An AI receptionist for WhatsApp and website chat
It greets every customer, answers from your documents, takes bookings and requests, and passes the right conversations to your team, day and night. It works in writing, on the apps your customers already message you on.
7-day free trial. Website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and LINE.
What is an AI receptionist?
An AI receptionist is software that runs your front desk: it greets customers, answers their questions, books appointments and passes each request to the right person.
Most AI receptionists answer the phone. HiQBot’s answers messages, on your website and on the chat apps your customers use every day, so every booking and request arrives written down. It runs on HiQBot’s AI agent, and your team can step in through live chat whenever a person should answer.
HiQBot is a conversational platform for customer service, with AI agents and live chat on website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and LINE.
What your AI receptionist does
The work of a front desk, done in the chat your customer started.
Greets and answers
Opening hours, location, menus, services and policies, answered from your own documents the moment a customer writes.
Books, moves and cancels
Takes the booking inside the chat, within your rules for days, hours and notice, and moves or cancels it when plans change.
Passes requests to the right person
Takes callback and quote requests, and hands a conversation to your team with the whole thread when a person is needed.
Keeps the front desk open overnight
Answers and takes requests after hours, tells customers when your team is back, and leaves everything waiting in one inbox.
Speaks your customer’s language
Replies in the language each customer writes in, with nothing to set up.
Every enquiry answered, even at 10:52 PM
A customer who gets an answer straight away books with you instead of the next business they find. The AI receptionist takes the request while they are still deciding, and your team starts the morning with it waiting in the inbox.
A front desk for your industry
Pick your industry and the receptionist starts with the bookings and requests that business takes.
- Automotive
Books customers in for a service or other work, takes stock enquiries for your team and arranges callbacks.
- Hospitality
Takes reservations, quote requests and callbacks, and moves or cancels a reservation in the chat.
- Restaurants
Takes table requests and food orders for collection or delivery, which your team confirms.
- Travel and Tourism
Books tours, takes quote requests and arranges callbacks with an adviser.
- SaaS and Technology
Schedules demos and discovery calls and takes proposal requests from the website.
- E-commerce and Retail
Answers product, stock and delivery questions, and sends a checkout link on a connected WooCommerce store.
Bookings follow your rules for days, hours, notice and closed dates, and can go on to Google Calendar. Bookings and leads land in your CRM with the conversation that produced them.
Phone receptionist or chat receptionist?
Both do the same job at the front desk. The difference is where your customers reach you.
| Voice AI receptionist | HiQBot AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|
| Where customers reach you | A phone call | Website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and LINE |
| What the customer keeps | Their memory of the call | A written thread with the booking details |
| Handing over to a person | A call transfer | Your team takes over the same chat, with everything already said |
| Best when | Most customers phone you | Most customers message you |
Questions about the AI receptionist
Last updated
What is an AI receptionist?
An AI receptionist is software that runs your front desk: it greets customers, answers their questions, books appointments and passes each request to the right person. HiQBot’s AI receptionist does this in writing, on website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and LINE, at any hour.
Does it answer phone calls?
No. HiQBot’s AI receptionist works in chat, not on phone calls. If most of your customers phone you, a voice receptionist is the better fit. If they message you on your website or on WhatsApp and the other chat apps, this one answers them there and keeps every conversation in writing.
What can the AI receptionist book?
It depends on your industry: service appointments for car dealers, reservations for hotels, tours for travel businesses, demos and discovery calls for software companies, and table requests and food orders for restaurants. It follows your booking rules for days, hours and notice, and can move or cancel a booking in the same chat.
Does it confirm bookings on its own?
Appointments, reservations, tours and demos are booked in the chat within the rules you set, and can go on to Google Calendar. Restaurant table requests and food orders are different: the AI takes the request and your team confirms it, so nothing is promised that the kitchen or the floor cannot keep.
Can it pass a customer to a person?
Yes. When a customer asks for a person, gets frustrated or needs someone who can make a decision, the AI hands the conversation to your team with the whole thread. Your teammate replies in the same chat, and can hand it back to the AI when they are done.
What happens outside opening hours?
The AI receptionist keeps answering questions and taking bookings and requests. If a customer needs a person, it tells them when your team is back, and the conversation waits for them in the same chat, so your team starts the day with every overnight request in one place.
Which languages does it speak?
It replies in the language each customer writes in, from the same documents your team keeps up to date. There is no list of languages to set up, so a guest who writes in Spanish gets an answer in Spanish.
Keep your front desk open on every channel
Start with your website chat or WhatsApp, and let the AI receptionist take the first conversation tonight.