Hi there. We’re Mike & Colleen. Colleen has been a self-employed therapist for many years. I’ve been in technology management, sales, and cybersecurity consultation since the days of DOS. While Colleen loves her work with her clients, she was always so frustrated with daily customer-focused tasks. The biggest problem she faced was that she couldn’t be in 2 places at once. She couldn’t answer phone calls during sessions, but when prospective clients called, they wanted to get an appointment on the books by the end of the call. Colleen knew that no matter how much the client wanted to work with her, she knew that whoever answered the call got the client. The reality was that whenever a prospective client called and got Colleen’s voicemail, they were very likely going to move on to call the next therapist on their list.

The pressure to return a call as soon as possible led to:

• Extending her workday,

• Playing phone tag, or even

• Waiting for texts to be returned just to schedule a screening call, which could’ve gone on for days.

That hectic cycle of chasing after missed calls left her vulnerable to human errors:

• Calls weren’t returned

• Emails weren’t sent

• Appointments were missed

• Delayed services

This ultimately led to disappointed clients. Her frustration turned to feeling self-defeated. No matter what she did, she felt like she couldn’t meet the needs of the people who wanted to work with her.

There were certainly worse problems to have than being too busy, but it was definitely a problem: it was lost revenue, and it put her reputation at risk.

Colleen tried other answering services over the years, both human and AI. She found that when the receptionist was some anonymous person, who didn’t know anything about her business, or an AI bot-agent who could only take messages like a glorified voicemail service, it wasn’t good for her business. Colleen’s business (and I would guess, yours, too!) is based on the relationship she builds with her clients. She needed a better solution for her can’t-be-in-2-places dilemma. She needed something, or someone, more responsive, who could also answer questions about her services and ensure her schedule was up to date. That’s how Vivi (Virtual Vicki) was born.built Vivi because Colleen needed a dependable helper who not only sounded human but also worked 24/7, and actually understood what callers were asking for and how to respond to them.

Now we are sharing Vivi with other business owners who want more time, less stress, and happier customers!