EmpfangoAI phone assistant for facility service providers
Your dispatch desk is the most expensive answering machine in the country. Empfango takes sick calls, fault reports, complaints and enquiries around the clock, captures them in a structured way and reports them to the right person – from €99 per month, flat rate with no top-ups.
An AI phone assistant for facility service providers answers the calls that today land with dispatch, site managers or the owner, captures the request in a structured way and reports it to the right person – around the clock, at 5:40 in the morning as much as at 11:50 at night. Empfango is that assistant: a phone assistant for facility services, security companies, commercial cleaning, caretaking services and winter service, developed and operated by IQONEX GmbH in Erfurt, Germany.
Your dispatch desk is the most expensive answering machine in the country. A dispatcher at a security company, a site manager in cleaning or the owner of a caretaking service spends part of every working day on calls that need no expertise: “I’m sick.” “Where am I working today?” “Did yesterday’s patrol happen?” “Would you be interested in new cleaning products?” The trade magazine rationell reinigen calls the phone the “central hub of day-to-day business” in cleaning (28 Sept 2026). Every one of these interruptions costs the time of the person who is supposed to be dispatching, checking quality and keeping clients. And after 5 p.m., at night and at weekends nobody picks up, even though clients expect reachability exactly then and often require it by contract.
The problem is industry-wide, not company-specific. Commercial cleaning counts 34,824 businesses, the private security industry 4,517 companies, plus caretaking and facility services as well as grounds maintenance and winter service (BIV 2025, BDSW 03/2026, BGL 2025). Almost all share the same pattern: shift work, staff spread across many sites, sick leave above average, clients with reachability requirements and no office staff of their own for the phone. According to the Lünendonk study 2026, 86 % of security service providers expect AI to be standard within two to three years and name “customer service and communication” as a field of use (rationell reinigen, 30 Sept 2026). AI for facility service providers on the phone is the most obvious field, because the call is the bottleneck. The sub-sectors differ only in the type of report: in cleaning it is the sick call before the early shift, in security the night-shift no-show, in caretaking the fault at the site, in winter service the property manager’s call when snow starts falling. The process behind it is always the same: answer, assign to the site, capture all details, reach the right person, document.
This page explains which four caller groups keep your line busy, what Empfango does on each of these calls and where the limits are. From here, links lead to the three industry pages (security, cleaning, caretaking), to four use cases (sick calls, fault intake, on-call escalation, client information) and to the calculator that converts your site managers’ phone time into euros. Empfango does not dispatch and does not reschedule shifts. Empfango makes sure every report arrives, is complete and stays documented – so that the phone relieves your dispatch desk instead of occupying it.
The industry in three numbers
As of: 10/2026
Which industry and which call are you looking for?
Each sub-sector has its own page with example calls, industry figures and questions from daily practice. The four use cases apply to all facility service providers and each explain one call type from answering to reporting. If you first want to know what your business loses on the phone today, start with the calculator; if you are looking for your industry, start with one of the three industry pages.
Security and guarding services
Night-shift no-show, incident report, client query: Empfango answers, separates routine from urgent and forwards to dispatch or the on-call manager.
Commercial cleaning
Sick call at 5:40, complaint from the property manager, request for a special clean: Empfango captures every call in a structured way and reports it to the site manager.
Caretaking and facility management
Heating failure, water damage, lost keys: Empfango takes fault reports around the clock, assigns them to the site and reaches your on-call staff. Includes a section on winter service and grounds maintenance.
Taking sick calls by phone
Name, site, shift, expected duration: Empfango takes the sick call without asking for a diagnosis and reports it immediately via WhatsApp or email.
Fault intake 24/7
Every fault documented with site, location, type and callback number – as evidence for clients and as the basis for your operator obligations.
On-call and escalation
Empfango forwards urgent calls to the on-call number you have stored. If nobody picks up, a callback request with all details is created instead of a lost voicemail.
Information for clients
The property manager asks whether the patrol was done: Empfango answers from stored knowledge or from LiteLog data, without the site manager having to pick up.
Calculator: site manager phone time
How many hours a month does your dispatch or site management spend on calls that need no expertise? Convert them into euros.
