Owner's guide
Go live, understand every kind of call, and know what to check when something looks wrong.
This is the owner's guide to Elavo Answer: how to go live, what the AI does with each kind of call, how minutes and billing work, and what to check when something looks off. Everything here lives on your dashboard under Calls, Voice and Settings → Billing.
Getting started: live in about ten minutes
Four steps from checkout to answered calls. Each one is on your dashboard under Calls.
1. Pick your number
After your card is processed you land on Calls → Setup. Choose a country and area code (your business phone's area code is suggested), pick one of the local numbers shown, and choose it. Your AI answers on that number immediately. You also get an email with the number for your records.
2. Forward your business line
On the same page, pick who provides your business number. The page shows your carrier's exact forwarding codes with your new number filled in: send every call, only when you don't answer, or only when you're on another call. Dial the code from your business phone, then verify with one test call.
3. Tell it what counts as urgent and who is on call
Calls → Routing. Add the phrases your customers say when it is an emergency ("no heat", "water everywhere", "locked out"), and set on-call windows by day and time with a primary and a backup number. Urgent callers are transferred; routine callers get a message taken.
4. Give it your business details
Settings → AI Assistant and Settings → Services: services and prices, hours, service area, and the greeting. The AI quotes exactly what you enter and never invents a price.
Messages: what the AI took while you were busy
Every call that ends in a message lands in Calls → Messages, and you are notified at once.
What a message contains
Name, callback number, what they need, how urgent, best time to reach them, and the address when it matters. Open a message to see the full call transcript.
How you are notified
Push notification and email for every message. Urgent messages are also texted to your mobile and to the on-call number. Turn on "text me every message" under Calls → Routing if you want everything by text.
Working the list
Tap Call back to dial, Text back to reply from your business line, Mark called back when it is handled, or Close. New and Urgent filters keep the list short.
Escalation
If an urgent message sits unacknowledged past the minutes you set on the on-call window, the backup is paged, then the owner, each once. Opening the message acknowledges it.
Routing: who gets the call
Two modes, one for business hours and one for after hours, plus the urgency words and on-call schedule.
AI first, transfer when needed (default)
The AI helps and books. It hands the call to a person when the caller asks for one during business hours, or when the situation is urgent after hours. If nobody answers, it takes a message.
Transfer every call
The AI greets and immediately hands off. Use this if you always want a person first; the AI is the backup.
Never transfer, take messages
The AI handles everything and takes a message for anything it cannot do. Good for owners who do not want their phone to ring at night at all.
On-call windows
Add windows by day and time. Overnight windows (10pm to 6am) are fine. Each has a primary and an optional backup number and the minutes to wait before escalating.
Minutes and billing
Your plan includes minutes each month. There is no per-minute overage: you add one 300-minute block for $75 when you need more.
What counts
Only time the AI is on the call, in 6-second steps. Calls under 10 seconds, screened spam, and time after a call is transferred to a person are never billed.
Running low
You get an email when minutes are low and again if they hit zero. Buy a block from the Voice page, or turn on auto-recharge with a monthly cap so it is handled for you. With auto-recharge off and a zero balance, calls are not answered until you recharge.
Changing plans
Settings → Billing. Switching changes the price on your existing subscription with proration; you are never billed twice. Cancel any time; service runs to the end of the paid month.
Rollover
Included minutes reset each month. Minutes you bought in blocks never expire.
Recording, spam and the morning report
Three switches on Calls → Routing that most owners set once.
Call recording (off by default)
Calls are transcribed; no audio is kept unless you turn recording on. When on, every caller hears a disclosure before the greeting, and each call on the Voice page gets a Listen link. Many states require every party's consent, so keep the disclosure on and check your state's rules.
Spam screening (on by default)
Blocked numbers and repeat hang-ups are turned away before the AI answers and never use minutes. Block a caller with one click from the Voice call list. Turning away callers who hide their number is a separate switch, off by default.
Morning call report
At 7am Central you get yesterday's calls answered, messages and urgent pages, transfers, bookings, spam screened, minutes used and left, and anything still waiting for a callback. Turn it off under "How you are alerted".
When something looks wrong
The three checks that fix most problems.
Calls are ringing my phone, not the AI
Forwarding has lapsed or was never confirmed. Dial the forwarding code again from your business phone and re-verify on Calls → Setup. Some carriers drop forwarding after a plan change.
The AI said it cannot take calls
Your minute balance is at zero and auto-recharge is off. Buy a block on the Voice page or turn on auto-recharge.
An urgent call did not reach me
Check the on-call window covers that day and time, the primary number is right, and the urgency phrase the caller used is in your list. The message itself is always in Calls → Messages.
Need a person
Email [email protected] from your account email. Include the business name and the time of the call; every call has a transcript we can look at together.
Not an owner yet?
Elavo Answer is live the same day you sign up. Pick a plan, pick a number, forward your line.