The AI phone receptionist

Lethra can answer your firm’s phone line with an AI receptionist built on a live voice connection (Twilio carries the call, OpenAI’s realtime voice model holds the conversation). It picks up when a call comes in, speaks with the caller in real time, and puts what it learns onto the right record.

When it answers

The receptionist answers within your configured business hours, and outside them if you have turned on after-hours coverage. If a call comes in while neither applies, it forwards to your configured number instead, or plays a short closed message if no number is set.

You can also give it a forwarding number so it can hand a live call straight to a person when that is the right thing to do.

What it can do on a call

What the receptionist offers depends on which of these you have turned on in its settings. All three can run together, and it moves between them smoothly within a single call rather than forcing a caller to choose.

Intake. If someone has died, it gathers their name and a callback number calmly, reassures them the team has been alerted, and takes the message as urgent. It does not walk into a planning conversation on this path, even if planning is also enabled.
Questions and answers. It answers from your firm’s knowledge base and the details on your company profile: address, phone number, services, team. If it does not know something, it offers to take a message rather than guess.
Plan ahead. For a caller arranging their own funeral in advance, it walks through what matters, burial or cremation, the kind of ceremony, music or readings, who should be involved, one topic at a time, and records it as a lead for your team to follow up on.

For anything urgent or requiring a human decision, including complex pricing or a complaint, it transfers to a human if a forwarding number is configured, and takes a message if one is not.

What it records on the case

Every call becomes a conversation in the inbox, attached to the caller’s number. During the call it keeps a running transcript, and depending on how the conversation went, it records:

A message, with the caller’s name if given, a callback number, the reason they called, and an urgency level. A high-urgency message, such as a death being reported, alerts your team immediately rather than waiting for someone to check the inbox.
A pre-planning lead, when the caller was arranging their own arrangements ahead of time, with their wishes and contact details.
A transfer, when it hands the call to a human.

Whatever it captures lands on the conversation in the same place as your emails and chats, so the context is there the next time anyone opens it.

What it never promises

It does not invent an answer. If something is not in your knowledge base or company details, it says so and offers to take a message instead of guessing.
It does not quote or negotiate pricing.
It does not commit your firm to a date, a supplier, or a service it has not been told about.
It does not act on anything outside the call it is currently handling. If a family already told your firm something on a different call or by email, the receptionist only knows once it is on the case.

Where every call ends up: The inbox, in depth.