WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.240 Say your front desk picks up, and the caller says they're calling for a client. They'd like to book a cleaning on Tuesday. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.200 Who's the client? 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.480 They don't say. And the caller's an AI assistant. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:13.440 Then your front desk might have a patient who already picked you. 00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:15.520 And if nobody picks up? 00:00:15.520 --> 00:00:21.200 Say that office runs Google's Local Services Ads. The call came in on the ad, during business hours. 00:00:21.200 --> 00:00:22.160 Okay. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:27.680 And the caller holds on past twenty seconds. Google can count that as a lead. And bill them for it. 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:30.240 Wait. For the call nobody answered? 00:00:30.240 --> 00:00:35.920 Could be. That's the new rule for missed calls. Google just hasn't said how it treats a call from an assistant. 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:38.320 So the robot waits longer than I do. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.960 Everybody waits longer than you do. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.680 Rude. Accurate, but rude. 00:00:55.474 --> 00:01:06.274 This is After the Demo. I'm John Arndt. I run about fifteen small software products out of Sacramento, most of them built and run with AI agents, plus an AI consulting practice. 00:01:06.274 --> 00:01:07.154 And I'm Kate. 00:01:07.154 --> 00:01:19.634 And today is about the front desk, because two things changed there at the same time. AI assistants started calling businesses on behalf of people. And for some businesses, a missed call started costing money. 00:01:19.634 --> 00:01:28.954 Which is a lot to dump on whoever answers the phone. If I owned the place, I'd want to know, is that caller a customer, or a robocall with better manners? 00:01:28.954 --> 00:01:30.034 Good place to start. 00:01:30.034 --> 00:01:36.834 I'm not done. Should I put a bot on my own phones? And what do I actually do about any of this before next week? 00:01:36.834 --> 00:01:37.954 That's the episode. 00:01:37.954 --> 00:01:43.234 And my job today is to make you prove that thing is a customer before my front desk is nice to it. 00:01:43.234 --> 00:01:43.794 Deal. 00:01:43.794 --> 00:01:46.674 Because right now my gut says hang up. 00:01:46.674 --> 00:01:54.194 Your gut's had a long career of being right about that sentence. So let's start with who's calling. Because somebody just gave them a billion 00:01:54.194 --> 00:01:57.154 A billion? Dollars? The robot? 00:01:57.154 --> 00:01:59.474 The company behind one of them. Yes. 00:02:02.774 --> 00:02:14.294 So. The company is called Instinct. It's a personal AI agent. It launched invite-only in August, and at the end of September it raised one billion dollars at a ten billion dollar valuation. 00:02:14.294 --> 00:02:17.974 Ten billion. For a thing that makes phone calls. 00:02:17.974 --> 00:02:29.334 It does a few things. But the part that matters for you is the phone. It has a concierge feature that makes calls for you. TechCrunch's example is booking an appointment somewhere that doesn't offer online booking. 00:02:29.334 --> 00:02:31.334 So, the places that make you call. 00:02:31.334 --> 00:02:35.334 Right. And it talks to its users by text message. There's no phone app yet. 00:02:35.334 --> 00:02:39.494 Ten billion dollars and no app. Just texts. 00:02:39.494 --> 00:02:44.134 Not yet. And about a month before that raise, it was valued at two and a half billion. 00:02:44.134 --> 00:02:49.334 Two and a half to ten, in a month. So how many people actually use it? 00:02:49.334 --> 00:02:53.814 They haven't said. Instinct hasn't shared its user numbers or any growth metrics. 00:02:53.814 --> 00:02:57.094 A billion dollars, and they won't say how many people use it? 00:02:57.094 --> 00:02:59.014 Not so far. Not a number. 00:02:59.014 --> 00:03:00.774 Noted. I'm holding that. 00:03:00.774 --> 00:03:10.414 Hang on to it. Because Apple's changing the phone call too. In mid-September Apple started rolling out Siri AI as a beta. One feature is called Call Context. 