An AI answering machine that picks up, understands and books appointments
A conversation instead of voicemail: answer questions, book appointments, forward what is urgent. From €75 a month.
An AI answering machine takes the call when nobody in your business is free. The caller simply talks, the agent works out what they need, answers from your knowledge base, puts the appointment in your calendar and sends you the result as an email, a ticket or a CRM record. Your number stays the same, you only forward the calls that end up on voicemail today.
- Picks up at lunchtime, in the evening and at weekends
- Books appointments straight into your calendar
- Delivers a summary and transcript instead of a voice message
- Price
- From €75 a month for 250 call minutes, €0 setup, €0.18 per additional minute. Phone number and telephony are extra.
- Starting credit
- 30 voice minutes and 30 chat conversations of starting credit, valid for 14 days, no credit card required.
- Data protection
- Hosted at IONOS in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, GDPR-compliant, the data processing agreement becomes part of the contract at sign-up.
- Integrations
- Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Cal.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Slack, Microsoft Teams
- Who it is for
- Trades, practices, law and tax firms, salons, agencies and any team that cannot answer every call during the day.
When calls end up on voicemail today
- 01
Lunch break and the morning rush
The line is busy or voicemail is on exactly when customers have time to call. Whoever rings at eight in the morning decided something the night before and wants it sorted now.
- 02
After hours and at weekends
The caller has just got home from work and is dealing with the appointment, the repair or the question now. You are closed, and the greeting asks them to try again on the next working day.
- 03
Everyone is with a customer
The owner is at the chair, the foreman is on site, the tax adviser is in a client meeting. The phone rings anyway, and every pick-up interrupts the work the customer in front of you is paying for.
- 04
Holidays, sick days and the second call
When the one person who usually answers is away, nobody is reachable for weeks. And while one call is running, a second one often comes in with nobody free to take it.
Why classic voicemail costs you customers
Many callers never leave a message
After the greeting, plenty of callers hang up and try the next business in their search results. There is no reliable figure for this, so count it yourself: for two weeks, note how many missed numbers left no message.
Listening and calling back eats time
Someone has to play every message, write down names and numbers and guess what the caller wanted. Then the callback misses the customer, and the phone tag starts again.
Urgent calls get buried
A burst pipe, a cancellation the same morning, a customer about to sign: on tape every message looks the same. You only notice what was urgent when you listen, often too late.
Voicemail or AI answering machine: the difference
Both take the call when nobody is free. The difference is what has been done for the caller afterwards and what reaches your team.
| Criterion | Voicemail | AI answering machine |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | a recorded message, then the beep | introduces itself as an AI and asks what the caller needs |
| Answering questions | not possible | from your website and documents, such as opening hours, services or listed prices |
| Appointments | only as a callback request | checks free slots and books directly in Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly or Cal.com |
| Urgent calls | wait until someone listens | are forwarded to a phone number by your rules |
| What reaches you | a voice message to play back | a summary and transcript in the EchoHub, and on request an email, a ticket or a CRM record |
| Languages | the language of your greeting | more than 30 languages on the phone, you choose which |
| Cost | usually included in your phone plan | from €75 a month for 250 minutes, phone number and telephony extra |
What the AI answering machine handles during the call
Take the request and deliver it
The agent asks for name, callback number, reason and urgency. The result reaches your team as an email, a ticket in Zendesk or Freshdesk, a contact in HubSpot or Salesforce, or a message in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Book the appointment instead of promising a callback
The agent checks your calendar, offers free times and books the one the caller picks. For practices, salons and workshops this is the call that most often ends on voicemail.
Answer from your knowledge base
Opening hours, directions, services, what to bring to the appointment: whatever is on your website or in your documents, the agent answers right away. Tell it in its instructions to take a callback request whenever an answer is missing.
Spot emergencies and forward them
Burst pipe, accident, a machine that has stopped: by your rules the agent forwards to an emergency number instead of offering a slot next week. If a caller explicitly asks for a person, it connects them as well or takes a callback request.
Set it up in five steps, your number stays
Your team keeps answering as before. The agent only takes the calls nobody picks up today.
- 01
Create the agent and add your knowledge
In the EchoHub you create a voice agent and give it your website or documents as PDF, TXT, Markdown, CSV or JSON. To hear it first, use the live demo: it builds an agent from your website in about 20 seconds.
- 02
A phone number for the agent
You buy a number in the EchoHub or bring your own Twilio or SIP trunk. Your known business number stays as it is.
