Multilingual phone reception for moving companies
Quick summary
- A published Greek number already takes English, German, French and Russian in the same month-end 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.
- Date, lift and packing are still the first facts. A name in English does not tell you the floor.
- A photo-price in German is still a photo-price. Fluency does not let it name a figure.
- The spoken rule does not change: the price comes after volume. The survey still has to happen.
- The confirmation SMS goes out in the language of the call, with who must be there with the key.
TL;DR
The sofa is on the stairs when a tenant rings in English about the first of the month, or an owner rings in German with a living-room photo. They will not wait for the colleague who is comfortable in English to put the sofa down. 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 date, lift or stairs, packing done or not, books a survey that is free, and refuses anything that sounds like a figure from a picture. It will not read a Greek street-permit note aloud and tell them what to file.
Key takeaways
- Leave language detection on. Pinning the line to Greek is how the 19:40 English call never reaches you.
- Put date, lift and packing in every language you actually hear, not only the two you staff.
- Write the callback sentence once and never vary it: the price comes after volume.
- Do not let it explain a Greek permit, name a cubic metre, or say the piano fits because they asked in English.
- Send the SMS in the language of the conversation, with who must open for that survey.
- Read the first multilingual transcripts with the office. That is where a soft figure creeps in.
The first word is not Greek
A tenant says “do you speak English?” The sofa is on the stairs. The person who would have taken the English call is waiting on a lift. You cannot pick up. They will not wait.
The number they dialled is the one on the van, the card in the mailbox, and the listing a landlord forwarded. Those pages are in Greek. The caller is not. In a Greek firm that is English, German, French and Russian in the same month-end 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 van. Keys on Monday will not wait. A photo that wanted a price before lunch will not wait.
Lift still has to be asked in English
The language does not change the facts. Date, from and to, lift or stairs, packing done or not.
A caller who is fluent in English will still send a photo and ask how much. Fluency is not a licence. The sentence is the same in every language: the price comes after volume. This call books a survey.
If they mix — street in Greek, floor in English — the assistant stays with them. It does not drop packing because the words arrived in two languages. A mixed call is how a piano fails to land on the note.
Do not pin the line to Greek. The 19:40 English call is the one that never reaches a voicemail in a language they would use. Leave detection on.
A permit note is still not advice
They have a screenshot of a Greek municipal page. They want you to tell them what it says, and whether the truck can sit on the pedestrian street.
That is not a translation job for the assistant. It records the street, flags access for the survey, and books the walk. The office deals with the permit. The assistant does not tell them which form to file, in English or in Greek.
The same for a photo of a piano with a caption in German. Not a fit. Not a crane. Book the survey.
If they ask whether two men can do a fourth floor, in any language, refuse the figure. Take the floor. Book the walk.
Who must open, in the language they used
The SMS follows the call. English in, English out. A Greek text to a German owner is how the first of the month is empty when you arrive.
Who has the key: tenant, landlord, a neighbour. Write it in their language. The assistant can do that in 70+ languages. You do not type it from the landing.
If only one person can do the survey in English, mark that person’s book. Reception in English is not a promise that the crew on the stairs will speak English. Say so on the call if you have that line in the notes. The assistant should not invent a bilingual crew.
Island, ferry, and the foreign house
A house on an island, an owner who rings from abroad, a ferry they have already booked for themselves but not for a truck. They will not leave a Greek voicemail.
The assistant takes island or mainland, the date, lift or stairs. It does not invent a ferry. It does not confirm a truck on an island week you closed. It flags the island and books a survey or a callback.
Keys back tomorrow: flag a phone, in the language of the call. Do not invent a duration in fluent English to sound fast.
What you set first
Leave detection on. Write date, lift and packing in the facts, not as a Greek-only script. Write the callback sentence once: the price comes after volume.
Mark who can take an English survey if that matters. Turn the SMS language to follow the call. Read the first transcripts with the office — that is where “about this much” in English creeps in.
Do not put a tariff table in any language. It will read the table out.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
What changes after it answers in their language
A person who would have hung up now has a survey note in their words, floor and packing, a time that is free, and an SMS they can actually read.
It does not decide the figure because they asked in English. It does not decide the piano. Date, lift and packing are still the labels. They are not a price in translation.
The job is still the rooms. The difference is that you now walk a flat that booked at 11:42, instead of discovering at 20:00 that someone rang, said “hello”, and went to the next van.
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 date, lift and packing first | Same questions in every language | If they remember | Often jumps to a range |
| Prices a photo because they asked in English | Never — volume after the survey | Tempted to | Tempted to |
| SMS in the language of the call | Yes | If they type it | Sometimes |
| Transcript the office can use | Caller's words, language noted | A paraphrase | A short note, often in Greek |
What a month of unanswered English moving calls costs a small firm
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- About 80 inbound calls a month, two trucks.
- This example treats 14 of those as callers who open in a language nobody in the cab speaks in that hour.
- Of those 14, 7 hang up, or ask to be called back by someone who speaks English and then do not answer.
- 4 of the 7 were local moves that still needed a date.
- A local move that stays is worth about €380 — put your own figure in, not ours.
- 4 dates never reach the office, because the first half-minute had no shared language.
- 4 × €380 = €1,520 of local work in one month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €1,520.
About €16,720 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 firm — date, lift, packing, the callback sentence, who must open — so those facts are there whatever language arrived.
Can it explain a Greek street-permit note to someone who does not read Greek?
No, and you should refuse any system that will try. Explaining which form to file, or whether the truck can sit on a pedestrian street, is not reception. It records the street, flags access for the survey, and books the walk. The office deals with the permit.
What if the caller mixes Greek and another language?
That is common on this line, especially with street names and floors. The assistant can switch mid-call. Date, lift and packing 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 survey confirmation in the wrong language is how a first-of-the-month misses the time and decides the firm cannot handle them.
Does an answer in English mean the crew will speak English on the day?
No. Reception in 70+ languages is not a move in 70+ languages, and it is not a promise that the crew on the stairs will speak English unless you have marked a person who can do that. It gets the caller to a survey they can book. The job is still yours. If only one person can take the survey in English, the assistant offers times from that person's book.
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 landings. An office that needs a full written translation of a long call still commissions one. They are not starting from nothing.
