Multilingual phone reception for handymen
Quick summary
- A published Greek van number already takes English, German and Albanian in the same week.
- The assistant hears the language on the first sentence and continues in it. It covers 70+ languages, and it can switch if they mix.
- Door, shelf or tap is still the first question. A name in English does not tell you which small job it is.
- A board question in German is still a board question. Fluency does not let it take a consumer unit.
- The spoken rule does not change: this van does not take live boards. The electrician line is the same in every language.
- The confirmation SMS goes out in the language of the call, with both jobs named if it is a bundle.
TL;DR
You are on a step when a tenant rings in English about a door that will not close, or a landlord rings in German about a dripping tap. They will not wait for the colleague who is comfortable in English to come off a shelf. An assistant answers in the language it hears — 70+ languages, and it can switch if they mix Greek and English on the same call. It asks door, shelf or tap first, takes the address, and refuses a live board. It will not reset a main because they asked in English. It will not quote three jobs from a WhatsApp photo.
Key takeaways
- Leave language detection on. Pinning the line to Greek is how the 09:10 English door never reaches you.
- Put the door-shelf-tap question and the board refusal in every language you actually hear, not only the two you speak.
- Write the refusal once and never vary it: we do not take consumer units or live boards.
- Do not let it explain a Greek board, name a hinge price, or take the mains because they asked in English.
- Send the SMS in the language of the conversation, with floors named if it is a bundle.
- Read the first multilingual transcripts yourself. That is where a soft board sentence creeps in.
The first word is not Greek
A tenant says “do you speak English?” You are on a step. The person who would have taken the English call is under a tap, if you have a second person at all. You cannot pick up. They will not wait.
The number they dialled is the one on the van, under the intercom, and on the listing a landlord forwarded. Those pages are in Greek. The caller is not. In a Greek block that is English, German and Albanian in the same week, and often more than one of those before lunch.
Thirty seconds of hold, or a promise that someone who speaks English will ring back, is enough. They hang up and dial the next small-jobs number. A tenant whose door will not close before they leave will not wait. A landlord who wants a tap seen before the next guest arrives will not wait. A guest who already asked you to reset the board will not wait for a translation of a main switch.
What language does not change
Door, shelf or tap is still the first split. An English name is not a job type. A German street is not a diagnosis.
If they mentioned a consumer unit, a main, or “just flip it”, the assistant still refuses. Fluency is not a licence. A board taken slowly in English is still a board on the recording.
A photo of a hinge sent with a German caption is still not a price. A photo of a cover with Greek labels is still not a map the assistant may read out.
The address still comes before the book. The book still comes before a door hour. A board still gets the electrician line.
Tenants, landlords abroad, guests
Tenant. They live here. The door will not close. They also want the board reset because the labels are in Greek. The assistant books the door. It refuses the board. It does not translate the cover.
Landlord abroad. They ring in German or English. The tenant is in the flat. They want the tap seen this week. The assistant books a visit if an hour is free. It does not quote from a photo of the mixer. If only one person in the van can brief a door in German, offer that person’s hours.
Guest. Short stay. Printout on the fridge. They want the shelf the host promised, and the board that tripped. Two jobs. One of them is yours. One of them is not.
Labels on the board are not a script
They will ask you to read the Greek on the cover because they cannot. Kindness says translate. This van does not.
Naming which breaker to touch is board work. The assistant gives the electrician line. It can still book the door. It does not caption a photo of the cover.
Do not upload a labelled photo of a typical board into the notes “for the English callers”. It will be read out to the next guest.
SMS, language, and the fourth-floor tap
The confirmation has to go out in the language of the call. A bundle in English with a Greek SMS is how they miss the tap on the fourth. A door in German with a Greek reminder is how nobody is home.
Name the type in that language. Name the floor. Name both jobs if it is a bundle. Do not name a price. Do not name a breaker.
If they mixed languages on the call, pick the language they used for the booking sentence, and mark the mix on the transcript so you are not surprised in the hall.
What you write once, in every language you hear
The three-job split. The board refusal. The electrician line. The ban on arrivals invented from the van’s last job. The ban on a hinge figure from a photo. The same-day list: flooding tap.
You do not write a different rule for English. Kindness in a second language is how a board creeps in. Read the first month of mixed transcripts yourself. Listen for “we can look at the main” in any language. Cut that line wherever it appeared.
Leave detection on. A line pinned to Greek is a door that never reached you at 09:10.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
The landlord, the tenant, and who is on the file
A rental often has three numbers. The tenant at the door. The landlord in another city. The building manager who has the shaft key. The assistant has to know who it is speaking to before it books anything that needs access.
