Phone Agent (AI receptionist)
An AI receptionist that answers your number, books and reschedules from your live calendar, and takes messages.
What it is
The Phone Agent add-on answers your studio's phone around the clock. It knows your services, prices, service area and booking rules because it reads them from your PhotoFounder account, so a price change in Services is live on the phone within minutes. It books, reschedules and cancels against your real availability, quotes from your actual price list, transfers to you when a caller asks for a person, and takes a message when nobody can pick up.
Price: a one-time $149 setup, which includes registering a local number for the receptionist or porting your existing number to us, then $99 a month with 250 minutes included. Extra minutes are $0.40 each and come out of your cloud balance.
Setting it up
Go to Phone Agent in the sidebar and follow the steps:
- Plan: the account owner subscribes. The receptionist is created automatically.
- Receptionist: give it a name, pick a voice (you can use your own cloned voice) and write the greeting.
- Knowledge: add house rules and the questions callers ask. Prices and services are already there.
- Access: choose which phone numbers may unlock admin mode and set a PIN.
- Line: get a new local number, or connect a number you already run on Twilio.
Keeping your existing number
You do not need to change the number on your website or business cards. Forward it to the receptionist line at your carrier, either for every call or only when you do not answer. The Overview page shows the exact codes to dial for AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and VoIP providers. Forwarded calls still show the caller's own number, so the receptionist recognises your customers.
Transfers must go to a number that is not forwarded to the receptionist, or the call would loop. Use a mobile or direct line.
Porting your number to us
If you would rather the receptionist answered your existing number directly, request a port from Phone Agent → Settings → Your line. We email you a letter of authorisation to sign and ask for a recent bill from your carrier, then submit the port. It usually takes one to four weeks, during which the receptionist answers the temporary number. Once the port completes your number rings the receptionist and the temporary number is released. Porting is included in the setup fee.
What callers can do
- Anyone can ask about services, prices and availability, get a quote for an address, book a shoot and leave a message.
- Customers who want to see or change their own bookings get a six-digit code by text to the number on their record first.
- Admins calling from an approved number can say the PIN to unlock admin mode: any booking, customer search, the team's schedule, price changes. Every change is read back and confirmed before it happens.
Pausing and fallback
Pause the receptionist from the Overview page. While paused, calls go to voicemail (transcribed and emailed to you) or ring your transfer number, whichever you chose in Settings. The same thing happens automatically if the voice service is ever unavailable, or if your included minutes are used up and the cloud balance cannot cover extra minutes.
Calls
Every call is logged under Phone Agent → Calls with a summary, the outcome, what the receptionist did, and the transcript. No audio is kept.