One number, every kind of call, one person to answer it
By Design Homes covers a big patch: premium residential sales across North Devon and Exmoor, from Minehead in the east round the coast to Hartland. It is part of the By Design network of premium agencies and specialises in homes over £750,000, the detached Exmoor properties with coastal views that everyone dreams of retiring to.
All of it runs through one central number, and for a self-employed agent that number used to rule the day. Buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants and a steady stream of spam calls all arrive on the same line, and Graham never knows from one call to the next what is incoming. Answering everything meant constant interruptions. Letting anything go meant a voicemail, and almost nobody leaves a voicemail worth calling back.
Why he chose Cyberstaff over an answering service
Graham found Cyberstaff through a Facebook advert while looking for something more capable than a record-your-name-and-number answering service. He had tested other AI answering products as a caller and found them robotic and very obviously AI, and in his experience even human answering services struggle to stay crisp when they have to scurry around an unfamiliar website mid-call.
One test call with Cyberstaff settled it. “I didn't weigh up four or five and choose you from a beauty parade. I jumped on you.” The system has since earned a place in company folklore: when a rival AI answering service cold-called to pitch its wares, the AI Receptionist politely told them By Design was already sorted and did not need their services.
Unknown numbers go to the AI Receptionist. Known clients get Graham.
Graham runs the AI Receptionist as a filtering system. Clients and buyers are saved to his phone, so he answers those calls personally. Every unknown number is deliberately routed to the AI Receptionist, which holds an engaging conversation, filters out the spam and sales calls, and captures a proper brief from genuine enquiries. He then decides who to ring back, and when.
The difference shows in the callbacks. Where an answerphone leaves a mumbled name and number, the AI Receptionist asks the right questions, reads the details back to the caller and stores the number automatically. When someone rings to say they are thinking of selling their house, Graham drops everything and calls back already knowing what the conversation is about. Callers also receive a follow-up text confirming the team will be in touch, so they are on a good journey before he has even picked up the phone.
Set up in about 24 hours, and deliberately kept personal
Setup took roughly 24 hours and three or four calls, and Graham has kept tuning it himself since: the opening message, the questions it asks, and the calendar link that lets busy callers book a call straight into his diary. The booking lands in his inbox and he rings back at the agreed time.
In the £750,000-plus market, relationships sell houses, so Graham keeps the high-value conversations firmly personal. The AI Receptionist owns the first five minutes: a warm first impression, a full brief and a confirmed callback. A couple of weeks in, not one caller has had a negative word to say about it.