Four caller groups, one phone
| Caller | Typical requests | What Empfango does | More |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own staff | Sick call before the shift starts, “Where am I working today?”, shift swap, key question, relief did not show up. Peaks between 5 and 7 in the morning and at night. | Empfango captures name, site, shift and expected duration, does not ask for a diagnosis and reports the sick call via WhatsApp, Telegram or email to the site or dispatch manager. Questions about the place of work are answered from your knowledge base if you store rosters or site lists there. Salary questions and leave requests are not put through; Empfango refers to the channel you have set up for them, such as an HR email address. In the morning, dispatch sees a list instead of twelve missed calls. | Learn more → |
| Clients and property managers | Complaint (“The stairwell wasn’t cleaned”), fault at the site, information request (“Was the patrol done?”), special order, appointment request for a site inspection. | Empfango assigns the call to the site, records the defect or fault with location, time and contact person and creates a case with transcript and summary. Information requests are answered from stored knowledge or from LiteLog patrol data. Site inspections are booked directly into your calendar. For clients who require reachability by contract, each of these cases is also the proof that the report was accepted and documented with a timestamp. | Learn more → |
| Prospects and new clients | Quote request for routine cleaning, site protection or caretaking, questions about services and availability, callback request. Rare, but high value. | Empfango captures site type, area or scope, requested service, frequency, location and callback number and books a site visit if wanted. The summary goes to your sales team, the contact to HubSpot or Brevo if you choose. Empfango quotes prices only if you have released them in the knowledge base; it does not promise flat rates for a site nobody has seen. | Learn more → |
| Suppliers and sales calls | Cleaning product reps, insurance brokers, software vendors and staffing agencies who “just want a quick word with the boss”. | Empfango does not put these calls through. It records company, request and callback number and files them in the daily list in the dashboard. You decide whom to call back, and your dispatch desk is not interrupted for it. | Learn more → |
| Job applicants | First contact, questions about open positions, working hours and sites, appointment for an interview. A high share of calls when staff are short. | Empfango answers questions about advertised positions from your knowledge base, refers callers to your careers page or books an interview slot and reports the contact to your HR staff. The Sekuris reference shows what this looks like at a security company. | Learn more → |
A day on the phone at a facility service provider
Five typical calls across the sub-sectors. For each call: who is calling, what Empfango does, what lands in the dashboard and who is notified. None of these calls reaches dispatch unsorted, and none is lost because nobody happens to be in the office.
- 05:40Cleaner, site: office building NorthSick call for the early shift, expected three days
- 09:10Property manager, residential complex with 48 unitsHeating failed in building 3, tenants are complaining
- 11:30Prospect, office building with 2,400 m²Quote for routine cleaning three times a week
- 14:00Sales rep from a cleaning products manufacturerWants “just a quick word with the managing director”
- 23:50Security officer, site protection at a logistics centreRelief for the night shift did not show up
| Call | What Empfango does | Record | Notification |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:40 · Cleaner, site: office building North | Empfango takes name, site, shift and duration, does not ask for the reason and confirms the report. | Case “sick call” with timestamp, transcript and summary | WhatsApp to the site manager, copy by email to the office |
| 09:10 · Property manager, residential complex with 48 units | Empfango assigns the call to the site, records location, fault, contact person and callback number and forwards to building services. | Fault report with site, urgency and transcript; via webhook into your ticket system if wanted | Forwarded to building services; if nobody picks up, WhatsApp to the dispatch manager |
| 11:30 · Prospect, office building with 2,400 m² | Empfango captures area, service, frequency, location and callback number, checks free slots and books a site visit. | Lead with all details and calendar entry for the site visit | Summary to sales, contact to HubSpot or Brevo |
| 14:00 · Sales rep from a cleaning products manufacturer | Empfango does not put the call through, records company, request and callback number. | Entry in the daily list in the dashboard | No immediate notification; the list is read at the end of the day |
| 23:50 · Security officer, site protection at a logistics centre | Empfango records site, officer and situation, forwards the call to the on-call number and waits until someone picks up. | Case “shift no-show” with timestamp and transcript | On-call manager live on the phone; if nobody picks up, callback request via WhatsApp to dispatch |
Connecting to your tools
Empfango reports every call to where your dispatch desk already works. Five connections are particularly relevant for facility service providers. None of them is a prerequisite; they only determine where the report arrives in addition to the dashboard.
