After the DemoJohn Arndt
After the Demo with John Arndt, on a blue architectural drawing

AI Agents Are Calling Your Front Desk

Episode 2 · John Arndt and Kate · 24 min 39 sec

Personal AI agents have started phoning businesses to book appointments for people, and since October 1 Google charges Local Services Ads advertisers for some calls nobody answered. John Arndt and Kate work out whether that caller is a customer, what a missed call now costs, which calls a bot should take and which need a person, and how a phone line can go quiet without anyone noticing. Then they land on the one test call to make this week.

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Mentioned On (mentioned-on.com). Mentioned On tracks what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Copilot, plus Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, say when people ask for the best business near them, and whether yours is in the answer. It's built for local service businesses, from plumbers and HVAC companies to dentists and law firms, and for hospitality businesses like hotels, inns and restaurants. The instant scan of the six chat assistants is free with no signup, the Agent Ready Checker is free and reads your public pages to see whether personal AI agents like Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots and Siri could call, email or book you, and paid monitoring starts at $99/month for one business.

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Chapters

Show notes

After the Demo, episode 2: AI Agents Are Calling Your Front Desk

Personal AI agents have started phoning businesses to book appointments for people, and since October 1 Google charges Local Services Ads advertisers for some calls nobody answered. John Arndt and Kate work out whether that caller is a customer, what a missed call now costs, which calls a bot should take and which need a person, and how a phone line can go quiet without anyone noticing. Then they land on the one test call to make this week.

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Mentioned On (mentioned-on.com). Mentioned On tracks what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Copilot, plus Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, say when people ask for the best business near them, and whether yours is in the answer. It's built for local service businesses, from plumbers and HVAC companies to dentists and law firms, and for hospitality businesses like hotels, inns and restaurants. The instant scan of the six chat assistants is free with no signup, the Agent Ready Checker is free and reads your public pages to see whether personal AI agents like Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots and Siri could call, email or book you, and paid monitoring starts at $99/month for one business.

Chapters

  • 0:00 Who's the client?
  • 0:53 Intro
  • 2:03 Hi, I'm calling on behalf of
  • 6:22 The missed call now has a price
  • 10:45 Should a bot pick up?
  • 15:07 When the line goes quiet
  • 19:23 The fifteen-minute standard
  • 23:42 The one test call

Links

All episodes

  1. Build or Buy Your Buying SignalsEpisode 7 · October 29, 2026
  2. Google's AI Is Describing Your BusinessEpisode 6 · October 26, 2026
  3. Read the First Thousand EmailsEpisode 5 · October 23, 2026
  4. What AI Search Ads Actually BuyEpisode 4 · October 20, 2026
  5. AI Layoffs Go on the RecordEpisode 3 · October 14, 2026
  6. AI Agents Are Calling Your Front DeskEpisode 2 · October 12, 2026
  7. Is ChatGPT Sending You Customers?Episode 1 · October 3, 2026