RankDude
Checker · AI receptionist

Test caller

Every AI receptionist gets the same calls from the same caller: the same voice, the same call plans, the same persona for the name, number and address, both sides recorded. Nothing about the calls differs between brands except what the receptionist does.

When it runs
Every call of the test
Used in
10 reviews
Runs on
A real phone line, with the recorder on both sides

What the test caller is

A fair comparison needs the same caller every time. Each call follows a plan written before the test: what to ask and in what order, the fact the receptionist should give, and the things it must not concede. The caller answers the receptionist's questions from a fixed persona, the same name, number and address on every call, so every brand hears the same customer.

How it works

  1. The caller's lines are fixed in advance, the same words for every brand, so no receptionist gets an easier or a harder question.
  2. The call is placed from the same phone line every time and recorded on both sides from the first ring.
  3. A demo preamble or ringing is noted and left out of the timings.
  4. Each turn, the receptionist's question is answered from the persona, a name, a phone number, an address or a time, and otherwise the next planned line is spoken.
  5. Rules keep the call honest: the same question twice gets the problem described instead, three times ends the call; a receptionist that says it is a test line is told to behave as on a real call; and where the plan says so, the caller asks whether it is talking to a real person.
  6. Each planned line carries the fact the receptionist should state and the words it must not say; a fact not heard gets one push-back, and a concession is flagged.
  7. The call is ended, the recording saved, and a transcript written with every turn and its timings.

What it records

Per call
The recording, an event log, screenshots and a transcript; the time to pick-up and, per turn, what the caller said, what the receptionist said, the reply gap, the expected fact and whether it was heard, any concession, and any ignored question.

What it cannot catch

  • One calm caller: an angry or upset customer is not in the plan, so tone-of-voice calls are not graded.
  • A receptionist that asks something the plan did not foresee can get a repeated line, and such calls are redone.
  • The caller's number is the same for every brand, so a receptionist that remembers callers may greet it by a name from an earlier call.
  • On a browser test line, rather than a real number, the receptionist can know it is a test.

Where it was used

Every published review that ran this checker, with the figure it produced there, read from the review’s own data. Each figure opens the test results behind it.

Review

The other checkers for ai receptionist

Written by Miles Foster, Owner and tester, RankDude. How RankDude tests and grades is on the methodology page.