When the chatbot should stop and hand you the phone

A chatbot can book a tune-up and answer what time you roll. It cannot quote a compressor, argue a warranty, or calm a customer who is standing in a hot house. Those calls belong to a named person. Ethical AI is in Frisco, Texas. We set that handoff for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and other shops that roll trucks in Dallas-Fort Worth. The bot keeps the easy questions. A person takes price, license, and anyone who is already angry.

What the bot may answer

Keep the bot on facts you would put on the website without thinking twice. Hours, cities you actually serve, what brand of equipment you install, and whether you can come today. The customer should be able to ask those at 9 p.m. and get the same answer your dispatcher would give in the morning.

• Hours, including the holiday hours already on the listing
• The cities you work, one at a time, not a dump of the whole metro
• How to request a visit, and the phone number that matches Maps
• What you do not do, so the wrong job never hits the board

If the answer can change the price, the license, or the customer's temper, the bot stops. It does not guess. It does not apologize in a loop. It hands the thread to a person and says that person's name.

The three handoffs

Write these three into the bot before you turn it on. If you cannot name the person who takes each one, you are not ready to let the bot talk to customers.

1. Price. "How much to replace the system" is an estimate, not a chat. The bot collects the address, the symptom, and a callback number, then stops.
2. License and insurance. The customer is deciding whether to let you in the house. A person sends the real license number. The bot does not invent one and does not say "we are fully licensed" with nothing behind it.
3. Anger. A no-heat call, a leak on the ceiling, a review threat. The bot says a named person will call, and that person calls. A second bot message makes it worse.

The phone the bot gives out has to be the phone on the listing. Audit the listings in one afternoon and confirm the number before the bot repeats it a hundred times. The same pass covers the name on the invoice and the name on Maps: one public name, or the reviews split.

What to set tonight

Pick one person for after-hours handoff and one person for weekday estimates. Put their names in the bot's last line. Do not leave "a team member will be in touch."

• Bot answers hours, service area, and how to book. Nothing else without a person.
• Price, license, and angry customers end the chat and start a call from a named person.
• The number in the chat is the number on Maps. No tracking number that the owner does not answer.
• Read yesterday's chats once a week. If the bot guessed a price, that line comes out the same day.

Need the next step? Start at get started. The bot stops at price, license, and anger. A named person takes the phone. Ethical AI · Frisco, TX · 469-669-2728.