Start with the rules
List the calls that should always go to a person. Typical examples are complaints, upset callers, anything outside normal bookings and a caller who asks for someone.
For clinics, add anything medical or urgent. For garages, add price questions you do not want answered by an assistant.
Choose who takes the call
Name a person or a short list for each time of day. Check the number the call will go to is one that gets answered.
Decide what the caller hears
A short, honest line that says what is happening. No silence and no starting again from the beginning.
Decide what your team sees
Who called, what they asked and what has already been done. That lets the person pick up where the assistant stopped.
Plan for nobody being free
Agree a next step, such as a callback within a set time, and make sure the caller is told it.
With Tableline you set these rules with us when Novi is put on your phone line. See the pricing page for plans, and our note on what a good phone handover looks like.
Keep reading
- Tableline pricing
- Phone answering for restaurants
- Phone answering for clinics
- Phone answering for salons
- Phone answering for garages
- Reducing restaurant no-shows: what you can ask on the booking call
- Holiday rush and your phone: preparing for the calls before a busy holiday
- Who answers the phone during service? Five ways restaurants cover it
- Missed calls at a clinic: why patients call elsewhere and how to cover the phones
- Phone or online booking for a salon: why you still need someone to answer
- Garage phone calls: booking service slots when the whole team is under a car
- Choosing a restaurant phone system: landline, VoIP, answering service or AI
- AI phone answering or voicemail: what happens to the caller who wants a table
- Taking reservations by phone: a simple process that does not lose bookings
- Handling allergen questions on the phone: what staff should say and when to hand over
- Slang, Loman, Hostie, Bite Buddy or Tableline: how to compare restaurant phone agents
- AI receptionist for dental and physio clinics: handling booking calls
- AI receptionist for salons: stop losing bookings while your hands are busy
- AI phone answering for auto repair shops: booking slots and quote calls
- What a good restaurant booking call sounds like
- Voice AI for restaurants: what it does and what it does not
- What happens to a booking call you miss during a Friday rush: a checklist
- AI receptionist pricing: what a restaurant should expect to pay
- AI phone answering or a human answering service? A plain comparison for restaurants
- What happens when a restaurant misses a call
- What a good phone handover looks like
