An Indian school-book publisher uses an AI voice agent to reach thousands of teachers at the start of the academic season. The agent confirms the person is a practising teacher, asks which class and subject they teach, and offers a free specimen book for that class. It then hands over to WhatsApp to collect the delivery address. Busy teachers get a callback. After each call, simple scoring prompts sort the outcome into dashboard columns. This post shares the setup and the lessons, without naming the publisher.
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Why publishers call teachers
For school books, the teacher often influences what the school adopts. Publishers traditionally rely on field sales visits and phone calls from small teams, and there are far more teachers than calls a team can make before the adoption window closes.
The call
- Confirm the person is a teacher, politely: "Kya aap abhi school mein padhate hain?"
- Ask class and subject: "Aap kaunsi class aur kaunsa subject padhate hain?"
- Make the offer: a free specimen book for that class and subject.
- Move details to WhatsApp: "Main aapko WhatsApp par ek message bhej rahi hoon, wahan apna school ka address bhej dijiye."
- Close warmly and end the call.
Rule: never ask for the postal address on the call. Addresses are long and easily misheard; on WhatsApp the teacher types it once, correctly.
Handling real teachers' days
Teachers are often between classes, on duty or travelling. The agent recognises "abhi class mein hoon", "driving kar raha hoon" or "baad mein call karo", and:
- schedules a callback at the time the teacher gives, or
- sends the offer on WhatsApp straight away.
If a teacher refuses, the agent may try once more with a different angle, then thanks them and ends the call. No second retry of a refusal.
Pronunciation matters more than you think
- Class numbers in Hindi: "dasvi", "barahvi", not "tenth" or "10th" read in English.
- Exam and board acronyms said the way teachers say them.
- Book and brand names spelled out for the voice so they sound right.
More in AI voice agent pronunciation for Indian numbers and acronyms.
Sounding natural across thousands of calls
- Rotate acknowledgement words ("achha", "theek hai", "samajh gayi") instead of one phrase.
- Never repeat the greeting mid-call.
- Respond to what the teacher said, not with a generic "thanks for confirming".
Scoring every call automatically
After each call, several short prompts each return one word:
| Question | Possible answers |
|---|---|
| Outcome | APPROVED, NOT_TEACHER, CALLBACK, WRONG_PERSON, DROPPED_EARLY, HOSTILE |
| Class band | primary, middle, secondary, senior secondary |
| Subject | from a fixed list |
These become columns in the dashboard, so the team can see approvals by region, class and subject without listening to calls. How to set this up: score every AI call automatically.
WhatsApp does the second half
The call qualifies; WhatsApp completes. The teacher gets a message with the offer, a short form or reply prompt for the address, and later a delivery update. See WhatsApp follow-up after an AI call.
Cost
On Edesy, calls are billed per started minute at Rs 4-6 per minute depending on your prepaid top-up, and unanswered calls are free. Teacher calls usually finish within a minute.
Plan your season
Start with one region and one class band, listen to 30 calls, then scale. Create a free account, or talk to us. Olympiad organisers should also read olympiad and exam registration reminder calls.