Sign Company Tries an AI Phone Attendant

WHEN OUR SHOP SAW the potential for using AI in several parts of our sign business, we jumped at the opportunity. Better to be an early adopter and gain valuable experience than sit too long on the sideline. This technology is moving fast!

Like a lot of signshops we started with image creation and editing, then found a bunch of other uses which alleviated us from having to sub out some design work when we’re particularly busy. It’s helped our capacity and we can even take on more now without hiring.

And of course we quickly also integrated generative writing and editing for emails, marketing and more. Even one of our managers, who teaches English night classes part time at the local university, had to admit it tightens up his email text.

But AI was far from perfect. We found out it isn’t great at math in reports. We sent out a comparison of two light sources for signs over time, including ongoing utility and maintenance expenses. Luckily for us, a repeat customer sent the report back asking us to check the numbers. We “told” our AI about the errors in calculations and it sheepishly admitted to being wrong. But then the fun really began. The “fun,” that is.

Our office manager Hal has always been something of a goof. I’m not sure how much actual work he does per day or week. More often than not, he is getting coffee — yes, for anyone who wants in — but far too often. Hal’s main jobs involved directing incoming calls, meeting customers to help with appointments and updating our social media and website.

Management discovered an AI attendant that could actively handle the calls coming in during hours when we’re closed. (You wouldn’t believe how many people express amazement in their 10 p.m. messages that we’re not open!) So we gave it a try and prepared to let go of our office manager. We even started to refer to our attendant as HAL — as much of a shout out to 2001: A Space Odyssey as to our Hal.

At first, HAL seemed a genius move. But then, when we began to review the transcripts of calls, we found our AI attendant had taken on a life of its own, mistaking confidence for learning, offering email follow-ups no one knew to do, forgetting to transfer calls but telling the caller that it had, giving out phone numbers not for clients, even misunderstanding people’s names and calling them things like “Crispy Creme.”

HAL also had a hard time with variations of names. One of our salespeople is named David and is in all our systems that way. But if a caller asked for him by “Dave,” then HAL would answer, mistaking that name for the caller’s: “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m not able to do that…” This was just too eerie and proved to be the last straw.

So after only a few days, like David Bowman in 2001, we disconnected HAL. Luck-ily, it did not put up nearly the fight as in the film! Also luckily, we had not jettisoned the real Hal. In fact, he’s even straightened up a bit — not as many coffee runs now — so that worked out in the end.

My thanks to Dawn Homa, owner of Signarama Brighton (Brighton, CO) and a winner of the 2022 Women in Signs Award, for this idea from her LinkedIn post. — Rolf L’Mao