00:03:10.414 --> 00:03:11.494 Which does what? 00:03:11.494 --> 00:03:18.494 Apple's words. It "surfaces relevant information, like a confirmation code or reservation number, when calling a business." 00:03:18.494 --> 00:03:21.974 Surfaces it where? Does Siri read it to my front desk? 00:03:21.974 --> 00:03:27.094 No. It pulls it up for the person who's calling. So the person on the line can have the code in hand. 00:03:27.094 --> 00:03:32.694 So a startup's making the calls, and Apple's pulling up the code for whoever calls. Who's left? 00:03:32.694 --> 00:03:45.494 Your front desk, so far. And it's not only the tech companies. ServiceTitan, the contractor software, now pitches its consumer booking platform as a way for contractors to get booked by people's AI agents, not just by people. 00:03:45.494 --> 00:03:52.134 So the trade software's in on it. All right, walk me through one of these calls. Say I run a dental office. 00:03:52.134 --> 00:04:00.774 Phone rings, your front desk picks up, and the caller says it's calling on behalf of a client and wants to book a cleaning. Polite, clear, a little too calm. 00:04:00.774 --> 00:04:01.894 And she hangs up. 00:04:01.894 --> 00:04:03.094 Why does she hang up? 00:04:03.094 --> 00:04:11.774 Because that sentence is a robocall. Every front desk I can picture hangs up on "calling on behalf of." It's the extended warranty voice. 00:04:11.774 --> 00:04:15.534 And for years she was right. A robocall wants to sell you something. 00:04:15.534 --> 00:04:17.854 A warranty on a car you don't own. 00:04:17.854 --> 00:04:25.107 That one, yes. This one wants to buy. Somebody already looked around, picked you, and told their assistant, get me in. 00:04:25.107 --> 00:04:28.694 Or somebody told it to call every dentist in town. 00:04:28.694 --> 00:04:33.414 Could be. Even then, you're on the list it's calling. Hang up and you're off it. 00:04:33.414 --> 00:04:36.614 So I trained her to hang up on the one caller with a wallet. 00:04:36.614 --> 00:04:37.574 Pretty much. 00:04:37.574 --> 00:04:40.374 For the record, the robocalls trained her first. 00:04:40.374 --> 00:04:43.174 The robocalls started it. Agreed. 00:04:43.174 --> 00:04:46.854 Hm. That's annoying. Fine, she stays on. 00:04:46.854 --> 00:04:49.174 Good. And it wants Tuesday at ten. 00:04:49.174 --> 00:04:52.134 And when it books the wrong Tuesday, who do I yell at? 00:04:52.134 --> 00:04:57.014 Same person you'd yell at if a husband booked a cleaning for his wife and got the day wrong. 00:04:57.014 --> 00:04:58.054 The husband. 00:04:58.054 --> 00:05:04.374 Nobody, if you do it right. You get the actual patient's name, a number for them, and you confirm with them directly. 00:05:04.374 --> 00:05:06.534 I'd still yell at the husband a little. 00:05:06.534 --> 00:05:08.614 Within your rights. Quietly. 00:05:08.614 --> 00:05:12.054 So the rule is, book the human, not the caller. 00:05:12.054 --> 00:05:16.294 Yes. Who's the client? The human. Always book the human. 00:05:16.294 --> 00:05:19.094 I like that. That's a sticky note on the monitor. 00:05:19.094 --> 00:05:20.454 So? Say it. 00:05:20.454 --> 00:05:23.254 Fine. It's a patient. 00:05:23.254 --> 00:05:24.054 Thank you. 00:05:24.054 --> 00:05:26.374 But. I'm still holding my note. 00:05:26.374 --> 00:05:27.574 The user numbers. 00:05:27.574 --> 00:05:36.214 Those. Nobody knows how many of these calls there are. It could be ten people. I'm not rebuilding my front desk for a caller who rings twice a year. 00:05:36.214 --> 00:05:44.214 And you shouldn't. One sentence of training covers it. When someone says they're calling on behalf of a client, you don't hang up. You book the human. 00:05:44.214 --> 00:05:46.214 That's a very tidy sentence. 00:05:46.214 --> 00:05:47.187 I've been saving it. 00:05:47.187 --> 00:05:50.694 It shows. One sentence I can do, though. 00:05:50.694 --> 00:05:53.014 That's all it is. One sentence. 00:05:53.014 --> 00:05:56.054 And if she has to put it on hold? The robot just 00:05:56.054 --> 00:05:58.854 Sits there. Doesn't sigh, doesn't hang up. 00:05:58.854 --> 00:06:00.854 So it's more patient than me. 00:06:00.854 --> 00:06:02.534 I wasn't going to say it. 00:06:02.534 --> 00:06:03.774 You were thinking it. 00:06:03.774 --> 00:06:10.054 A little. Anyway, give it real times and spell the patient's name back, same as you would for anyone. 00:06:10.054 --> 00:06:13.774 So I don't hang up on it. And when it calls and nobody picks up? 00:06:13.774 --> 00:06:17.494 Since October first, for some of you, that silence has a price. 