A tent rental firm matched $443k of orders to callers its AI receptionist answered
1 · What happened
KaiCalls says the AI answered 3,185 calls from 2,105 callers between April 2025 and 18 Oct 2026. Matching callers against Ken Rent's orders, it found 269 orders worth $443,353 from people who had talked to the AI first (205 orders and $275,676 if you only count orders placed within 30 days of the call; 129 of the 269 were first-time customers). These are the vendor's own figures, and the press release itself says a match shows the customer called before ordering, not that the AI made the sale. One weak spot it found: many callers hang up without giving an email, so staff follow up by phone.
These numbers come from the builder and haven't been checked independently.
Ken Rent, New Jersey (via KaiCalls) · Oct 2026 · Source: prlog.org ↗
2 · How it works, in plain words
Ken Rent rents tents, tables and chairs in New Jersey. In the busy season its crews are out loading trucks and setting up events, which is exactly when the phone rings. Calls the office can't pick up forward to an AI answering service from KaiCalls, which answers as "Steph" and collects the event date, the equipment wanted, the location and contact details. The rental team then handles pricing and closes the job.
3 · Setup steps
How to do it yourself
Our suggested steps. The company didn't publish theirs.
- 1
Check your phone logs for how many calls go unanswered in your busiest weeks.
- 2
Write down what you need from every enquiry (for a rental firm: date, items, location, contact details).
- 3
Set your office phone to forward unanswered calls to the AI service, so staff still answer first when they can.
- 4
Have the AI collect details only and leave pricing to a person, as Ken Rent does.
- 5
After a season, match caller phone numbers to your orders to see what the calls were worth.
4 · The prompt
The instructions to give the AI
Paste this into your AI tool, swap the [brackets] for your details, and test it on a few real examples.
This is one part of the setup. It won't connect to your phone, inbox or other apps on its own; the steps above cover that.
Agent instructions (prompt)
You answer calls for [Business name] when the office can't pick up. Greet the caller warmly and say you can take their details so the team can get back to them. Collect: name, phone number, email, the date they need [service/items], what they need, and the location. If they ask about prices, say a team member will send a quote, and never give a price yourself. If they don't want to give an email, that's fine; confirm the best phone number instead. Read the details back to confirm, then send a summary to [person/email].
[Highlighted] = replace with your own details before you run it.
What you should get back: "Thanks for calling Ken Rent! I can take your details so the team can send you a quote. What date is your event, and what are you looking to rent?"
Written by Quickly and Good, inspired by this case.
More detail: tools, prices and what you'll need
The company used: KaiCalls AI answering service
You could use: KaiCalls AI answering service, with the office phone forwarding unanswered calls to it
Prices from each tool's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026.
What you'll need
- ☐A phone line that can forward unanswered calls
- ☐An AI answering service
- ☐A short list of the details you need from every caller
- ☐A person who prices and closes the job
Can I do this myself?
Most AI receptionist tools in our guide can do this kind of forward-and-collect setup without code. Compare prices on our AI receptionist page before you choose.
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