HarchSignal

FAQ

37 questions. 37 straight answers.

Including the uncomfortable ones: what if the AI errs, the service goes down, or you want to leave.

What exactly is Harch Signal?

Harch Signal is an AI assistant that recovers your missed calls. When you can't pick up, your caller gets a text in under 10 seconds, and our AI qualifies the request, answers questions and books the appointment. You receive everything neatly organized: in your calendar, by email, on WhatsApp or in the dashboard.

How does it work technically?

We enable conditional forwarding on your existing line: if you don't pick up (no answer, busy, after hours), the call automatically routes to our platform. Your carrier does the forwarding — nothing to install, no hardware, and your customers dial the same number as before.

What does my customer receive when they call in vain?

A personalized text in under 10 seconds: your name, a line showing their call matters, and one simple question to move forward ("This is [Your Business], we missed your call — how can we help?"). 98% of texts are read versus 20% of emails: your lead doesn't wander off to a competitor while waiting.

Can the AI answer the phone directly?

Yes, on the Pro tier: beyond the text, our AI voice answers 24/7, converses naturally (listens, gets interrupted, follows up), qualifies the request and books the appointment. It always introduces itself as your business's assistant — full transparency.

What happens if I pick up normally?

Nothing triggers. The system only activates on genuinely missed calls. You pick up, you talk, Signal stays silent. You change absolutely nothing about how you work.

How much does it cost?

Starter at $149/month (instant text-back + qualification + dashboard + routing), Pro at $299/month (24/7 voice AI + WhatsApp), multi-line from $499/month. The trial is $149 credited on your first month, no commitment, cancel within 30 days at no cost.

How long does setup take?

48 hours end to end. Day 0: forwarding activation (10 guided minutes) and script personalization. Day 1: live test call with you. Day 2: go-live. You change nothing about your number, your business cards or your habits.

Do I keep my phone number?

Yes, absolutely. We buy, port and change nothing: conditional forwarding activates on your existing number via a simple dial code from your carrier. Your customers, your cards, your local SEO — everything stays the same.

Will the AI say nonsense to my customers?

No, by design: the AI only draws from a closed knowledge base you approve (services, listed prices, zones, timelines). It never invents prices — precise quote requests get a promised callback from you. And if its confidence drops below 70%, it transfers to you.

What if your service goes down?

Conditional forwarding has a built-in fallback: if our line doesn't answer, your carrier loops the call back to your voicemail or mobile. You never lose a call because of us — that's the worst case, and it's still today's status quo.

Will my customers accept talking to an AI?

First contact is a text — the least intrusive channel there is (98% read rate). When the AI voice takes the call, it clearly announces itself. What your customers remember: an instant response, professional questions, a confirmed appointment. Nobody ever resented being answered quickly.

Is it legally compliant (TCPA, GDPR)?

Yes, and it's foundational: consent and disclosure from the first text, sends restricted to permitted hours (8 AM–9 PM local), opt-out registry with STOP processed within 24 h, timestamped explicit consent (GDPR / law 09-08). Call-recording assistance follows your jurisdiction's rules.

Which industries benefit the most?

Wherever urgency pays and hands are busy: plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, HVAC, auto shops, glaziers. But also every high-ticket trade: lawyers, real estate agents, dentists, photographers. If a job brings you more than $149, one recovered call pays for the month.

Can I test before paying?

Yes: we set up a dedicated test line, you call it yourself, you receive the text and talk to the AI. 15 minutes, no credit card. If it's not convincing, you walk away — we're the ones taking the demo risk.

How do I receive captured leads?

By default, wherever you are: appointments booked into Google Calendar, email summary with transcript, and a real-time dashboard on mobile. Optional: WhatsApp confirmation to the end customer, webhook to your CRM, Zapier/Make integrations. Routing is configurable by urgency and time of day.

I have several lines or locations, does it work?

Yes, that's the multi-line tier (from $499/month): each line gets its own rules (hours, urgency, script), and everything converges into one unified dashboard. Franchises, field crews, multi-practitioner clinics — that's the designed use case.

Which languages does the AI speak?

French and English natively, Arabic as an option — with automatic detection of the caller's language. Tone is adjustable: warm-professional by default, short sentences, one question at a time.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes: cancel within 30 days, no fees, no explanation needed. No annual contract, no lock-in. If the service doesn't return more than it costs, we'd rather you leave — our monthly report shows you exactly what we recover.

What's the difference from a human answering service?

Three things: price ($149 vs $300–6,899/month for human services), availability (24/7 with no per-minute overage, where humans bill $1.49–2.99/minute beyond the plan), and speed (text in under 10 seconds — impossible for a call center queueing calls).

Are my data and my customers' data secure?

Encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access, configurable retention (90 days default for transcripts), daily multi-region backups and an audit log. You own your data: CSV export anytime, deletion within 30 days on request.

How does the test line work?

We activate a demo line in 15 minutes: you call it, deliberately don't pick up, and live exactly what your customer lives — text in under 10 seconds, AI qualification, an appointment booked into a test calendar. Nothing to install on your real line, no commitment. At the end, we show you the dashboard with what you just generated, and you decide.

Does it work with every carrier and VoIP provider?

Conditional forwarding is a standard telephony feature, not proprietary technology: it works with major mobile and landline carriers, and with most VoIP providers. One honest exception: a few prepaid plans and locked corporate PBXs disable forwarding. We verify it with you during activation — if your line doesn't support it, we tell you before charging you anything.

What exactly do I see in the dashboard?

