AI phone receptionist for aluminium and windows
Quick summary
- You have the tape on a balcony reveal. Both hands are on the frame. That is when the published number rings.
- A photo of a sliding door is not a quote. The assistant books a measure-up. It does not invent a figure from the picture.
- Mosquito screens in May, a jammed roller, a street door after a break-in — those are different visits, not one free hour.
- Someone who wants a balcony door this week will not wait on voicemail. They ring the next workshop.
- It checks the book you already use before it offers a morning, writes the visit in, and texts the window.
- It answers every line at once. A May morning of torn screens is several conversations, not a busy tone.
TL;DR
You are on a third-floor balcony in a Greek block with the tape on the reveal. The old wooden door is out of square. The phone in your pocket rings. Someone has sent a photo of a sliding door and wants a number today. They will not leave a message. They will ring the next shop on the listing. An assistant answers in the caller's language, asks whether this is a measure-up, a mosquito screen, a roller, or a street door, takes the address and the opening they named, and books a visit only if that morning is free. It does not invent a price from a photo. It does not promise Thursday's install before the tape has been on the wall. The quote is yours, after the reveal.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the number on the van and the shop window, with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands still takes the call.
- Teach it the first split: measure-up, mosquito screen, roller, street door, or a move of a visit already in the book.
- Give it the sentence verbatim: it cannot give a price from a photo. The tape has to go on the reveal.
- Let it book measure-ups and screen-only visits. Keep the quote, the glass spec, and the install day as a callback or a second booking after the tape.
- In May, and after a windy night of jammed rollers, shorten the ring-time so the third caller is not listening to a busy tone.
- Mark two kinds of visit: a measure-up that needs you on a balcony, and a short screen or roller look that does not.
What an AI phone receptionist does in an aluminium shop
You are on a third-floor balcony in a Greek apartment block. The old wooden door is out of square. Both hands are on the tape. The reveal is deeper on the left than on the right. The phone in your pocket rings. Across town the other person is cutting a frame. There is no third pair of hands at the beige phone on the shop desk.
You put the assistant on the number already on the van and on the window next to the corner-profile rack. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It books a measure-up that is actually free. Or it takes a request you will price after the tape has been on the wall.
The first question is not “what morning would you like?”. The first question is what kind of visit this is. A photo of a sliding door is not a quote. Torn mosquito screens in May are not an install day. A jammed roller is not a full set of windows. A street door that will not close after a break-in is not a Thursday gap in the book. An assistant that opens with a free hour will put a photo-price into a measure-up morning and leave the person who needed a screen without a note.
A caller who rang in English gets the confirmation in English. A caller who rang in Greek gets it in Greek. The assistant works in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
On a balcony with the tape, and the phone still ringing
One of you has the tape on a reveal. The other is in the shop with a saw and a length of profile. The published number still rings.
It is a burst. May, when last year’s screens tear and everyone wants new ones before the mosquitoes. The morning after a windy night, when rollers jam. The week a building manager sends three flats out with your card. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.
The person who sent a photo of a balcony door this afternoon will not wait on voicemail. They have your number and two other shops in the same search. They hang up and dial the next one. The person whose street door will not close after last night will not leave a message either.
People whose frames you already made will often wait. A person who cannot get a measure-up, and a person who cannot start a screen job, will not. If those two wait behind the opening you are already measuring, the new door is gone, and the screens arrive as an angry visit at five — or the next shop has already put a tape on that reveal.
Whoever takes the measure-up often takes the order. That is why a missed photo-call is not only a missed note.
Measure-up, mosquito screen, roller, street door — then the address
Measure-up. They want a price for something you have not seen. A sliding door, a set of windows, a balcony opening, a street door that is still on its hinges. The assistant asks which opening, which floor, and the address. It books a visit only if that morning is free. It does not invent a figure from a photo, a description, or “it is about two metres, white”. It does not promise an install day. The quote is yours, after the tape.
Mosquito screen. The mesh is torn, the slider sticks, they want screens on openings you may already have measured last year. A screen-only visit is shorter than a full measure-up. Mark it as its own kind of morning, or you will spend an hour on a balcony with someone who only needed a mesh. In May they arrive together. The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your tape.
Roller shutter. Jammed after wind, noisy, they want it looked at or replaced. A roller look is not a window quote. The assistant takes the opening and the address. It does not say the slats can be fixed from a description. It does not invent Thursday.
Street door. After a break-in, or a lock that has given up, or a block entrance the manager wants in aluminium. If the door will not close, that is a flagged note or a transfer to a phone you actually hold. It is not a guessed “we can be there in twenty minutes”. You decide whether to leave the balcony you are already on.
