AI and voice technology glossary
Plain-language definitions for the phone, answering, and AI terms small businesses actually run into, from after-hours coverage to warm transfers.
A
After-hours answering
Answering calls outside business hours, on nights, weekends, and holidays, so a call that comes in at 9pm is still helped instead of going to voicemail.
AI receptionist
Software that answers your business phone in a natural voice, books appointments, and routes urgent calls around the clock, the way a great front-desk person would, without ever putting a caller on hold.
Appointment booking
Scheduling a customer's appointment straight onto your calendar during the call. A good system reads your real availability before it confirms a time, so you never get double-booked.
B
Barge-in
When a caller can interrupt the system mid-sentence and still be understood, instead of waiting for a recorded prompt to finish. It is what makes an AI call feel like a real conversation.
Bilingual answering
Answering and helping callers in more than one language, often switching mid-call the moment the caller does.
C
Call deflection
Sending a caller to a faster path, like a text or a self-service booking, instead of a hold queue, so simple requests get handled without tying up a line.
Call forwarding
Pointing calls from your existing business number to another line or service. Most businesses forward only their missed, busy, and after-hours calls to an answering service and keep their main number.
Call overflow
The calls that arrive when every line is already busy. Overflow handling answers them instead of letting them ring out to voicemail.
Conversational AI
Software that understands spoken or typed language and replies naturally, so a caller can say what they need in their own words instead of pressing menu numbers.
D
DID number (Direct Inward Dialing)
A phone number that reaches your business directly. An answering service can provision a local DID so your callers always see a familiar local line.
Dispatch
Sending an urgent job to the right on-call person and confirming someone is on the way, usually with a text to the customer that includes a live ETA.
E
ETA text
An automatic text telling a customer who is coming and roughly when, sent the moment an urgent job is dispatched.
F
First-call resolution
Handling the caller's reason for calling completely on the first call, with no callback and no transfer. It is the clearest sign a phone line is actually working.
I
Inbound call
A call coming in to your business from a customer or prospect. These are the calls a missed-call problem quietly turns into lost revenue.
IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
The classic press-1-for-sales phone menu. Modern AI answering replaces rigid menus with natural conversation, so callers just say what they need.
L
Live answering
A real, immediate answer to every call, by a person or by AI, instead of voicemail or a hold queue.
M
Missed-call text-back
An automatic text sent the instant you cannot pick up, turning a missed call into a conversation instead of a lost customer.
N
No-show
A booked customer who does not turn up. Automatic call and text reminders cut no-shows by bringing people back to the time they booked.
O
Outbound call
A call your business makes out to a customer, such as an appointment reminder, a confirmation, or a follow-up.
P
Porting
Moving your existing phone number to a new provider so you keep the number your customers already know by heart.
R
Reminder
An automatic call or text before an appointment that confirms the time and quietly cuts no-shows.
Routing
Deciding where a call should go: booked, answered, or sent to the right person. Smart routing means urgent calls reach someone fast and routine ones get handled on the spot.
S
SIP trunk
The internet connection that carries phone calls to and from a business, replacing old copper lines. It is what lets your calls reach a cloud answering service.
SMS
Text messaging. An answering service can text confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups, and hold a real two-way text conversation with a customer.
Speech-to-text (STT)
The technology that turns a caller's speech into text the AI can read and act on. Also called speech recognition.
T
Text-to-speech (TTS)
The technology that turns the AI's words into a natural spoken voice the caller hears on the line.
Transcript
A written, searchable record of everything said on a call, saved automatically next to the recording so you never have to ask anyone to recap.
Two-way SMS
Texting where the customer can reply and the conversation keeps going, not just a one-way alert that lands and stops.
V
Virtual receptionist
A receptionist service that answers your calls remotely, by a person or by AI, instead of someone sitting at your front desk.
VoIP (Voice over IP)
Making phone calls over the internet instead of traditional phone lines. It is the backbone of modern business calling and cloud answering.
Voicemail
A recorded message a caller leaves when no one answers. The catch: most callers hang up instead of leaving one, so the lead walks out the door.
W
Warm transfer
Passing a caller to a person and introducing them first, so the caller never has to repeat themselves. A cold transfer just connects the call with no handoff.
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