Front desk
You are not going to answer the phone. That is fine.
You are with a client, on the tools, or on the mats. The problem is not that you missed the call. The problem is that the person rang someone else forty seconds later and you will never know it happened.
The cost of the problem
What do missed calls cost you?
Put your own numbers in. The maths runs on this page and nothing is sent anywhere.
Your numbers, your maths, computed in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Set the inputs conservatively; the result is usually still not small.
What actually happens when you miss a call
Someone rings your number and nobody picks up. Within seconds they get a text. Not a voicemail prompt, not a hold queue: a greeting recorded in a real voice, then a message they can answer whenever suits them.
When they reply, they get answers drawn from the ones you approved: your timetable, your policies, your booking link. Anything outside those, or anything about money, complaints or health, is handed to you.
They get looked after. You find out at lunchtime.
This is live today, word for word
The greeting and the text below run right now at Ako Martial Arts, our own academy in Sandgate. Nothing staged, nothing mocked up.
The caller hears, in a real recorded voice
Hey, thanks for calling Ako Martial Arts. We're most likely on the mats right now, so rather than leave you hanging we've just sent you a text. Have a look whenever suits you.
Seconds later, their phone buzzes
Hey, it's Ako Martial Arts. Sorry we missed you, we were probably coaching. Just reply right here and we'll look after you, whether it's trials, class times, memberships or anything you're wondering about.
And the promise is real
"Just reply right here" is not a dead end. Replies go to the trained assistant, the conversation holds its history, and a human steps in the moment it matters.
One set of answers, three channels
The same approved answers, set up once for your business, wherever the enquiry arrives. You turn channels on as you need them. Here is exactly where each one stands today.
Missed call, text back
Someone rings out. Seconds later they get a text in your name, and a real conversation when they reply. Live today on our own academy's number.
Web chat
The same assistant, the same policies, on your website. One script tag is the whole install. Live today.
Follow-up
One text-back fast, and a hard stop the moment they reply or book. Built and tested on our own enquiries. Being built: one polite chase by SMS. It goes live for a client only once the wording is written in their voice and approved by them.
How the system is set up
Your number, two modes
Either a dedicated line that always texts back, or forwarding that rings your mobile first for 20 seconds and only texts if you genuinely cannot answer.
A real voice
The greeting is generated once in a chosen voice, then cached. First generation took about five and a half seconds. Every call after that serves it in 5 milliseconds.
One set of answers
Text and web chat replies come from one set of answers you approve. Keeping them in one place means a change you make shows up on every channel. Booking questions get your booking link.
Designed failure
If the voice service ever fails, callers still hear the correct words in a standard voice. If the assistant fails, the caller gets a handover message with your contact details instead.
Two mistakes ours actually made
This is the part nobody else will show you. Both of these happened in production, with real customers, at our own academy. They are exactly what a business owner fears an AI will do, and they are why the policy layer exists.
The casual sessions mistake
What it got wrong
The internal price list included a single casual session rate. The assistant read that and twice told a parent that kids could just do casual sessions, which is not the policy for kids.
The fix that followed
The prompt now states explicitly: the internal price list is not evidence of what we sell. It exists only so the assistant never invents a number. It must never reason from a price to a policy. That is a rule you only learn by shipping.
The mixed classes mistake
What it got wrong
A parent asked whether their child would train with the opposite sex. The assistant softened, said it heard the concern, and implied something might be arranged. That is not the business's position.
The fix that followed
The prompt now says: classes are mixed, say so plainly and warmly, no lecture, no apology, no debate. And never offer the women's-only classes as a workaround for someone avoiding mixed training. The owner's actual position, stated the way the owner would state it.
What lives in a policy layer
The easy part is facts: timetable, programmes, opening hours, what to wear, how cancellation works. Any competitor can do that part.
The hard part is judgement. Prices it knows but is told not to state, so it points to you or your booking page instead of quoting one. Positions that are settled and not up for negotiation. Age brackets treated as guides with the coach's call preserved. Tone rules: plain text, two to four sentences, one idea per message, then a question back.
