When you are up on a roof, you do not answer the phone. An AI phone service takes the call, asks for name, concern and a callback time — and Zirko turns that into an inquiry waiting for you in the office and in the app.
Zirko itself does not answer calls and does not use AI. You hire the phone service — such as ElevenLabs or fonio — yourself, under your own contract. Through a key, Zirko gives it exactly four things. The key is a long string of characters your phone service uses to identify itself to Zirko — like a password, but only for these four things:
- Recognize caller — only whether the number belongs to a customer, and that customer's name for the greeting. Never address, documents or amounts.
- Create inquiry — with name, concern, address and callback request.
- Report emergency — then an email goes out at once.
- Get rules — opening hours, company holidays, what counts as an emergency.
Nothing else. The caller is a stranger: nothing they say can read or change anything in Zirko.
Which service suits you?
| fonio | ElevenLabs | |
|---|---|---|
| For whom | Businesses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland | Businesses in any country |
| Phone number | included in the plan — you forward your business number to it | not included: from Twilio or through your phone system |
| Where calls are processed | in the EU, with servers in Germany | in the US by default, in the EU only on the Enterprise plan |
fonio is all in one: number, voice and servers in Germany. With ElevenLabs, the number is the part that takes the most work. Either you get one from Twilio, a provider of phone numbers over the internet — with its own account and its own bill. Or you connect your phone system over a SIP trunk, an internet line for phone systems; whether your system can do this, your phone provider or whoever set it up for you will know. (Information from the providers, checked on 12 October 2026.)
Switching on and creating the key
Settings → Company → AI phone service, switch Connect a phone service. It is off out of the box; only Office – Admin can switch it, manage keys and change the rules. Before that, your business accepts the current version of the terms and of the data processing agreement. If it is based in Italy, it also approves certain clauses separately, as Italian law requires — under Settings → Contract & subscription.
Then Create key: you pick the service — ElevenLabs, fonio or Other service — and Zirko shows the key exactly once. Copy it into your phone service right away. Zirko does not store it in readable form and cannot show it to you again.
Only enter the key in your phone service — never by email, in a chat or into an AI assistant. Anyone who has it can create inquiries in your business.
Create a separate key for each service; at most five are valid at the same time. Each one shows Last used. Revoke takes effect immediately and cannot be undone — for new access, you create a new key.
Entering it in the phone service
Under How to set up your phone service you pick your service, and Zirko shows you every value field by field, ready to copy — wherever it says “Bearer …”, your key goes in. The articles on ElevenLabs and fonio explain the steps. The caller's number is filled in there by the phone service itself, not by the AI; that is why a caller cannot get it to look up other people's numbers.
The “AI phone service” tab in Settings: “Connect a phone service” is on, a key shows only its last characters, and below it “How to set up your phone service” with ElevenLabs selected — No screenshot is available in this language yet.
Your rules for calls
Under Rules for calls you maintain what your phone service looks up during the call:
- Opening hours — up to two time ranges per day. Holidays and days off are closed; they come from Settings → Days off.
- Company holidays, with a note for callers if you like.
- Emergencies — what counts as an emergency for you, what the caller should do, the emergency number and who receives the emergency email.
- Callback and services — when you call back, what your business does and does not do, which area you cover.
- Greeting — the phone service's first message.
You can change the rules here or, as an admin, through your AI assistant — the emergency number, the emergency instructions and the recipients of the emergency email only here, never through an assistant. An assistant cannot write a phone number into the other rules, and the instructions Zirko provides for your phone service tell it to give callers no number other than your emergency number and the public emergency number.
The greeting: this is on you
The caller has to learn that an AI is speaking and that the call is being recorded. Your service's terms require this, and in the EU so does the AI Act — this is your duty as a business, not Zirko's. Use suggestion inserts a sentence that says both:
“Hello, this is the AI phone assistant of Huber Painting. I am an artificial intelligence, and this call is being recorded so that we can handle your request. How can I help?”
The suggestion is correct whether your service records the audio or only writes the call down. If your service requires more, adjust the sentence — ElevenLabs, for example, requires a note that the call may go to ElevenLabs and its AI providers. If your service records the audio, you usually need the caller's consent for that — or you switch audio recording off; how to do it is explained in the articles on ElevenLabs and fonio.
When something is on fire: emergencies
If the phone service recognizes an emergency according to your rules, two things happen:
- It puts the call through to your emergency number — if you have set that up in your service. That is the fastest way to a human.
- Zirko sends an email at once to the people you selected, with the callback number and a link to the inquiry. If you select no one, it goes to everyone with the role Office – Admin.
There is no notification on your phone. If people are in danger, the instructions Zirko provides for your phone service tell it to refer the caller to the emergency services first — whether it does, you check when testing.
Where the calls are stored
The call itself — audio and transcript — is stored with your phone service, not in Zirko. ElevenLabs processes in the US by default, in the EU only on the Enterprise plan; fonio processes in Germany. You sign the data processing agreement with the service yourself. Zirko only holds the inquiry, see Inquiries from the phone.
In read-only mode after the trial, your phone service can still get your rules but cannot create inquiries.