QuestionsThe awkward ones,
The awkward ones,
answered straight.
Guest spots, conventions, flash days, the client who wants a name on a hand, and the one who calls on day four convinced their piece is infected.
Running the shop
The things that come up in a studio and nowhere else.
We have a guest artist for two weeks. Can it book them?
Yes — add them as an artist with their own dates and styles, and it books them like anyone else. When the guest spot ends you remove them, and it stops offering those slots. Changing your artist list takes about a minute and costs nothing, which matters in a shop where the roster moves constantly.
We're at a convention all weekend and the shop is shut. What then?
You tell it, in your own words, what to say and what to do — take messages, book for the week after, or reach whoever is still reachable. It doesn't invent an answer about whether you're open, because it's specifically instructed never to guess your hours.
Flash day. The phone rings forty times in an hour. Does it cope?
It takes many calls at the same time, so nobody hears a busy signal on the one afternoon of the month that fills your book. That's the day it earns its keep — a shop with one person at the desk physically cannot answer forty calls, and every unanswered one on a flash day is somebody who was ready to sit today.
Someone wants a piece nobody here will do. Hands, faces, a name.
You give it your line on that at setup and it holds it — kindly, and without a debate. It takes their name and number anyway so you can refer them somewhere rather than leaving them with nothing. It never argues about your policy and never makes an exception to it.
What if they ask for an artist who's left the shop?
It tells them that artist isn't taking bookings here, doesn't say where they went, and offers whoever does that style now. What it says about a departed artist is your call, set at setup — this is the kind of thing shops care a lot about and generic software gets wrong.
Can it take the deposit?
No, and deliberately so. It explains your deposit policy and sends them to your booking or payment link. It will not read card numbers over the phone — that's a chargeback and a PCI problem waiting to happen, and no receptionist worth having would do it.
Half our clients are Spanish-speaking. Does that work?
On the Growth plan and up it answers in Spanish as fluently as in English, switching to whichever the caller uses without being asked. Below that it's English only — so if your walk-ins are bilingual, that's the thing that should decide your plan.
Will my clients know it's an AI?
If they ask, it says so — that's a hard rule and it doesn't dodge it. It also never claims to be a specific person on your staff. Most callers are booking a consult and never think to ask; the ones who do get a straight answer.
Our shop number already shows up as 'Spam Likely' on cells.
That's a carrier label on your existing number, and it gets fixed by registering and branding that number in place — never by giving you a new one, because yours is on your sign and your cards. It's part of setup, it's included, and it clears in a few days rather than instantly.
What if it says something I hate?
You open your dashboard, change the wording, and publish. About a minute, no charge, no ticket, no waiting on us. Every call is recorded and transcribed, so you can hear exactly what it said rather than relying on a client's account of it.
The line and the law
Age, medical advice, and money.
The three places a receptionist can genuinely cost a shop something.
Will it quote a price for a tattoo?
No — and that's the point. It never gives a number, a range, or a ballpark over the phone. It takes the brief properly instead: what the piece is, how big, where it's going, what style, whether it's a cover-up. Then it books the consult or writes it up so you can price it once you've actually seen the reference. The shop minimum is the only figure it will state, and only if you've given it one.
What happens when someone under eighteen calls?
It asks up front, and if they're under eighteen it does not book a tattoo — no parental-consent workaround, because in New York there isn't one. Tattooing a minor is a crime under Penal Law §260.21 regardless of what a parent says. It tells them kindly to come back at eighteen with photo ID. Piercing runs under a different law, so if your shop pierces, it handles that conversation separately rather than lumping the two together.
We have four artists who all book their own calendars. Can it handle that?
Yes — that's the routing it's built for. It asks what the piece is and what style they're after, and sends them to the artist who does that work rather than the next open slot. If they name an artist, it books with that artist. If nobody's a fit, it takes the brief and lets you place it, instead of putting a fine-line request on a realism artist's calendar.
Someone calls saying their new tattoo looks infected. What does it do?
It does not diagnose it, doesn't say it looks normal, and doesn't tell them what to put on it. It tells them to see a doctor, takes down what they're describing, and flags it to you immediately so you can call them back yourself. Aftercare instructions you've written are the only thing it will read out.
Most of our enquiries come through Instagram DMs, not the phone.
Then the calls you do get are the ones that matter most — someone serious enough to dial. Those are exactly what a busy shop misses, because everyone with a free hand is holding a machine. It picks those up, screens them, and books them. It answers the phone line; it doesn't reach into your DMs.
Will it sound like a robot to my clients?
Call the demo line and judge it yourself — that's the only answer worth anything. It's trained on your shop: your artists, your styles, your deposit policy, your hours, the way you talk to people. And you hear it and approve it before a single client ever reaches it.
Everything else
The questions every business asks, not just tattoo shops.
Do I keep my existing phone number?
Yes. The number on your cards, your website, and your Google listing stays exactly where it is — your Connect page shows your carrier's exact forwarding code with your number already filled in, and on a cell phone it's one tap that dials itself. Prefer to answer when you can? Choose "you first" and your receptionist only picks up what you can't. Turning it off is one tap too.
How long does setup take?
Your part is about five minutes of short answers about your business. Our AI does the building: it reads your website, drafts your front office, and gets it ready. Then we call you so you can talk to it yourself, ask it what your customers ask, and change anything that isn't right — it goes live only when you say so. The last step is forwarding your line, which most carriers do in about a minute.
Will my callers know they're talking to an AI?
Yes — and we're proud of that. Your receptionist says who it is in the opening greeting: your business's AI assistant. No tricks, no pretending to be a person, and if a caller asks outright it tells them again. What actually earns a caller's trust is picking up on the first ring at nine at night and solving the problem — and being straight about it from the first sentence keeps you on the right side of every disclosure rule as they arrive.
What happens if it gets something wrong?
It's built not to guess. When a question falls outside what you've told it, it doesn't invent an answer — it follows the fallback you chose: hand the call to a person, take a detailed message, or promise a callback. Every call is recorded and transcribed, so if it ever handles something the wrong way you can read exactly what was said, fix the instruction in your dashboard, and have the corrected version answering your line about a minute later. You are never left guessing what your own phone said.
What if two people call at once?
They both get answered. Your receptionist isn't one person with one phone — it takes several calls at the same time, so a busy Monday morning sounds exactly like a quiet Tuesday afternoon to whoever is calling you. Nobody hears a busy signal and nobody waits on hold.
Still not answered? Ask us directly — or call the demo line and ask it yourself.