Questions about Ava for Home Services.

Yes. Ava introduces itself as an AI assistant for your business in a greeting you approve. If a caller would rather speak to a person, Ava puts them through to your approved number or takes a callback request.

Ava doesn't assess the situation or give technical advice. Your approved script tells the caller to ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 (Northern Ireland has its own gas emergency line), open windows, avoid switches and naked flames, and leave the property if it isn't safe. Ava then alerts your on-call engineer. Ava is not an emergency service and doesn't replace 999.

With busy and no-answer diverts set up, the calls you can't take go to Ava instead of voicemail. Every caller gets the same questions and their own summary, and your urgency rules decide which go to the on-call engineer first. We agree how many calls at once your setup covers, and what happens beyond that, before the cold weather arrives.

Whatever you need to turn up prepared: name, number, address and postcode, the boiler make, any fault code on the display, whether there is heating, hot water or neither, whether the caller is the homeowner, tenant or landlord, and access notes. You approve every question.

Yes. Your rules can move a call up the queue when, for example, there's no heating and an elderly person or a baby is at home. We suggest recording a simple 'priority household' flag rather than health details, because health information is special category data under UK GDPR and needs extra care.

Not as a standard feature yet. Those connections are Planned and need account access and a feasibility test. Today Ava sends a complete job request to your AssistCall inbox, or books routine visits into one tested diary.

Yes. Most mobile and landline networks let you divert calls when you're busy, don't answer or have no signal, so your customers keep ringing the number on your van. Your network may charge for diverted calls, and we check the options with you during setup. Porting a number is possible but is a separate process.

Ava can book routine work, such as annual boiler services or regular cleans, into one diary that has passed testing with your slot lengths and travel rules. Without that, Ava takes a booking request with the customer's preferred day and your office confirms it.

Only the figures you approve, such as your call-out charge policy. Ava doesn't estimate a rewire, a new boiler or roof work. It records the quote request with the details you need and tells the caller when to expect a call back.

Yes, as long as callers are told, you have a lawful basis (usually legitimate interests), you keep recordings only as long as you need them and you limit who can listen. We recommend a short recording notice in Ava's greeting and a line in your own privacy notice. For your customers' calls you are the controller and AssistCall is your processor under a data processing agreement agreed before activation.

AssistCall is run by Starling Global, which is based in the United States, and some of its providers process information outside the UK. Before activation, the data processing agreement sets out where call data is processed, how long it's kept and the transfer safeguards that apply.

Most businesses and sole traders that keep customer records or record calls have to pay it unless an exemption applies. The ICO's online self-assessment tells you in a few minutes. Using Ava doesn't move that responsibility to us.

No. Ava never asks for card details on a call. If you take deposits, Ava can explain how you take them and your office sends the invoice or payment link.

Yes. Ava asks who's calling, records the property address, the tenant's contact and access arrangements, and who pays. For a gas safety record or EICR request it can note the current certificate's expiry date if the caller knows it. Ava doesn't issue, check or interpret certificates.

Ava tries your backup next. If nobody answers, Ava tells the caller honestly that the request is logged and someone will ring back, and the summary goes to your team. Ava never says an engineer is on the way unless one has accepted the job.

Calls from your listings ring your number, so if it diverts to Ava they're answered like any other call. Ava doesn't log in to those platforms, reply to messages there or respond to reviews.

Ava can recognise a sales call and take a message under your rules, so it doesn't interrupt you on a job. It isn't a network call blocker, so some nuisance calls will still get through.

Yes. Every call has a recording, a transcript and a short summary in your AssistCall account. Listening to the first week of calls is the quickest way to tighten the script.

On a demo call we look at your trade, call volume and the hours you want covered, then agree pricing for your business in a written quote, including any VAT. There are no published plans and nothing starts until you approve it.