- 03
Forward the calls nobody answers
On a mobile, **61*agent number# forwards calls you do not answer, and **61*agent number**20# does so after 20 seconds. Outside opening hours, **21*agent number# forwards every call, and ##002# removes all forwarding again. On a phone system you set this up in its menu.
- 04
Say it is an AI in the greeting
Since 2 August 2026, callers must be told that they are talking to an AI. You write that sentence into the agent’s first message yourself, and the editor shows a reminder.
- 05
Set limits and test
Decide when calls are forwarded, what the agent must not promise and where results go. Then make a few test calls, including awkward ones, before you switch the forwarding on.
What a call sounds like while everyone is busy
An example from a hair salon with three chairs. Everyone is with a client, so the phone forwards to the agent after 20 seconds. In its greeting the agent has already introduced itself as the salon’s AI assistant.
Hi, I would like to book a haircut, ideally this week.
Of course. Wash, cut and blow-dry, or just a cut? And is there a stylist you prefer?
Wash, cut and blow-dry. Anyone is fine, just not before 5 pm.
There is a free slot on Thursday at 5:30 pm, it takes about an hour. Shall I book it?
Yes, please. Roughly how much is it?
According to the price list it is 48 euros for short hair, a little more for long hair. What name shall I put the booking under?
Taylor, please.
Thank you. Thursday at 5:30 pm, wash, cut and blow-dry, is booked for Taylor. If something comes up, please let us know by the day before. See you on Thursday.
Figures on being reachable
almost 7 times
as likely to reach a decision-maker when companies responded within an hour rather than an hour later. The study looked at 1.25 million web enquiries at 42 US companies.
Source: Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads, 2011
€59.90 + €1.39
is what a German answering service with human staff charges on its entry plan: a monthly fee plus €1.39 per call and per started minute, net.
€2,420
gross per month is the median pay of a call centre agent in Germany, before the employer’s social security contributions.
Source: brutto-netto-gehaltsrechner.de, call centre agent salary (German)
Article 50
of the EU AI Act requires since 2 August 2026 that people are told when they are talking to an AI system.
What the AI answering machine takes on, and what it does not
The agent takes on
- Take calls at lunchtime, after hours and at weekends instead of letting them run to voicemail
- Check free times and book appointments straight into your calendar
- Deliver callback requests with name, number and reason as an email, a ticket or a CRM record
- Forward emergencies to a phone number by your rules
Stays with your team
- Advice that needs expertise and carries liability, such as diagnoses, legal answers or binding quotes, stays with you
- Complaints and delicate conversations are not settled by the agent alone, it forwards them or takes a callback request
- It does not replace your team: callers who prefer a person still reach one during your opening hours
Questions about the AI answering machine
A phone assistant that takes calls when nobody is free and talks to the caller in plain language. Unlike voicemail, it answers questions, books appointments and forwards urgent calls. What reaches you is a summary with a transcript, not a voice message.
No. You only forward the calls nobody answers to the agent’s number, and if you like the calls outside opening hours as well. On a mobile that takes a short dial code, on a phone system a menu setting.
Yes, and since 2 August 2026 that is required by Article 50 of the EU AI Act. One sentence in the greeting is enough, for example: You are speaking with the AI assistant of Example Salon.
€75 a month for 250 call minutes, €150 for 500 and €450 for 1,500 minutes, with no setup fee. Each additional minute costs €0.18, phone number and telephony are extra. To try it there are 30 voice minutes and 30 chat conversations for 14 days, no credit card required.
Every conversation is stored with a transcript in the EchoHub. The result can also arrive as an email, a ticket in Zendesk or Freshdesk, a contact in HubSpot or Salesforce, or a message in Slack or Microsoft Teams. Other systems connect by webhook.
A call contains personal data, so you need a data processing agreement and a note in your privacy policy. EchoCall runs its platform on IONOS servers in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, and the data processing agreement becomes part of the contract at sign-up. For sensitive areas there is a Zero-PII mode.
Read on
- What missed calls cost: formula and worked example
- Call forwarding and emergency service in the trades
- AI voice agent: all features
- Pricing and plans
- Live demo: an agent built from your website
- AI phone assistant for medical and dental practices
- AI phone assistant for law and tax firms
Last reviewed on . The figures come from the linked sources. EchoCall prices and features reflect that date.
Try the AI answering machine now
Start with 30 voice minutes and 30 chat conversations of starting credit at hub.echocall.de, valid for 14 days, no credit card required.