Every term, plain English.

AI Receptionist

Software that picks up your business phone, has a real conversation with the caller, and either books a job, captures lead info, or routes the call. Replaces voicemail and most of what a human front desk does.

Auto-Forward

Routing your existing business number's calls to a different number automatically. Lets you keep your branded line while letting the AI answer.

Booking Widget

An embeddable form on your website that lets customers self-book without calling. Shows your real-time availability, syncs to your calendar.

Call Forwarding Code

A short dial code (like *72) you punch into your existing line to redirect calls. The single step that activates AI answering on most carriers.

Call Recording

Audio capture of every inbound call. Useful for training, dispute resolution, and quality control. AlwaysRespond auto-transcribes recordings.

Call Summary

A short AI-generated text recap sent to your phone the moment a call ends, caller name, intent, what was booked, any flags.

Cartesia / TTS

Text-to-Speech engine. AlwaysRespond uses Cartesia's Sonic voice model so the AI sounds like a friendly human, not a robot.

Deepgram / STT

Speech-to-Text engine. Converts what the caller says into text the AI can reason about. Tuned for industry vocabulary.

Dispatch Board

A live view of your technicians and their day's jobs, often on a map. Lets owners drag-and-drop assignments and see status in real time.

Dormant Customer

A past customer who hasn't booked in a while (typically 6+ months). High-converting target for win-back SMS.

Endpointing

The AI's decision about when the caller has finished speaking. Tunable, too eager and it cuts people off, too patient and the conversation drags.

Estimate

A pre-job quote sent to the customer. AlwaysRespond's estimate builder uses templates per service so quotes go out in seconds.

Industry Mode

Pre-loaded intake questions and pricing templates tailored to your trade. We have 130+ industry modes including HVAC, plumbing, dental, salons.

Intent Detection

The AI recognizing what the caller wants (booking, rescheduling, quote, complaint, emergency) so it can route the rest of the conversation correctly.

Intake Questions

The qualifying questions your AI asks every caller, address, service type, urgency. You configure them per service in your dashboard.

Latency

The pause between the caller finishing a sentence and the AI starting its reply. Lower is better. Industry-best targets sub-800ms.

Lead Capture

Getting the caller's name, phone, address, and intent, even if they don't book, so you can follow up by SMS later.

Local Number

A phone number with your area code. AlwaysRespond issues one instantly per tenant for the AI to answer on.

Missed Call Recovery

Auto-text sent to a caller whose call dropped or wasn't answered, with a link to book online. Recovers 18-30% of missed calls.

Multi-Tenant

Architecture where many independent customers (tenants) run their own AI receptionist on a shared platform with isolated data.

Per-Minute Pricing

Pricing model where you pay per minute of call time. Common with human answering services. AlwaysRespond uses flat-rate plans instead.

Review Routing

Logic that sends happy customers (4-5 stars) to your public Google profile while privately surfacing unhappy ones (1-3 stars) to you first.

RBAC

Role-Based Access Control. Owner, dispatcher, tech, and agent each see only what they should in the dashboard.

SOC 2

A security audit standard. SOC 2 Type II means an external auditor verified our controls hold up over time, not just on paper.

STT/TTS

Speech-to-Text + Text-to-Speech. The two halves of an AI voice agent, listening and speaking.

Stripe Connect

Stripe's marketplace product. AlwaysRespond uses it to deposit your customer payments directly to your bank, never holding your funds.

TCPA

Telephone Consumer Protection Act. US regulation governing SMS and call marketing. AlwaysRespond auto-handles opt-in and STOP/UNSUBSCRIBE.

Twilio

The phone-network provider underneath the AI. They issue the numbers and route audio between callers and our AI.

Virtual Receptionist

A remote phone agent — historically a human, increasingly an AI — that answers your business calls, takes messages, and routes inquiries. Traditional virtual receptionist services charge per minute or per call. An AI virtual receptionist like AlwaysRespond runs flat-rate, picks up under a second, and books the job during the call.

Voicemail Drop

Pre-recording a message and 'dropping' it to a voicemail without the phone ringing first. We don't do this, it's adjacent to robocalling.

Warm Transfer

Handing a live call from the AI to a human (you, your tech) without dropping the caller. Used when the AI gets stuck or the caller asks for a human.

Win-Back Campaign

An SMS sequence sent to dormant customers offering a reason to come back. Recovers 8-15% of lapsed accounts when timed well.