Mucka can phone a customer for you about a job or an invoice, and then tell you how it went. You ask, it reads the call back, you say yes, and it rings.
It comes with the AI Voice Receptionist and rings from your receptionist number.
Before the first call
The law needs some paperwork in place before Mucka can ring anyone on your behalf. We have prepared it. Open the Receptionist page, go to Settings, and find Mucka rings your customers (the row is called Outbound calling agreement). Fill in your business details, tap Review & accept, read the documents, then tap Accept & switch on.
This agreement is separate from the one for answering your phone. It keeps the processing for these calls in the UK and EU. If you ask for a call before accepting it, Mucka tells you and links you to it rather than dialling.
Asking for a call
Ask in the app, by voice or on WhatsApp, the same way you would ask Mucka anything else. Usually it starts with a question:
Has John Smith paid his invoice?
Mucka tells you it's still unpaid and offers to ring him. Or ask straight out: "ring Sarah and tell her I'm running late".
Before it dials, Mucka reads the call back with the person's name and number, so you can check it has the right customer. If two customers share a name, it asks which one you mean. Nothing happens until you say yes.
You can also start a call from an overdue invoice card. When automatic reminders have run out and the invoice still isn't paid, the card offers Have Mucka ring them. See Chase an unpaid invoice.
What Mucka can ring about
There are six, and only six:
- chasing an overdue invoice
- confirming an appointment that's coming up
- letting them know the engineer is on the way, or running late
- asking to move an appointment to a specific new time
- telling them the engineer is at the door and can't get in
- checking access before a visit, such as parking, a key safe or who will be in
Mucka can't ring about anything else, however you phrase it. The one people ask for most is following up a quote to see if the customer wants to go ahead. That is a sales call under UK law, so Mucka says no and offers to draft a follow-up email instead.
What the customer hears
The call opens with "Hi, is that John?", then Mucka says it's an automated assistant calling on behalf of your business. It talks about the one thing you sent it to ring about, and it never promotes or sells anything. If the call is about money, it checks it is speaking to the right person before it mentions the invoice.
If nobody picks up and it gets an answerphone, the message gives your business name and asks them to ring back. It never says why, so nobody else in the house hears about an unpaid bill. If they do ring back within three days, your receptionist knows Mucka called them and what about.
When Mucka won't ring
Mucka only rings between 8am and 8pm, and never on a Sunday. Outside those hours it tells you and doesn't dial.
It also won't ring when:
- there's no phone number on the customer's record (it never guesses one)
- the customer has asked not to be called
- the invoice is disputed, or the customer is under Breathing Space, the government's debt respite scheme
- the customer has already told Mucka they've paid, that it's the wrong person, or that they don't want the call
There's a limit on how often it tries, too. For most calls it rings at most three times about the same invoice or job, and no more than once a day, because two calls in an afternoon about money starts to look like harassment. When the engineer is on the doorstep or running late it can try twice, a couple of minutes apart, since tomorrow is no use. If a call is refused, Mucka tells you the reason as it is.
After the call
A call takes a couple of minutes. Mucka doesn't guess how it's going. Once it's finished, it tells you what the customer said, in the conversation where you asked: back in the app chat, or on WhatsApp if you asked there.
If you asked by ringing Mucka, or the answer can't reach you where you asked, it appears as a card in your Actions instead, with a link to the call.
Common questions
Will Mucka ring my customers on its own? No. It might suggest a call when you ask about an overdue invoice, but it only dials after you've said yes to that call.
Can it do cold calls or sales calls? No, and we won't build that. It only rings your own customers about their own jobs and invoices.
Which number does it call from? Your receptionist number, so a customer who rings back reaches your receptionist.