Ecommerce answering service for online stores

An online store that lists a phone number makes a small promise: a shopper with a question can reach someone. For a small team, that promise is hard to keep. The people who would answer are packing orders, writing product copy or clearing the inbox, and the phone keeps ringing about the same few things. Will this fit? When will it arrive? How do I send it back? An ecommerce answering service takes those calls off your team. The real choice is which kind of service, and what the shopper has when the call ends.

A traditional answering service sends your calls to operators who work for the service. You give them instructions, they greet callers in your store's name, take a message, and your team calls back later. Billing is usually by the minute or per call. For a store with hundreds of products, keeping those instructions current is the hard part, because sizes, materials, shipping zones and return windows move with each collection and each sale. The answering service overview compares the general options; this page looks at the store phone.

Asyntai takes another route. It is an AI answering service that reads your store. Give it your store address and it goes through the site page by page: product descriptions, the size guide, the shipping page, the returns page and the FAQ. Upload documents for the details that are not on the site, such as a full measurement chart or preorder terms, and add a few AI Instructions in plain English. When a shopper calls, the agent says it is an AI assistant, gives your greeting, and answers from that material. The caller hears a reply within a second or two and can interrupt it, as with a person. If the material leaves a question open, the agent offers a callback request.

Take an online linen clothing store as an example. A caller is between two sizes on a shirt. The size guide says the cut is relaxed and suggests the smaller size, so that is the advice the caller gets, with the chest measurement from the chart. Another caller wants to know if an order placed today will arrive by Saturday. The store's instruction says to give delivery times only as the shipping page states them, so the agent gives the standard delivery window and the cut-off for same-day dispatch, and stops there. A third caller washed a pair of trousers and now wants to return them. The returns page covers unworn items, so the agent explains the policy and takes the caller's name and number for the customer care team.

Order status is the question that lives outside your website. If your store system has an API, a Custom Tool on the Standard plan or higher lets the agent fetch live data during the call: the shopper gives the order number, and the agent reads out the status and the carrier from your system. Without an API, the call ends in a callback request. The agent asks for the shopper's name and the number to ring back, repeats the number one digit at a time and waits for a yes, then sends the request to your escalation email. Each call is saved in your dashboard with the full transcript, so whoever calls back already sees the order number and the question.

Some calls need a person: a double charge, a parcel that arrived damaged, a shopper who simply wants to talk to someone. Each imported number can have a transfer number, such as the support desk or a mobile. During the hours set under Escalate to Human, the agent tells the caller it is putting them through, and your phone shows the caller's own number. When nobody answers within 20 seconds, or the line is busy, the caller returns to the agent, which apologizes and takes a callback request. Outside those hours, a request for a person becomes a callback request at once. Wholesale buyers, stockists and press contacts can leave a phone number or email address, which is saved as a lead when lead collection is on.

The phone is only one door into the store. The same agent can answer your website chat from the same pages, documents and AI Instructions, and it can add a voice button to the chat widget, so a shopper can talk instead of type. A shopper who asks about returns in the chat on Sunday and calls about it on Monday hears the same answer twice. When a policy changes, update the document, or have Asyntai read the changed page again, and both channels give the new answer. If you only want the phone covered after your support team logs off, the after-hours answering service page describes that setup.

Phone calls are part of the Voice Agent on two plans. Standard is $139 a month with 200 voice minutes and 2 calls at the same time; Pro is $449 a month with 1,500 voice minutes and 5 calls at the same time. Each answer on a call counts as one AI reply, and Twilio bills the number and minutes on your own account. To start, add your store, upload the size chart, write your rules and make a free test call in your browser on the Voice Agent page. Ask what your shoppers ask your team. When the answers match your pages, connect Twilio, import the number and decide which calls it takes. The voice agent guide shows each setting.