- AI receptionist
- Software that answers business phone calls in a natural conversation, qualifies the caller, books appointments or takes messages, and records and summarizes each call.
- Answering service
- A service that answers calls on behalf of a business, traditionally with live operators who take messages.
- After-hours answering
- Call coverage for evenings, weekends and holidays, when a business is closed or unstaffed.
- Overflow calls
- Calls that arrive when all lines or staff are busy and would otherwise go to voicemail.
- Conditional call forwarding
- A phone feature that forwards a call only when it goes unanswered, the line is busy, or the phone is unreachable.
- Unconditional call forwarding
- A phone feature that forwards every incoming call to another number.
- IVR (interactive voice response)
- An automated phone menu that routes callers by key presses or simple voice commands.
- Call transcript
- A written record of what was said on a call.
- Call summary
- A short written description of a call: who called, what they needed and what should happen next.
- Follow-up queue
- A list of callers who need a callback or next step, with call details attached.
- Warm transfer
- Passing a live call to a person after briefing them, so the caller does not repeat themselves.
- Missed-call rate
- The share of incoming calls that go unanswered.
- Lead qualification
- Asking a caller questions to decide whether and how quickly they should get a visit or quote.
- Call triage
- Sorting calls by urgency so emergencies reach a person immediately and routine requests are queued.
- Voice agent
- An AI system that carries a spoken conversation, as opposed to a text chatbot.
- Number porting
- Moving a phone number from one carrier to another. Forwarding avoids the need for it.