What to Ask an AI Receptionist Vendor Before You Sign

About the calls it can't handle

Every AI hits its limits. What separates products is what happens at that moment, and it is the first thing to ask about — not the last.

• What happens when a caller asks something the AI wasn't set up for? You are listening for a defined outcome — escalate, route, take a message, flag — rather than 'it handles most things'.
• Can a call end with no outcome at all? If the honest answer is yes, ask how often and how you'd find out.
• Who decides where the handoff points are, and can they change after launch without a change fee?
• What does it do with a clinical question? The only acceptable answer is that it doesn't answer one. Any product willing to reassure a patient about symptoms is a liability, however well it demos.
• If a caller asks whether they're talking to a person, what does it say? It should tell them plainly.

About booking

• Does it book the appointment, or take a message? This is the single biggest functional divide in the category, and both are sold using the word 'answering'.
• Does it write into the calendar you already use, or into a system of theirs you'd have to check?
• Can it reschedule and cancel, or only create? Reschedules are a large share of inbound volume, and a product that can only book pushes them all to staff.
• What does it do about a booking rule like consult-first, deposits, or matching a provider — and who configures that?

About who does the work

This is where 'AI receptionist' splits into two genuinely different products at similar prices, and the pricing page rarely tells you which one you're buying.

• Who writes the scripts and the booking logic — you or them?
• Who monitors calls after launch, and who notices when it starts doing something odd?
• When your hours or services change, who updates it, and how long does that take?
• What lands on your desk day to day: a settings dashboard you're expected to run, or bookings and call summaries?

There's no wrong answer here, but there is a wrong assumption. Self-serve software is genuinely cheaper on the invoice and genuinely costs your hours instead. Price the hours before you compare the invoices.

About the phone number, and leaving

The questions people wish they'd asked, asked at the point they still have leverage.

• Do callers keep reaching you on your existing number?
• Who owns the number if you leave — and if texting is involved, whose brand is the carrier registration filed under?
• Is there a contract term, and is there a cancellation fee?
• What happens to your call recordings, transcripts, and caller data when you leave?

About the things vendors are vague on

• When does texting actually start working? Any U.S. provider is subject to carrier registration, which takes time. A vendor who implies texting is live on day one is either wrong or not registering properly.
• What's the total first-month cost, setup fee included? Ask for the number, not the range.
• What is billed by usage, and what does it cost when you go over?
• Is there a guarantee, and precisely what does it refund — the plan fee, the setup fee, or both?

For what it's worth, our answers to those four are public and specific: texting activates once carrier registration clears, typically 10–14 business days from when we receive your EIN; the full price list, including the one-time setup fee, is on the pricing page rather than behind a quote; minutes past your plan's allowance bill at the prevailing market rate; and the guarantee refunds your first month's plan fee, not the setup fee, if LunaFront doesn't book enough in your first 30 days after go-live to cover it.

You should be able to get answers that specific from anyone you're considering. If a vendor won't put them in writing before you sign, that is itself the answer.

Ask us all fourteen

Bring the list to a 15-minute consultation and we'll go through it — including the questions where the honest answer is a limit rather than a feature.

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