How a small business gets an AI phone receptionist in ten minutes, without a developer

One GSM code, *61*, and the phone at a repair shop or a medical practice gets answered in the evening and at the weekend. We designed the Abigel.ai Virtual Assistant so that a small business could set up its own phone reception, without a developer. Here is how that works for a typical SME, such as a repair shop or a practice. The product was built as part of our DIMOP Plusz grant project; the details are at abigel.ai/virtual-assistant.

Three fields, no payment details

Sign-up asks for an email address, a password and a company name. There are no payment details up front. Pricing is usage-based and per minute: you pay only for calls actually handled, and there is no monthly fee.

Next, the system asks for an industry template. The template is a complete conversation flow, of which the greeting is only the start. It sets out what the assistant asks, what data it collects, when it books an appointment and when it promises a callback. A dental practice’s template knows the three typical reasons people call: a complaint, an urgent case, an appointment request. A car repair shop’s asks for the registration number, the model and a description of the fault. Once a template is chosen, the assistant already works. Everything after that is fine-tuning.

Ten to fifteen lines

The template opens in a visual editor. There you can rewrite the greeting and set the opening hours, the address, the services and the prices the assistant may talk about, as well as the topics it must avoid. For bookings, you choose which days and time slots are open and how long an appointment lasts. The assistant offers times on that basis and writes bookings into the calendar.

In our experience, three things matter most:

• a short, concrete list of services rather than a long marketing text;
• a clear rule for when the assistant cannot answer (our default: take the name and phone number and promise a callback);
• language settings: the assistant speaks more than 25 languages and detects the caller’s language automatically, but it helps to specify which languages you expect calls in.

After ten to fifteen lines of configuration, with no developer involved, the flow is ready. It can be tested straight away in the editor, in the browser, before it goes on a real phone number.

Star, six, one

The assistant gets its own phone number, attached to the account. The existing company number stays: calls are forwarded conditionally. With most Hungarian operators, “if not answered” forwarding is set with a GSM code, from the handset itself:

*61*<assigned number>#

You dial it once from the company phone. From then on, any call that goes unanswered after a set ringing time is passed to the assistant. During office hours a colleague picks up if they can. If they are busy, or the call comes in the evening or at the weekend, the assistant answers, 24 hours a day. The #61# code switches forwarding off at any time. Landlines and PBX numbers are configured in the operator’s interface instead; the principle is the same.

A list in the morning

Before going live, we always recommend a test call: ring the company number from your own mobile, leave it unanswered and wait for the assistant to pick up. Run through the typical cases: an appointment request, opening hours, and a question it has no answer to.

After every call, the interface shows the full transcript and a short summary: who called, why, what details they gave, whether a booking was made, whether a callback is needed. The summary also goes out by email, so whoever arrives in the morning sees from a list what happened overnight. Calls can be filtered by status (handled, to call back, booking), and the important ones flagged.

The call list and the collected data export to CSV, ready for an existing spreadsheet, CRM or booking system. The export holds the time, the caller’s number, the language, the summary, the structured fields (name, requested service, booked appointment) and, for per-minute billing, the call duration.

Every account has a referral link. If another business signs up through it, both get a credit on their per-minute balance. We kept this simple on purpose: no tiers, no conditions, just a link.

What ten minutes won’t cover

Setup really is short, but two things need attention afterwards. The first week’s transcripts should be read in full. They show which questions got poor answers, and each gap can be patched in the flow with a line or two. The second is keeping opening hours and services up to date. The assistant says what it was told, and outdated opening hours are worse than none. With those two in order, the reception runs by itself.