Every owner asks the same question before putting an AI assistant on their phone line: will callers be able to tell? The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how the assistant is built, and the most convincing evidence is what happens when nobody warns the caller.
NextGen Power Wash LLC is a Florida pressure washing company owned by Lou Germini. Propelity built and deployed Amanda, an AI voice assistant that answers NextGen’s inbound calls, engages the caller, and captures the details Lou needs to quote the job.
Week one: treat it like a new hire, not a switch
The most useful thing Lou did was refuse to treat the launch as an on/off event. After Amanda’s first full week he sent this:
Just an update on Amanda! As of today, Sunday, Amanda has completed her first full week of work here at NextGen Power Wash LLC.
I’m happy to report that she is quickly getting up to speed and making herself a valued part of our organization. Sure she had some bumps in the first few days but hey! All new employees have to know that she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know at the beginning and it’s important to stay on task, push through and work to learn and build skill and confidence.
Thank you for putting us together and looking forward to having Amanda being part of our team here at NextGen for years to come!
Lou Germini, Owner, NextGen Power Wash LLC
The call that settled the question
A few weeks in, someone called NextGen asking to speak with Lou. Amanda took the call. The caller never worked out that he was talking to software, and drew his own conclusion about who she was:
John has been amazing to work with to get everything set up! Amanda, my new AI assistant, is so authentic she even fooled a customer today. A caller phoned my business asking to speak with me. Amanda answered in her engaging way so well that the person didn’t know she was AI. He told her he’d been asked by her husband to call to discuss sponsorship.
Yes, you read that right. This person really thought Amanda was not only a real live person but that she was also my wife!
In all seriousness this happened during the call and it’s a true testimony of just how real and lifelike Amanda handled the call and interacted with this person. If I wasn’t already sold on this service, this interaction alone has convinced me that Amanda is the real deal and worth every penny!
Lou Germini, Owner, NextGen Power Wash LLC
What transfers to your business
Two things are worth pulling out of this, and the second one is the one most people miss.
- Voice quality is no longer the bottleneck. A caller with no reason to be suspicious held a full conversation and never questioned it. For a home services business, that means an after-hours or overflow call no longer has to end in voicemail, which is where most of them quietly die.
- Expect a ramp, not a switch. Lou’s framing (“she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know at the beginning”) is the single best piece of advice in this post. The businesses that get real value from an AI assistant are the ones that review the first week of transcripts and correct what it got wrong. The ones that switch it on, hear one awkward call, and turn it off never find out what it was capable of.
Amanda is not a phone tree and not a chatbot with a voice bolted on. She was built around one specific role at one specific company: what NextGen sells, what a good lead looks like, and what Lou needs to know before he can quote a job.
If your phone is going to voicemail
Missed calls are the most expensive and least visible leak in a home services business. You never see the job you didn’t win because nobody picked up.
Tell us what your call volume looks like, or book a free consultation.