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AI Receptionist

MaidSense, your AI receptionist, answers customer texts and chats around the clock. The Receptionist workspace is where your team keeps an eye on all of that activity — see how the AI is performing, read any conversation, and follow up when a customer needs a person.

What the AI Receptionist does​

The AI Receptionist greets customers, answers questions, qualifies leads, builds quotes, and books jobs — automatically, without staff involvement. Most conversations run start to finish on their own.

When a conversation needs a human touch — a special request, a complaint, or a customer who simply wants to talk to a person — MaidSense raises an escalation so your team can step in. The Receptionist workspace brings the conversations, the performance numbers, and the escalations together in one place.

Who can access this​

RoleAccess level
AdministratorView and follow up
Office ManagerView and follow up
SalesView and follow up
HR AdminView and follow up
Payroll AdminView and follow up

To view the workspace you need receptionist read access. To take over a conversation, follow up on an escalation, or mark one handled, you also need write access. If you open the page without read access, Pulse shows a Receptionist access required message — ask your administrator to check your permissions.

note

The AI Receptionist is a standard part of MaidSense, but some optional add-ons may need to be enabled for your company. See Optional add-ons below.

Open the workspace​

  1. In the left navigation, select MaidSense.
  2. Select the Receptionist tab.

The workspace has three sections stacked top to bottom: Analytics Overview, Conversations, and Escalation Log. Use the refresh button in the top header any time to pull the latest data across all three.

Analytics Overview​

The top section, Analytics Overview, shows how the receptionist is performing. You can collapse it with the arrow in its header when you want more room for conversations.

At the top are performance tiles including Total Conversations, Active Conversations, Lead Conversions, Escalated, Avg Turn Count, Escalation Rate, Opt-Out Rate, and Spam Rate. Below the tiles, two charts break the numbers down:

  • Intent Distribution — what customers are reaching out about.
  • Phase Funnel — how far conversations get, from greeting through booking.

A second group of tiles under Escalation Metrics tracks follow-up health: Total Escalations, Unanswered Follow-ups, Assigned Follow-ups, Pending, Resolved, Overdue Follow-ups, and Avg Resolution Time. A rising Unanswered Follow-ups count means customers are waiting longer than they should.

Conversations​

The Conversations section is the browser for every text and chat MaidSense has handled. Use the filters at the top to narrow the list:

  • Search phone — find a customer by phone number.
  • All conversation dates — filter by date.
  • Phase, Intent, Review, and Flags — filter by where a conversation ended up, what it was about, its review status, or a quality flag such as Bad Answer or Follow-up.

Select a conversation to open its details on the right. You'll see the caller's identity (shown as name first, then phone, then email — or Anonymous if nothing is known), the linked records such as a lead, quote, or booking, and the full transcript. Each message is labeled Customer, Visitor, or AI so you always know who said what.

For a text conversation, a small badge shows which phone line handled it — for example MaidSense dedicated or V2 standard, followed by the last four digits. If the line can't be identified, the badge reads Unknown route · Manual review.

Taking over a conversation​

From a conversation's details you can step in and reply directly while MaidSense keeps handling everyone else. This is covered in its own guide — see Taking Over an AI Receptionist Conversation.

Escalation Log​

The bottom section, Escalation Log, lists conversations that need staff attention. Tabs across the top group them:

  • Active — escalations waiting on a response.
  • Resolved — escalations your team has closed out.
  • All — everything, including older escalations that timed out under a previous version of the system (badged "Overdue (legacy)").

Each escalation card shows the customer, the reason, a short summary, who it's assigned to, and how long it's been waiting. A red Follow-up overdue flag appears when an escalation has waited too long. If MaidSense has a suggestion, the card shows a Recommended line.

Following up on an escalation​

  1. In the Escalation Log, find the escalation you want to work.
  2. Select Claim to assign it to yourself (available on live, unassigned escalations), or open it with Follow up or View.
  3. In the detail drawer, review the customer identity, summary, and transcript. If the escalation came from a message MaidSense couldn't answer, a Customer is waiting on block quotes the customer's last unanswered message so you know exactly what to respond to.
  4. Reply directly by taking over the conversation, or use the actions menu to Take over, Mark handled, or Dismiss.
  5. To close it out, choose Mark handled, pick an outcome — Reply sent, No response needed, or Handled elsewhere — add an optional note, and confirm.

