AI phone receptionist for opticians
Quick summary
- You have both hands on a fitting — heating a temple, checking the sit — and nobody at the desk can pick up.
- Ask ready glasses, an eye test or a repair first. Those go to different people and take different times.
- Ready glasses can walk in. An eye test needs a free stretch with whoever does the tests, on a day they are in.
- A caller who gets voicemail hangs up and walks into the next shop on the street.
- It checks your diary before it offers a time, writes the booking in, and texts the confirmation.
- It will not invent a prescription or a frame price, and it will not give clinical advice about an eye.
TL;DR
The temple is in the heater and the glasses are half on the client's face when the phone rings. Ready glasses, an eye test and a repair are three different visits. An assistant answers every line at once, asks which of the three they mean, looks at the real diary, and texts the confirmation. It does not invent a prescription. It does not invent a frame price. It does not give clinical advice about an eye. A caller who hears voicemail walks into the next shop on the street.
Key takeaways
- Forward the shop number on no-answer, so a free hand at the desk still takes the call.
- Give it three kinds of visit first: ready glasses, eye test, repair — and who does which, on which days.
- Tell it who does the eye tests and which days they are in, before it offers a test time.
- Mark the hours you keep for walk-in ready glasses and repairs, so a booked test does not land on the same table.
- Only let it say a pair is ready when you have marked it ready — never from a promised day.
- Tell it not to invent a prescription or a frame price, and not to give clinical advice about an eye.
What an AI phone receptionist does in an optician’s
You are at the fitting table. The client is in the chair. One hand is on the heater, the other is on the temple. The glasses are half on their face. The phone rings.
The assistant takes that call. It talks the way a person at the desk would. Then it does something with what it heard: books an eye test, tells a caller they can walk in for ready glasses, takes a repair as a drop-in, or writes down what they asked and puts that note in front of whoever is free.
The first thing it has to get right is which of those three the caller means. Ready glasses are chosen at the boards. An eye test needs the tester, on a day they are in. A repair goes to the workshop bench. Offer a time before you know which one, and Thursday has a test stacked on people trying frames. Anna’s room is empty on the one afternoon she came in.
It asks which of the three. Then it checks the diary you already use, offers only a time that is free, books it, texts the confirmation, and repeats the cancel rule you already say for tests.
The confirmation SMS goes out in the language of the call. Greek, English, German — the assistant works in 70+ languages, so a tourist who rang in German gets the text in German.
Hands on a fitting
Late morning, a weekday, a Greek high street. You have both hands on a fitting. The temple is warm. You are watching how the frame sits on the nose and whether the pupil sits in the lens. The person in the chair cannot be left with glasses half on.
Nobody can pick up. Both hands are on the frames, or one is on a screwdriver and the other is holding the hinge still. If there is a second person they are at the lensometer, or in the workshop, or with someone choosing from the boards.
The phone rings in clusters. Lunch, after school, Saturday late morning — the same hours a parent can leave work and a tourist is already on the street. Hiring someone for a quiet Tuesday does not free a hand at 13:10. A second line still has only your two hands, and the third caller hears engaged.
The person who wanted a test is often already downstairs. They can see your name and the next shop from the same pavement. They will not wait on voicemail. They hang up and walk ten metres.
“Eye test” on the card in the window is not a time you can hold. Anna may only be in on Thursday. The caller may also have a broken pair in a pocket, or they think they want glasses and they need a test first. Skip the question and a test lands in a gap you kept for ready-readers.
The boards and the test chair share the same table. Book every hour as a test and the walk-in afternoon you actually run is gone. Leave every hour open as walk-in and Anna waits; callers are told to come down. Write which hours are which, or Thursday is a queue at the boards and a booked test in the same chair.
Ready glasses, an eye test, or a repair
Ready glasses. Ready-readers, sunglasses off the board, a pair they want to try because they already have a written prescription in a pocket. These can often walk in. The assistant can say you are open, until when, and whether the boards are free. It does not need a test time. It does need to know if the table is already held for Anna.
Eye test. A different person, a different stretch of time, often only on certain days. In a small Greek shop the person who does the tests may come on Tuesday and Thursday, or only after five. An assistant that offers Monday at 11:00 for a test, on a week the tester is not in, books an empty room. It asks for an eye test as its own family, then looks only at the days and hours you marked for that person.
Repair. A screw out, an arm bent, a lens popped, a nose pad gone, they sat on them. They want to know if they can drop the pair today. That is usually a walk-in to the workshop or the desk, not a test. The assistant can take the drop-in. It cannot say from a phone description whether the arm will take a new screw or whether the frame is finished. It cannot promise the pair back at five.
A ready-reader walk-in and a first eye test are two different visits, even if they share a doorbell. If the caller says only “I just need glasses,” the assistant asks the next short question: boards, test, or a pair broken. If they still cannot say, it does not decide they only wanted ready-readers. It takes a callback.
