AI phone receptionist for property managers

What an AI phone receptionist does in a property manager’s office

The heating is down in a block in Kypseli. One of you is already on the phone to the boiler room. Across the desk the other person has an owner and the AGM date on the wood. The published number rings. You cannot put the boiler down. The colleague cannot leave the owner mid-file. There is no third pair of hands.

You put the assistant on the number already on the stairwell notice and on the letter that went out with the charges. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It takes a building note — a leak, no heat, a locked basement — with who is calling. Or it books a visit that is actually free: a time to let a contractor in, a sitting with an owner, a collection of papers before the AGM.

The first question is not “what time would you like?”. The first question is who is on the line. A tenant is not an owner. An owner is not a contractor standing at a basement door. A voice asking whether the corner flat is for sale is not a tenant with water on the ceiling. An assistant that opens with a free hour will put a sales question into a leak slot and leave the plumber without a key.

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.

On a leak on the third, and the phone still ringing

One of you is waiting for the boiler man to call back. The other is sitting with an owner who brought the minutes. The number on the notice board still rings.

It is a burst. January, when the oil ran out on Sunday and every radiator in the stairwell is cold. The morning after a pipe on the third. The week of the AGM, when eight owners ring about the date and two tenants ring about the lift. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.

The tenant without heat will not wait on voicemail. They have been cold since last night. They hang up and ring the owner, or the next name on the notice. The contractor who drove across Athens and is standing at a locked basement will not leave a message either.

Owners whose buildings you already manage will often wait — until the AGM is tomorrow and nobody confirmed the room. A person who cannot report a leak, and a person who cannot hand you a new block, will not wait. If those two sit behind the boiler call you are already on, the new building is gone, and the third floor arrives angry at five — or the next διαχειριστής has already opened the file.

Whoever takes the leak often keeps the building. That is why a missed January call is not only a missed note.

Tenant, owner, contractor — then the building

Tenant. They live there. No heat, water on the ceiling, a locked lift lobby, a smell in the bin room, the light on the stairs. The assistant asks which building, then which floor, then what they can see. It writes that down. It does not open a works decision. It does not say the plumber is on the way. If water is coming through a ceiling and they say the electrics are wet, that is a transfer to a phone you actually hold.

Owner. They sit on the building. Common charges, a works vote, the AGM date, they want you to take on a second block, they want the minutes. The assistant asks which building and which of those they mean. It does not quote κοινόχρηστα from memory. It does not tell them how last year’s meeting voted unless you typed a speakable line. A sitting with an owner and a ten-minute collection of papers are not the same time in the diary.

Contractor. They are at the building. The basement is locked, the roof hatch needs the key, they finished and nobody signed. The assistant takes which building, which trade, and where they are standing. It does not invent that you will be there in twenty minutes. It does not read an access list. A locked basement with a plumber waiting is a flagged note or a transfer.

People remember the street. They do not remember the building code you use in the file. Ask for the street and the number first. Then the floor. One building is enough to put the note on the right folder. None is still a note, not a guess at which Kypseli block.

A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say

“Is the corner flat for sale?” is the question that walks onto this phone as if it were an agency. It comes from a tenant who likes the view. It comes from a voice that saw lights on. It comes from someone who found the stairwell notice and thought this was the selling number.

The assistant does not answer it. Not with a description. Not with “I think that one is empty”. Not with a price. This line is the building, not a listing. A sentence that sounds like a viewing, said on the recorded line, is a sentence the office now owns, and the assistant cannot see whether the flat is for sale, whether the owner has a mandate, or whether you even run an agency.

The line you give it is short: this is not a sales listing. The office will call back. This call takes a name and a number.

“How much are the charges this month?”, “did we vote for the roof?”, and “can you send the plumber now?” are still file questions. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the figure, the vote, and the arrival.

Do not put a price list of flats in the notes. It will read the list out. Do not put last year’s κοινόχρηστα in a table it can speak.

January heat, AGM week, and everyone at once

January is radiators. By eight, people have started ringing that the block is cold. You are already on the boiler. The pad is already a list of buildings.

AGM week is owners. The date, the room, the papers, a proxy, a complaint about last year’s minutes. A tenant who rings in the same hour about a leak is not an AGM slot.

A contractor afternoon is three trades at two buildings, all wanting the basement key, all expecting you to leave the owner you are sitting with.

The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your boiler call. A heating report in that hour is a note. A new-block owner in the same hour is a sitting or a callback. If the assistant parks the person who wants you to take on a building behind the tenth cold-radiator report, that person rings the next διαχειριστής.