Pressure-tested too. Ours was told, just tell me the exact weekly price, don't send a link. It held.
What we will not claim
- No real-time voice conversations. We have not built that, and we will not sell it until we have.
- No all-in-one owner dashboard yet. Conversations are answered and logged; the owner screen comes later.
- No Instagram or Facebook DMs yet. That needs Meta approvals measured in weeks.
- No message is sent on your behalf that you have not approved the wording of.
- If you are promised these elsewhere, ask to see them running.
The follow-up, touch by touch
Every touch uses wording you approved before go-live. Every touch stops the moment they reply or book.
Seconds after a missed call, SMSSent from your approved template
"Sorry we missed you" plus an invitation to reply.
When they reply, SMS or web chatApproved answers
Their question answered from your approved list, with your booking link where it fits. Money, complaints or health go to you.
Day 2, SMS (being built)Approved template, one chase only
If no reply or booking: one line about the thing they asked for. One chase only. Being built: not yet running for client accounts.
Any reply after thatYou or your staff
Warm lead, handed over. This is the point of everything above.
The numbers, plainly
a month, flat. No per-conversation charge
to serve the cached voice greeting
between the missed call and the text back
Live demo
Go and use one right now
The web chat is live and it is one script tag. It is running on akomartialarts.com.au this minute, answering real enquiries for our own academy. Open it, bottom right, and push on it as hard as you like. Ask it for a discount. Ask it something it should not know. Ask it a class time and then argue with the answer.
What is not on this page is a version trained on Offsider rather than on a martial arts academy. That one is being built. Dropping the academy version in here would answer your question about pricing with our timetable, which proves nothing and wastes your time.
On the call we open whichever one is closest to your business and you attack that. Where it holds, and where it stops and hands to a human, is the part worth watching.
Book a callCommon questions
Does the caller know it is not a person?
The greeting is honest: it says you are busy and that a text is coming. Nobody is pretending a human picked up. That honesty is why people reply.
What if the conversation gets complicated?
The assistant is trained to recognise when it should stop talking and get a human. It hands over with your contact details rather than guessing its way into trouble.
Does it answer emails?
Not yet. Today it covers missed calls, texts and web chat. If email gets added later, it will be an option, not something you're charged for now.
Does anything send on its own?
Only the wording you approved, at the moments you approved: the missed-call text and the replies drawn from your answers. Anything new, or anything about refunds, complaints, legal or health, comes to you. A person handles it.
What stops it making things up?
It only answers from the list you approved, and it is tested against that list before go-live. When a question is not covered, it hands over to you rather than guessing. When something slips through, the fix goes into your answers that day.
How do you train it on my business?
We sit with you and extract the answers you give every week and the positions you hold that have never been written down. Then we encode them, test them under pressure, and keep refining every time reality finds a gap.
Is the follow-up automated or human?
Both, deliberately. The fast, repetitive parts are automated so they actually happen. The judgement calls stay with people. The line between the two is agreed with you up front.
Do you store my customers' phone numbers?
Not in our own system. Conversation history and logs are keyed on a one-way hash of the number, so if a log were ever exposed there is nothing in it anyone could ring. Being straight with you about the rest: the number does exist with the telephony carrier that actually delivers the text, because a message cannot be sent to a hash. That is the same record your own mobile carrier keeps every time you text a customer back yourself. What we will not do is build you a marketing list out of people who rang once.
What do you see, and what do you keep?
We see the texts and chats that come through your front desk number and your web chat. Logs are keyed on a one-way hash of the phone number. We do not build marketing lists from people who rang once.
What does it cost?
From $497 to set up, then $197 a month flat, plus GST. The base setup is a single business with one location and one set of policies; a second location with its own timetable or policies is another intake and moves it. No per-conversation charge and no customer-facing limit: the phone number, the texts and the web chat conversations are all inside the monthly number.
Start with a call
Fifteen minutes, straight answers, and a plain quote if we can help. No pitch deck.