AI phone receptionist for pest control

What an AI phone receptionist does in a pest-control firm

August, just after nine. One of you is in a vacant shop on a pedestrian street, suit on, torch on the floor. The other is still in a taverna kitchen that closed at midnight. The published number rings. You cannot peel the suit off to take a cocktail of questions. The colleague cannot leave bait stations half-laid. There is no third pair of hands.

You put the assistant on the number already on the van and on the card in the letterbox. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It books a first visit that is actually free. Or it takes a note for a callback.

The first question is whether this is mosquitoes, a cockroach, or a rodent. A terrace full of mosquitoes is not a kitchen. A kitchen is not a storeroom with droppings. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” will put a vacant-shop job into a family house at supper, and will still not have asked whether anyone sleeps there.

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.

In a suit, and the phone still ringing

One of you is already zipped in. The other is driving between a storeroom and a flat that has been empty since May. The number on the van still rings.

It is a burst. Dusk in August, after the heat. The first week the holiday houses open. The Monday a taverna failed an inspection. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.

The person who just saw a cockroach by the fridge will not wait on voicemail. They have your card and another crew’s card from the same search. They hang up and dial the next firm. The person whose terrace is unusable tonight will not leave a message either.

Clients on a monthly contract will often wait. A person who cannot report a cockroach, and a person who cannot book mosquitoes before guests arrive on Friday, will not. If those two wait behind the job you are already in, the first visit is gone, and the inspection certificate arrives as an angry call at eight — or the next crew has already taken the house.

Whoever treats the first cockroach often keeps the contract. That is why a missed first visit is not only a missed hour.

Mosquito, cockroach, or rodent — then occupied or vacant

Mosquitoes. Terrace, garden, a hotel courtyard, a villa that opens on Friday. The assistant asks where they are seeing them, whether the house is occupied, and when someone can be there. It does not name a fog, a tablet, or a backyard mix. It does not say the neighbours will stop breeding them. Mark dusk slots in August if that is when you actually work. A mosquito call at noon in January is a note, not a same-day dash.

Cockroach. Kitchen, bakery, a staff room behind a shop. The assistant asks occupied or vacant, then whether there are children or pets, then whether this is a house or food premises. It does not name a gel, a spray, or a powder they can buy on the way home. A photo of an insect on a tile is not a survey. Book the first visit. If they say it is a taverna that needs treating after close, that is a night slot, not a morning between houses.

Rodent. Droppings in a storeroom, scratching in a ceiling, a vacant shop. The assistant asks occupied or vacant, food on site or not, and whether they have already put down anything. It does not say rat or mouse from a description of a sound. It does not tell them where to put bait. It books a visit. If they mention a cat or a dog that roams the rooms, write that on the note. Do not let the assistant invent a layout of stations from the call.

People remember what they saw. They do not remember the difference between a first visit and a follow-up on a contract. Ask which pest first. Then occupied or vacant. One of those two is enough to stop a family house being treated like an empty unit. None is still a note, not a guess.

A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say

“What should I spray?” is the question on this phone. It comes after a cockroach, after mosquitoes on a baby’s terrace, after droppings next to dry food.

The assistant does not answer it. Not with a brand. Not with “the usual gel”. Not with a mix of oil and something from under the sink. A sentence that sounds like a recipe, said on the recorded line, is a sentence the firm now owns, and the assistant cannot see the rooms, the voids, the pets, or what is legal to use there.

The line you give it is short: the technician decides on site. This call books the visit. It does not name a product.

“Can the children sleep here tonight?”, “should I wash the plates?”, “can I put borax in the corners?”, and “is it safe if I close the bedroom?” are still treatment questions. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the decision.

Do not put a product list in the notes. It will read the list out.

Occupied house, vacant shop, food premises

An occupied house is a different visit from a vacant shop. The assistant has to ask, on the first call, which one it is.

Someone sleeping there tonight, a baby, a dog, a cat that jumps on worktops: that belongs on the note before anyone offers a time. The assistant does not decide whether they should go to a relative. It does not tell them to bag the food. It writes who is in the building and flags you if they ask about sleeping there.

A vacant holiday house that has been shut since May is a different job again. Often the owner is still in Athens and the key is with a neighbour. The assistant takes who has the key and when someone can open. It does not promise Friday if nobody can let you in on Thursday.

Food premises — taverna, bakery, hotel kitchen — need the hour after close, and often a certificate date. Mark those as their own slot type. A morning you have already given to houses is not a hole for a kitchen that can only be done at one in the morning.

