 × 26 = 1,040 a month, just over Starter's 1,000.
On Starter, that's $99 + $9 for the number + $15 for the extra started 100 minutes = $123 a month. But a law firm will want Slack alerts for urgent handovers and leads going into its CRM, and both need Business. So the realistic figure is $299 + $9 = $308 a month, or $248 on yearly billing.
The comparison is cover for the hours the assistant works: lunchtime, evenings and Saturdays. Say that's 15 hours a week of a receptionist's time. At the UK National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour from April 2026, that's about £191 a week before employer's National Insurance, pension and holiday pay, roughly £825 a month. Most firms, of course, don't staff those hours at all.
Example 2: an estate agency with a lettings department
Assumptions:
- The assistant takes all calls after 18:00 and at weekends, overflow during the day, and the website chat.
- About 25 calls a day reach it, averaging 3 minutes.
- Around 28 days a month, because property enquiries come at weekends too.
Minutes: 25 × 3 × 28 = 2,100 a month, inside Business's 3,600.
Cost: $299 voice + $9 number + $49 for Starter website chat (100 conversations a month) = $357 a month. If the chat runs past 100 conversations, the Business chat plan at $149 covers 400.
Example 3: what one caught enquiry is worth
Assumptions, which you should replace with your own:
- 6 new enquiries a week currently go unanswered at lunchtime, in the evening or at weekends.
- 1 in 5 of those would have become a client.
- The average first piece of work is worth £1,200 in fees.
That's about 1.2 new clients a week, or roughly £6,000 a month in fees that currently go to whichever firm answered. Even if your real figures are a fraction of that, one instruction a month covers Example 1 several times over. If your phones are already answered every hour you're open and the evening enquiries are rare, the case is weaker, and you should look at the numbers honestly before signing up. Our comparison of an AI receptionist vs a human receptionist sets out where each makes more sense.
Measuring whether it's working
After a month, look at four things.
Enquiries captured outside your hours. The analytics page shows conversations, calls, bookings and leads by channel, day and hour. Compare the evening and weekend leads with the number of messages your voicemail used to collect.
Consultations booked, and how many went ahead. Bookings the assistant made are in the bookings list. Mark leads as contacted, converted or lost on the leads page, so you can see what share of assistant-captured enquiries became clients.
Handovers. The "handled by the assistant" figures show how often it handed over. Read the handed-over conversations: a lot of them about the same question usually means missing information. None at all is worth checking too, in case it's answering things it shouldn't.
Questions without a good answer. The insights page lists them, alongside the most asked questions from the last 30 days. Work through them weekly at first.
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI receptionist give legal or financial advice?
No, and it should be set up so it can't. Klugon's assistant gives only the information you've approved, such as fees, services and opening hours. It refuses anything that depends on the caller's circumstances, offers a consultation, and hands the conversation to your team.
What is AI legal intake?
It means an AI collects the first details of a prospective client's matter before a solicitor is involved. That's the type of matter, the other parties' names and any urgent dates. Done well, it collects the names for a conflict check first and steers the caller away from the full story until the check is done.
Can it run our conflict checks?
No. It collects the names and details your team needs for a conflict check, consistently and in the right order. Your team runs the check in your own case management system, because Klugon doesn't connect to it.
Can it transfer a call to a solicitor or adviser?
No. Klugon has no live call transfer. It flags the conversation for your team, shows it in your inbox as needing a person, and on Business plans posts an alert to Slack or Zapier. Your team calls the client back.
Will it tell clients about the progress of their matter?
No. It has no access to your files and shouldn't. It takes a clear message from the client, confirms who's calling and hands it to the right person, so the fee-earner can return one call with the answer.
Can estate agents use it to book viewings and valuations?
Yes. It books viewings and valuations into Klugon's built-in calendar using each negotiator's availability and the length of each appointment type. It captures the buyer's or seller's details for your team. It doesn't discuss offers.
Does it send leads to our CRM?
It can send leads to HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive or Salesforce once you've connected them on a Business plan (Scale for Salesforce), but it isn't automatic for every lead. All leads are kept in Klugon's own lead list with CSV export either way.
Is it suitable for FCA-regulated firms?
It can arrange meetings and take contact details, provided it's configured never to discuss products or suitability and its knowledge has been signed off by your compliance function. Check with your compliance officer first. Klugon itself is not FCA-authorised and doesn't give regulated advice.
Where is client data processed?
Klugon is operated by a German company under the GDPR. Its sub-processors include Google Firebase, OpenAI and Telnyx, which the privacy policy lists as US-based with Standard Contractual Clauses. We don't claim EU or UK data residency, and Klugon isn't certified for SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
Can we keep our existing phone number?
Yes, through call forwarding. Numbers can't be ported, but after the 7-day trial you can get a Klugon number and forward your existing line to it, either all calls or only busy, unanswered and after-hours calls.
Before you decide
An AI receptionist earns its place in a professional firm when the problem is enquiries going unanswered and fee-earners being interrupted by admin. It's the wrong tool if you want it to advise, to reassure clients about their matter, or to replace your judgement on who to take on. Start with the hours your phones aren't covered, write the no-advice rule first, test it hard, and read every handover for the first few weeks. The AI phone receptionist and AI appointment booking pages go into the call handling and booking in more detail.