Shorten the ring-time before forwarding in January and in the AGM week. After a pipe on the third the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in August is people asking who waters the plants in the empty flats, and one person left in the office.

A leak on the third

When someone describes water — on the ceiling, down the stair, into the flat below — the tempting answer is a cause. The assistant does not give one.

Which building, which floor, whether the water is still running, whether the electrics look wet: that is the note. Whether it is the flat above, a terrace, a common pipe, or the roof: those are yours, after someone has seen the stain. A photo of a wet ceiling is not a diagnosis.

It can repeat a published window you typed in and marked as speakable — “a contractor is booked this afternoon for that building”, if that is actually in the diary. Unseen leaks, a whole riser, a terrace after rain — those do not get a cause on this call. The assistant takes the request and flags you.

If they press — “just tell me if it is the neighbour” — the assistant still refuses. Book a look if you marked that visit. Transfer it if the electrics are wet or water is near a board.

Standing at a locked basement

Some of these callers are on the pavement with a van, at a steel door that will not open, with a plumber or an electrician waiting on the clock. They want to know whether you can come now, whether the porter has a copy, whether they should leave.

The assistant is not at the basement. It cannot see the cabinet. It cannot decide who holds the key.

What it can take: the building, which door, which trade, and a name. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: do not force the door; someone who can see the cabinet will call. Come-now is yours, after you know which building and which key.

If they say water is already in the basement, or a board is wet, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: water in the basement, wet board, gas smell. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them to open a valve.

A caller who is already at the office, with papers for the AGM, is an owner sitting and, if a time is free, a booking.

Charges, the AGM, and “is the flat for sale?”

Common charges. They want this month’s figure, last year’s table, why the amount moved. The assistant takes the building and the name. It does not read a number from memory. It does not explain a line on the sheet. A callback, or a sitting if you marked one.

AGM. The date, the room, a proxy, the papers. The assistant can repeat a date you marked as speakable for that building. It does not reconstruct the agenda. It does not tell a tenant the owners’ business. Mark how many days before the meeting you still take a proxy note.

New block. An owner wants you to take on a building you do not yet manage. The assistant books a sitting. It does not invent an annual fee from a description of a stairwell. It does not say you have space this month if you closed new work.

For sale. The corner flat, the lights on, a tenant who wants to buy. The assistant takes a name and a number. It does not describe the flat. It does not confirm empty. If you also sell, that lives on another number.

August needs its own dates. Do not let the assistant book an owner sitting into a week when the office is dark.

How CITT handles it

1. Your number stays on the stairwell notice and on the letter. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave, and are never charged.
2. Every line is answered at once. A January morning is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
3. It knows the office you described. Which buildings, whether you take new blocks, how a leak note should look, who is in on Monday.
4. It asks tenant, owner or contractor first, then the building and the floor, and only then looks at the diary.
5. It takes a leak or a heating failure as a note, never as a cause or an arrival.
6. It checks the real diary before it offers a time, and writes the visit into the same calendar the office already uses.
7. It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them what to bring to an owner sitting.
8. It escalates wet electrics, a locked basement with a trade waiting, a sales question, and a charges figure as a tagged note or a transfer.
9. You get the transcript, the summary, the building, and what the caller asked for.

What it will not do

It will not sell a flat or describe one. It will not quote κοινόχρηστα from memory. It will not say how the AGM voted unless you typed that line. It will not invent a plumber’s arrival. It will not name a cause from a photo of a stain. It will not tell a contractor to force a basement door. It will not treat a tenant complaint, an owner sitting and a contractor at the door as the same visit.

What these calls sound like

The order is the split, then the building, then the floor, then the note or the visit, then the refusal said out loud. There is no “the plumber is twenty minutes away”. There is no “that flat is empty, two bedrooms”. There is no last year’s charge read off a sheet the assistant should not have.

If the assistant is friendly and still answers the sales question, you own that listing. Put the person who rang about the third-floor leak at 11:10 on a building note, not on an agency pad.

What you set up first

Put the assistant on the number on the notice with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the desk still takes the call. Then the three-way split, the building question, and the sentence that forbids a sales listing.

Write down which buildings you actually manage and whether you are taking new blocks this month. Give it the fields you want on every note: building, floor, tenant or owner or contractor, what they can see, whether water is near electrics. Mark two kinds of visit: an owner sitting that needs you, and a short time to let a contractor in or collect AGM papers.

Give it the same-day phone list: wet board, water in the basement, gas smell, a trade waiting at a locked door. Do not give it a charges table it would read out. Write one line that forbids listings, arrivals, causes, and votes from memory. Add opening hours, who is in on Monday, AGM dates per building, August dates, where a contractor waits.

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