People remember the balcony. They do not remember whether the opening is a slider or a casement. Ask which opening first. Then the floor. Then the address. One opening is enough to put the visit on the right wall. None is still a request, not a guess at two metres from a picture.
A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say
“How much for this door if I send a photo?” is the question on this phone. It comes in April when people start looking at rotting wood. It comes in August from a holiday flat. It comes on a Tuesday from a building manager who photographed the stairwell.
The assistant does not answer it. Not with a range. Not with “a slider is usually this”. Not with “white two-metre is around…”. A number said before the tape has been on the reveal is a number the shop then has to take back when the opening is out of square, the track is deep, or they want a thermal break they did not mention.
The line you give it is short: the quote comes after the measure-up. A photo does not show the reveal.
“Can you do it cheaper than the other shop?”, “is thermal break worth it?”, and “will this glass pass the energy sign-off?” are still price and spec questions. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the figure.
Do not put a price list in the notes. It will read the list out.
May, wind, and everyone at once
May is screens. By nine, people have started ringing about torn mesh. You are already on a balcony. The pad is already a list of openings.
A windy night is rollers. By eight, three bedrooms will not close.
A building-manager afternoon is three flats in the same block, all wanting a look at the stairwell and the balcony doors, all expecting a number from the same photo of the landing.
The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your tape. A measure-up in that hour is a morning in the book. A screen-only call is a shorter visit. If the assistant parks the person who wants a new slider behind the tenth screen report, that person rings the next shop.
Shorten the ring-time before forwarding on those mornings. After a windy night the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in August is people asking for holiday-flat screens, and one person left in the shop.
A price nobody can give from a photo
When someone describes a door on the phone — white, they think two metres, sliding, they sent a picture from the courtyard — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one.
Width, height, reveal depth, whether the opening is square, thermal break or not, glass, mosquito screen, roller, which floor the frame has to come up — all of those change the work. A number quoted before anyone has put a tape on the wall is a number you then spend the measure-up taking back.
It can repeat a published call-out or a visit fee you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen sliding doors, a full flat, a street door, stairwell windows — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and books the measure-up. Last year’s price for the neighbour is not this opening. The assistant does not quote it.
If they press — “just a round figure, I have the other shop on the other line” — the assistant still refuses. Book them as soon as a morning is free. Flag it if the street door will not close.
Standing in a broken street door
Some of these callers are in a hallway after a break-in, or on a landing with a door that will not latch, with the manager waiting. They want to know whether you can come now, whether a temporary board will do, whether the insurance will pay.
The assistant is not in the hallway. It cannot see the frame. It cannot decide what the insurer will do.
What it can take: the address, the floor, whether the door still closes, and whether anyone is still in the flat. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: someone from the shop will call back as soon as they can see the van. Come-now or this-afternoon is yours, after you know where the crew is.
If they say the door is off its hinges and the flat is open, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: door off, flat open, break-in last night. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them what to claim.
A caller who is already home, with a photo of a rotting balcony door on their phone, is a measure-up request and, if a morning is free, a time.
Screens, rollers, and “can you fit it Thursday?”
Mosquito screens. They want them before the evening. The assistant takes how many openings and the address, and books a screen visit if that is a type you marked. It does not say the mesh can be done from the photo. It does not put a full measure-up into a twenty-minute screen slot.
Roller shutter. Jammed, noisy, slats bent after wind. The assistant takes the opening. It does not say the motor is finished, or that the slats can be straightened from a description.
Install Thursday. They have already had a quote, or they think they have. The assistant does not put an install in the book because someone is in a hurry. If a signed quote exists, that is a different visit type, from a list you control. If it does not, this is still a measure-up.
Building manager. Stairwell windows, a block entrance, three flats at once. The assistant takes the building and who will be there with the key. It does not invent a communal price from a landing photo. It does not book a shaft the manager opens on Tuesdays as if it were a kitchen window.
August needs its own dates. Do not let the assistant book a measure-up into a week when the shop is dark.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the van and on the shop window. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the shop picks up never leave, and are never charged.
- Every line is answered at once. A May morning is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the shop you described. What you cut, whether you take street doors, whether you do screens only, who is out on Monday.
- It asks measure-up, screen, roller or street door first, then the opening and the address, and only then looks at the book.
- It takes a photo-price as a measure-up request, never as a figure said out loud.
- It checks the real book before it offers a morning, and writes the visit into the same calendar the shop already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them to leave the opening free of curtains and furniture.
- It escalates a door that will not close, a price question, and an install-before-the-tape as a tagged note or a transfer.
