Yes — every call is recorded so you can audit any booking, and the greeting announces it: "an automated assistant — this call is recorded." That announcement is how two-party-consent states are handled, and the wording is configurable per state. Recordings are retained 13 months by default (you can change it) and are visible only to you.
Always. Asking for a human triggers a warm transfer to your on-call or owner number. If nobody answers, the caller leaves a full message flagged URGENT and you are texted right away. The AI never argues, never loops a question more than twice.
After two tries on the same question, or whenever its confidence is low, it stops guessing: it transfers, or takes a complete urgent message and texts you. It is scripted to never quote a price you didn't put in your fee table, never promise an arrival time outside a booked window, and never give repair advice beyond scripted safety steps (like where the shutoff valve is).
Yes — Google Calendar and Outlook connect two-way from Settings → Integrations, using your own accounts. Jobber, ServiceTitan, and Housecall Pro connect there too: Jobber and ServiceTitan share their schedules and can take pushed jobs, while Housecall Pro's API only allows a connection plus their job events flowing into your app — no outside system can create jobs there, and we won't claim otherwise. A general outbound webhook for Zapier/Make isn't included today.
Yes — pause any time in Settings → Plan & Billing. While you're paused, the AI stops booking and takes messages instead; you keep your number, setup, and scripts, and you resume in one click when the season turns.
About 10 minutes of your time: business facts, services and durations (trade defaults preloaded), on-call rotation, voice pick, then dialing your carrier's forwarding code. We finish with a live test call together. You are not billed until that test call passes.
After-hours mode on your real line for 14 days. Your daytime routine doesn't change. You see every transcript. If it doesn't book work you'd have lost, we turn it off.
Shops that already have a staffed dispatcher covering nights and weekends, and anyone who wants the phone to diagnose problems or quote firm prices — Answer Line AI won't do that, by design. It's for shops losing real jobs to unanswered phones.
It stays yours. Answer Line AI answers on a dedicated number we provision, reached by forwarding from your number. Turn forwarding off and your phones behave exactly as before. On exit, numbers port out — no hostage tactics.