Who can take the work
Many small shops have no one sitting at a desk all day. You are in a fitting, or you are in the workshop, or you are walking someone along the boards. The person who would have picked up is the person whose hands are busy.
The assistant has to know who does what. Anna does the tests, and only on the days you wrote down. Someone else can take a repair and a ready-reader. If the junior can change a nose pad and cannot run a test, the assistant must not offer the junior for an eye test.
Write the week the way you already write it on the paper by the till: who is in, who does the tests, which days, who is in the workshop, who is off. The assistant follows names and days it can read. An empty week is Monday at 11:00 with nobody in the test room.
A mixed visit needs the same care. A repair drop-off and an eye test on the same afternoon is not a test with a screwdriver squeezed after it. It is a drop-in plus a booked stretch with the tester, on a day that person is in. Do not let the assistant invent the order. You decide once whether the pair is looked at before the test or after.
Lenses you send out are the same kind of fact. If glazing leaves the shop, the assistant must not promise Friday because that is what you said last month. It takes the request. A human looks at the job.
Walk-ins at the boards, booked time in the test room
Plenty of shops still take walk-ins for ready glasses and small repairs. Protect the hours the tester is not in, and keep the test book closed over those hours.
A caller who asks “can I come in this afternoon for ready-readers?” wants to know if the boards are free, not a time in Anna’s book. Yes until a time you set; no, the table is held for tests; or yes for a screw, no for a test. An assistant that answers with Thursday at 16:00 has offered a test time to someone who was already on the pavement.
A caller who wants a Thursday test inside those walk-in hours has to be moved. Otherwise a queue trying frames and a booked test arrive at the same chair. Block those hours the way you already block Anna’s lunch.
Saturday is the same rule with more people on the street. Tourists and locals both ring. The assistant still asks which of the three they mean, and still only offers a test on a day the tester is in.
Collection — only if you marked them ready
“Are my glasses ready?” is the call that comes back after the work. They were told this week. They are already downstairs, or already on the bus. They want a yes.
The assistant says yes only when you have marked that pair ready. A promised day is not a status. If the tray has no name on it and the workshop note is empty, the honest answer is a name, a number, and a callback — not “they should be in.” Callers who hear ready and find an empty tray do not book the next pair with you.
If you want it to ring out when a pair is marked ready, that is a separate job, once the status changes. Do not let it invent the status from the original promise.
An adjustment on a pair they collected last week is a drop-in, not a collection and not a test. The assistant can say they can come in. It cannot say the adjustment will take five minutes. You have not seen how the frame sits.
A frame price nobody can give from a description
When someone describes a pair on the phone — thin metal, something like the ones in the window, not too heavy — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one. Until the frames are on the face, shape and lens are guesses. Say a number on that call and you spend the fitting taking it back.
It can repeat a ready-reader or stock-sunglass figure you published and typed in. An unseen complete pair has no honest figure. The assistant takes the request and books a visit or a test, depending on what you allow. You say the price when you can see the pair on the face.
Do not type a complete-pair list into the notes and hope it will stay quiet. It will read the first number it finds. If the figure must wait until someone has seen the pair, do not give the assistant that figure.
The same rule holds for a repair. “How much to fix the arm?” from a phone description is not a price you can keep. The assistant takes the drop-in. You look at the hinge.
A red eye is not an eye-test booking
A caller asks if they need a test. A caller wants sunglasses made up from a paper they have in a drawer. A caller describes a red eye, flashes, a sudden blur, something in the eye, a pain they have had since last night.
The assistant does not invent a prescription and it does not examine an eye. It can book the test you actually offer. It cannot say what a red eye is, what drops to use, whether a prescription is still good, or whether something needs a doctor. It writes down what they said. It does not interpret an eye.
A caller who says they already have a written prescription is asked to come in with the paper. The assistant does not decide that the paper is current, and it does not read numbers off it and turn them into a pair.
A complaint about last week’s fitting is the same kind of call: take the name, take what they said, put it in front of you. Do not offer a free remake from the phone. You look at the frames on the face.
Write one short list of things the assistant must not book as a routine test — the wording is yours — and send those calls to a person. The assistant follows the list. It does not invent one.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the window. A forwarding rule at the provider sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave the shop.
- Every line is answered at once. A burst during a fitting is several conversations at the same time, not a third caller hearing engaged.
- It knows the shop you described. Which of the three you offer, who does the tests, which days they are in, whether late morning is walk-in, where to park, how collection works.
- It asks ready glasses, eye test or repair, then looks at the book. A time is offered only after that fact exists.
- It checks the real diary before it offers a time, and writes the booking into the same book the team already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind before the appointment.
