Win work · Suite
erp.ioAn AI receptionist for the shop phone.
The phone rings while you have a bleed kit in your hand. Phony, the erp.io AI receptionist, answers it: it tries your people first, answers from what you have told it, and takes a callback when nobody is free. It runs today.
Inbound · Shop line
Phony · 00:48
Hi — I dropped off a Trek on Saturday. Is it ready?
Thanks for calling. I can take your name and number and have the service desk call you back within the hour — or I can put you through now.
Put me through, please.
Connecting you to the service desk. One moment.
The call you cannot take
In May the phone in a bike shop is a second job. Half the calls are 'is my bike ready?', a quarter are 'how much is a tune-up and how long is the wait?', and the rest are the ones you actually want: a new customer, a fleet manager, someone with a cracked frame and a race on Sunday. They all ring at the moment you are halfway through a brake bleed.
Phony is the erp.io module that answers the phone. It is live today, separate from Service, and it works with BIKE.co the way the rest of the suite does: one login, one workspace, the same customer records. It speaks to callers in a natural voice, and it is built so a caller never reaches silence.
It is worth being exact about what that means for a bike shop today, because an AI receptionist that promises things it cannot do is worse than voicemail.
What Phony does on a call today
When a call comes in, Phony can screen it first, asking the caller to press a key, which drops auto-dialers before they cost you anything. During business hours it rings the people you list, in order, up to five numbers per site. If nobody picks up, the AI agent answers instead of the call dropping.
The agent opens with a spoken disclosure that the caller is talking to an AI, and says the call is recorded if you have turned recording on and it actually started. From there it answers questions from the knowledge you give it: your hours, your tune-up prices, how long the current wait is, whether you work on a particular e-bike motor, where to park. It does not make things up to fill a gap.
When the caller needs a person, the agent can hand them to someone on your team as a warm transfer, with a summary of what they need. When nobody is free, it takes their number and a preferred time and queues a callback, notifies your team and emails the lead to the people you choose. Leads flow into the erp.io CRM, so the next call from that number is not a stranger.
A call to the shop, today
Screening, if you want it
Callers press a key to continue; auto-dialers drop off.
Your people first
During hours, Phony rings your list in order for as long as you set.
The agent answers
With the AI disclosure first, then answers from your knowledge base.
Transfer or callback
A warm transfer to a person, or a callback queued with the caller's number and preferred time.
You hear about it
A notification in Phony, an email to the addresses you pick, and the lead in the CRM.
What you can set up
Ring list per site
Up to five numbers, rung in order, with a ring time you choose.
Call screening
Press-a-key screening to stop robocalls.
Knowledge base
Answers about hours, prices and services from what you write.
Warm transfer
Hands the caller to a person with a summary.
Callbacks and lead alerts
Queued callbacks, notifications and email alerts.
Bike status and booking
Answer "is my bike ready?" and book slots from Service.
Phony next to Service
Phony is its own erp.io module. It shares your workspace, login and CRM with Service, and will call Service for availability and job status as those parts are built.
Illustration · sample data
What it costs
Phony is billed by the minute on top of your erp.io plan: $0.12 per minute of call time, the same rate on every plan. Warm transfers to a person on Phony telephony are $0.04 per minute, and telephony itself is billed at carrier cost. Minutes are counted by the second, not rounded up to the next minute.
For a shop, the question is simple arithmetic. A two-minute call about opening hours costs about a quarter. A missed call from a rider with a broken bike and a race on Sunday usually goes to the next shop on the map.
The erp.io plans themselves start at $20 per user per month on Starter, and every plan comes with a 30-day free trial, no card, with every module included.
FAQ
Questions shop owners ask
Can the AI receptionist tell a customer if their bike is ready?+
Not yet. Phony answers from the knowledge you give it and cannot look up a specific bike. Work orders are live in Service, but Phony is not connected to them yet. When a rider asks about their bike, it can take their number and queue a callback or transfer them to your team.
How much does the AI receptionist cost?+
Phony costs $0.12 per minute of call time on every erp.io plan. Warm transfers to a person on Phony telephony are $0.04 per minute, and telephony is billed at carrier cost.
Will callers know they are speaking to an AI?+
Yes. The agent opens every call with a spoken disclosure that it is an AI, and adds that the call is recorded only when recording is turned on and has actually started.
Does it ring my staff before answering?+
Yes, if you set it up that way. During business hours Phony rings your listed numbers in order, and the AI agent answers only if nobody picks up.
Can it book repair appointments?+
Not into Service yet. Slot booking is on the Service roadmap, and the plan gives Phony a booking tool that uses Service's availability. Today it queues a callback with the caller's preferred time, and your counter can enter the request in Service's Requests inbox.
Keep reading
Take in your next repair on BIKE.co.
30 days free, no card, every erp.io module switched on. Start with a request, end with an invoice.