Automated calls · Delvo Digital

The short version

Some businesses Delvo Digital works with have an automated line that answers when the owner can’t get to the phone. It tells you it’s automated at the start of every call, it tells you the call is recorded, and it only books real open times from the business’s schedule. The recording belongs to the business you called, is kept for the number of days in that business’s agreement, and is deleted after that.

1. What the line is

We set up an answering line for a business. The business’s own number keeps ringing the owner first. Only when nobody picks up does the call go to the line, which answers in the business’s own name, asks the questions the owner would ask, books a time if you want one, and writes the call up for the owner.

2. It says it is automated

The first thing you hear is the business’s name, then that you are speaking with an automated assistant, then that the call is recorded. Those words are fixed and are never removed. You are never led to think you’re talking to a person, and if you ask whether you are, the line says so plainly.

3. Recording

The line tells you at the start of the call that the call is recorded. The recording and a written summary let the owner hear what you said and read what was booked. California asks that everyone on a call agree to a recording, and the opening words are how you are told. If you don’t want to be recorded, hang up and reach the business another way; the owner’s own number and email still work.

4. Booking a time

The line can book you a real open time from the business’s schedule. You and the business both get it confirmed right away. Your confirmation comes to the email address you give, with a link that lets you move the time if something changes. Anything the schedule can’t answer goes to the owner.

5. What the line does not do

It answers only from facts the owner approved in writing: services, service area, hours, booking rules and any prices the owner chose to publish. It does not invent a price, a promise or an opening. When it has no approved answer, it takes a message or hands you to the person the owner named.
It never signs a contract, takes a payment over the phone, or promises a final price on the owner’s behalf. Final prices come from the owner.
It is not an emergency service. If someone’s life or safety is in danger, hang up and call 911.
It never calls you back on its own and never places outbound calls.

6. Who can hear your call

The business you called: the owner and the people the owner lets into their account. Delvo Digital, as the business’s provider, when we set the line up or fix something that went wrong. The voice service that carries the call, which works for the business and is barred by its terms from using recordings, summaries or your details for its own purposes, including training its models. Nobody else, unless the law requires it.

7. How long recordings are kept

Recordings are kept for the number of days the business chose in its agreement with us, then deleted. Each business sets its own period, so ask the business for its number. The details you gave for your booking stay with the business as part of its customer records, the way a note taken by a person would.

8. Your choices

Don’t want to be recorded? Hang up and reach the business another way. The line never blocks the owner’s own number.
Want your recording or details deleted? Ask the business. It can do it, or ask us to do it for them.
Want to hear what the line has about you? Ask the business. The recording and the summary are its records.
Have a question about how the line works? Write to dominic@delvodigital.com.

9. An example call

This is an illustration with a made-up business, a made-up caller and a made-up address. It shows the shape of a real call: the opening words, the questions, two real openings, the pick, and the confirmation.

Line: Thanks for calling Hushwater Mobile Detail. I’m the automated assistant, and this call is recorded. How can I help?
Caller: Hey, I’m trying to get my car detailed, hopefully this weekend.
Line: We can do that. Is it a sedan, an SUV, or a truck?
Caller: A sedan. Honestly it just needs the inside done. My kids destroyed it.
Line: Interior detail it is. We come to you. What’s the address?
Caller: 412 Ridge Way in Benicia.
Line: Saturday at 9 in the morning is open, or Sunday at 1. Which works?
Caller: Saturday at 9.
Line: Done. Interior detail, Saturday at 9, at 412 Ridge Way. Can I get your name and an email for the confirmation?
Caller: Ana Reyes. ana at example dot com.
Line: Thanks, Ana. Your confirmation is on its way, and if anything changes, the link in it lets you move the time. See you Saturday.

The owner then sees the write-up: Ana Reyes · Interior detail · Sedan · 412 Ridge Way, Benicia · “kids destroyed it” · Saturday 9 a.m. Ana sees her confirmation, with the link to move it.

10. Whose line it is

The line answers for the business you called, not for Delvo Digital. Questions about your call, your booking or your recording go to that business. Questions about this page go to dominic@delvodigital.com.

11. Changes

If this page changes, the date above changes with it.