The missed-call & AI-receptionist glossary

Missed-call text-back

Missed-call text-back (also called missed-call-to-text) is an automation that instantly sends a branded text message to anyone whose call you don't answer, so a missed call turns into a conversation instead of a lost job.

AI receptionist

An AI receptionist is software that answers a home-service business's inbound calls, texts, and chats automatically — greeting customers, answering questions, qualifying the job, and booking it on the calendar 24/7 without a human picking up.

AI voice agent

An AI voice agent is software that answers your business phone in a natural spoken voice, talks with the caller, qualifies the job, and books it — so an inbound call never lands in voicemail.

Speed to lead

Speed to lead is how fast a business responds after a customer reaches out — and for home-service trades it matters because a missed caller often dials the next competitor within about 90 seconds, so a reply in seconds is what wins the job.

Answering service

An answering service is a third-party call center, staffed by human operators, that picks up a business's overflow or after-hours calls, takes a message or follows a basic script, and relays the details back to the owner.

Lead recovery

Lead recovery is the practice of automatically catching the missed, after-hours, and overflow inquiries a home-service business would otherwise lose — and turning them back into booked jobs before the customer moves on to a competitor.