AI phone receptionist for tilers
Quick summary
- You have the tape on a bathroom floor. Both hands are in the room. That is when the number on the van rings.
- A photo of a bathroom is not a quote. The assistant books a measure-up. It does not invent a figure from the picture.
- A wet-room fall, a format match on old 20×20, a terrace after frost — those are different visits, not one free morning.
- Someone who wants a bathroom floor this week will not wait on voicemail. They ring the next tiler.
- It checks the book you already use before it offers a morning, writes the visit in, and texts the window.
- It answers every line at once. A spring week of bathrooms is several conversations, not a busy tone.
TL;DR
You are kneeling on a bathroom floor in a Greek block. The tape is on the old 20×20. The fall to the drain is what this job is. The phone in your pocket rings. Someone has sent a photo of a bathroom and wants a number today. They will not leave a message. They will ring the next tiler on the listing. An assistant answers in the caller's language, asks whether this is a measure-up, a wet-room floor, a format match, or a terrace, takes the address and the room they named, and books a visit only if that morning is free. It does not invent a price from a photo. It does not promise the fall is right before anyone has been on that floor. The quote is yours, after the tape.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the number on the van and the shop card, with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands still takes the call.
- Teach it the first split: measure-up, wet-room floor, format match, terrace, or a move of a visit already in the book.
- Give it the sentence verbatim: it cannot give a price from a photo. The tape has to go on the floor, and the fall has to be seen.
- Let it book measure-ups and short format-match looks. Keep the quote, the fall, and the start day as a callback or a second booking after the tape.
- In spring, and in the week after a plumber has left a bathroom open, shorten the ring-time so the third caller is not listening to a busy tone.
- Mark two kinds of visit: a measure-up that needs you on the floor, and a short look at a format or a cracked terrace tile that does not.
What an AI phone receptionist does for a tiling crew
You are kneeling on a bathroom floor in a Greek apartment block. The old tiles are 20×20. The grout is grey and crumbling. Both hands are on the tape. The fall to the drain is the whole job — the floor is not supposed to be flat. The phone in your pocket rings. Across town the other person is setting a kitchen splashback. There is no third pair of hands at the beige phone on the van dash.
You put the assistant on the number already on the van and on the card you leave with the plumber. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It books a measure-up that is actually free. Or it takes a request you will price after the tape has been on the floor.
The first question is not “what morning would you like?”. The first question is what kind of visit this is. A photo of a bathroom is not a quote. A wet-room floor with a fall is not a format match on two cracked 20×20s. A terrace after frost is not a start day. An assistant that opens with a free hour will put a photo-price into a measure-up morning and leave the person whose shower is holding water 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.
On a bathroom floor with the tape, and the phone still ringing
One of you has the tape on a floor. The other is across town with a notched trowel and a stack of boxes. The published number still rings.
It is a burst. April and May, when people start bathrooms before summer. The week after a plumber has left a floor open. The morning after a frost when terrace tiles have lifted. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.
The person who sent a photo of a bathroom this afternoon will not wait on voicemail. They have your number and two other crews in the same search. They hang up and dial the next one. The person whose shower floor is holding water will not leave a message either.
People whose tiles you already ordered will often wait. A person who cannot get a measure-up, and a person who cannot start a wet-room, will not. If those two wait behind the floor you are already measuring, the new bathroom is gone, and the wet-room arrives as an angry visit at five — or the next crew has already put a tape on that drain.
Whoever takes the measure-up often takes the order. That is why a missed photo-call is not only a missed note.
Measure-up, wet-room, format match, terrace — then the address
Measure-up. They want a price for something you have not seen. A bathroom floor, a shower without a tray, a kitchen splashback, a terrace. The assistant asks which room, which floor, and the address. It books a visit only if that morning is free. It does not invent a figure from a photo, a description, or “it is about two metres, white rectified”. It does not promise a start day. The quote is yours, after the tape.
Wet-room floor. The shower has no tray. Water has to run to a drain. The fall is the job. A wet-room measure-up is not a flat-floor quote. The assistant takes the room and whether they already have a linear drain or a point drain. It does not say the fall will be right. It does not tell them how to cut a slope. You see the floor. You set the fall.
Format match. Two tiles cracked next to twenty-year-old 20×20, or a strip by the door that nobody kept. Matching an old format is a short look, not a full bathroom morning. Mark it as its own kind of visit, or you will spend an hour on a floor with someone who only needed two pieces. The assistant does not say the format is still made. That is yours, after you have seen the tile.
Terrace. Tiles lifted after frost, or a balcony that ponds. Outdoor work is not a bathroom. The assistant takes the address and whether the tiles are loose. It does not diagnose a frost failure from a photo of a stain. It does not invent Thursday.
