A robot just rang to ask your prices
Search engines and phone assistants have started ringing local businesses on shoppers' behalf, asking about prices, stock and the next free slot, then writing up the answers. Ahead of the busiest shopping weeks of the year, here's what that means for a small business, and why your website should already say what the robot is ringing to ask.
The phone rings during the lunchtime rush. A polite voice asks how much a dog groom costs for a medium-sized terrier, and whether there’s anything free on Saturday.
You give an answer, or you say “it depends, best to pop in”, or nobody picks up at all.
What you might not realise is that the caller wasn’t a customer. It was software ringing for one. Your answer, or the lack of one, is about to be summarised next to your competitors’ answers and sent to someone deciding where to spend their money.
This is already happening
None of this is a prediction. It has been building for over a year, mostly in the US so far:
- July 2025: the biggest search engine started letting people in the US have AI ring local businesses to check prices and availability for them. The shopper fills in what they need once, and the answers from several businesses come back together.
- November 2025: just before the holiday rush, the same feature was pointed at local shops: ring round to find out who has a product in stock, and whether there’s a discount. The shopper gets a summary by text or email.
- May 2026: it was expanded to home repair, beauty and pet care, alongside booking tools that compare “the latest pricing and availability”, announced as rolling out to everyone in the US over the summer.
- September 2026: a phone maker began testing an assistant that makes calls from the user’s own number: checking stock, booking a table, moving an appointment, asking a shop to put something aside. It can work through phone menus and wait on hold.
The search engine’s own help pages for businesses list what its automated calls are for: booking appointments, checking wait times, confirming the price and availability of products and services, checking opening hours, and checking stock of in-demand items. According to the company, the businesses that get called are picked from ordinary local search results.
If you’re not in the US, don’t relax just yet. The help pages say the features are available “in select regions and languages”, and features like these rarely stay in one country for long.
Why the timing matters
Black Friday is 27 November this year. In the US, Small Business Saturday is the day after; in the UK, it’s the first Saturday of December. The weeks between now and Christmas are when people ring round the most, asking whether you’ve got it, what it costs, and whether you can fit them in before the 20th.
More of that ringing round is now being done by software, and software doesn’t browse. It asks a question, writes down the answer, and moves on to the next business on the list.
What the robot hears
Picture it from the shopper’s side. They asked for a price on three local groomers and got back a short summary:
- Groomer A: £45 for a medium dog, next free slot Thursday.
- Groomer B: “Prices vary, please visit in person.”
- Groomer C: No answer.
Groomer B might be the best in town. Groomer C might have been elbow-deep in a spaniel. It doesn’t matter: the shopper books A.
That isn’t the robot being unfair. It’s exactly what a busy person would do with three answers written side by side. The difference is that the comparison used to happen in the customer’s head, half-remembered across a few phone calls. Now it’s in writing.
The fair point in the other direction
Not every business wants these calls, and that’s a reasonable choice.
If you’re a one-person business, every call that isn’t a real customer is a distraction. Some prices honestly can’t be given over the phone without seeing the job first, like a boiler, a roof or a full colour correction.
The search engine says businesses can turn its automated calls off in the settings of their business listing, or simply say “please stop calling my business” during a call. You need to have verified your listing before you can change the setting.
Opting out is fine. Just know the trade: the shopper still gets a summary, and you’re not in it.
One more caution. The search engine’s help pages say plainly that its genuine automated calls won’t ask you to sign up for anything or pay money. Anyone who rings claiming to be from a search company and wants payment to “keep your listing live” is running an old scam with a new voice. Hang up and check your account yourself.
The bigger point: the answer should already be written down
Every question these calls ask — what does it cost, are you open, have you got it, when’s the next slot — is a question your website could already be answering.
A shopper who can read the answer doesn’t need a robot to ring you for it. And a customer who does ring will get the same answer on the phone as they read online, which is the whole of what trust looks like.
That doesn’t mean every price needs to be exact. “From £45”, “Most jobs £80–£150, fixed quote after a visit”, “Free quote within two working days” are all real answers. “Prices vary” isn’t.
The fair question
devkoi can’t answer your phone. It can’t decide which businesses a search engine rings, can’t change what the summary says, and can’t switch automated calls on or off for you, because that setting lives in your business listing, not your website.
What it can do is make the website the place where the answers are written down plainly and kept up to date, and do it from a message rather than an afternoon. Changing your Christmas hours or adding a “from” price is one sentence in a chat, and you see the preview before anything goes live.
What to do before Black Friday
1. Write down your phone answer. For your three most-asked-for services or products, decide the honest one-line answer to “how much?” and “when can you fit me in?”. Put it by the phone, so whoever answers says the same thing.
2. Put the same answer on your website.
“Add a prices section to the homepage with these three services and a ‘from’ price for each: [service, price], [service, price], [service, price].”
3. Say what changes the price. A range is only useful with the reason next to it.
“Under each price, add one line saying what makes it cost more, like size, length or extras.”
4. Put your holiday hours where nobody can miss them.
“Add a banner to the top of every page with our opening hours from 20 December to 2 January: [your hours].”
5. Say what you usually keep in stock. You don’t need an online shop for this. A short list of what’s usually on the shelf answers half of the “have you got…?” calls.
“Add a short ‘Usually in stock’ list to the shop page: [items]. Add a line saying to call ahead for anything else.”
6. Make the next step one tap. If the answer to “when’s the next slot?” lives in a booking system, link to it from the top of every page.
“Add a ‘Book’ button to the top of every page linking to [your booking page].”
7. Decide whether you want the calls. Look in your business listing’s settings for the section on automated calls, and make an actual decision instead of leaving the default. Either answer is fine. Not knowing isn’t.
The robots aren’t ringing to judge you. They’re ringing because someone wanted a straight answer and didn’t have time to ring round themselves.
Give them that straight answer: on the phone, on your website, and the same in both places. Then it doesn’t much matter who’s asking.