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:28.539 Okay, missed calls. I'd have said a missed call is free. That's the one upside of not answering. 00:06:28.539 --> 00:06:40.059 For a lot of people it still is. But if you run Google's Local Services Ads, since October first, a missed call during business hours gets charged if the caller stays on the line for more than twenty seconds. 00:06:40.059 --> 00:06:41.499 Charged as what? 00:06:41.499 --> 00:06:48.219 Google's notice says those calls "will now be charged as valid leads if a user stays on the line for more than twenty seconds." 00:06:48.219 --> 00:06:51.739 A valid lead. Somebody I never talked to. 00:06:51.739 --> 00:06:53.179 Somebody who held on. 00:06:53.179 --> 00:06:56.299 Twenty seconds. That's one robot's patience. 00:06:56.299 --> 00:06:59.339 It's a lot of people's patience too, honestly. 00:06:59.339 --> 00:07:03.579 Great. So every robocall that sits on hold runs up my bill. 00:07:03.579 --> 00:07:15.819 Here the fine print actually helps a little. If you've got a phone menu, press one for this, press two for that, the twenty-second clock starts after they press a key. And you aren't charged for a call where nobody presses a key. 00:07:15.819 --> 00:07:17.579 So the menu's a filter. 00:07:17.579 --> 00:07:28.459 Kind of. Separate thing, while we're in the fine print. Google's Ads Liaison said that if you make follow-up calls to the same person within fifteen days of the first contact, you're charged once. 00:07:28.459 --> 00:07:31.579 Once for me calling them. Not them calling me. 00:07:31.579 --> 00:07:35.259 You calling them. Keep those two straight, because people won't. 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:39.979 Hang on, the spam part. The robocall that sits there for twenty-five seconds. 00:07:39.979 --> 00:07:50.299 Google says it's introducing new safeguards to help limit robot calls and spam. It hasn't said how they work. And the notice doesn't say how voicemail is handled, or how you'd dispute a charge. 00:07:50.299 --> 00:07:52.699 So, wait and see. 00:07:52.699 --> 00:07:59.819 So far it's a promise without a how. Which means you look at your charged leads every week. It's your money, you read the bill. 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:03.099 And those patient assistants? Does Google bill me for those? 00:08:03.099 --> 00:08:11.259 Nobody knows. Google hasn't said whether a call from a personal assistant counts as a lead or gets filtered as a robot call. I'm not going to guess. 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:13.099 Noted. Holding that too. 00:08:13.099 --> 00:08:15.899 You're going to need a bigger hand. Can I ask you one now? 00:08:15.899 --> 00:08:16.539 Go. 00:08:16.539 --> 00:08:19.179 Say you're the owner. Do you think your phones get answered? 00:08:19.179 --> 00:08:22.619 Sure. Mostly. Why are you making that face? 00:08:22.619 --> 00:08:26.699 Because this is the one. 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:27.819 Don't do that. 00:08:27.819 --> 00:08:35.739 A company called Invoca put out a benchmark in July, for home services. About half of inbound calls got a person. Fifty-two percent. 00:08:35.739 --> 00:08:37.179 Half of whose calls? 00:08:37.179 --> 00:08:40.699 Their own customers', averaged. Not every business out there. 00:08:40.699 --> 00:08:42.539 Still. Half. 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:48.379 HVAC was about a third. Thirty-four percent. Plumbing did a lot better, about three in four. 00:08:48.379 --> 00:08:50.779 Their plumbers pick up. Good for them. 00:08:50.779 --> 00:08:59.499 And in their defense, if you filter out the misdials and the quick hang-ups, the share is higher. Sixty-five percent for calls longer than fifteen seconds. 00:08:59.499 --> 00:09:04.459 So in their numbers, about a third of the real calls still go unanswered. 00:09:04.459 --> 00:09:05.179 Yep. 00:09:05.179 --> 00:09:12.299 Let me just do the math on this. Say I get forty calls a month. Say I miss a third of them. Say each one's worth 00:09:12.299 --> 00:09:13.739 Stop. Don't. 00:09:13.739 --> 00:09:15.019 I was on a roll! 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:22.779 I know you were. But every number you just said is made up, and the minute somebody puts a dollar sign on it, it ends up on a whiteboard as a forecast. 