24/7 AI-Powered Reception

AI Receptionist That Answers, Qualifies, and Books - 24/7

Centripe's AI Receptionist handles inbound phone calls and website chats around the clock. It answers common questions from your knowledge base, asks qualifying questions to score the lead, and books appointments directly into the calendar - without a human touching anything.

24/7

Always Available

Instant

Response Time

Multi

Language Support

100%

Lead Capture

Live AI Reception ✨

AI Receptionist Dashboard

Active

Incoming Call

"Hi, I'd like to schedule a consultation for next week."

AI Response: "I'd be happy to help you schedule that. I have several time slots available..."

Calls Today

Leads Captured

Satisfaction Rate

4.9/5

What the AI Receptionist Does

It runs your front desk autonomously. No scripts to write, no decision trees to build.

Answers Inbound Calls

When someone calls your business number, the AI picks up within one ring. It greets the caller using your business name and a voice style you choose, then handles the conversation naturally - not a phone tree with "press 1 for sales." The caller talks like they would to a human receptionist.

Handles Website Chat

The receptionist also runs your website's live chat widget. When a visitor types a question - "How much does this cost?" or "Do you serve my area?" - the AI responds instantly using your knowledge base. No waiting for business hours, no "we'll get back to you" autoresponders. It even handles messages from social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and others.

Qualifies Leads Automatically

Before booking anything, the receptionist asks the qualifying questions you define: budget range, timeline, company size, location, or whatever matters for your business. It scores the answers against your criteria and tags the lead as qualified or not - before a human ever sees them.

Books Appointments Into Your Calendar

Once a lead is qualified, the receptionist checks real-time calendar availability (synced with Google Calendar or Outlook), offers open slots, and confirms the booking. The lead gets a confirmation via SMS and email. A reminder fires before the appointment. Your calendar just filled itself.

Routes Complex Issues to Humans

The receptionist knows what it can handle and what it can't. When a caller asks something outside its knowledge base - a billing dispute, a technical problem, a sensitive conversation - it transfers the call to the right team member with a full summary of what was discussed so far.

Updates the CRM After Every Interaction

After each call or chat, the receptionist creates or updates the contact record in the CRM: logs the conversation, applies tags, records the qualification score, and notes whether an appointment was booked. Your team sees the full picture without listening to a recording or reading a transcript.

Receptionist vs Copilot vs Chatbot - Which Does What?

Centripe has three AI tools. Each serves a different role. Here's how they split.

	AI Receptionist	AI Copilot	AI Chatbot
Role	Replaces the front desk	Assists your team	Engages website visitors
Works on	Phone calls + chat + SMS	Inside the CRM interface	Website chat widget only
Autonomy	Acts independently - no human needed	Suggests and drafts - human approves	Acts independently on website
Primary function	Answer, qualify, book, route	Draft replies, summarize calls, score leads	Answer questions, capture leads, hand off
Best for	After-hours coverage, high call volume	Sales teams managing pipelines	High-traffic websites with repeat questions

Most agencies use all three: the Receptionist handles inbound, the Chatbot handles the website, and the Copilot helps the team work faster on everything else.

What Happens on an Actual Call

Step-by-step, from ring to CRM update.

Call comes in

The receptionist answers within one ring. It greets the caller with your business name: "Hi, thanks for calling [Your Agency Name]. How can I help you today?" Voice style, speed, and accent are configurable.

Understands the request

The caller says something like "I'm looking for help with my company's marketing." The receptionist uses natural language processing to understand intent - this isn't keyword matching. It handles follow-up questions, interruptions, and conversational tangents naturally.

Answers from your knowledge base

If the caller asks about your services, pricing, or process, the receptionist pulls answers from the knowledge base you uploaded during setup. "We offer three tiers starting at $1,500/month. The base plan includes SEO, content marketing, and monthly reporting." Real answers, not "let me transfer you."

Qualifies the lead

The receptionist asks the questions you configured: "How many employees does your company have?", "What's your monthly marketing budget?", "When are you looking to get started?" Answers are scored against your qualifying criteria in real time.

Books or routes

If the lead qualifies, the receptionist offers available time slots and books the appointment. If the lead doesn't qualify, it politely wraps up and offers an alternative (email resources, a different service). If the request is complex, it transfers to a human with a summary of the conversation.

CRM gets updated automatically

New contact is created (or existing one updated). Tags applied: "Inbound call," "Qualified," "Appointment booked." Call summary logged. Lead score assigned. The next person who opens this contact record sees everything that happened without asking anyone.

Setting It Up Takes 15 Minutes, Not 15 Hours

You don't need a developer. You don't need to write scripts. Here's the actual setup.