The drawer also shows a grouped Activity history so you can see everything that has happened on the escalation, such as tickets or notes created and customer notifications delivered.

Notification bell and live alerts​

You don't have to keep the Receptionist workspace open to know when something needs attention. When a new active escalation arrives, Pulse pops up a small alert in the bottom-right corner showing the reason and summary. Select the alert — or its Open button — to jump straight to that escalation with it already selected.

New escalations also appear as rows in the notification bell drawer. A bell row and a pop-up alert lead to the same place, so you can act from whichever you notice first. Pulse is careful not to flood you: it won't re-alert you about escalations that were already there when you opened the page, and it never shows the same one twice.

Optional add-ons​

The core AI Receptionist is always available. These optional capabilities may need to be enabled for your company:

  • Voice (Standard and Premium) — lets the AI receptionist answer inbound phone calls, not just texts and chats. These are paid plans and are turned on per company by MaidCentral staff.
  • Dedicated Number — runs the AI receptionist on its own Twilio phone number, separate from your standard line. See Set up a dedicated phone number for the AI receptionist.
  • Automatic Quote Email — automatically emails a customer their written quote when the receptionist captures a quoted lead with an email address.
  • Business knowledge base — gives your MaidSense receptionist your own FAQ, policies, services, hours, pricing, and service areas so it answers with your specifics instead of a generic guess. Manage it under Settings > MaidSense > Knowledge Base — see MaidSense Settings.
  • Brand Voice — lets you set phrases to avoid, preferred vocabulary, tone notes, and answer guidelines so MaidSense's wording matches how your company talks — without changing what it's allowed to do. Configure it under Settings > MaidSense > Receptionist + Widget — see MaidSense Settings.
  • Portal reply fallback — delivers a staff reply by text or email when a customer isn't active in the portal chat. This also applies when staff take over a Portal Chat conversation from the Escalation Log — see Taking Over an AI Receptionist Conversation.
note

If you don't see one of these, contact your administrator to check your company's feature settings.

To manage who gets notified about escalations, and through which channels, see MaidSense Settings — MaidSense Alerts.

Set up a dedicated phone number for the AI receptionist​

Set up the AI receptionist's own Twilio number under Settings > MaidSense > Receptionist + Widget, in AI Receptionist Channels. It must be a different number from your standard business line.

  1. Click Configure AI Receptionist Number.
  2. Enter the Account SID, Auth Token and Phone Number from your Twilio account. Caller ID is optional.
  3. Click Save AI Configuration.

To replace the number later, click Update AI Receptionist Number and re-enter the Account SID and Auth Token. Remove dedicated credentials deletes the saved number; it does not move incoming texts back to your standard line.

You need permission to view and update provider settings to see this form. Your standard Twilio number stays under Settings > Integrations > Communication Providers > Twilio.

Tips and best practices​

  • Check the Escalation Log regularly, and watch the Unanswered Follow-ups tile for a rising count.
  • Claim an escalation before you start working it so teammates know it's covered.
  • Add a clear note when you mark an escalation handled — it helps if the customer reaches out again.
  • Use the conversation filters to find a specific customer quickly instead of scrolling.
  • Keep an eye on the pop-up alerts even when you're on another page — they link straight to what needs attention.

Troubleshooting​

What you seeWhat to do
"Receptionist access required" messageYour role doesn't have receptionist read access. Ask your administrator.
No Claim, Take over, or Mark handled optionsYou have view access but not write access. Ask your administrator for write permission.
The whole Receptionist tab is missingThe AI Receptionist may not be enabled for your company. Contact your administrator.
A phone line badge shows "Unknown route · Manual review"The line handling the text couldn't be identified. Review the conversation and follow up manually if needed.
A customer says they never heard backOpen the conversation, check whether it was escalated, and take it over to reply directly.