5 minutes read

What is a callbot? How it works, benefits, costs

Callbots are transforming customer service by automating up to 40% of contact center calls, helping businesses handle high volumes efficiently. These AI-powered voice assistants deliver faster, cheaper support. Read more below!

Published on

January 29, 2025

Maurizio Isendoorn

Co-Founder

Let's talk about a revolution happening in customer service right now. Imagine having a superhuman customer service rep who never gets tired, never takes a break, and can handle multiple calls simultaneously. That's exactly what callbots are doing for businesses.

Here's a crazy stat: At the end of 2019, a BVA group study found that 65% of people still prefer calling a company by phone. But here's the problem: most customer service teams are stretched thin, struggling to handle the massive volume of incoming calls.

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Enter callbots - the AI-powered solution that's changing the game. According to a McKinsey Future of Work report, artificial intelligence can now automate 40% of customer service calls. That's not just a small improvement - that's a massive transformation.

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So what exactly is a callbot?

Think of a callbot like a super-smart digital receptionist who lives in your phone system. It's an AI-powered voice assistant that can:

✅ Answer customer calls 24/7

✅ Understand and solve customer problems

✅ Eliminate wait times

✅ Handle multiple conversations at once

You've probably met similar tech before - Siri and Alexa are cousins to callbots. But here's the key difference: while Siri might help you set a timer, a callbot is specifically designed to solve complex customer service issues over the phone.

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Callbot vs. voicebot: What's the difference?

Let's clear up some tech lingo. All these technologies are based on conversational AI, but they're not exactly the same:

Voicebots can live anywhere: smartphones, speakers, GPS
Callbots are specialized voicebots focused exclusively on phone interactions

The big unlock? Callbots can handle real, complex conversations. We're talking about calls that might last 3-5 minutes, diving deep into customer needs and solving real problems.

For e-commerce stores drowning in customer service calls, callbots aren't just a nice-to-have. They're becoming a must-have strategy for scaling customer support without breaking the bank.

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Callbot vs Voicebot: What's the Difference?

Feature	Voicebots	Callbots
Location	Everywhere: smartphones, speakers, GPS	Focused exclusively on phone interactions
Conversation Depth	Simple interactions	Complex conversations (3-5 minute calls)
Primary Use	General voice assistance	Customer service problem-solving
Complexity Level	Basic commands	Deep customer need understanding

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The benefits of callbots

For a customer service department, handling tons of phone calls is like burning money. At the same time, contact centers are struggling to hire people and keep them happy so they don't quit.

This is why automation is taking over customer service: by automating boring calls, companies can slash costs while cutting down on mind-numbing tasks for their agents.

Not every call is created equal for a business. Callbots are built to handle low-value calls that companies still want to keep on the phone line. This frees up hundreds of hours for agents to do work that actually matters.

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Callbot Benefits for Customer Service

Benefit	What This Means	Impact on Business
80% Self-Care by Phone	Customers solve problems without agent help	Reduces support team workload
40% Reduction in Call Handling Time	Automated data entry and task handling	Increases agent productivity
10% Increase in Customer Satisfaction	24/7 availability, instant responses	Improves customer experience
Cost Efficiency	5-10x cheaper than human agents	Significant cost savings
Always Available	No breaks, no sick days, no limitations	Consistent customer support

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Ringly.io has launched dozens of callbot projects. Here are some mind-blowing results from contact centers:

80% self-care by phone call: Customers get more independent, solving problems without agent intervention.
40% reduction in average call handling time (AHT): Automating repetitive tasks like data entry supercharges agent productivity.
A 10% increase in customer satisfaction: Callbots are always ready, 24/7, even when calls are through the roof.

How does a callbot work?

A callbot uses cutting-edge conversational AI tech. To chat for several minutes, a callbot combines different tech pieces that crush complex tasks in milliseconds.

Connected to the contact center's phone system, often in the cloud, the callbot grabs calls from a specific number. It then follows a discussion scenario programmed by the business team.

When someone speaks, the system catches their voice with the VAD (Voice Activity Detection) piece. It then turns sound into text using an ASR (automatic speech recognition) system. These two pieces create the STT (speech to text) engine, transforming voice into written words.

The text (transcript) gets analyzed by the AI engine, called NLU (natural language understanding), which figures out the caller's goal (intention) from their words. Just like a human would!

Using the intention, the dialog manager picks the best answer based on the scenario and business rules. It then transforms the answer into voice using the TTS (Text to Speech) piece, which reads the message in a synthetic voice. And boom - a machine talking to a human!

The big challenge for today's callbot solutions is doing all this super fast - one to two seconds max. Technical performance hugely impacts the caller's experience, and their satisfaction.

At Ringly, this led them to use a flow architecture that runs these operations at the same time, not one after another. This lets their callbots respond as quickly as a human and keep conversations smooth.

What Place for the Callbot in Tomorrow's Contact Center?

Artificial intelligence for customer relations is a game-changer. Right now, 40% of contact center calls are completely automatable with existing tech.

But here's the cool part - this isn't about replacing humans. Call center agents will actually have a super important role in future customer relations.

Sure, callbots crush simple and repetitive tasks. But the real magic is mobilizing employees during critical customer relationship moments to deliver an authentic, standout experience.

Picture this: a contact center where voice agents handle all the repetitive call tasks (understanding needs, identifying customers), deliver solutions that make customers independent, and only pass high-value calls to top-tier advisors. Callbot development actually means leveling up team skills.

Is a Callbot Just a Talking Chatbot?

Technically, yeah.

But hold up - a callbot is totally different from a vocalized chatbot. Both use conversational AI, but voice has unique quirks that need to be built into the tech.

This is what lets callbots nail the caller experience. Think about it: a chatbot taking four seconds to respond? No big deal in text. But in a phone call, you better answer in under two seconds, or you'll create awkward pauses that kill the conversation.

How Much Does a Callbot Cost?

Launching a callbot is a big move for companies with serious call volumes.

Setting up a basic bot takes just days, with a proof-of-concept (POC) costing between 10,000 and 30,000 €.

Most solutions use a pay-per-use model based on call volume or call minutes, like Ringly.io. You can start with Ringly.io for just $21/mth and automatically grow with the amount of call minutes you use. Get started here.

Handling a call with a callbot costs five to ten times less than a human agent.

Conclusion:

Callbots are a productivity powerhouse for contact centers. Right now, they're best for high-volume operations. But as the tech gets smarter, costs will drop. Soon, not just big companies, but SMBs will be running callbots!

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