1. Connect your phone number

You can use your existing business number or get a new one through Centripe's phone system. Calls to that number route to the AI receptionist automatically. Forwarding from your current provider works too.

2. Upload your knowledge base

Add your FAQ answers, service descriptions, pricing info, and business hours. You can paste text, upload a document, or point the AI to your website and let it extract the information. The more you give it, the more questions it can answer without transferring.

3. Set your qualifying questions

Define 3-5 questions the receptionist asks every new lead: budget, timeline, company size, location, industry - whatever matters for your qualification criteria. Set pass/fail thresholds for each answer. Leads that qualify get fast-tracked to booking.

4. Connect your calendar

Sync with Google Calendar or Outlook. Set your appointment scheduling availability - which days, which hours, buffer time between calls. The receptionist only offers slots that are actually open. Booking confirmations go out via email and SMS automatically.

Why Agencies Use the AI Receptionist

The use cases that come up most for agencies managing 10-100+ client accounts.

After-hours lead capture

Most agencies close at 5 PM. Most leads call after 5 PM. The receptionist answers every after-hours call, qualifies the lead, and books an appointment for the next business day. The lead gets instant attention. The agency gets a warm booking waiting in the morning.

Client-facing coverage

Each client sub-account can have its own receptionist with its own greeting, knowledge base, and qualifying questions. Your dental client's receptionist says "Thank you for calling [Dental Practice Name]" — no mention of the agency. Full white-label coverage.

Reduce cost-per-lead

When you're running Google Ads for a client and spending $50-100 per inbound call, missing that call means wasting the ad spend. The receptionist picks up every call within one ring, so the lead never hits voicemail and bounces to a competitor.

How the Receptionist Connects to Everything Else

It's not a standalone answering service. It feeds data into your entire CRM workflow.

Connects To	What Happens
AI Copilot	After the receptionist qualifies and books a lead, the copilot drafts a pre-meeting brief for the sales rep: lead score, qualifying answers, conversation summary, and suggested talking points.
Lead Nurturing	Leads that don't qualify for immediate booking enter a nurture sequence automatically. The receptionist tags them ("not ready — budget too low") and the automation sends a monthly check-in for 6 months.
Lead Scoring	Every receptionist interaction feeds the lead score: answered the call (+5), answered qualifying questions (+10), booked appointment (+20), asked about pricing (+15). The score updates in real time on the contact record.
Deal Management	When a qualified lead books, a new deal is created in the pipeline automatically — in the right stage, with the right value, assigned to the right rep.
Omni-Channel Inbox	The call transcript appears in the unified inbox alongside the lead's emails, SMS, and chat messages. The next person who talks to this lead sees the full history in one thread.
Workflow AI Action	Trigger post-call automations: send a follow-up SMS, notify the account manager on Slack, create a task for the sales rep, or update a Google Sheet — all based on what happened during the call.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about our AI receptionist

The AI Receptionist is available on both plans. The $99/month Starter plan does not include it. Per-minute call costs are separate and depend on your phone number region. See the pricing page for full details.

Yes. Unlike a human receptionist who can only handle one call at a time, the AI handles unlimited simultaneous calls. During a traffic spike — say you run a radio ad and 20 people call at once - every caller gets answered on the first ring.

The AI uses neural voice synthesis that sounds conversational, not robotic. You choose from multiple voice options (male/female, different accents, different speaking speeds) and can adjust the tone from formal to friendly. The voice handles pauses, filler words, and natural pacing so callers don't feel like they're talking to a machine.

The receptionist tries to answer from your knowledge base first. If the question isn't covered, it acknowledges that honestly: "I don't have that information right now, but I can connect you with someone who does." It then transfers the call to the appropriate team member with a summary of the conversation so the caller doesn't have to repeat themselves.

Yes. In Centripe's agency model, each sub-account (client) gets its own receptionist configuration: separate greeting, separate knowledge base, separate qualifying questions, separate phone number, and separate calendar. The client never knows an agency is behind the scenes.

A phone tree makes callers press buttons and navigate menus: "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support." The AI Receptionist has a conversation. The caller says what they need in their own words, and the AI understands and responds. No menus, no button pressing, no "I didn't understand your selection."

Yes. Every call is recorded and transcribed automatically. The transcript and recording are attached to the contact record in the CRM. You can review them anytime, and the AI Copilot can summarize any transcript into key points and action items on demand.

Most setups take 15-30 minutes: connect your phone number, upload your knowledge base, set qualifying questions, and sync your calendar. You can test it immediately by calling the number yourself. No developer needed, no code, no third-party integrations to configure.

Still have questions?

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