How an AI receptionist should hand off work to your team

The handoff is the point

Answering a call is not the hard part. What matters is what happens in the minute after it ends — whether the right person finds out, with enough context to act.

How the handoff should work

• Capture — the caller's request is recorded in their own words
• Summarize — the call becomes a short, structured summary anyone can scan
• Match — the summary is linked to an existing contact, or a new one is created
• Route — a follow-up task is created with a named owner and a response time
• Hand over — a person takes it from there and closes the loop

What The Forge does today

The pieces this depends on are live today: a task system with an owner and a deadline, and a communications record tied to the contact.

• Tasks: Available — Assign a task to yourself or a teammate, track it to done, and reassign it if priorities change — everyone sees their own work, and designated roles can assign and reassign across the team.
• Customer communications & templates: Available — Every email, SMS, call, and internal note tied to a customer is logged with assignment and follow-up tracking, alongside reusable message templates — no email or SMS provider is connected yet, so outbound messages are recorded as drafts or queued log entries, never actually sent.

The AI Voice Receptionist, honestly

AI Voice Receptionist ($99/mo + $0.35/min) answers, qualifies, and routes calls today. The structured summary, contact match, and task handoff above are the target — confirm what's automatic versus manual with your Forge Plan before you turn it on.

Questions to confirm before you turn it on

• Who is the default owner when the caller doesn't match an existing contact?
• What's the response-time expectation once a task is created?
• Which calls should route straight to a person — emergencies, complaints, existing customers?
• How do duplicate contacts get merged instead of piling up?