AI receptionist: how callers are found

When a customer calls about a move they already have — "when is the crew coming?", "a box is missing" — the AI receptionist first finds their order and checks who they are. Until that check passes it says nothing about any order.

How the order is found

The AI looks for the caller's order in three ways at once:

• The phone — the number they are calling from (the caller ID), and any number they say ("it's under 617-555-0134"). It is matched against the order's phone and its other phone.
• The name and the move date — the name they give plus the date ("today", "yesterday", "last Tuesday", "October 17th").
• The order number — from their email or text, with their name.

How the caller is checked

The caller passes when one of these is true:

• Their name and a second answer (by default the move date or a ZIP of the move) match the order, and nothing they said is wrong.
• They are calling from the order's own phone and give the right move date or the right order number — whatever name the line heard. Two strong answers are enough. A number they only say is not the same: then the name must match too.

Every name on the order counts. The name the caller gives is looked for in every name the order holds — the first-name box and the last-name box (each word of each, because people often type a full name into one box), the customer's own name, the account's name and its other contact, and the order's additional contact. So an order with Alex Roeger in the first-name box and his wife Jordan Austen in the last-name box is found for "Roeger" and for "Austen".

Names heard over the phone. When the phone matched, a name that sounds the same and is a letter or two off ("Roager" for "Roeger") still counts. Without a phone match the name must be spelled the same.

The AI never tells the caller which answer was wrong. It asks for one thing they haven't given yet — the phone number on the order or the order number — and stops after three tries on a call; then it offers to take a message.

Claims: something missing or damaged

When a caller reports something missing, broken or damaged, the AI:

1. 1checks who they are first, as above;
2. 2asks what was lost or damaged — the item, its brand or make, its size and its condition;
3. 3files an urgent claim task for your managers, never for sales. A checked caller's task is filed on their order and their customer, so it shows in the order's tasks, and a note goes on the order;
4. 4asks the best time for the manager to call back, and that time goes on the task (it is the task's due time) — or, with no time chosen, when the office opens next.

Its subject reads like CLAIM: order 217711, Alex Roeger (701) 555-0153 (TV), with the item's details and the call-back time in its notes.

A caller who could not be checked

If the caller still could not be checked, the task says so plainly: CLAIM, NOT VERIFIED: Alex (857) 555-0000, says order 217711 (TV). Its notes carry the caller's name, the number they called from, the order number and move date they gave, and what they said.

To link it, open the task from Tasks (the pencil). Under Link to order the order the task names is already looked up — click Link to order #… and the task is filed under that order and its customer. You can also search any order number or customer name there.

If something goes wrong

• The task could not be linked. — check the connection and try again.
• You do not have access to this order. — you can only link a task to an order you can open.
• You may only change your own tasks. — linking a colleague's task needs the Can create task for other users permission.
• That task or order is no longer here. — the task or the order was deleted.