People remember the bathroom. They do not remember whether the shower has a tray or a fall. Ask which room first. Then the floor. Then the address. One room is enough to put the visit on the right floor. None is still a request, not a guess at two metres from a picture.
A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say
“How much for this bathroom if I send a photo?” is the question on this phone. It comes in April when people start looking at old grout. It comes in August from a holiday flat. It comes on a Tuesday from a building manager who photographed the stairwell toilets.
The assistant does not answer it. Not with a range. Not with “a bathroom floor is usually this”. Not with “white 60×60 is around…”. A number said before the tape has been on the floor is a number the crew then has to take back when the old floor is out of level, the drain is in the wrong place, or they want a fall they did not mention.
The line you give it is short: the quote comes after the measure-up. A photo does not show the fall.
“Can you do it cheaper than the other crew?”, “is underfloor heating worth it?”, and “will this grout stay white?” are still price and spec questions. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the figure.
Do not put a price list in the notes. It will read the list out.
Spring bathrooms, a plumber’s week, and everyone at once
April is bathrooms. By nine, people have started ringing about floors they want finished before the heat. You are already on a floor. The pad is already a list of rooms.
A plumber’s week is wet-rooms. The pipes are out. The floor is open. Three flats in the same block all expect you on Thursday because the plumber said so.
A frost morning is terraces. By eight, two balconies have tiles that move underfoot.
The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your tape. A measure-up in that hour is a morning in the book. A format-match is a shorter visit. If the assistant parks the person who wants a new wet-room behind the tenth splashback report, that person rings the next crew.
Shorten the ring-time before forwarding on those mornings. After a plumber has left three floors open, the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in August is people asking for holiday-flat bathrooms, and one person left with the van.
A price nobody can give from a photo
When someone describes a bathroom on the phone — white, they think 60×60, shower without a tray, they sent a picture from the doorway — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one.
Width, length, existing floor height, where the drain sits, whether the old tiles come up, waterproofing still open or already closed, format still made or not, which floor the boxes have to come up — all of those change the work. A number quoted before anyone has put a tape on the floor is a number you then spend the measure-up taking back.
It can repeat a published call-out or a visit fee you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen wet-rooms, a full bathroom, a terrace, a stairwell — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and books the measure-up. Last year’s price for the neighbour is not this floor. The assistant does not quote it.
If they press — “just a round figure, I have the other crew on the other line” — the assistant still refuses. Book them as soon as a morning is free. Flag it if the shower is holding water.
A shower that holds water
Some of these callers are standing in a wet-room that ponds at the door. They want to know whether you can come now, whether the fall is wrong, whether they should pull the drain themselves.
The assistant is not on that floor. It cannot see the fall. It cannot decide what is wrong.
What it can take: the address, the floor, whether water sits at the door or at the drain, and whether anyone is still using the shower. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: someone from the crew will call back as soon as they can see the van. Come-now or this-afternoon is yours, after you know where the other person is.
It does not tell them to cut a channel. It does not tell them to lift tiles. It does not tell them which membrane to buy.
If they say water is going through to the flat below, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: water through the ceiling, neighbour below, shower still in use. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them what to claim.
A caller who is already home, with a photo of a bathroom on their phone, is a measure-up request and, if a morning is free, a time.
Format, terrace, and “can you start Thursday?”
Format match. Two cracked 20×20, a missing skirting tile, a strip the previous crew never finished. The assistant takes the format they named and the address, and books a short look if that is a type you marked. It does not say the tile is still produced. It does not put a full bathroom into a twenty-minute match visit.
Terrace. Lifted after frost, ponding, grout gone. The assistant takes the address. It does not say frost did it. It does not say the adhesive failed. A photo of a stain is not a diagnosis.
Start Thursday. They have already had a quote, or they think they have. The assistant does not put a start in the book because someone is in a hurry, or because the plumber said Thursday. If a signed quote exists, that is a different visit type, from a list you control. If it does not, this is still a measure-up. If the tiles have not arrived, the assistant does not keep Thursday in the book just to sound fast.
Building manager. Stairwell floors, a block entrance, three bathrooms at once. The assistant takes the building and who will be there with the key. It does not invent a communal price from a landing photo. It does not book a shaft the manager opens on Tuesdays as if it were a kitchen splashback.
August needs its own dates. Do not let the assistant book a measure-up into a week when the crew is on the island and the van is dark.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the van and on the card. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls you pick up never leave, and are never charged.
- Every line is answered at once. A spring bathroom week is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the crew you described. What you set, whether you take wet-rooms, whether you do terraces, who is out on Monday.
- It asks measure-up, wet-room, format match or terrace first, then the room and the address, and only then looks at the book.
- It takes a photo-price as a measure-up request, never as a figure said out loud.
- It checks the real book before it offers a morning, and writes the visit into the same calendar the crew already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them to leave the floor clear of furniture and laundry.
