SoftWiz • Phone answering • AI voice agents • Customer service
Automatic phone answering for business: voicemail, a phone menu, an answering service or an AI voice agent
A missed call can be a lead who is ringing a competitor that same minute. That is why “what answers the phone when nobody is free?” matters more than it seems. There are four main answers today, and each one solves a different problem.
Four ways to answer when nobody is free
1. Voicemail
The basic option, and almost always already there. The caller hears a message and leaves their details.
What it does well: costs nothing and needs no setup. What it does not do: it answers no questions and filters nothing. Messages arrive in no order, someone has to listen to all of them and call back, and anyone who would rather not leave a message simply hangs up and rings somewhere else.
2. A phone menu (IVR)
“For sales press 1, for support press 2”. A menu that routes the call to the right person or department.
What it does well: organises the traffic in a business with several departments, and cuts out manual transfers. What it does not do: it routes, but it does not answer. If nobody is free on the other end, the call goes back to voicemail. And a menu that is too long can drive callers away before they reach anyone.
3. An outsourced answering service
Someone at an outside company answers in your business’s name, takes the details and passes them on. It is sometimes called a virtual receptionist.
What it does well: a person answers, and the caller feels it. What it does not do: the person does not know your business in depth, and usually takes a message rather than giving an answer. The cost follows call volume or hours, and round-the-clock cover pushes it up.
4. An AI voice agent
An agent that holds a natural conversation on the phone: it understands what the caller is asking, answers, takes details and passes to a person only what needs one.
What it does well: answers every call, at any hour, with no queue. It gives information about the business, takes messages, screens enquiries using the questions you ask anyway, and updates the CRM when the call ends. What it does not do: it does not close an expensive, complex deal, and in a complex Hebrew conversation it is not quite there yet. We cover that in the article on AI voice agents in Hebrew.
Quick comparison
| Voicemail | Phone menu (IVR) | Answering service | AI voice agent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers questions | No | No | Partly | Yes, within the scope you set |
| Available 24/7 | Yes | Yes, but routes to people | At extra cost | Yes |
| Screens enquiries | No | By keypress only | Partly | Yes, against criteria |
| Updates the CRM | No | No | By hand | Automatically |
| Suits | A business with few calls | A business with several departments | A business that needs a human on every call | A business losing calls and leads |
Three questions that tell you what fits
1. How many calls are you missing? Your phone system probably has a missed-calls report. Look at it by hour. If most missed calls come at peak times or after hours, that is the first place to act.
2. What do callers want? If most of them ask the same five questions, information, prices, hours, availability, an AI agent will answer them well. If every call is a complex consultation you need a person, and the only question is how quickly a caller reaches one.
3. What happens after the call? Details that were written down and stayed in an email or a notebook are a lead lost another way. The answer has to end in a CRM record, with a summary and a task for whoever calls back.
You do not have to choose one
The common combinations:
- A phone menu and an AI agent. The menu routes what has a clear destination, and the agent answers the rest
- An AI agent after hours only. The team answers by day, the agent in the evening and at weekends. It is also the best way to start: one kind of call, measure, and only then widen it
- An AI agent that hands over. The agent answers, finds out what is needed, and passes to a person with a summary of what was said
What to check before choosing a provider
- What happens when the agent cannot answer. It should hand over to a person with a summary, not improvise
- Where the details go. Whether the call, the recording and the summary land on the customer record in your system
- How it sounds in Hebrew on your calls. Not in the provider’s demo, but in test calls with people from your team
- What happens to your existing number. Ask whether you can keep the number your customers already know
How we do it
We build AI voice agents on the system that fits you: on CallMarker when there is a contact centre, where the agent sits in the same system as the dialer, the CRM and call analysis; on monday.com when the leads and processes already live there; or as custom development when the need is unusual. Once we have agreed what the agent needs to do, it can be live within a day.
Not sure what fits? In a scoping session, which is free, we will go through your missed-calls report and tell you plainly what is worth doing, even if the answer is that voicemail is enough for you.
FAQ
What is the difference between a phone menu (IVR) and an AI voice agent?
A phone menu plays options and routes the call by keypress. It does not answer questions, and if nobody is free on the other end the call ends up in voicemail. An AI voice agent holds a conversation: it understands what the caller is asking, gives information, takes details and passes to a person only what needs one.
What is a virtual receptionist?
The term is used for two different things. Sometimes it means an outsourced answering service, where someone at another company answers in your name and takes messages. Increasingly it means an AI voice agent. Before comparing quotes, find out which of the two is on offer.
Does an AI voice agent suit a small business?
Yes, and often a small business especially, where the owner is also the person who answers the phone. An agent that answers while you are busy or after hours, gives basic information and records the enquiry saves exactly the leads that get lost at those times.
Can you combine a phone menu with an AI agent?
Yes, and it is a common combination. The menu routes calls with a clear destination, such as accounts, and the agent answers the rest: general questions, new leads and calls that arrive when no one is free.
How long does it take to set up phone answering with an AI agent?
Once we have agreed what the agent needs to do and know, it can be live within a day. What takes time is deciding which calls to hand it, and that is the part worth investing in.