If they need a paper for an inspection next week, the assistant takes the date. It does not say the inspector will accept last year’s certificate. It does not say the kitchen is “ready”.

A price nobody can give from “I saw two”

When someone describes two cockroaches on a kitchen tile, or sends a blurry photo from a phone, the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one.

How many rooms, whether the unit is occupied, whether this is a one-off or the start of a contract, access after close, a courtyard that needs a return at dusk: all of that changes the work. A number quoted before anyone has walked the rooms is a number you then spend the visit taking back.

It can repeat a published starting figure you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen food premises, a vacant shop with a ceiling void, a house with children and a dog — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and books the visit.

If they press — “just a round figure, I need to tell the owner” — the assistant still refuses. Book them as soon as a time is free. Flag it if guests arrive on Friday, or if an inspection is next week.

After close, and the taverna kitchen

Some of these callers are still in a kitchen at midnight. They want to know whether you can come before breakfast service, whether the staff can stay, whether a certificate will be ready by Monday.

The assistant is not in the kitchen. It cannot see the grease traps or the dry store.

What it can take: the address, after-close or during the day, occupied or empty, the inspection date if they have one, and a name that can open the door. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: someone must be there to let you in, and food must be covered the way you already tell every kitchen. What it must not say: which product, how long until they can cook, whether the inspector will pass them.

If they say someone has been in contact with bait they found, or a child has put something in their mouth, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: child, pet, bait swallowed. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them what to do at the sink.

A caller who is already home, with a cockroach in a jar, is a first visit and, if they want, a time when someone is in.

Certificates, contracts, and “can I sleep here tonight?”

Certificate. The inspection is next week, the hotel wants a paper for the file, a bakery needs a date on a letterhead. The assistant takes who it is for and when they need it. It does not say what the inspector will accept, and it does not confirm that last year’s paper still holds.

Contract. Monthly mosquitoes at a villa, a kitchen on a round. The assistant asks whether they already have a contract with you, then books a slot you marked for that round, or takes a first-visit request if they do not. It does not invent a monthly figure from a terrace description.

Sleep tonight. “Can we sleep here?” is a treatment question. The assistant takes occupied, children, pets, and flags you to call the same evening. It does not read a re-entry time off a list and say yes. If they need an answer before the baby’s bedtime, that is a same-day phone.

August needs its own dates. Do not let the assistant book a first visit into a week when both of you are already on island houses.

How CITT handles it

1. Your number stays on the van and on the card in the letterbox. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls you pick up from the kerb never leave the firm.
2. Every line is answered at once. An August dusk is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
3. It knows the firm you described. What you treat, whether you take new houses this week, how a first-visit note should look, who is on after close.
4. It asks mosquito, cockroach or rodent first, then occupied or vacant, and only then looks at the book.
5. It takes a product question as a refusal, in the caller’s words, and never as a recipe.
6. It checks the real diary before it offers a time, and writes the visit into the same calendar the crew already uses.
7. It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them who must be there with the key.
8. It escalates product, dose, “can we sleep here”, and a child or pet in contact with bait as a tagged note or a transfer.
9. You get the transcript, the summary, the pest, occupied or vacant, and what the caller asked for.

What it will not do

It will not name a product, a mix, or a dose. It will not tell anyone to spray a corner, put powder down, or wash the plates. It will not say they can sleep in the house tonight, or that the baby is fine. It will not invent a price from a photo of an insect. It will not say the inspector will pass the kitchen. It will not treat mosquitoes, a cockroach and a rodent as the same visit. It will not treat an occupied house like a vacant shop.

What these calls sound like

The order is the pest, then occupied or vacant, then the visit or the note, then the refusal said out loud. There is no supermarket brand. There is no round figure over two insects nobody has walked. There is no “you can sleep there” to a person with a baby in the next room.

If the assistant is friendly and still answers the recipe question, you own that sentence. Put the person who rang about the fridge at 21:10 on a first-visit note, not on the next crew’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 still takes the call. Then the three-way split, the occupied question, and the sentence that forbids a product name.

Write down what you actually treat and whether you are taking new houses this week. Give it the fields you want on every note: pest, occupied or vacant, children or pets, food premises or house, after close or daytime, who has the key. Mark two kinds of visit: a first visit that needs you, and a contract slot already on the round.

Give it the same-day phone list: a child or a pet in contact with bait, an inspection tomorrow, guests on Friday, they ask if they can sleep there tonight. Do not give it a product table it would read out. Write one line that forbids recipe, dose and re-entry sentences. Add opening hours, who is on after close, August dates, island weeks.

Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.