AI phone receptionist for security firms

What an AI phone receptionist does in a security firm

It is 03:00. One of you is already on the radio to a keyholder. A warehouse panel in Aspropyrgos is still talking. Across the desk the other person is talking a night porter through a gate that will not lift. The published number rings. You cannot drop the radio. The colleague cannot leave the gate. There is no third pair of hands.

You put the assistant on the number already on the van, on the gate sign, and on the card in the building manager’s drawer. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It takes an alarm note with the site and whether anyone is inside. Or it books a visit that is actually free — a key collection, a new-site look, a time to change an access list.

The first question is not “what time would you like?”. The first question is what kind of call this is. An alarm is not a quote. A stuck barrier is not a missing relief. A contractor who still has a basement key is not a patrol. A stranger who wants to know when the van passes that street is not a client asking for help. An assistant that opens with a free hour will put a route question into a dispatch and leave the porter without a note.

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.

Already on an alarm, and the phone still ringing

One of you is waiting for the keyholder to reach the panel. The other has a truck in the lane and a barrier that will not lift. The number on the van still rings.

It is a burst. Shift change at 06:00 and at 22:00, when three porters ring because the relief is late. A storm night, when wind sets off four warehouse panels in twenty minutes. The afternoon a building manager in Marousi sent two blocks out with your card. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.

The person whose relief has not arrived will not wait on voicemail. They have been on the gate since ten. They hang up and dial the next firm, or they walk off the site. The person who just took over a block and wants a guarding quote this week will not leave a message either.

Clients whose sites you already cover will often wait — until the panel is still screaming and nobody has called back. A person who cannot report an alarm, and a person who cannot start a new site, will not wait. If those two sit behind the radio you are already on, the new contract is gone, and the porter arrives angry at six — or the next firm has already opened the file.

Whoever takes the first alarm often keeps the site. That is why a missed 03:00 call is not only a missed note.

Alarm, gate, shift, key, new site — then the address

Alarm. Something is already sounding. A warehouse, a block entrance, a shop shutter, a yard beam. The assistant asks for the site name, then the address if they have it, then whether anyone is still inside, then a name and a number. It writes that down. It does not open a route. It does not say a van is on the way. If someone is inside and they say they can hear movement, that is a transfer to a phone you actually hold.

Gate. The barrier will not lift, the RFID is dead, a truck is in the lane, a visitor is at the intercom. A gate call is not an alarm. The assistant takes the site and what will not open. It does not talk them through forcing a barrier. It does not confirm an access list from memory. If you marked a short “gate look” as a visit type, it offers that only if the diary has it.

Shift. The night guard has not arrived. The relief at 06:00 is late. Someone wants to swap a body to the other site. The assistant takes which site and which clock-on. It does not read the roster aloud. It does not say who is supposed to be there. A missing relief is a flagged note or a transfer, not a name spoken to whoever rang.

Key. A contractor still has the basement set. An ex-employee did not return a fob. A tenant moved out of a guarded block and the cabinet is a hook short. The assistant takes which site, whose name was on the issue sheet, and a number. It does not confirm that the key still opens anything. Collecting a key is a short visit, not a patrol description.

New site. They do not have a file with you yet. A block in Marousi, a yard in Aspropyrgos, a shop that wants a night porter. The assistant asks which of those they mean, then books a look if a morning is free. It does not invent a monthly figure from a description of a gate. It does not say you have a spare body this week.

People remember the site. They do not remember the contract number. Ask for the site first. If they offer a contract code, take that too. One name is enough to put the note on the right file. None is still a note, not a guess at which warehouse.

A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say

“What time does the van pass this street?” is the question on this phone. It comes from a neighbour at the window. It comes from a voice that will not give a site name. It comes from a porter who wants to wait at the back gate. It comes from a man who says he is the owner and only needs the hour.

The assistant does not answer it. Not with a clock. Not with “they usually come after two”. Not with “we have someone in that neighbourhood tonight”. A patrol time said on a recorded line is a map of when the site is empty, and the assistant cannot see whether this voice is a keyholder, a journalist, or someone standing in the dark with a bag.

The line you give it is short: it does not confirm a route. The desk will call back if this is a site you cover. This call takes a name and a number.

“Is the night man still there?”, “which gate does the van use?”, “how many of you are on that block?”, and “can I wait for them at the usual place?” are still route questions. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the map.

Do not put a patrol sheet in the notes. It will read the sheet out.

Shift change, storm nights, and everyone at once

At 06:00 three porters ring because the relief is late. You are already on an alarm. The pad is already a list of sites.

A storm night is panels. Wind, rain, a shutter that chatters. By two in the morning four warehouses have called. A false alarm is still an alarm until a human says otherwise. The assistant takes the site and whether anyone is inside. It does not tell them to ignore the panel.

A building-manager afternoon is two blocks in Marousi, both wanting a night porter from next month, both expecting a figure from the same photo of a lobby.

