Running a modern Shopify store or service business is a balancing act. Between managing inventory, handling marketing, and processing orders, customer communication can easily consume your entire day.
Every phone call is a double-edged sword. Miss it, and you likely lose a sale or frustrate a customer. Answer it, and you get pulled away from high-priority business operations.
This is where Voice AI comes in. Let's explore how integrating an AI call agent like That Was AI can change your daily operations.
The True Cost of Phone Tag
Studies show that 62% of business calls go unanswered or get sent to voicemail. For small-to-medium businesses, this is direct revenue leakage. When customers call, they want answers now. If they get a voicemail, they often hang up and dial the next competitor on Google.
On the other hand, answering every call disrupts deep focus. It takes an average of 23 minutes to refocus after a single distraction. If your team is answering 10 query calls a day, that is nearly 4 hours of lost productivity.
What Does an AI Call Agent Actually Do?
Unlike traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems (the annoying "press 1 for billing" trees), modern voice AI uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to converse like a human.
Here is what That Was AI does when a customer calls:
- Answers Instantly: Zero hold times. The AI answers on the first ring, 24/7.
- Listens and Understands: Customers can speak naturally. They don't have to use robotic keywords.
- Resolves Actions in Real-Time: Connected directly to your Shopify store via Prisma and secure APIs, the AI can check shipping status, process cancellations, look up product stock, or escalate complex queries to human agents.
Real-World Business Savings
Let's do some quick math. If your store receives 150 customer calls a month, and each call takes an average of 5 minutes of handling time:
- Traditional Support: 12.5 hours of active phone time, plus approximately 50 hours of lost context-switching time.
- AI Support: 0 hours of active phone time. Over 90% of standard questions (where is my order, return requests, business hours) are resolved automatically.
By routing these queries to an AI agent, you buy back over 60 hours of operational focus every month. That’s time you can reinvest in product design, SEO marketing, or partnership outreach.
Getting Started
Setting up a voice agent shouldn't require an engineering degree. With That Was AI, you connect your Shopify store, choose a pre-configured assistant model, select a natural voice, and you are ready to receive calls.
Stop playing phone tag. Let AI answer the line, so you can build your business.