- You get the transcript, the summary, the address, and the opening the caller named.
What it will not do
It will not invent a price from a photo, a description, or last year’s neighbour. It will not promise Thursday’s install before the tape has been on the reveal. It will not say thermal break is worth it, or that the glass will pass an energy sign-off. It will not tell them what to claim after a break-in. It will not treat a measure-up, a screen-only visit and an install as the same morning. It will not book a communal stairwell as if it were a kitchen window.
What these calls sound like
The order is the split, then the opening, then the address, then a morning the book can honour, then the refusal said out loud. There is no round figure over a door nobody has measured. There is no “we can fit it Thursday” to a person who sent a picture from the courtyard. There is no “twenty minutes” to a hallway with a door off its hinges.
If the assistant is friendly and still answers the price question, you own that number. Put the person who rang about the slider at 11:10 on a measure-up, not on the next shop’s pad.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the van with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands in the shop still takes the call. Then the four-way split, the opening question, and the sentence that forbids a price from a photo.
Write down what you actually cut and whether you take street doors this month. Give it the fields you want on every note: address, floor, which opening, slider or casement, whether they sent a photo, whether the door still closes. Mark two kinds of visit: a measure-up that needs you on a balcony, and a short screen or roller look.
Give it the same-day phone list: street door off, flat open, they are standing in the hallway. Do not give it a frame tariff it would read out. Write one line that forbids photo-prices, install days before the tape, and energy-sign-off sentences. Add opening hours, who is out on Monday, August dates, where the van may wait.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers while the tape is on a reveal | Always | Only if they can let go of the frame | Yes |
| Several callers in May | Every line at once | One, then a busy tone | Depends who was rostered |
| Asks measure-up or screen first | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes, if they heard the start | Often jumps to what morning |
| Invents a sliding-door price from a photo | Never — books the measure-up | Can refuse until they have seen the opening | Often reads a range |
| Promises Thursday's install before the tape | Never | Only after the quote is signed | Tempted, if the script wants a day |
| Speaks the caller's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Price unseen work, or book an install over an open measure-up | Can look at the opening | Reads whatever is on the sheet |
What one unanswered weekday morning costs a two-person aluminium shop
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people, a normal weekday in April. One of you is on a balcony with the tape. The other is cutting a frame in the shop.
- About 14 inbound calls that morning. Five arrive while both pairs of hands are on aluminium.
- Of those five, 3 are new measure-ups for a balcony door or a set of windows. 1 is torn mosquito screens. 1 is a roller that jammed in the night.
- A balcony sliding door that becomes an order is worth about €1,800 of work here — put your own average ticket in first. This is the number to change.
- This example assumes 2 of the 3 measure-up callers do not leave a message and ring the next shop on the listing.
- 3 new measure-up requests reach nobody on a normal Tuesday morning.
- 2 of them do not call back.
- 2 × €1,800 = €3,600 of work that morning that never reached the book.
- A morning like that once a week, 46 weeks — 46 × €3,600.
About €165,600 a year on those assumptions. Change the ticket, the conversion, and how often a morning like that happens.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to change the number on the van?
No. The number on the van, the shop window, the cards, and the Google listing stays yours. You add one forwarding rule — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If you pick up, the call never leaves and is never charged.
Can it give a price if they send a photo of the balcony door?
It must not. A photo does not show the reveal, whether the opening is square, the track, or the glass they actually need. It takes the address and the opening they named, and books a measure-up if that morning is free. You price what the tape has been on. If a starting figure must not be said until you have seen the wall, do not give the assistant that figure.
What is a measure-up, and what is an install?
A measure-up is you, a tape, and an opening. An install is a crew, frames that have already been made, and a morning that weather can cancel. The assistant books the first. It does not put Thursday's install in the book because someone is in a hurry. After the quote is signed, you — or the assistant, from a list you gave it — book the fit.
We only do aluminium. What happens to a wooden-frame repair?
Say so in the notes. A caller who wants the old wood patched gets a clear no, and, if you want, a name you actually recommend. Do not let it book a carpenter's job onto a shop that only cuts aluminium. The same if you do not do glass-only replacements.
Someone is standing in a broken street door after a break-in. Can it send you now?
It can put the call in front of a human who can see where the van is. It will not invent “we will be there in twenty minutes”. A street door that will not close is a flagged note or a transfer, not a guessed arrival. You decide whether to leave the balcony you are already on.
What do we actually see afterwards?
A transcript, a short summary, whether this was a measure-up, a mosquito screen, a roller, a street door or a move, the address and the opening they named, and whatever was booked or left for you. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call.