The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your radio. An alarm in that hour is a note. A new-site call in the same hour is a look or a callback. If the assistant parks the person who wants a new contract behind the tenth false alarm, that person rings the next firm.

Shorten the ring-time before forwarding at 06:00 and 22:00. After a storm the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in August is people asking for holiday-cover, and one person left on the desk.

A key that did not come back

When someone says a contractor still has the basement set — they finished on Friday, the cabinet is a hook short, the manager is standing in the lobby — the tempting answer is to describe how the door is covered tonight. The assistant does not do that.

Whose name was on the issue sheet, which site, whether they have a number for the contractor: that is the note. Whether the remaining fobs still open the door, whether you will change the cylinder, whether a patrol will stand at the basement: those are yours, after you have the cabinet in front of you.

It can repeat a published call-out or a visit fee you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen re-keying, a new cylinder, a full access list rebuild — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and, if you marked a key-collection visit, books that if the diary has it.

If they press — “just tell me if someone is at the basement tonight” — the assistant still refuses. Flag it. Transfer it if you put “missing key” on the same-day phone list.

Standing at a gate that will not open

Some of these callers are in a lane with a truck, at a barrier that will not lift, with a driver waiting and a queue behind. They want to know whether to force the arm, whether the RFID is on the list, whether you can open it from the desk.

The assistant is not at the gate. It cannot see the arm. It cannot decide who is on the access list.

What it can take: the site, which gate, whether a vehicle is blocking the lane, and a name. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: do not force the barrier; someone who can see the board will call. Open-it-now is yours, after you know which site and which list.

If they say someone is climbing the fence, or a vehicle has gone through the arm, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: climbing, arm broken, vehicle through. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them to chase the vehicle.

A caller who is already home, with a photo of a yard they want guarded from next month, is a new-site request and, if a morning is free, a look.

New sites, rosters, and “is the night man coming?”

New site. They want a quote for a block, a yard, a shop. The assistant takes the address and what they think they need — a night porter, a patrol, a static at the gate — and books a look. It does not invent a monthly figure from a photo of a lobby. It does not say you have a spare body this week.

Roster. “Is Giorgos on tonight?” is a roster question. The assistant does not answer it. Not to a porter, not to a spouse, not to a voice that knows the first name. It takes the site and the clock-on they mean, and flags you. A name on a night roster is not a public fact.

Relief late. The night man has not arrived. The assistant takes the site and the time they were due. It does not say who was rostered. It does not invent an arrival. Transfer if you marked missing-relief as a same-day phone.

Access list. Add a name, remove a contractor, a delivery in the morning. The assistant takes which site and which name. It does not confirm that the name is already on the list. It does not read the list back.

August needs its own dates. Do not let the assistant book a site look into a week when the office is dark.

How CITT handles it

1. Your number stays on the van and on the gate sign. 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 shift-change hour is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
3. It knows the firm you described. What you cover, whether you take houses, how an alarm note should look, who is on the desk at 03:00.
4. It asks alarm, gate, shift, key or new site first, then the site name, and only then looks at the diary.
5. It takes an alarm as a note, with whether anyone is inside, and never as a route sentence.
6. It checks the real diary before it offers a visit, and writes the time into the same calendar the desk already uses.
7. It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them who must be at the gate with ID.
8. It escalates a route question, a missing relief, movement inside, and a missing key as a tagged note or a transfer.
9. You get the transcript, the summary, the site, and what the caller asked for.

What it will not do

It will not confirm a patrol route, a pass time, or which gate the van uses. It will not say who is on the roster tonight. It will not invent an arrival. It will not tell anyone to force a barrier or to ignore a panel. It will not confirm that a key still opens a door. It will not invent a monthly guarding figure from a lobby photo. It will not treat an alarm, a gate, a shift swap and a key collection as the same visit.

What these calls sound like

The order is the split, then the site, then the note or the visit, then the refusal said out loud. There is no “the van usually comes after two”. There is no “Giorgos is on tonight”. There is no “twenty minutes” to a porter at a dark gate.

If the assistant is friendly and still answers the route question, you own that map. Put the person who rang about the Aspropyrgos panel at 03:12 on an alarm note, not on a stranger’s pad with a pass time.

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 at the desk still takes the call. Then the five-way split, the site question, and the sentence that forbids a patrol route.

Write down what you actually cover and whether you take houses this month. Give it the fields you want on every alarm note: site, address if they have it, whether anyone is inside, name, number. Mark two kinds of visit: a look at a new site that needs you, and a short time to collect a key or change an access list.

Give it the same-day phone list: movement inside, missing relief, someone climbing, a vehicle through the arm, a key that did not come back. Do not give it a patrol sheet it would read out. Write one line that forbids routes, rosters, arrivals, and monthly figures from a photo. Add who is on the desk at 03:00, shift-change hours, August dates, where a visitor waits with ID.

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