A tenant can describe a door that will not close. A tenant cannot approve a wardrobe the landlord has not paid for. A landlord can approve a tap visit and still not be in Athens on Saturday. A manager can open the stairwell and still not speak the language the tenant used.
The note has to carry who called, in which language, and who must be there. A wardrobe booked against a guest who will have checked out is empty boxes. A flooding tap that only has the landlord’s German number, while the tenant is standing in the kitchen, is a callback that rings the wrong country.
The assistant asks who is in the flat now. It asks whether the landlord should be copied on the SMS. It does not send the flooding transfer to a landlord who is not in the building. The person in front of the tap needs your phone.
What “how long” sounds like in a second language
In Greek they ask πόσο θα κάνει. In English they ask how long. In German they ask wann Sie da sind. It is the same question. The assistant still does not answer it with a number of minutes.
A foreign caller is more likely to press, because they do not know whether anyone is coming at all. A soft “soon” in fluent English is still an arrival you have not given. Say that the van will call with a time when they know the street. Then take the address and which small job it is.
If they hang up because they did not get a minute count, that is still better than a recorded twenty minutes from a van on a step in another district.
The same is true of price. “Just roughly, in English, I have three things” is still a quote. The assistant books the small jobs it takes. It does not meet them in the middle with a round figure to sound fast, and it does not add the board to make the figure nicer.
After hours in a language you do not speak
A door at 21:00 does not become less stuck because the van speaks Greek. The listing is still up. The printout is still on the fridge. The assistant still answers, still asks the split, still refuses a board, still books a tap if the hour is free.
Measure those evening foreign-language calls as their own column. A van that looks fine at noon on a Tuesday can still be losing English doors after dinner in the summer months, when the rentals turn over.
August is guests. The block is half empty of owners and full of people who found a number on a card. Set the closure dates. Do not let the assistant book a wardrobe into a week when you are on the island, in any language.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers in the caller's language | 70+ languages, heard on the line | One or two | Whatever was staffed |
| Switches mid-call | Yes | Rarely | Transfer, if someone exists |
| Asks door, shelf or tap first | Same question in every language | If they remember | Often jumps to what time |
| Takes a board because they asked in English | Never — refuses and refers | Tempted to | Tempted to |
| SMS in the language of the call | Yes | If they type it | Sometimes |
| Transcript you can use | Caller's words, language noted | A paraphrase | A short note, often in Greek |
What a month of unanswered English small-job calls costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- About 100 inbound calls a month, one van.
- This example treats 11 of those as callers who open in a language nobody in the van speaks in that hour.
- Of those 11, 5 hang up, or ask to be called back by someone who speaks English and then do not answer.
- 3 of the 5 were doors or taps — a tenant, or a landlord abroad.
- A first small job that stays is worth about €85 — put your own figure in, not ours.
- 3 first jobs never reach the van, because the first half-minute had no shared language.
- 3 × €85 = €255 of first work in one month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €255.
About €2,805 a year, from the first sentence of the call.
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 we have to set up each language ourselves?
No. The assistant recognises the language from the first sentence and continues in it, including switching mid-call if the caller changes. What you set are the facts of the van — door, shelf or tap, the address, the board refusal, the electrician line, what to leave clear — so those facts are there whatever language arrived.
Can it explain in English how to reset a Greek consumer unit?
No, and you should refuse any system that will try. That is board work, even when the motive is kindness and the language is English. It records that they asked about the board, gives the electrician line, and can still book the door or the shelf. This van does not look at the mains.
What if the caller mixes Greek and another language?
That is common on this line, especially with street names and the word for tap. The assistant can switch mid-call. The three-job split and the board refusal stay in force in both languages. A mixed call is not a reason to drop the rule.
Will the SMS go out in Greek to someone who spoke English?
It should go out in the language of the conversation. That is a setting, not a hope. A bundle confirmation in the wrong language is how they miss the fourth-floor tap and decide the van cannot handle them.
Does an answer in English mean the visit will be in English?
No. Reception in 70+ languages is not a door visit in 70+ languages, and it is not a promise that you will speak English in the hall unless you have marked that. It gets the caller to a time they can book. The visit is still yours.
Is the transcript usable if the call was not in Greek?
You get the caller's words, a summary, and a note of the language. That is more usable than a Greek paraphrase written from memory between two shelves. If you need a full written translation of a long call you still commission one. You are not starting from nothing.