00:09:22.779 --> 00:09:26.539 I said "say." I said "say" three times. 00:09:26.539 --> 00:09:29.099 Three says is a forecast with a hat on. 00:09:29.099 --> 00:09:33.019 That's good. That's annoying, but it's good. 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:42.059 Your real number is in your call log. Pull your business-hours calls and count the ones nobody answered. Anybody's example, including yours, is just an example. 00:09:42.059 --> 00:09:43.179 You're no fun. 00:09:43.179 --> 00:09:47.099 I'm a lot of fun. I'm just not forecasting your money with made-up numbers. 00:09:47.099 --> 00:09:49.339 Name one fun thing you did this week. 00:09:49.339 --> 00:09:50.939 I just stopped a forecast. 00:09:50.939 --> 00:09:59.579 That is not fun. Fine. No numbers. Just this. Before I spend a dollar on being found, somebody has to pick up. 00:09:59.579 --> 00:10:00.499 Write that down. 00:10:00.499 --> 00:10:01.859 You're going to steal it. 00:10:01.859 --> 00:10:02.459 Borrow. 00:10:02.459 --> 00:10:03.339 Uh huh. 00:10:03.339 --> 00:10:13.019 And you're not the only one who noticed. In early October, Invoca launched AI agents for home services. They respond around the clock and send the higher-value callers to a person. 00:10:13.019 --> 00:10:15.659 The big jobs go to a person. Noted. 00:10:15.659 --> 00:10:28.619 Same day, ServiceTitan opened its AI package, called Max, to every residential contractor on its platform. And a company called UpSmith raised ten million dollars for AI that chases missed revenue, missed calls included. 00:10:28.619 --> 00:10:32.019 So a lot of software companies are circling the same phone. 00:10:32.019 --> 00:10:34.139 And they'd all like to sell you an answer. 00:10:34.139 --> 00:10:35.939 So should a bot pick up? 00:10:35.939 --> 00:10:38.859 I think yes. And I think you're about to fight me on it. 00:10:38.859 --> 00:10:40.139 Oh, I am. 00:10:44.955 --> 00:10:52.475 Wait, this is new. You're usually the one telling everybody to slow down on automation. And today you're selling the robot? 00:10:52.475 --> 00:10:57.355 For five minutes. I'm going to make the best case I can, and you're going to take it apart. 00:10:57.355 --> 00:10:58.955 I accept those terms. 00:10:58.955 --> 00:11:11.595 Start with the trend. A sixteen Z, the venture firm, posted a chart in early October. Their chart says call-center jobs grew about four percent a year for fifteen years, and now they're shrinking about four percent a year. 00:11:11.595 --> 00:11:17.435 That's a chart about call centers. Say I'm a dental office. I have one person at the front desk. 00:11:17.435 --> 00:11:25.515 It's the direction things are moving. And an account called Leading Report posted that Elon Musk said call-center jobs will become obsolete because of AI. 00:11:25.515 --> 00:11:27.995 An account posted that he said. 00:11:27.995 --> 00:11:32.635 The post doesn't cite a source. So, grain of salt, and I'm moving on before you make me. 00:11:32.635 --> 00:11:33.595 Good instinct. 00:11:33.595 --> 00:11:34.795 But the direction's real. 00:11:34.795 --> 00:11:38.715 The direction can be real and still not answer my phone on a Tuesday. 00:11:38.715 --> 00:11:53.835 Then here's one aimed right at your front desk. A company called Vocca answers medical practices' phones with AI. It raised twenty million dollars in early October. And the company says its AI resolves seventy percent of conversations end to end, no human involved. 00:11:53.835 --> 00:11:55.755 Seventy percent of whose? 00:11:55.755 --> 00:11:59.835 Averaged across its customers, the company says. Handled start to finish. 00:11:59.835 --> 00:12:01.755 And who gets the other thirty percent? 00:12:01.755 --> 00:12:04.235 The company didn't break that down. I'd guess 00:12:04.235 --> 00:12:08.475 A person. Who you maybe didn't hire, because you bought the bot. 00:12:08.475 --> 00:12:09.995 That's not fair. 00:12:09.995 --> 00:12:11.275 It's a little fair. 00:12:11.275 --> 00:12:12.555 It's a little fair. 00:12:12.555 --> 00:12:20.715 And think about which thirty it is. If the bot took the easy calls, what's left over is the hard ones. The confused one, the upset one. 00:12:20.715 --> 00:12:23.595 Could be. Their number doesn't say which calls are left. 00:12:23.595 --> 00:12:37.195 And since you brought a chart, I brought a survey. End of September, from Alchemer, a survey software company. About two thousand US consumers. Forty-four percent say AI has made it harder to reach a person when they need one. 00:12:37.195 --> 00:12:37.915 Go on. 00:12:37.915 --> 00:12:43.995 And forty-three percent say they'd pay more for a product or service that guarantees access to human support. 