- It escalates a shower that holds water, a price question, and a start-before-the-tape as a tagged note or a transfer.
- You get the transcript, the summary, the address, and the room the caller named.
What it will not do
It will not invent a price from a photo, a description, or last year’s neighbour. It will not promise Thursday’s start before the tape has been on the floor. It will not say the fall is right. It will not tell them how to cut a slope, which membrane to buy, or how to lift old tiles. It will not say a format is still made. It will not treat a measure-up, a format-match and a start day as the same morning. It will not book a communal stairwell as if it were a kitchen splashback.
What these calls sound like
The order is the split, then the room, then the address, then a morning the book can honour, then the refusal said out loud. There is no round figure over a bathroom nobody has measured. There is no “the fall will be fine” to a person who sent a picture from the doorway. There is no “twenty minutes” to a shower that ponds at the door.
If the assistant is friendly and still answers the price question, you own that number. Put the person who rang about the wet-room at 11:10 on a measure-up, 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 four-way split, the room question, and the sentence that forbids a price from a photo.
Write down what you actually set and whether you take wet-rooms and terraces this month. Give it the fields you want on every note: address, floor, which room, shower with a tray or a fall, whether they sent a photo, whether water sits on the floor. Mark two kinds of visit: a measure-up that needs you on the floor, and a short format or terrace look.
Give it the same-day phone list: water through to the flat below, shower holding water, they are standing in it. Do not give it a square- metre tariff it would read out. Write one line that forbids photo- prices, start days before the tape, and fall-is-fine sentences. Add opening hours, who is out on Monday, August dates, where the van may wait.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers while the tape is on a bathroom floor | Always | Only if they can stand up and wipe their hands | Yes |
| Several callers in a spring bathroom week | Every line at once | One, then a busy tone | Depends who was rostered |
| Asks measure-up, wet-room or format match first | Yes — before it looks at the book | Yes, if they heard the start | Often jumps to what morning |
| Invents a wet-room price from a photo | Never — books the measure-up | Can refuse until they have seen the floor | Often reads a range |
| Promises the fall is right before anyone has been on the floor | Never | Only after the tape and a level | Tempted, if the script wants a yes |
| Speaks the caller's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Price unseen work, or book a start over an open measure-up | Can look at the floor | Reads whatever is on the sheet |
What one unanswered weekday morning costs a two-person tiling crew
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people, a normal weekday in April. One of you is on a bathroom floor with the tape. The other is setting a kitchen splashback across town.
- About 12 inbound calls that morning. Four arrive while both pairs of hands are on tiles.
- Of those four, 2 are new measure-ups for a bathroom floor. 1 is a wet-room with a fall. 1 is a cracked terrace after winter.
- A bathroom floor that becomes an order is worth about €1,800 of work here — put your own average ticket in first. This is the number to change.
- This example assumes 1 of the 2 measure-up callers does not leave a message and rings the next tiler on the listing.
- 2 new bathroom measure-up requests reach nobody on a normal Tuesday morning.
- 1 of them does not call back.
- 1 × €1,800 = €1,800 of work that morning that never reached the book.
- A morning like that once a week, 40 weeks — 40 × €1,800.
About €72,000 a year on those assumptions. Change the ticket, the conversion, and how often a morning like that happens.
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 change the number on the van?
No. The number on the van, the cards, and the Google listing stays yours. You add one forwarding rule — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If you pick up, the call never leaves and is never charged.
Can it give a price if they send a photo of the bathroom?
It must not. A photo does not show the fall to the drain, whether the old floor is level, the format you have to match, or whether the waterproofing is still open. It takes the address and the room they named, and books a measure-up if that morning is free. You price what the tape has been on. If a starting figure must not be said until you have seen the floor, do not give the assistant that figure.
What is a measure-up, and what is a start day?
A measure-up is you, a tape, and a floor. A start day is adhesive, tiles that have already arrived, and a morning the plumber has actually left. The assistant books the first. It does not put Thursday's start in the book because someone is in a hurry. After the quote is agreed, you — or the assistant, from a list you gave it — book the start.
We only do floors. What happens to a full bathroom with plumbing?
Say so in the notes. A caller who wants the plumber and the tiler as one crew gets a clear no on the plumbing, and, if you want, a name you actually recommend. Do not let it book a pipe job onto a crew that only sets tiles. The same if you do not do outdoor terraces.
The wet-room floor is holding water. Can it send you now?
It can put the call in front of a human who can see where the van is. It will not invent “we will be there in twenty minutes”. A floor that is holding water is a flagged note or a transfer, not a guessed arrival. You decide whether to leave the bathroom you are already in. It does not tell them how to cut a fall.
What do we actually see afterwards?
A transcript, a short summary, whether this was a measure-up, a wet-room, a format match, a terrace or a move, the address and the room they named, and whatever was booked or left for you. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call.
