What is an AI answering service for nonprofits?
It is one AI that answers a nonprofit's phone, website chat, e-mail and web forms on its own number, day and night. For a science museum or planetarium, that means exhibit questions, show times, directions and group requests answered at once from the facts you approved, bookings placed in the right calendar, and everything else passed to the person you name with the whole conversation attached.
Can the AI sell tickets or take payments?
No. It takes no card payments and issues no tickets or passes. It answers what families want to know before they buy, sends them the link to your own online ticket page by chat or e-mail, and passes phone orders to your box office as a message with the callback number read back, or puts the caller through when your rules say so.
Can it book field trips and school groups?
Yes. A teacher can call, chat or fill in your group form; the AI asks for the dates, the grade, the number of students and chaperones, and books the visit into the calendar of the room, educator or program you set. The confirmation goes out at once, and AI Auto-Call phones the group the day before to confirm or free the slot.
Does it know our planetarium show schedule and exhibit details?
It knows what you give it. Your website, your show list and your exhibit notes go into the knowledge base behind the phone, the chat and the e-mail, and Lisa shows every change before it goes live. When the dome schedule changes for the season, you update it once and every channel answers with the new times.
Can it book birthday parties, overnights and private events?
Yes. It books party rooms and private dome shows into their own calendars, places a hold on a room or a date, and prepares a quote from your own price list that waits for your yes before it is sent. Follow-ups remind the family about the open quote and stop the moment they reply.
How does it help with memberships and donors?
Every member, donor and teacher who calls, chats or writes lands in a CRM that fills itself. You can send an e-mail campaign to a filtered group, such as members whose year ends next month, and follow-ups stop as soon as someone answers. Questions about gifts and receipts go to your development office.
Which languages does it speak with visitors?
The visitor's own. Each caller is answered in their language, the website chat speaks 40 languages, and a call can be routed to the colleague who speaks it. Tourists and families who are more at ease in another language get the same answers about exhibits, shows and hours as everyone else.
Can we keep our museum's phone number?
Yes. Keep the number printed on your brochures, your signs and your website, and forward it the way you would to an answering service. There is no porting and nothing to install, and the calls keep arriving on the line your visitors already know.
Will it replace our visitor services staff and volunteers?
That is not what it is for. The AI takes the repeat questions, the Saturday overflow and the evening calls, so the people at your admissions desk and on the gallery floor can spend their time with the visitors in front of them. Each desk chooses whether the AI answers alone, answers first, or comes after a person.
How do new volunteers and educators learn the answers?
From your own documents. The team assistant answers staff and volunteers only from what you uploaded, with the source shown, and the AI chat cites its facts. Your education lead can write a training course just by talking, and while a box office colleague is on a call, the right answer appears on the screen.
How much does an answering service for a nonprofit museum cost?
Zanus AI is priced per company, never per seat, so every educator, volunteer and box office colleague works under one subscription. You pick the modules your science museum or planetarium needs, and the plans are on the pricing page.
What is the difference between the 7-day free trial and the demo?
The free trial builds a sandbox around your own museum's website for 7 days, with no card: a phone line that answers as you, your site with Lisa on it and a dashboard. The demo shows the AI front office ready-made, with nothing to set up, and arrives by e-mail in about 2 minutes.