00:12:43.995 --> 00:12:44.915 Say they would. 00:12:44.915 --> 00:12:50.115 I know. Saying, not paying. But that's a lot of people telling you what they want. 00:12:50.115 --> 00:12:51.875 Yeah. That one I can't argue with. 00:12:51.875 --> 00:12:55.275 And a bot on the main line is exactly what makes it harder. 00:12:55.275 --> 00:12:56.435 So what's your version? 00:12:56.435 --> 00:13:07.835 Same thing I said before you took my calculator away. Somebody has to pick up. During business hours, the first dollar goes to a person picking up. The bot catches overflow and after hours. 00:13:07.835 --> 00:13:14.235 Sure, but overflow is exactly where the money leaks. The rush, when the front desk is on the other line. 00:13:14.235 --> 00:13:15.995 Great. Put the bot there. 00:13:15.995 --> 00:13:16.875 Huh. 00:13:16.875 --> 00:13:18.795 You just argued for my plan. 00:13:18.795 --> 00:13:20.075 I did, didn't I. 00:13:20.075 --> 00:13:21.755 Keep going, you're doing great. 00:13:21.755 --> 00:13:30.315 All right, last try. The way the industry grades these bots, the word you hear is containment. How many calls the bot kept away from your staff. 00:13:30.315 --> 00:13:33.435 Containment. That's a word for a chemical spill. 00:13:33.435 --> 00:13:35.755 It's a real word they use. 00:13:35.755 --> 00:13:39.755 I believe you. You contain a leak. You don't contain a patient. 00:13:39.755 --> 00:13:51.835 Jeannie Walters would be on your side. She runs a customer-experience firm called Experience Investigators, and she told CX Dive that "a bot's scorecard often rewards keeping customers away from live agents." 00:13:51.835 --> 00:14:03.195 There it is. So here's my yardstick. Any bot on my phone gets graded on how fast a caller can reach a person, and whether they got helped. How many people it kept away doesn't count. 00:14:03.195 --> 00:14:10.955 She'd add a second number. Per CX Dive, she says track how much effort it takes the customer, and whether they have to ask again. 00:14:10.955 --> 00:14:20.275 Fine. Second number. And those Invoca agents I noted? They send the higher-value callers to a person. Even the people selling the bot send the big jobs to a person. 00:14:20.275 --> 00:14:21.395 You're piling on. 00:14:21.395 --> 00:14:23.475 I'm winning. It looks similar. 00:14:23.475 --> 00:14:24.395 Is there more? 00:14:24.395 --> 00:14:30.315 There's your patient. The one you made me admit was a patient. When it gets complicated, she wants a person. 00:14:30.315 --> 00:14:31.915 You win. 00:14:31.915 --> 00:14:33.115 Say it properly. 00:14:33.115 --> 00:14:41.195 You win. Person first during business hours, bot on overflow and after hours, and the bot gets graded on how fast you get a human. 00:14:41.195 --> 00:14:43.155 Say it again, slower. 00:14:43.155 --> 00:14:47.875 Person first. Bot on overflow, graded on how fast you get a human. 00:14:47.875 --> 00:14:51.475 Thank you. That was a good five minutes of selling the robot, by the way. 00:14:51.475 --> 00:14:54.155 It was four and a half, and I lost. 00:14:54.155 --> 00:14:58.435 Person or bot, whoever answers. How do I know it's actually answering? 00:14:58.435 --> 00:15:01.595 I have a story about that. I don't come off great in it. 00:15:06.658 --> 00:15:08.578 Good. I like these. 00:15:08.578 --> 00:15:16.418 Of course you do. So. My outbound email goes through an email provider. On August nineteenth, that provider paused sending. 00:15:16.418 --> 00:15:17.778 Paused why? 00:15:17.778 --> 00:15:24.218 Different story. What matters is what happened next, which was nothing. Nothing went out for a day before I caught it. 00:15:24.218 --> 00:15:30.738 A whole day? You run about fifteen products, mostly with AI agents, and nothing told you? 00:15:30.738 --> 00:15:35.498 Nothing told me. That was my miss. I didn't have anything watching for it going quiet. 00:15:35.498 --> 00:15:38.418 Huh. I'd have bet you had alarms for everything. 00:15:38.418 --> 00:15:40.738 I had a lot of confidence. That's different. 00:15:40.738 --> 00:15:43.258 Points for saying it out loud. 00:15:43.258 --> 00:15:47.218 And the part that stuck with me: a quiet day doesn't announce itself. 