What a Receptionist Should Never Say on Your Behalf
Whoever answers your phone is speaking as your business. That is the whole value of it and the whole risk. In most trades there is a short list of sentences that change your exposure the moment they are said, and they are rarely the ones people worry about.
The list is different for every field. What follows is the version for five of them, and the way to build your own.
The test that generates the list
A sentence is dangerous when it does one of two things: it makes a judgment that a licensed person is supposed to make, or it commits you to an outcome you have not seen.
Everything below is one of those two.
Law firms
Never: whether someone has a case, how long they have to file, what a matter is worth, what they should do next.
Those are legal advice regardless of how they are phrased, and regardless of who is asking. A caller describing an accident wants to be told it sounds serious. That sentence is the one to withhold.
Instead: take the facts, take the deadline they mention without confirming it, and book the consultation. Legal advice stays with your attorneys. Your docket remains the system of record.
Dental and healthcare practices
Never: whether a symptom is urgent, what a treatment will involve, whether something is covered.
The first is triage, the second is clinical, and the third is an insurance determination. All three belong to people with credentials and access to the record.
Instead: capture the symptom in the caller's own words and flag it for your team. Take the caller's insurance details and pass them to your team. Clinical questions stay with your practice's own team. Your patient records remain the system of record.
Insurance agencies
Never: whether something is covered, whether a claim will pay, what a policy will cost.
Coverage advice needs a producer license in most states. The word that gets people into trouble is "should", as in "that should be covered".
Instead: take first notice, route to a licensed agent, and confirm only what the agency has already established. Coverage, eligibility, claims and quotes stay with your licensed agents.
Real estate
Never: what a property is worth, what to offer, what a disclosure means.
Instead: capture the inquiry and the timing, and route it. Pricing, negotiation, offers and disclosures stay with your licensed agents. Your transaction calendar remains the system of record.
Construction and trades
Never: a price for work nobody has looked at, whether a permit is needed, whether a site condition is safe.
The quote is the one that costs money, because the caller will hold you to a number given on the phone. The safety question is the one that costs more than money.
Instead: take the scope in their words, book the visit, and let the estimate come from someone who has seen the job. Permits, OSHA records and site safety stay with your team.
How to write your own version
Take one day of calls. For each one, ask what the answer commits you to. The sentences that commit you to a judgment or an outcome are your list, and there are usually fewer than ten.
Then write the replacement, not just the prohibition. A rule that says only what not to say leaves whoever is answering to improvise, which is how the prohibited sentence gets said in different words.
Why we publish ours
Every Kepply placement carries the boundary sentence for its field, on the page and in the call. It is not a disclaimer we added afterwards. It is the thing that decides what the digital employee does when a caller asks the question it must not answer.
If you want to see how that works for your field, start at kepply.com.