Every missed call appears in real time: number, time, language, request summary, the qualification score assigned by the AI (urgency and intent), and the full transcript of the text or voice exchange. Each lead carries a status: appointment booked, callback needed, or filtered spam. The monthly report adds up appointments and converts them into an estimate of recovered revenue, based on the average job value you declared — an honest estimate, not a magic number.

How does routing to calendar, email and WhatsApp work?

Three default channels, each independently switchable: the appointment goes out as a Google Calendar invite with the customer's details, the summary with transcript arrives by email, and the end customer can receive their confirmation on WhatsApp (Pro tier). For your existing tools: a webhook to your CRM and Zapier/Make connections. Rules are set per urgency and per time of day — for example "evening emergency = instant push alert, quote request = email the next morning".

How does urgency escalation work (threshold 4-5)?

For every exchange, the AI rates urgency from 1 to 5: "a pipe flooding the kitchen" scores 5, "a quote request for spring" scores 2. As soon as the score reaches the threshold — 4 by default, adjustable per line — you're alerted instantly: push notification and text with the summary, and on the Pro tier, the live call transfers to your mobile. You decide what's worth interrupting you, and the threshold changes in two clicks.

Does the AI remember repeat customers?

Yes, line by line: when a known number calls back, the AI retrieves its history — past appointments, previous requests, noted preferences — and adapts: "Hello Mr. Tremblay, the boiler again?". A loyal customer never starts from zero. That memory stays confined to your business, is shared with no other account, and purges in one click from the dashboard.

How does the AI handle telemarketing and robocalls?

The filter detects classic signatures — reported numbers, dead air on pickup, sales scripts — and sends them no text: the call is tagged "spam" in the dashboard, without consuming your volumes. No filter is 100% perfect: if a real customer gets mislabeled, one click restores them, and the correction improves the filter. Spam never enters your monthly report as a recovered lead.

Why must the text go out in under 10 seconds?

Because the window is short: public speed-to-lead studies (2026 sources) show the odds of qualifying a caller collapse after 5 to 10 minutes — meanwhile, they've already dialed the next competitor in the directory. A text sent in under 10 seconds lands while they still have the phone in hand and the need is at its peak. That delay isn't a marketing detail: it's the difference between being the first answer and the fifth.

What happens if the customer doesn't reply to the first text?

One single follow-up goes out 4 to 6 hours later, with a different angle — for example a concrete appointment slot. After two attempts with no reply, the AI stops for good: the contact is archived and never contacted again. Sends stay within the legal 8 AM–9 PM window, STOP is processed within 24 h, and numbers are never resold or shared.

How does the AI handle French, English and Arabic?

Language is detected automatically from the first words, in text as on voice — no "press 1 for English" menu. If the caller switches languages mid-exchange, the AI follows without losing the thread. Arabic is available as an option, in writing as on voice (right-to-left handled), and the tone of each language is set per line: warm by default, more matter-of-fact if you prefer — always short sentences and one question at a time.

Can the AI transfer a live call to me?

Yes, on the Pro tier: during a conversation, the AI transfers the call to any number you choose as soon as urgency hits your threshold, its confidence drops below 70%, or the caller explicitly asks for a human. The transfer is warm, with context: you know who's calling and why before you even pick up. And if you don't answer the transfer, the AI resumes the conversation and takes a message — the caller never hears ringing into the void.

What if the monthly report shows $0 recovered?

The monthly report counts booked appointments and converts them into an estimate of recovered revenue, based on your declared average job value. If a full month shows zero appointments — service active, forwarding in place, spam excluded — the month is refunded on request: it's written in the terms, not on a banner. One honest precondition: your line must actually be forwarded to us for the entire month in question.

What exactly does the Starter tier include?

At $149/month: text-back in under 10 seconds on every missed call, AI qualification of the request, appointments booked into Google Calendar, email summaries with transcript, real-time dashboard, personalized script and 48-hour setup. One line is included, and CRM, Zapier/Make integrations are available from this tier. The monthly-report guarantee applies to Starter too.

What does the Pro tier add over Starter?

At $299/month, Pro includes everything in Starter and adds the 24/7 AI voice: it answers, converses, qualifies and books over the phone, introduces itself as your business's assistant, and warm-transfers urgencies to you with context. It also adds WhatsApp confirmation to the end customer and the urgency threshold with live-call transfer. When several lines or locations come into play, the multi-line tier starts at $499/month.

Do you bill extra minutes?

On Starter, there are only texts: no minutes exist, the $149/month plan is all-in. On Pro, the AI voice conversations are included in the $299/month plan — where human answering services bill $1.49–2.99 per minute beyond theirs (public 2026 sources), no clock runs on our side. In case of an exceptional usage spike, the applicable unit price is displayed upfront in the dashboard and the excess appears on the next invoice: never a line you didn't see coming.

How do I cancel, and what happens to my data?

From the dashboard, Billing section: you confirm, you receive written validation within 24 h — no fees, no explanation needed. The service stays active until the end of the paid period, and conditional forwarding is disabled the moment you ask: your line becomes a normal line again instantly. Before leaving, you export everything in one click (leads, transcripts, appointments as CSV); on request, final deletion happens within 30 days.

Can several employees access the dashboard?

Yes, as many accounts as you need at no extra cost, with three roles: admin (scripts, routing, billing), operator (handles leads and changes statuses, can't touch configuration), and read-only (your partners consult without modifying). Every action lands in the audit log: who, what, when. In a team or a practice, everyone sees what they need — nothing more.

Answered in under 10 seconds

Your next missed call can be the last one.

$149 credited on month 1. No commitment. Cancel within 30 days, no fees.