00:15:47.218 --> 00:15:51.138 Sure, but that's email. What's that got to do with my phones? 00:15:51.138 --> 00:15:59.218 Everything. Say your phone line goes down, or that overflow bot stops picking up. From where you're sitting, it sounds exactly like a slow Tuesday. 00:15:59.218 --> 00:16:02.978 Oh no. On a slow Tuesday I'd have taken a long lunch. 00:16:02.978 --> 00:16:05.138 Everybody would. That's how it hides. 00:16:05.138 --> 00:16:08.098 So how would I even notice? What's the tell? 00:16:08.098 --> 00:16:11.818 Often there isn't one, until somebody says, I tried to call you. 00:16:11.818 --> 00:16:13.018 From a customer. 00:16:13.018 --> 00:16:16.898 If you're lucky. Some people won't say anything. They'll just call somebody else. 00:16:16.898 --> 00:16:20.378 So my slow Tuesday might not be slow. 00:16:20.378 --> 00:16:29.538 Might not be. So the rule I wrote after: anything that sends for you needs a check that tells you when it goes quiet. Your phones answer for you, so same rule. 00:16:29.538 --> 00:16:33.938 Say I'm the owner. I don't have a dashboard. I have a front desk and a phone. 00:16:33.938 --> 00:16:35.338 Then you're the check. 00:16:35.338 --> 00:16:36.938 Great. More work. 00:16:36.938 --> 00:16:38.898 Small work. You call your own line. 00:16:38.898 --> 00:16:42.298 Wait. Isn't calling your own business a little paranoid? 00:16:42.298 --> 00:16:45.818 It's a little paranoid. Paranoid is cheaper than a quiet day. 00:16:45.818 --> 00:16:47.085 Put that on a mug. 00:16:47.085 --> 00:16:48.738 I'm not making mugs. 00:16:48.738 --> 00:16:52.605 Deal. But I'm building it, not you. You'll make it complicated. 00:16:52.605 --> 00:16:53.778 Go. 00:16:53.778 --> 00:16:56.618 Once a week, at lunch, I call my own line. 00:16:56.618 --> 00:16:57.538 Why lunch? 00:16:57.538 --> 00:17:02.618 Because lunch is probably when the desk is thinnest. If it's going to fail, I'd bet on lunch. 00:17:02.618 --> 00:17:03.818 Huh. Yeah. 00:17:03.818 --> 00:17:12.218 And I call twice. Once as a regular customer. And once as somebody's assistant. Say you're booking for your mom, and you say that's what you're doing. 00:17:12.218 --> 00:17:13.738 Calling on behalf of a client. 00:17:13.738 --> 00:17:21.378 The extended warranty sentence. If my front desk hangs up on that, I want to find out from me, before I find out from nobody. 00:17:21.378 --> 00:17:22.098 And time it. 00:17:22.098 --> 00:17:23.618 In twenty-second units. 00:17:23.618 --> 00:17:28.778 Sure. And write down the time, who or what answered, and whether you got booked. 00:17:28.778 --> 00:17:31.938 And what's a bad number? How long is too long? 00:17:31.938 --> 00:17:37.618 You'll know it when you're sitting there holding the phone. If you're annoyed as the owner, your customer got annoyed sooner. 00:17:37.618 --> 00:17:39.698 So my annoyance is the alarm. 00:17:39.698 --> 00:17:42.338 Your annoyance is a very reliable alarm. 00:17:42.338 --> 00:17:44.178 I'm going to take that as a compliment. 00:17:44.178 --> 00:17:44.898 You should. 00:17:44.898 --> 00:17:49.618 And if the person who answers is lovely, but it takes them four minutes to find the calendar? 00:17:49.618 --> 00:17:55.378 Write that down too. Slow counts. A caller on hold that long is already looking at the next name. 00:17:55.378 --> 00:17:58.098 Lovely and slow still loses the patient. 00:17:58.098 --> 00:18:00.498 Sometimes. And you'd never hear about it. 00:18:00.498 --> 00:18:02.898 Does a calendar reminder count as a health check? 00:18:02.898 --> 00:18:05.378 For a front desk, that is the health check. 00:18:05.378 --> 00:18:09.218 And the overflow bot. The one I won. It gets the same call. 00:18:09.218 --> 00:18:18.098 Same call, including after hours. If you're paying for it to answer at night, call it at night once. Does it take the message, and does the message reach a person in the morning? 00:18:18.098 --> 00:18:21.538 Because a message that goes nowhere is the same quiet. 00:18:21.538 --> 00:18:23.458 Same quiet in a nicer outfit. 