- It escalates what cannot be finished on the call — a red eye, a frame price, a pair that is not marked ready, a complaint — as a tagged note, not as a guess.
- You get the transcript, the summary, and which of the three the caller named.
What it will not do
It will not invent a prescription. An old paper in a drawer gets a visit, not a verdict that the numbers are still good.
It will not quote a complete pair or an unseen repair. A ready-reader figure you published is different.
It will not give clinical advice. A red eye, flashes, a sudden blur, or a request for drops is a note.
It will not book a test into the hours you keep for people at the boards, or on a day the tester is not in. If those days are not written down, it will offer them anyway.
It will not say a pair is ready because Friday was the promise. If there is no mark, it takes a callback.
It will not decide a remake, a refund, or whether the hinge can be saved. It takes the request. A human decides.
What these calls sound like
The order is which of the three, then the offer, then the confirmation, then the cancel rule you already say for tests. There is no frame price. There is no “your prescription should still be fine.” There is no test put at twelve over a walk-in hour. There is no advice about an eye the assistant cannot see.
If the assistant is pleasant and still books a test on a day Anna is not in, the caller has already taken Thursday morning off and the test room is empty. Put that name on a day the tester is standing there, not on the pavement outside the next shop.
What you set up first
Forward the number on the window on no-answer, so a free hand at the desk still picks up. Then the three kinds of visit and who does which, the tester’s days, the hours you keep for people at the boards, and the cancel rule you already say for tests.
Type in the published figures it may repeat — ready-readers, stock sunglasses — and do not type a complete-pair figure it would read out. Write one line that forbids inventing a prescription, and one line that forbids clinical advice about an eye. Add opening hours, who is in on Saturday, where to park, how to find the door, and that a pair is ready only when you have marked it.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burst mid-fitting | Every line answered at once | After the fitting, if at all | Depends who was rostered |
| Asks ready glasses, eye test or repair first | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Tester only in on certain days | Offers only the days you marked | Yes — they know the week | Treats every day as a test day |
| Collection — are they ready | Says ready only if you marked them | Checks the tray | Repeats the promised day |
| Walk-in boards vs booked test | Honours the window you set | Yes, if they remember | Treats every hour as a booking |
| Speaks the client's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Invent a prescription, a frame price, or clinical advice | Can see the pair and the eye | Reads a list aloud |
What one unanswered fitting-hour costs a one-table shop
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- One fitting table, a normal weekday in a Greek town, roughly 28 inbound calls.
- About a third arrive while you are mid-fitting and cannot put the frames down.
- Of the calls nobody reaches, 4 are people who wanted an eye test this week.
- A pair that leaves after an eye test is worth about €160 to the shop — put your own figure in. This is the number to change first.
- This example assumes 3 of those 4 walk into the next shop instead of leaving a message. Replace that share with what you actually see.
- 4 eye-test enquiries reach voicemail during fittings on a normal week.
- 3 of them do not call back and sit down somewhere else.
- 3 × €160 = €480 of that week's test-and-pair book, gone in the hour you could not pick up.
- That window alone, over a 46-week year — 46 × €480.
About €22,080 a year, from the hour your hands were on a fitting.
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 give up the shop number?
No. The number on the window, on the bag, and on the Google listing stays yours. One forwarding rule at the provider is enough — all calls, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If you put the screwdriver down and pick up, that call never forwards and is never charged.
Can it tell a caller what a frame will cost?
It can repeat a ready-reader or stock-sunglass figure you published and typed in. It must not invent a complete-pair price from “thin metal, not too heavy.” Until the frames are on the face, lens and shape are guesses, and a guess said out loud is a number you then withdraw at the table. It books a visit or a test. You say the price when you can see the pair.
Will it put an eye test into a walk-in hour?
Not if you marked the walk-in hours and the tester's days. It asks ready glasses, eye test or repair first, and it only offers a test on a day the tester is in, in a stretch of time that is free. If the diary cannot confirm that stretch, it takes a callback rather than squeezing a test into a gap meant for people at the boards.
What if someone describes a red eye, flashes, or sudden blur?
The assistant does not give clinical advice and it does not treat that call as a routine eye test. It writes down what the caller said, in their words, and puts that note in front of you — or follows the short redirect you wrote. It does not say what the eye is, what drops to use, or whether they need a hospital. You decide.
Can it tell someone their glasses are ready?
Only if you have marked that pair ready. A promised Friday is not a status. If the workshop note is not there, it takes a name and a callback rather than guessing. Callers who hear “ready” and walk in for an empty tray do not book the next pair with you.
What do we see after a call?
A transcript, a short summary, whether they asked for ready glasses, an eye test or a repair, and whatever was booked or left for the desk. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call. Collection calls show the mark you made, or the callback, not a guessed Friday.
