Reception

Reception is the inbound agent. One Foan agent, every call coming in. Booking, complaints, sales enquiries, after-hours emergencies, missed-call recovery — Reception handles them all because that's how a real receptionist works.

What it does

Picks up every call. 24/7. No hold music. No "press 1 for…".
Knows your business. Reads your website, your knowledge base, your hours, your services.
Books appointments. If you've connected Calendly or Google Calendar, the agent offers and confirms slots on the call.
Captures details. Names, phone numbers, email addresses — all confirmed letter-by-letter so the spelling is right.
Sends summaries. Email, Slack, or webhook within seconds of hangup.
Escalates the right calls. Sentiment-based routing — angry caller, urgent issue, repeat customer — gets flagged in your inbox or rings your mobile.

What it doesn't do

It doesn't pretend to be human. If asked, the agent says "I'm Foan — your AI receptionist." We never lie.
It doesn't take payments unless you connect Stripe. Even then, the agent only takes payments when the customer has explicitly agreed.
It doesn't keep talking forever. Default max call duration is 10 minutes; configurable per agent.

Configuring it

The system prompt is everything. Foan generates a starting prompt from your website, but tuning it pays off — within a week of running calls, you'll know which questions trip the agent up. Edit the prompt under agent settings → Instructions.

The knowledge base (Settings → Knowledge) gives the agent structured information: services, hours, FAQ, policies. The agent reads this for every call. Update it whenever your business changes.

Pick the voice that matches your brand, manage repeat callers via contacts, and embed a website widget so visitors can call you straight from the browser.

Pricing

Reception is included in every Inbound plan starting at £49/mo. See Plans & billing.

Common questions

Will it work for my industry? Probably yes. We've shipped Reception for restaurants, dentists, plumbers, law firms, salons, agencies, and SaaS companies. The system prompt is the customisation layer.

What languages? English (UK, US, Irish, Australian, Indian), Spanish, Portuguese (PT and BR), French, Italian, German, Dutch, Maltese. Pick the locale per agent.

What about voicemail? The agent always answers — there's no voicemail to drop into. That's the whole point.

Multiple agents on different lines? Yes. Each agent gets its own number. Different system prompts per agent (e.g. one for service, one for sales).