Questions
We answer before you have to ask.
Our answers, sorted by theme. If yours isn't among them, write to us: an answer within 24 working hours.
Before you start
What a restaurateur asks in the first two minutes.
No, and that matters: you keep your own. You switch on call forwarding from your own phone, and nothing changes for your guests. You can switch it off whenever you like, by dialling a code.
Under an hour. Thirty minutes to fill in Arthur's job description, five minutes to switch on the forwarding, and he answers the next call.
Nothing at all. The service runs on your existing line. The dashboard opens in a browser, on a computer, a tablet or a phone.
Yes. Twenty minutes of conversation spread over 72 hours, with no card. You register a Swiss mobile number, a code by text message confirms it, then you call Arthur from that number and play the guest: you hear what your guests will hear. The 72 hours start with your first call, not with your sign-up. During the trial your business line is left alone, forwarding only comes on the day you take out a contract.
You write to us, an email is enough. The contract ends at the end of the current monthly cycle, with no notice period, no reason to give and no penalty. Your cycle starts on the day you take out the contract, not on the first of the month. You then switch the forwarding off by dialling #21# and your calls come back to you.
The voice and the calls
What your guests hear, and what Arthur can do.
Yes, and that's deliberate. Before Arthur even speaks, an announcement tells your guest that they're about to be put through to your establishment's voice assistant. Arthur then introduces himself by his first name, and never passes himself off as a human being. What people remember is that someone picked up, instead of the phone ringing unanswered.
He speaks natural British English, and his French is the French of Suisse romande: the formal vous, Swiss francs, and septante, huitante, nonante. The amounts he announces are written out by our servers, in that numbering. That said, an unusual place name or surname can still be misheard over the phone: the setting that will correct this is not in place yet.
He doesn't guess. He takes the message with the caller's number and emails it to you there and then. You call back when you have two minutes, with everything already written down.
Yes, several in parallel: your guests don't get an engaged tone during the Saturday evening rush. The capacity is our platform's, and we raise it as we grow. That's our business, not yours.
Five in all: French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese. If your guest speaks to him in another language from the first words, Arthur carries on in that language. Mid-call he won't switch for a single word: he offers once to continue differently, and changes only if the guest confirms. You, for your part, receive everything in French.
No. Arthur picks up, he doesn't call out. When a request falls outside what he handles, he writes down the message and the caller's number, then sends it to you by email. The number stays clickable in your dashboard: you call back from your own phone, with everything already noted in front of you.
Tradespeople and veterinary practices
Léon and Clara: what changes on the phone depending on the trade.
He answers, asks for the address first, notes what is happening and marks the request as urgent if your job description provides for it. If you have registered an on-call mobile, the alert also goes by text message to that mobile, on top of the email to the team. He promises neither a time of arrival nor a price: you call back, and you quote.
Because a repair request without an address is useless to your team. Our server refuses to record a repair or a visit without an address: Léon asks for it, and as long as it is missing, the request does not go out. A quote request or a follow-up on a file is taken without an address.
No, never, even when pressed, even roughly. No amount and no deadline enters his job description. He takes the request, and your team answers. It is a rule of the product, not a setting.
No. She notes the animal, what the person observes and their number, offers a consultation subject to your confirmation, and flags the emergency when the animal is unwell, according to your job description. She diagnoses nothing and recommends no treatment: the medicine is yours.
No. If your job description lists an on-call service, she gives it as written to the caller whose animal is unwell. She makes no medical decision and replaces no on-call veterinarian: she directs, and your team receives the request in writing.
Contracts and billing
The subscriptions are employment contracts. Compare the price with a wage.
Everything. Reservations, takeaway and delivery orders, confirmation text messages, the reservations book, the dashboard, emails to the team, support. There is no cut-down version: only the volume of conversation changes.
On the 200- and 600-minute plans, extra minutes cost CHF 0.40 each. Exceeding the volume does not block the line. Unlimited has no such surcharge and follows the fair-use terms in article 5.
To the second, on the real length of the conversation. A call of 48 seconds counts as 48 seconds. The month's total is rounded once only, up to the next minute. Your counter is visible at all times in your dashboard.
CHF 469 per month for normal use by one establishment, with no per-minute surcharge. Sustained use above 1,800 minutes may lead to a tailored offer after discussion. Sharing between establishments and reselling are excluded (Terms, article 5).
Each establishment has its own contract, its own number and its own access, with its own email address. Each one gets its own invoice: consolidated billing doesn't exist yet. For a group, write to us and we'll look at your case with you.
By card, on the secure payment page of our provider Stripe: the amount of your contract is debited when you take it out, then automatically at the start of every month. No card goes through our servers. Prices are in Swiss francs, VAT included, and you can cancel any month. Your invoices are listed in your dashboard, under Facturation (Billing), with the amount, the period and the status. For a receipt to file away, write to facturation@reponds.ch and we'll send it to you.
Data and compliance
The subject on which we cut no corners.
Your dashboard, your reservations book and your orders are hosted in Switzerland, at Infomaniak. The voice side, that is the voice, the language model, the transcription and the telephony, goes through providers established in the United States, framed by standard contractual clauses. Active call history has a nine-day retention setting. Purge timing and backup retention are detailed in our privacy policy. To ask for access to your data or for its deletion, write to us: we answer within thirty days.
Yes, and the caller is told before being put through. The recording and transcript have a target active retention of nine days. Purge timing and retention of backup copies are detailed in our privacy policy. You, for your part, receive the written summary of every call in your dashboard, with the time, the number and the length. That's deliberate: less personal data moves around. The recording stays with our own team, and every time it is opened this is logged with the date, the person and the reason. If a call causes a problem, write to us within those nine days and we'll go through it with you.
You and your team see the summary of every call from your dashboard. Our technical team can open the transcript and the recording during the nine days they are kept: every time one is opened this is logged with the date, the person and the reason. If you came through a partner, that partner sees your dashboard as you do. Nobody else.
We work under the Swiss LPD, the federal data protection act. Your guest is told before being put through, and Arthur introduces himself in his first sentence: he never passes himself off as a human being. The dashboard and the database are hosted in Switzerland; the voice, the language model and the telephony go through American providers, under standard contractual clauses and a data processing agreement. It's all written down, provider by provider, on our Data protection page.
Limits and outages
What he doesn't do, and what happens when something breaks.
Our systems are monitored continuously and our team steps in once an incident is detected. We don't promise automatic failover: that mechanism does not exist yet, and we'd rather tell you. In the meantime you stay in control, a code dialled from your phone switches the forwarding off and your line rings at your place again, in a matter of seconds. That code is in your dashboard.
The total is worked out by our servers from your menu, it's never given from memory. A dish that isn't on your menu has the order refused, nothing is ever improvised. For delivery, the address is measured against your radius and refused if it's too far. And when an address can't be located, the order reaches you marked to be checked: you're the one who decides.
Promise a table that doesn't exist, invent a price, or decide in place of your team. Every reservation and every order goes through your approval.
The best answer is the one you hear.
Open your trial and play the guest: twenty minutes of calls spread over 72 hours, with no card.