AI calling
Calling, done in a way you would be comfortable explaining.
Written as guidance rather than as a product argument. Most of the decisions here are made once, early, by whoever happens to be setting up the first calling motion — and they are hard to revisit later.
Disclose, always, at the start
The agent should say it is an AI assistant before anything else. Not because a rule requires it in every market, but because the alternative is a customer discovering it mid-conversation — which turns a reasonable call into a story they tell about your company. Any platform that lets you disable this is selling you a future problem.
Decide what you will never automate
Write this list before the first call, not after an incident. It should include anything that is bad news, anything about money already owed, and anything where being misunderstood is expensive.
- Complaints, and any conversation that follows one
- Anything to do with a debt or an overdue payment
- Cancellations and anything a customer might regret
- Conversations with anybody who has asked for a person
- Negotiation of any kind
Hours are the contact's, not yours
Nine to six in the contact's own timezone, not in yours. This sounds obvious and is the most common mistake in multi-country calling, because the default in most tools is the account's timezone.
Three attempts is usually the right cap
Beyond three, the marginal conversion is close to nothing and the annoyance is considerable. A cap that feels slightly too tight is much cheaper than one that feels slightly too loose.
Recording rules differ and the defaults will not save you
Notice requirements, consent requirements and retention expectations vary by country and sometimes by region. Configure per market, take your own advice, and keep recordings for the shortest period that serves a purpose. Transcripts are usually enough; audio rarely is.
Make the handoff generous
The moment somebody asks for a person, the agent should offer one without a second attempt at handling it. A customer who has asked twice is a customer telling everybody about it.
Listen to the first fifty calls
All of them, properly. You are listening for three things: where it sounded wrong, where it should have handed over and did not, and where it handed over and could safely have continued. After fifty you will know whether the scope is right, and nothing else gets you there.
Make sure every opportunity gets a next action.
Let AI handle the repetitive engagement, keep follow-up moving, and bring your team in when a customer needs a real conversation.
Agents identify themselves on every call · Nothing commits without you · [email protected]