00:18:23.458 --> 00:18:26.178 So this is my homework. I designed this. 00:18:26.178 --> 00:18:28.738 It's your homework. I'm just the cautionary tale. 00:18:28.738 --> 00:18:31.058 You're a great cautionary tale. 00:18:31.058 --> 00:18:32.658 Thank you, I worked hard on it. 00:18:32.658 --> 00:18:40.658 Wait, while I'm on my own phone. That Siri thing that pulls up a confirmation code for whoever's calling. Does that change anything at my desk? 00:18:40.658 --> 00:18:52.778 One thing. It can surface a confirmation code or reservation number when someone calls a business. And then somebody still reads it out loud. So look at the confirmation numbers you send people. Make them short and easy to say. 00:18:52.778 --> 00:18:55.978 Say mine are fourteen characters of letters and numbers. 00:18:55.978 --> 00:19:00.212 Then your patient reads fourteen characters to your front desk while line two is ringing. 00:19:00.212 --> 00:19:02.978 And somebody hears a B as a D. 00:19:02.978 --> 00:19:07.378 And now you're looking up the wrong appointment. Make it something you can say in one breath. 00:19:07.378 --> 00:19:10.458 One breath. That's two sticky notes now. 00:19:10.458 --> 00:19:12.058 The monitor's filling up. 00:19:12.058 --> 00:19:16.458 Okay, I'm calling myself at lunch. What's good enough? Is there a number? 00:19:16.458 --> 00:19:17.858 California just wrote one down. 00:19:22.714 --> 00:19:25.914 Rapid fire. Owner questions, short answers. 00:19:25.914 --> 00:19:26.394 Go. 00:19:26.394 --> 00:19:28.794 What did California actually pass? 00:19:28.794 --> 00:19:41.914 The Right to Human Customer Service Act, signed at the end of September. Large businesses have to make a good-faith effort to connect a customer to a person within fifteen minutes of asking, or offer an appointment with a person within one business day. 00:19:41.914 --> 00:19:43.674 That was not a short answer. 00:19:43.674 --> 00:19:45.034 That was the short version. 00:19:45.034 --> 00:19:45.834 And? 00:19:45.834 --> 00:19:50.074 And they have to say when the customer service rep is a chatbot and not a human. 00:19:50.074 --> 00:19:51.754 Good. I like that part a lot. 00:19:51.754 --> 00:19:53.354 Thought you might. Keep going. 00:19:53.354 --> 00:19:54.394 Does it apply to me? 00:19:54.394 --> 00:20:02.394 According to one legal write-up, it covers businesses with more than five hundred million dollars a year in revenue nationwide that serve California customers. 00:20:02.394 --> 00:20:06.954 Five hundred million. So probably not most of the people listening. 00:20:06.954 --> 00:20:10.234 Probably not. But talk to your lawyer about whether it touches you. 00:20:10.234 --> 00:20:11.354 Who enforces it? 00:20:11.354 --> 00:20:15.274 Public prosecutors, per the same write-up. Customers can't sue under it. 00:20:15.274 --> 00:20:17.274 And if a big company ignores it? 00:20:17.274 --> 00:20:23.354 Same write-up says penalties of up to five thousand dollars for a first violation, and ten thousand for each one after. 00:20:23.354 --> 00:20:25.354 So someone's going to notice. 00:20:25.354 --> 00:20:26.714 Someone's supposed to. 00:20:26.714 --> 00:20:28.794 Does the fifteen minutes cover voicemail? 00:20:28.794 --> 00:20:34.234 Per the write-up, no. Email, web forms and voicemail are outside the fifteen-minute rule. 00:20:34.234 --> 00:20:36.234 So should I care about mine anyway? 00:20:36.234 --> 00:20:42.234 For that law, it's outside. For your customer, a voicemail nobody listens to is the slow Tuesday again. 00:20:42.234 --> 00:20:45.034 Everything comes back to the slow Tuesday. 00:20:45.034 --> 00:20:46.714 It's a very unlucky day. 00:20:46.714 --> 00:20:47.994 Poor Tuesday. 00:20:47.994 --> 00:20:49.354 Tuesday didn't do anything. 00:20:49.354 --> 00:20:59.834 Then here's my idea, and it's mine. If I'm the owner, I don't care whether it covers me. I promise it anyway. A person within fifteen minutes, and I say so on my website. 00:20:59.834 --> 00:21:01.194 Voluntarily. 00:21:01.194 --> 00:21:08.954 Voluntarily. It's a promise people can read before they call. And that's a business idea, by the way. Your lawyer gets the law part. 00:21:08.954 --> 00:21:16.394 Your lawyer always gets the law part. Let me push. What about after hours? Nobody's picking up in fifteen minutes at nine at night. 00:21:16.394 --> 00:21:21.714 That's the overflow bot. After hours it says it's a bot, and it says when a person will call back. 00:21:21.714 --> 00:21:22.554 Steal that. 00:21:22.554 --> 00:21:24.394 It's mine. You can borrow it. 00:21:24.394 --> 00:21:25.394 Like the last one. 00:21:25.394 --> 00:21:26.634 You're running a tab. 00:21:26.634 --> 00:21:28.554 And then you measure the bot's contain 00:21:28.554 --> 00:21:29.914 Chemical spill. 