Arthur is the friendly AI voice agent at Apex Motor Garage & MOT Centre, serving as a 24/7 virtual receptionist for our automotive service garage. At the moment, Arthur is our sole AI agent, so we introduce him as the first member of our AI team – much like a new colleague on a traditional team page. He’s been custom-built and trained specifically for the UK automotive industry, ensuring he understands local terms (like MOT tests) and operating hours. Below, you can get to know Arthur’s profile, his capabilities, and how he works within our system to help customers every day.
Arthur’s primary role is to handle customer calls and assist with all their service needs, just as a human receptionist would. Here’s what he is programmed to do for our garage:
We’ve designed Arthur’s communication style to mirror a professional, warm receptionist. When you talk to Arthur on the phone, his tone is polite, clear, and friendly. He speaks at a moderate pace, enunciates well, and never uses slang or confusing jargon. The goal is for callers to feel like they’re talking to a helpful human assistant. In fact, modern AI voice agents like Arthur sound so natural that many customers might not realize they’re speaking to an AI at all.
One of Arthur’s standout features is how intelligently he handles scheduling. The process isn’t just a simple “slot in a time” – he’s been given a human-like approach to finding the best appointment for each customer:
Smart Availability Search: When a requested time is unavailable, Arthur does not stop at a rejection. He proactively searches for the closest alternatives, typically within ±1 hour on the same day. For example, if 10:00 is booked, he may suggest 09:30, 10:30, or the next available nearby slot. If no suitable time exists that day, he checks the nearest alternative date with a similar time. This approach mirrors human flexibility and significantly improves booking success.
Optimized for Garage Operations: Arthur understands how garage schedules are structured. For longer services (such as 3-hour interim or full services), he prioritises standard start times (08:00, 11:00, 14:00) to maximise bay and technician utilisation. If these are unavailable on the requested or nearby dates, he expands the search using 30-minute increments to find the closest viable 3-hour window. This ensures operational efficiency while still offering customers the earliest realistic appointment.
No Double-Booking & Buffer Management: Arthur is fully integrated with the garage scheduling system and will never double-book staff or equipment. Each booking automatically includes a 10-minute buffer before and after the appointment to allow for handovers, paperwork, and overruns. All availability checks and bookings respect these buffers, keeping schedules realistic and manageable for staff.
Tool-Driven Precision: Arthur uses secure tools and APIs to interact directly with the garage’s live calendar and booking system. Every booking, change, or cancellation is logged in real time, exactly as if handled by a human team member. If a system call fails, Arthur retries automatically. If the issue persists, he collects the customer’s details and arranges a prompt human follow-up, ensuring no booking is lost due to technical issues.
Seamless Handoffs: Arthur handles routine enquiries and scheduling autonomously, but recognises when human involvement is needed. For complex questions, pricing discussions, complaints, or unusual cases, he smoothly escalates to a human colleague or arranges a callback during business hours. He can answer common service and operational questions via a built-in knowledge base, but avoids giving technical repair advice or pricing, deferring those matters to qualified staff.
In summary, Arthur has proven to be a valuable team member, enhancing customer experience and improving our operational efficiency. The UK automotive service sector at large is embracing such AI voice agents for exactly these reasons – they offer instant, round-the-clock support and streamline the whole service process.
A common question is whether Arthur is an off-the-shelf solution or a fully custom AI agent. In practice, he is a hybrid, with a strong emphasis on custom integration.
Arthur’s conversational voice and language capabilities are built on a leading AI voice platform, which provides high-quality speech recognition, natural language understanding, and realistic text-to-speech. This allowed rapid deployment without the need to train a language model from scratch. We configured his professional tone and loaded core FAQs, enabling a functional AI agent within days rather than months.
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