Frequently Asked Questions

CallShield AI acts as your 24/7 virtual receptionist. When a call comes in, our AI answers with a professional, human-like voice customized to your business. It greets the caller, asks qualifying questions, captures their information, determines urgency, and either handles the inquiry directly or routes the call to you or your team. You receive instant notifications with a full transcript, lead score, and recommended next steps.

Most businesses are fully operational in under 5 minutes. Our onboarding wizard walks you through three steps: connect your phone number (or get a new one), customize your greeting and call-handling rules, and activate. No technical expertise required. If you need help, our support team can walk you through it live.

No. You can keep your existing business number and simply set up call forwarding to CallShield. This means all your marketing materials, Google listing, and business cards stay the same. Alternatively, we can provide a new dedicated local number at no additional cost if you prefer.

CallShield is built for home service contractors and small businesses including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, general contracting, landscaping, pest control, cleaning services, and more. Any business that relies on phone calls to generate leads and book appointments will benefit from CallShield. We customize the AI for your specific trade and services.

Absolutely. We offer a 14-day free trial with full access to every feature. No credit card required to sign up. You can make test calls, customize your greeting, and see real transcripts and lead scores before deciding. At the end of the trial, choose to subscribe or walk away — we will never charge you without explicit consent.

All you need is a business phone number and an email address. Sign up on our website, complete the 3-step onboarding wizard, and you are live. There is no hardware to install, no software to download, and no IT department required. CallShield works with any phone system — landline, VoIP, or mobile.

CallShield is $99 per month per business line. This includes unlimited calls answered 24/7, AI-powered lead qualification, smart call routing, full transcripts and recordings, custom greetings, real-time notifications, analytics dashboard, CRM integrations, and a dedicated local phone number. No hidden fees, no setup costs.

No. Your $99/month plan includes unlimited call minutes. Whether you receive 10 calls or 1,000 calls per month, the price stays the same. We believe in simple, predictable pricing so you can budget with confidence. There are no overage charges, no per-call fees, and no surprise bills.

Sign up with just your email — no credit card required. You get full access to every feature for 14 days, including unlimited calls, transcripts, lead scoring, and the analytics dashboard. At the end of the trial, you can subscribe at $99/month or simply let the trial expire. We will never auto-charge you.

When your 14-day trial expires, your account is paused. Incoming calls will go to your fallback number or voicemail as configured. All your data, transcripts, and settings are preserved for 30 days. You can reactivate anytime by adding a payment method. We will never delete your data without notice or charge you without permission.

Yes. CallShield is month-to-month with no contracts, no cancellation fees, and no long-term commitments. Cancel directly from your dashboard in two clicks. Your service continues through the end of the billing period. We also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for your first month if you are not completely satisfied.

Yes. If you need CallShield for multiple business lines or locations, we offer volume pricing. Contact our sales team for a custom quote. Most multi-line customers save 15-25% compared to individual line pricing. Enterprise plans with dedicated account management are also available.

Our AI uses advanced natural language processing with human-like voice synthesis powered by GPT-4o. In blind tests, 94% of callers rated the experience as "excellent" or "very good" — on par with a professional human receptionist. The AI responds naturally to conversational cues, handles interruptions, and adapts its tone based on caller sentiment.

Yes. CallShield is designed to detect urgency in real-time. If a caller describes an emergency situation (burst pipe, electrical fire, gas leak, etc.), the AI immediately escalates the call by transferring it to your designated emergency number or on-call team member. You define the escalation rules, and the AI follows them precisely. No caller is ever left hanging.

CallShield currently supports English and Spanish with full fluency. The AI automatically detects the caller’s language and responds accordingly. Additional language support — including French, Portuguese, and Mandarin — is on our roadmap. Contact us if you have specific language requirements for your service area.

Completely. You control every aspect of the call experience from your dashboard. Customize the greeting with your company name, services, and tone. Define the qualifying questions the AI asks. Set business hours, after-hours messaging, holiday schedules, and escalation rules. You can update everything in real-time without any technical knowledge.

Yes. Every call is recorded and transcribed automatically. You can access full audio recordings and text transcripts from your dashboard, search across all calls, and filter by date, caller, or lead score. Transcripts are available within seconds of call completion. You can also export recordings and transcripts for your records or team training.

CallShield AI analyzes every call in real-time and assigns a lead score based on caller intent, urgency, job size, and engagement. Scores range from 1-100 with categories like Hot Lead, Warm Lead, Information Request, and Spam. You can customize the scoring criteria based on what matters most to your business. Lead scores are included in every notification so you know exactly which callbacks to prioritize.

CallShield works with virtually any phone system. Traditional landlines, VoIP systems (RingCentral, Vonage, Grasshopper, Google Voice), mobile phones, and PBX systems are all supported. Setup is as simple as enabling call forwarding to your CallShield number. No special hardware or software is required.

Call forwarding setup depends on your phone provider, but it is typically a one-step process. For most carriers, you dial a short code (like *72) followed by your CallShield number. Our onboarding wizard provides step-by-step instructions for every major carrier and VoIP provider. If you get stuck, our support team can walk you through it in under 2 minutes.

Yes. CallShield integrates natively with popular CRMs including HubSpot, Salesforce, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, and more. We also offer Zapier integration for connecting to 5,000+ apps. Call data, transcripts, and lead scores are automatically synced to your CRM in real-time. Custom API access is available on request.

CallShield is built on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with 99.9% uptime SLA. In the rare event of an outage, calls are automatically routed to your configured fallback number so you never miss a call. We provide a public status page with real-time monitoring, and our engineering team is alerted within seconds of any disruption.

Yes. The most common setup is conditional call forwarding from your existing number to CallShield. This means calls ring your phone first, and if you do not answer within a set number of rings, the call is forwarded to CallShield AI. You can also set up unconditional forwarding so every call goes to CallShield first. Your customers always dial the same number they already know.

Yes. All call data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). We use enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with SOC 2 Type II compliance. Access controls ensure only authorized users on your account can view call recordings, transcripts, and caller information. We never sell, share, or use your data for advertising purposes.

Calls are recorded by default for quality assurance and your reference, but you can disable recording at any time from your dashboard. Only authorized users on your account have access to recordings and transcripts. Our support team can access call data only with your explicit permission for troubleshooting purposes. All access is logged and auditable.

CallShield offers a HIPAA-compliant configuration for healthcare-adjacent businesses. This includes a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), additional encryption controls, restricted access logging, and compliant data retention policies. Contact our sales team to enable HIPAA compliance for your account.

By default, call recordings and transcripts are retained for 12 months. You can adjust retention periods from your dashboard — options range from 30 days to unlimited retention. When data is deleted (either by you or by policy), it is permanently removed from all systems within 30 days, including backups. You can export your data at any time.