AI Receptionist for Dog Daycares: Never Miss a Call

An AI receptionist for a dog daycare answers the calls your front desk cannot reach: the 7:30 check-in rush, the 5:45 pick-up line, and the evening after you lock up, when owners plan their week. It answers from your own rules, books evaluation days, and passes anything about a specific dog to a person.

What it handles

It handles the questions new owners ask before they ever meet you, and the routine calls from existing clients:

• Every call you cannot pick up, introducing itself as your daycare's AI assistant.
• Rates and packages, read from your price sheet: day passes, multi-day packages, memberships, boarding nights, add-ons such as a bath before pick-up.
• Requirements, in your words: vaccines, age minimum, spay or neuter policy, and why every new dog starts with an evaluation day.
• Evaluation day booking into the slots you set aside, with a text confirmation and the new-client packet link.
• Boarding requests, taking dates, number of dogs, sizes and any medications to flag, then telling the owner a person will confirm.
• Grooming and training inquiries, with the basics answered and a callback booked.
• Existing-client messages such as "running 20 minutes late for pick-up", passed to the front desk at once.
• A short summary of every call to the front desk, so nobody has to listen to a recording.

Example of a 9 p.m. call, illustrative only:

Caller: We just got a puppy and I'm going back to the office next month. Do you take puppies?

Receptionist: We do, once they have finished their puppy vaccines and meet our minimum age. Every new dog starts with an evaluation day. I have Saturday morning or next Tuesday. Which suits you?

Caller: Saturday. What does she need?

Receptionist: I'll text you the vaccine list and a link to set up her account. A team member will check the records before Saturday.

What it should not handle

It should not handle anything that needs judgment about a particular dog or a promise only staff can keep. Set these as hard handoffs:

• A dog currently in your care. Any call about an injury, illness, a scuffle or a dog that seems off goes straight to the manager's phone, at any hour.
• Behavior fit. "Will my reactive dog be okay in group play?" deserves a conversation with your trainer or manager, not a script.
• Medication and feeding instructions for boarding. Staff record these directly.
• Held reservations during holiday weeks, unless it can read live availability. A wrong "yes" in December costs you a client.
• Refunds, package disputes and complaints. These go to a person, the same day.
• Vaccine exemptions or any request to bend a safety rule.

If it sends texts, such as confirmations, those need the caller's consent and an easy way to opt out (TCPA rules; CTIA messaging principles).

Integrations with Gingr and your pet care software

The receptionist is only as good as what it can see. Your pet care software, such as Gingr, holds the reservations, vaccine status and packages. How tightly the two connect depends on what integrations your software and the receptionist tool support, so we check that first.

• Connected setup. Where an integration exists, the receptionist reads open evaluation slots and can create a reservation request, so the front desk approves instead of retyping.
• Link setup. Where it does not, the receptionist texts the owner your online booking or new-client portal link, and logs the call for staff to finish.
• CRM. Every call lands in your CRM with a summary and starts follow-up if the owner did not book, as the Facebook lead follow-up guide describes for form leads.
• Phone system. Calls forward to the receptionist when the desk does not answer within a few rings, or after hours, so your staff still answer first when they can.

How we set it up

1. Assess. We pull a month of call logs by hour and list the questions owners actually ask, from your recordings and front-desk notes.
2. Prioritize. We decide what it answers, what it books and what it hands off, and write that into an answer sheet you approve.
3. Execute. We build the script, connect your phone, CRM and software, and test it with real scenarios: the new puppy, the holiday boarding request, the late pick-up, the call about a dog that seems unwell.
4. Measure. After launch we review transcripts weekly, tune the answers, and report calls answered, evaluation days booked and handoffs.

For where a phone assistant fits among other uses, see how to use AI in a dog daycare.

How VETS Growth Marketing helps

We set up the AI receptionist as a dated project, with the phone numbers, CRM and recordings in your name. We report in evaluation days booked and calls rescued from the drop-off rush, not minutes of AI talk time. Bring your call log to a growth consultation and we will count with you how many calls go unanswered each week.