00:21:29.914 --> 00:21:31.994 Measure how fast a person calls back. 00:21:31.994 --> 00:21:33.647 Better. Much better. 00:21:33.647 --> 00:21:34.554 I'm learning. 00:21:34.554 --> 00:21:39.434 Slowly. So, say my front desk tells me she's too busy for any of this. 00:21:39.434 --> 00:21:42.474 Then that's your answer to the bot question. That's overflow. 00:21:42.474 --> 00:21:48.074 Overflow. Put the bot there. Different question. Do people even want these agents? 00:21:48.074 --> 00:22:02.794 Someone posted a good line on that. Sandra, she's TakoTreba on X, she works at Lovable. She said there's a big gap between what tech is excited about and what everyone else experiences, and people outside tech don't necessarily want agents. 00:22:02.794 --> 00:22:04.314 Then what do they want? 00:22:04.314 --> 00:22:09.034 Her words. "They want their taxes done, their business running, their appointments booked." 00:22:09.034 --> 00:22:12.314 Appointments booked. That's my whole position. 00:22:12.314 --> 00:22:17.754 And it's why the caller with the cleaning is a patient. The agent is just how the appointment shows up. 00:22:17.754 --> 00:22:18.874 Book the human. 00:22:18.874 --> 00:22:20.234 Put that on a mug. 00:22:20.234 --> 00:22:24.954 You're not making mugs. And Siri. Is Siri going to start calling me? 00:22:24.954 --> 00:22:34.954 Not from anything Apple's described. Call Context pulls things up for the person calling. And Apple says these features have daily usage limits, with a fee for expanded access later. 00:22:34.954 --> 00:22:37.674 So the assistant has office hours. 00:22:37.674 --> 00:22:39.994 Some office hours, yeah. 00:22:39.994 --> 00:22:43.034 How would I even know whether one of these agents can reach me? 00:22:43.034 --> 00:22:53.994 One of my products, Mentioned On, has a free Agent Ready Checker. It reads your public pages to see whether assistants like Siri, Meta Muse or OpenAI Dots could call, email or book you. 00:22:53.994 --> 00:22:55.034 Does it call me? 00:22:55.034 --> 00:23:05.274 No. It reads your pages, it never calls, texts or emails your business. And a good result doesn't get you picked. It just means once someone's assistant picks you, it can reach you. 00:23:05.274 --> 00:23:09.274 So it checks whether the door opens. Not whether anybody walks in. 00:23:09.274 --> 00:23:11.754 Right. Walking in is a different episode. 00:23:11.754 --> 00:23:14.714 And you're telling me this because it's yours. 00:23:14.714 --> 00:23:18.954 I'm telling you because you asked. And I just told you it won't get you picked. 00:23:18.954 --> 00:23:23.594 Least salesy thing I've heard all week. Also, I'm out of sticky notes. 00:23:23.594 --> 00:23:25.034 Use the back. 00:23:25.034 --> 00:23:27.914 Last one. If I only do one thing? 00:23:27.914 --> 00:23:29.754 Not the checker. The test call. 00:23:29.754 --> 00:23:30.634 At lunch. 00:23:30.634 --> 00:23:36.954 At lunch. The checker can tell you the door opens. Only you calling tells you somebody's standing behind it. 00:23:36.954 --> 00:23:38.954 And if nobody's standing behind it? 00:23:38.954 --> 00:23:41.274 Then you've found your slow Tuesday early. 00:23:41.683 --> 00:23:54.003 So, this week. At lunch, call your own business twice. Once as a customer. Once as someone's assistant booking for somebody else. Time how long it takes until a person actually helps you, and write it down. 00:23:54.003 --> 00:23:55.603 And no rounding down. 00:23:55.603 --> 00:24:00.243 Honest numbers only. Better you find out on your own lunch call than from a slow Tuesday. 00:24:00.243 --> 00:24:02.403 And if you're putting a bot on your phones? 00:24:02.403 --> 00:24:08.163 Person first, bot on overflow and after hours, and grade it on how fast a caller reaches a human. 00:24:08.163 --> 00:24:10.003 That sounds familiar. 00:24:10.003 --> 00:24:12.323 I borrowed it. Somebody has to pick up. 00:24:12.323 --> 00:24:13.763 Somebody has to pick up. 00:24:13.763 --> 00:24:19.363 And send this to whoever answers your phones. They're the ones who'll hear "calling on behalf of a client" first. 00:24:19.363 --> 00:24:20.963 And now they know it's a patient. 00:24:20.963 --> 00:24:23.363 Links are in the show notes, everything we talked about. 00:24:23.363 --> 00:24:25.763 And the California write-up. For your lawyer. 00:24:25.763 --> 00:24:30.323 Always the lawyer. That's After the Demo. I'm John Arndt. 00:24:30.323 --> 00:24:32.643 I'm Kate. Somebody pick up.