Let Your Muse Answer Your Business Line

A muse can answer your business phone line through a phone connector, taking calls around the clock, booking callers onto your calendar, and keeping a record of everyone who called.

What it does

A missed call at a small business is often a lost customer, and most owners cannot sit by the phone all day. With the phone connector added, your muse works from a business number that comes with the setup. It answers every call, or only the ones you miss, in English or Spanish, and can book the caller onto your Google or Outlook calendar. It also remembers people: each number is checked against your customer records, known callers are greeted by name, and every call and text is saved on that person's record. The same number works the other way. Your muse can call and text customers from it, text back anyone you missed, and call you at a set time, such as 8 in the morning on weekdays, to walk through your day.

How to use it

1. Add the phone connector to your muse as a custom connection, following the service's setup prompt.
2. Give any account key through the secure prompt when asked. Never paste a key into the chat.
3. Check the connection before you trust it: ask the muse to list your phone lines and confirm the business number is there.
4. Set the answering rules in plain words: which hours it covers, and what it may book without asking you first.
5. Try it yourself. Ring the number, ask for an appointment, and read the record it saved afterward.
6. Review the first week of records, and tighten the rules on anything it handled loosely.

What you need

• A muse account
• An account with the phone connector service, which provides the number (answering plans start at $35 a month)
• A Google or Outlook calendar if you want callers booked
• Your customer records, if you want callers recognized by name

What to watch for

• Texts and calls from the number go out at once and cannot be taken back, so keep approval on for outbound messages at first.
• A connector in the list is not proof it works. The phone line check in step 3 is the proof, so do not skip it.
• Start with missed calls only. A week of records shows you how callers use the line before you hand it every call.
• Prices, refunds, and promises to customers should stay yours to approve, not the answering setup's to make.