An AI call centre that
you never have to staff.
Every call answered in seconds, no queue, no busy tone — even when half your customers ring at once on Monday morning. fonea books appointments, answers your common questions in five languages, and transfers urgent calls to you. Call-centre coverage, none of the headcount.
What is an AI call centre?
An AI call centre — or call center — is software that answers your business calls with a natural voice: every caller gets through instantly, questions answered, appointments booked, urgent calls transferred, without hiring or outsourcing a single agent.
Why small businesses lose this fight
Call-centre demand on a two-person phone line
Your call volume spikes; your team doesn’t
Calls don’t arrive evenly. They pile up after the weekend, after you send an offer, after it rains on your roofing customers. A line sized for the average is overwhelmed at the peak — and the peak is exactly when callers are deciding who gets their business.
Demand is spiky, staffing is flat
Outsourced call centres take messages, not bookings
A traditional answering service works from a script and bills per call. The agent can’t see your calendar, can’t answer anything off-script, and quality varies with whoever picks up that shift. The result: a pile of “please call back” notes you still have to work through.
Per-call billing, no real outcomes
Hiring for the phone doesn’t add up
Covering 7 am to 9 pm plus weekends takes more than one salary — for a phone that is silent half the day and jammed the other half. Most small businesses quietly accept missed calls instead, and never find out what those calls were worth.
Full coverage costs multiple salaries
What changes
Call-centre coverage without the call centre
Parallel calls don’t queue
When three customers ring at the same moment, all three are answered at the same moment. The Monday 8 am spike sounds exactly like the Tuesday 3 pm lull — no hold music, no busy tone.
Consistent quality on every call
No good days and bad days, no new starter still learning your services. Every caller hears the same accurate opening hours, the same prices, the same polite tone — on call one and call one thousand.
Resolves calls, doesn’t relay them
Connected to Google Calendar or Microsoft 365, fonea books and reschedules appointments while the caller is on the line. The call ends with an outcome, not a message slip.
Five languages, zero routing menus
fonea detects the caller’s language and answers naturally in English, Spanish, French, German, or Italian. No “press 2 for Spanish” — the multilingual desk big call centres charge extra for, built in.
Live in hours
From overloaded line to AI call centre
Nothing changes for your callers
Your published number stays exactly as it is — no porting, no new contracts. Customers dial the number they have always dialled.
Divert calls on your terms
Forward everything, only overflow when your line is busy, or only when nobody picks up within a few rings. fonea can be your whole front line or just your safety net — and you can change it in seconds.
fonea answers, resolves, escalates
The assistant greets callers with your business name, answers your common questions, books into your calendar, and transfers anything you define as urgent straight to your mobile.
Every call lands in your inbox
After each call you get a structured summary by email or text: who called, what they wanted, what was booked or promised. The overview a call-centre dashboard gives — without the dashboard.
Typical call scenarios
How fonea handles a busy line
Monday 8 am — three callers at once
While this caller reschedules, the other two are already being answered too. Parallel calls don’t queue — the spike never reaches your customers.
A caller switches to Spanish
Language detected mid-greeting, answered natively, enquiry turned into a delivery slot. No transfer to “the colleague who speaks Spanish”.
The call that genuinely needs you
Escalation rules you define, applied the same way every time. Frustrated callers reach a human; routine calls never have to.
GDPR and data protection
A call centre that takes compliance off your plate
UK GDPR & EU GDPR compliant
Calls are processed under a data processing agreement, encrypted in transit and at rest, with retention periods you configure. Your customer data is handled the way a regulated call operation should handle it.
European infrastructure
AI processing runs on European infrastructure; persistent data is stored in Switzerland, a jurisdiction with an EU adequacy decision. No offshore agents, no data detours through opaque third countries.
AI disclosure built for the EU AI Act
Every caller is told at the start of the call that they are speaking with a digital assistant — the transparency that Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires from 2 August 2026. The disclosure cannot be switched off.
No voice profiles, no biometrics
fonea does not build voiceprints. Calls are transcribed in real time and the audio discarded; transcripts are encrypted and deleted on your schedule.
Pricing
Transparent pricing
Included
- 120 minutes AI talk time included
- EN, ES, FR, DE, IT
- Calendar integration & appointment booking
- AI answering machine 24/7
- Interactive AI for customer service
- Email & SMS notifications
- Cancel monthly, no commitment
Included
- 500 minutes AI talk time
- 3 concurrent calls
- 3 phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Basic
- Outbound calls
Included
- From 2,000 minutes
- Custom concurrent calls
- Custom phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Professional
- Custom voice
- Custom SLA
Frequently asked
AI call centre — your questions answered
How is fonea different from an outsourced call centre?
An outsourced call centre puts a human agent on your line who works from a script, bills per call, and usually ends every conversation with “someone will call you back”. fonea actually resolves calls: it answers from your business knowledge, books and reschedules appointments in your real calendar, and transfers urgent callers directly to you. Quality doesn’t vary by shift or by agent, there is no per-call meter running, and nothing about your customers’ calls leaves Europe.
How many calls can fonea handle at the same time?
Parallel calls don’t queue. When several customers ring at once — the Monday-morning spike, the day after a promotion — each one is answered immediately and individually. There is no hold music and no busy tone, because there is no fixed number of agents to run out of. Your quietest hour and your busiest hour sound identical to callers.
How much does an AI call centre cost?
fonea starts at £90 per month and includes 120 minutes of call time. There are no per-call fees, no per-agent seat licences, and no minimum term — you can cancel monthly. Compare that with staffing even one part-time person for the phone, or with an answering service that bills every single call on top of a base fee. Every plan includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Can it really book appointments, or just take messages?
It really books. fonea connects to Google Calendar or Microsoft 365, sees your free slots in real time, and confirms the appointment while the caller is still on the line — including rescheduling and cancellations. Calls it cannot resolve become structured messages with name, number, and concern, sent to you by email or text. Either way, the call ends with a clear outcome.
Is it GDPR compliant — and do callers know it’s AI?
Yes on both counts. fonea operates under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR with a data processing agreement, encryption in transit and at rest, and configurable retention windows. AI processing runs on European infrastructure. And every caller hears at the start of the call that they are speaking with a digital assistant — the disclosure Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires from August 2026 is built in and cannot be disabled.
Do I keep my number, and how fast can I go live?
You keep your number. fonea works through standard call forwarding on your existing line — divert everything, only when busy, or only when unanswered — and the diversion is reversible in seconds. Setup takes hours, not weeks: describe your business and common questions, connect your calendar, set the divert, make a test call. Most businesses go live the same day.
Further reading
AI Call Centre for Small Business: What You Actually Need
Most small businesses searching for an "AI call centre" actually need an AI receptionist. An honest guide to the difference, the costs, and build vs buy.
Can AI Handle Complex Customer Enquiries by Phone?
What voice AI handles well on complex calls — multi-step requests, ambiguity, constraints — where it must hand off to humans, and how to test a vendor.
How Many Calls Can an AI Receptionist Handle at Once?
How many simultaneous calls can an AI receptionist handle? Why callers never hear an engaged tone, what limits capacity, and how to set up for peaks.
How to Automate Customer Service Calls in a Small Business
A practical guide to automating customer service calls in a small business: what to automate first, what to keep human, and how to measure the results.
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