Not a person, and not pretending to be one
Your agent never pretends to be a person: if someone asks whether it's an AI, it says so naturally and carries on helping. It doesn't replace the judgement of someone on your team. It answers the calls your team can't take, because they're with a customer or because you've already closed, and leaves them organised for you to return.
Compared, point by point
| A receptionist | A call answering service | Voani | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers | A person on your team | People from another company | An AI receptionist, which says so if asked |
| What they know about your business | Everything they learn working with you | Whatever you tell them | What you teach it: your website, its document and your rules |
| Appointments | Books them into your diary | Depends on the service | Notes them down with all the details; your team confirms them |
| Putting calls through | Yes | Depends on the service | Not yet: takes a note so you can call back |
| Hours | Their own | The service's | Outside yours too, with its out-of-hours greeting |
| Languages | Whatever they speak | The service's | Spanish, English, French, German and Italian (one per agent) |
| What you're left with | Whatever they tell you | A message, depending on the service | Summary, details, what needs doing, recording and statistics |
| How you pay | Their salary | Depends on the service | 0.13 € a minute of conversation, by the second, no monthly fee |
| To get started | Hiring and training | Signing up to the service | A few minutes, with 20 free minutes and no card needed |
Call answering services that publish their prices usually charge a monthly fee plus an amount for each call answered, and answer during office hours. Voani charges per minute of conversation, billed by the second, with no monthly fee and at any time of day.
When each one suits you
- A person, when calls need judgement, decisions or tasks that don't fit into a set of rules, or when you need someone to put calls through or book appointments into your diary on the spot.
- Voani, when many calls are the usual ones (opening hours, prices, directions, booking an appointment, checking whether something is ready), when you can't pick up because you're with a customer, or out of hours.
- Both together: Voani picks up what your team can't and leaves them a summary of every call, with the name, the number and what needs doing.
What Voani does on every call
Your agent answers with what it knows about your business and, what it doesn't know, it doesn't make up: it notes it down for you to answer. It notices if the caller is in a hurry, upset or unsure, and adapts what it says. It repeats back the phone numbers and email addresses it's given, to confirm them. And it follows your rules, such as “When someone is angry or wants to complain → listen without interrupting, apologise and take detailed notes so they're called back”.
After the call, you have it in your dashboard with its summary, the result, the reason, the caller's details and, if you like, the recording. See it step by step in How it works.
What Voani doesn't do yet
- Connect to your number: coming very soon. Today you create your agent and try it from your browser.
- Book appointments into your diary or put calls through: it takes a note and your team confirms or calls back.
- Handle tasks: it doesn't take payments, check your systems or send messages to callers.