An AI answering service that takes messages and answers questions

What an answering service is for

The classic answering service takes a message: who called, their number, what they wanted. That keeps callers from reaching voicemail, but your team still has to call everyone back, including people who only wanted your hours or your address.

How RingMind's AI answering service works

1. Choose an assistant on the AI assistants page, either one for your industry or the general business receptionist.
2. Fill in your business details: hours, services, address and how you handle requests.
3. Add what callers ask to the Knowledge Base: FAQs, website pages you review, or text documents.
4. Publish and test with the automatic tests and the chat playground.
5. Get a RingMind number and connect it. The assistant answers every call on it from then on.

What it does on each call

• Answers routine questions from your approved information, so callers who just need your hours or service area get an answer straight away.
• Takes a message with name, best number, reason and urgency, and reads it back.
• Flags urgent messages, which are emailed to your team. Every message appears in Calls & Messages, and each team member chooses their notifications.
• Transfers callers to up to five people on your list when someone needs a person. See AI call transfer.
• Books appointments if you connect a calendar such as Google Calendar.

What it won't do

• It won't pretend to be a person, and it says it's an AI if asked.
• It won't make up prices, availability or facts. When it doesn't know, it takes a message.
• It won't take card numbers, bank details or passwords.
• If a caller describes a life-threatening emergency, it tells them to hang up and call 911.

Around the clock or only after hours?

The assistant answers every call on its number at any hour. RingMind has no time-of-day routing yet, so you can't send daytime calls to your desk phone and night calls to the assistant. Many businesses use it for all calls and add the team to the transfer list. For night-time coverage specifically, see the after-hours answering service.

Compared with the alternatives

If you're choosing between people and software, read AI receptionist vs answering service. If your calls now go to voicemail, see what to do about missed calls.

Limits to know

• US and Canada numbers only, local or toll-free. Porting isn't available yet.
• No outbound calls, and transcripts rather than call recordings.
• Calls use your plan's AI minutes; extra minutes are charged at your plan's rate up to a cap the owner sets. See pricing and billing.