Multilingual phone reception for kindergartens
Quick summary
- A published Greek number already takes English, Albanian, Russian and German 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.
- Place, illness, pickup or collect is still the first question. A name in English does not tell you which job it is.
- A collect question in German is still a collect question. Fluency does not let it add a neighbour.
- The spoken rule does not change: only names already on the list may take the child. The director talks about settling.
- The confirmation SMS goes out in the language of the call, with the papers for that visit.
TL;DR
You are at the door when a parent rings in English about a September place, or in Albanian about yiayia at 16:30. They want a name taken, or a collect checked. They will not wait for the colleague who is comfortable in English to come out of the toddler room. 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 place, illness, pickup or collect first, takes the child's name, writes the waitlist or checks the collect list, and refuses anything that sounds like pedagogy, a fever treatment, or a new collect name. It will not read a Greek house rule aloud and tell them what it means for this child.
Key takeaways
- Leave language detection on. Pinning the line to Greek is how the 08:10 English place call never reaches you.
- Put the four-way question in every language you actually hear, not only the two you staff.
- Write the collect sentence once and never vary it: only names already on the list.
- Do not let it explain a Greek house rule, name a syrup, or decide settling because they asked in English.
- Send the SMS in the language of the conversation, with the paper list for that type.
- Read the first multilingual transcripts with the director. That is where a soft pedagogy sentence creeps in.
The gate is Greek. The parent is not.
The flyer is in Greek. The listing is in Greek. The parent who found you on a map starts in English, or the grandmother in the taxi only has Albanian. That is a normal week in a city station, not a special event.
You are at the door. The person who could continue in English is already sitting on a low chair. The call does not wait for a colleague. It waits for a busy tone, then it goes to the next gate that sounded international.
An assistant that hears the first sentence and stays in that language is how those calls become a waitlist instead of a short ring. 70+ languages. It can switch if they mix.
Staying in English does not change what the call is allowed to do.
The four-way split in every language you actually hear
Place. Illness. Pickup. Who may collect. Then the child’s name.
Write those four questions in the languages that already appear on your pad: Greek, English, Albanian, Russian, German, at least. If you only write them in Greek, the English call will be asked “τι ώρα θέλετε;” and you will get a time without a job.
A name in English does not tell you whether this is a cot or a grandmother. “Anna” is not a category.
If they mix — Greek for the child’s name, English for the question — the assistant follows. The SMS follows the language they settled in.
Fluency is not a licence to add a collect name
This is the sentence that goes wrong in a second language.
A parent asks, in English, to put the mother-in-law on Fridays. The mother-in-law is not on the list. The assistant who wants to be helpful in a language the gate does not staff will say yes. That yes is a person at the door at 16:30 with no paper.
The rule is the same as in Greek. Only names you already wrote down. A request to add someone is a flag to you, in any language. If they are already at the gate, transfer.
Do not let a translated kindness become a collect permission.
Do not improvise the house rule in English
“Stay home with a fever.” “Bring a note after three days.” “Gate closes at 16:00 in August.” Those lines are safe only if you wrote them in that language and marked them speakable.
An improvised translation of a fever rule becomes medical advice. An improvised translation of “they all cry the first week” becomes pedagogy. The assistant does not own either.
If you have not written the English line, it takes a note. The director calls back in the language they can actually speak, or you use the transcript.
It does not read a Greek paragraph aloud and then “explain” it.
What the SMS must carry
The time. The type. The papers. In the language of the call.
A parent who booked a papers drop in English and receives a Greek list will bring the wrong folder, or no folder. Then they stand in the office during pickup.
If you do not have a paper list in that language, send the time and say the director will confirm the documents. Do not auto-translate the municipality’s form names.
Transcripts you can actually use
You need the child’s name as they said it, the collect name as they said it, and the language noted. A paraphrase into Greek that respells “Sarah” as “Σάρα” without the Latin is how the gate misses a passport.
Read the first dozen multilingual transcripts with the director. That is where a soft “she’ll be fine” appears, because the model wanted to comfort in English.
If a cover-the-silence sentence appears, take it out of the notes the assistant is allowed to use. Comfort is not a waitlist.
September and 16:40, in other languages
September place calls in English hang up faster than Greek ones, because those parents already have two flyers and less patience for a language wall.
16:40 collect calls in Albanian are often the grandmother in the taxi. If the line is pinned to Greek, she hears a busy tone or a language she cannot answer, and then she is at the gate anyway.
Leave detection on. Shorten the ring-time in those two windows. Do not staff this problem with a hope that “most of them speak Greek.”
What you set first
The languages you actually hear, with the four-way question in each. The collect sentence, identical in meaning, written by you in those languages. Speakable house rules, written by you, not invented on the line. SMS in the call’s language. A flag for stranger-at-the-gate that does not depend on Greek.
Then listen to the first week. If an English call was offered 08:15, that is a diary problem, not a language problem. If an English call was told the child would settle, that is a sentence you did not forbid hard enough.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers in the parent's language | 70+ languages, heard on the line | One or two | Whatever was staffed |
| Switches mid-call | Yes | Rarely | Transfer, if someone exists |
| Asks place, illness, pickup or collect first | Same question in every language | If they remember | Often jumps to what time |
| Adds a collect name because they asked in English | Never — only names already on the list | Tempted to | Tempted to |
| SMS in the language of the call | Yes | If they type it | Sometimes |
| Transcript the director can use | Caller's words, language noted | A paraphrase | A short note, often in Greek |
What a month of unanswered English place calls costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- About 160 inbound calls a month, two people at a city kindergarten.
- This example treats 14 of those as parents who open in a language nobody at the door speaks in that hour.
- Of those 14, 6 hang up, or ask to be called back by someone who speaks English and then do not answer.
- Of those 6, 2 were asking for a place. "A place that stays is worth about €280 a month — put your own figure in."
- A child who starts typically stays ten months. Put your own stay in.
- 6 multilingual calls reach nobody in that month.
- 2 of them were new places. 2 × €280 × 10 months = €5,600 of that year's fees.
- The other 4 still matter: a collect in Albanian at 16:40 is not a fee, it is a child at the gate.
About €5,600 from two silent place calls in languages the door did not speak that hour — change the monthly figure.
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
We only speak Greek at the gate. Isn't that enough?
It is enough for the families who already know you. It is not enough for the parent who rang in English from a listing, or the grandmother who only has Albanian and is standing in traffic. Pinning the line to Greek is how those calls become a short ring in the provider's log.
Can it translate the house rules into English?
It can repeat a line you wrote in that language and marked as speakable. It must not improvise a translation of a fever rule or a collect rule, because a soft word in English becomes a promise. Write the English line yourself. If you have not written it, the assistant takes a note and says the director will call back.
They mix Greek and English. What then?
It can switch. The split stays the same in both languages: place, illness, pickup or collect, then the child's name. The SMS follows the language they settled in, not the language of the listing.
Can it tell an English-speaking parent the child will settle?
No. Fluency does not create a pedagogy licence. “Will she be okay without me?” is still a director conversation. The assistant takes the name and, if you offer it, books a sitting.
What about a collect request in a language we do not staff?
The list is the list, in any language. If the name is not on it, the assistant does not add it to be helpful in English. It flags you. If they are already at the gate, it transfers to a phone you hold.
Will the transcript be in Greek for the file?
You get the caller's words, with the language noted. Do not ask the assistant to “make it Greek” if that means rewriting a collect name. The spelling they said is what the gate needs. See [pricing](/en/#pricing) for how calls you pick up are treated.