LiteLog
Reports from calls land directly in the LiteLog portal, the checkpoint and patrol system from the same company. If a client asks about the status of a patrol, Empfango answers from LiteLog data.
WhatsApp and Telegram
Sick call, fault or callback request reach site and dispatch managers as a message with summary, right after the call – to several recipients at once if needed.
Calendar
Site visits, inspections and interviews are booked by Empfango in Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly or Cal.com after it has checked free slots. Rescheduling and cancelling also work on the phone.
Webhook for industry software
Every completed call can be sent as a structured record (request, summary, captured fields) to your dispatch, ticketing or time-tracking software. The entry is created in your system, Empfango triggers it.
CRM and email
Contacts from quote requests go to HubSpot or Brevo, summaries reach the office and sales by email. Transcript and summary are always available in the dashboard.
Empfango also works without LiteLog and without any other connection: every call is answered, captured and reported by email or WhatsApp. Connections are added when you need them.
“My phone used to be the unofficial HR department. Now the AI triages every request – and when it rings, I know there’s a customer on the line.”
— Managing Director, Sekuris Dienstleistungen GmbH & Co. KG · Read the case study
Data protection in facility services: health data, disclosure, EU processing
A sick call on the phone touches health data under Art. 9 GDPR. Empfango therefore captures only what scheduling needs: name, site, shift and expected duration. You define in the assistant which details Empfango asks for; a diagnosis is not one of them. Processing takes place on your behalf under the data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR, which is included in every plan. Transcripts are visible only to the people you grant access to in the dashboard. Which details are captured on the phone is defined in your assistant configuration and can be evidenced from it towards employees and the works council.
Every call begins with a fixed announcement: the caller learns that they are speaking to an AI assistant and whether the call is being recorded. This wording is not generated by the AI, it is stored verbatim. This meets the transparency obligation under Art. 50 of the EU AI Act and the duty to inform about recordings under Section 201 of the German Criminal Code. By default, Empfango does not store audio recordings permanently; transcript and summary are available in the dashboard and form your documentation towards clients. Those who still need recordings for incident reports switch them on deliberately and then get the corresponding announcement.
Speech processing runs in the EU: the language model via Azure OpenAI in the EU region, speech recognition via Deepgram at the EU endpoint, hosting in Frankfurt. For speech synthesis Empfango uses ElevenLabs under a data processing agreement with EU standard contractual clauses. All processors are disclosed in the privacy policy. Empfango does not give out site data, guard schedules or access codes on the phone, not even on clever follow-up questions; you define in the knowledge base which information may be shared.
Privacy policy with processor list · DPA under Art. 28 GDPR · AI phone assistant from Germany: the facts
What a 24/7 answering service costs – and what Empfango costs
Facility service providers that must be reachable at night and at weekends usually buy a human answering service today. Its price is made up of a base fee and a per-minute rate. Add to that what no price list shows: a human service takes the sick call and writes a note; sorting, following up and forwarding still falls to your site manager in the morning. That is why the comparison is worth making on two levels: what reachability costs, and what the time that still accrues after the call costs.
| Provider | Base price / month | Per-minute price | Included minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human 24/7 answering service (example: Die Telefonhelden, 24/7 package) | from €199 per month | plus €0.99 per call minute, three-month minimum term | – |
| Empfango Solo | 99 € | €0 (flat rate) | 1.000 min. included |
| Empfango Start | 249 € | €0 (flat rate) | 2.500 min. included |
| Empfango Pro | 449 € | €0 (flat rate) | 5.000 min. included |
| Empfango Verbund | from 899 € | €0 (flat rate) | unlimited |
At 300 call minutes a month that comes to around €500. Empfango costs from €99 per month as a flat rate with no top-ups, also takes calls in parallel and can be cancelled monthly. All plans are listed under Pricing. Competitor figures were retrieved on 14 Oct 2026; subject to change. All plans in detail
Reachable in three steps
1. Set up the assistant
You store sites, contact persons, on-call numbers and the questions Empfango should ask for sick calls, faults or enquiries. Knowledge such as services, opening hours or job openings is uploaded as documents to the knowledge base. With the test call in your browser you hear immediately how Empfango takes a sick call or fault report, before a real caller dials the number.
2. Activate call forwarding
You keep your phone number. You forward calls to Empfango – always, only when busy, after a few seconds of ringing or only outside office hours. No new device, no new phone system. Many businesses start with forwarding outside office hours and extend it once the first reports have arrived cleanly.
3. Receive reports
Every call creates a transcript and summary in the dashboard. Urgent matters reach dispatch or the on-call manager by transfer or WhatsApp, the rest waits in the daily list for your callback. You change what Empfango reports to whom at any time yourself, for instance when the on-call rota changes or a new site is added.
Frequently asked questions from facility service providers
An AI phone assistant for facility service providers answers calls from staff, clients, prospects and suppliers, captures the request in a structured way and reports it to dispatch or site management. Empfango is such an assistant: it answers the phone around the clock, asks for the details you have defined, forwards urgent calls and creates a transcript and summary for every conversation. It does not replace a dispatch system, but the voicemail and the constant interruption of your management.
No. Empfango answers calls, captures and reports. Decisions stay with your people: who fills in, which fault is handled first, whether a response is triggered. An alarm receiving centre keeps its tasks; Empfango intercepts the routine calls that currently get mixed up with alarms there: sick calls, roster questions, information requests, sales calls. Empfango is not an alarm monitoring system and does not aim to be one. The benefit for the control centre is that the line stays free for alarms while routine still arrives documented.
No, and that is deliberate. Empfango captures the sick call completely and reports it immediately to the responsible person. Who fills in is decided by your dispatch – in their head, in the roster or in your industry software. Via webhook, Empfango can hand the report to that software as a data record so the case continues there. Providers that promise automatic rescheduling require your entire staff planning to live in their system. Empfango only requires that someone who owns the report can be reached.
The employee calls the usual number. Empfango answers with its fixed announcement, recognises the request and asks for name, site, shift and expected duration, not the reason. Empfango confirms the details, ends the call and within seconds sends a summary via WhatsApp, Telegram or email to the site manager. The case with timestamp and transcript is in the dashboard. This works at 5:40 in the morning just as it does on a Sunday evening.
You define which requests are urgent and which number should then ring. Empfango first records site, caller and situation and then forwards the call to the on-call manager. If nobody picks up within the ring time, the conversation does not end: Empfango takes a callback request, confirms the next steps to the caller and reports the case via WhatsApp to dispatch. No call ends on a voicemail. For winter service and caretaking the same process applies, using the on-call number stored for the season.
Via webhooks: every completed call can be sent as a structured record to any system that accepts data via HTTP. Which industry software supports this without an intermediate step is something we check with you before launch. There is no ready-made interface to individual dispatch programs; LiteLog is connected directly. Regardless of that, reports always reach your management via WhatsApp, email and the dashboard.
No. Empfango runs on its own with your existing phone number and reports calls via WhatsApp, Telegram, email or webhook. LiteLog is the checkpoint and patrol system from the same company. Those who use it gain two advantages: reports from calls land directly in the LiteLog portal, and Empfango can give clients information from LiteLog data, for instance whether a patrol has been completed.
Yes, provided processing takes place on behalf of the employer, under a data processing agreement and with data minimisation. For a sick call, Empfango asks only for details that scheduling needs, and no diagnosis. Speech processing runs in the EU, audio is not stored permanently by default, and the DPA is part of the contract. Every call starts with the announcement that an AI assistant is speaking. We support your data protection officer with the complete list of processors, which is publicly available in the privacy policy.
Yes. Empfango detects the caller’s language and conducts the conversation in that language, for example in English or Russian. You receive the summary for your site manager in German. Especially in cleaning, with multilingual teams, this reduces follow-up questions and misunderstandings around sick calls and shift questions. You decide which languages the assistant allows; you can also fix it to German only.
Empfango costs from €99 per month as a flat rate with no top-ups; all plans are listed under Pricing. A human 24/7 answering service starts at around €199 per month plus about €0.99 per minute (Die Telefonhelden, as of 10/2026); at 300 minutes that is around €500. The bigger difference is your dispatch desk’s time: every call Empfango captures completely is a call they do not have to take themselves. Use the calculator on this page to plug in your own figures.
