An interview with Aviram Hinenzon, CGTMO at OnceHub, by Ella Levenbach, Head of Content.
As the Head of Content at OnceHub, I've had a front-row seat to the evolution of our scheduling tools. Our latest release, Phone Booking, feels different. It’s a genuine game-changer. It extends our platform's power beyond the screen and into the channel that started it all: the phone.
To go behind the scenes of this launch, I sat down with our CMO, Aviram Hinenzon, to discuss the strategic vision, the customer problems we're solving, and the future of scheduling as we see it.
The Basics: What is Phone Booking?
Ella: Before we dive into the big-picture strategy, can you give us a practical explanation? What is Phone Booking at its core?
Aviram: Happy to. At its core, Phone Booking provides our users with a dedicated business phone number. When someone calls that number, our AI-powered assistant answers 24/7. Based on the conversation, it can either schedule a meeting directly into the user’s calendar, using their existing OnceHub availability, or it can take a detailed message, transcribe it, and email the summary. It's designed to be the simplest way to ensure every inbound call results in a productive outcome.
The Vision: Introducing Conversational Scheduling
Ella: Aviram, the launch of Phone Booking is built on a broader philosophy we’re calling ‘Conversational Scheduling.’ Can you start by explaining that concept and how Phone Booking brings it to life?
Aviram: Absolutely. For years, scheduling has focused on making booking more efficient through graphical interfaces like booking pages and chatbots. That's incredibly powerful. "Conversational Scheduling" is our vision for adding a more human-like, flexible dimension to that process. We see every interaction as a series of "scheduling moments" or "micro-negotiations" where we can connect with a client.
Phone Booking is the first and most powerful manifestation of this philosophy. It takes the intelligence of our platform and extends it beyond the web, allowing for natural, AI-driven conversations over the phone.
Ella: It seems this launch reinforces that the phone is far from dead. What is your perspective on the role of voice in a world dominated by clicks and taps?
Aviram: Our view is that it's not "voice versus web"—it's "voice and web." Graphical interfaces are fantastic, but they don't suit everyone or every situation. People might be on the go, they may find digital links challenging, or they may simply prefer the immediacy of a phone call. By not offering a powerful phone scheduling option, businesses are missing out on key scheduling moments. Voice is a critical channel for meeting customers where they are.
The Solution: Next-Generation Voicemail
Ella: What was the specific market gap or customer story that sparked the development of Phone Booking?
Aviram: It came from a long-standing need we’ve seen for a decade: bridging the digital and phone worlds. The "aha!" moment was realizing that recent advances in AI finally gave us the technology to solve this problem intuitively. We could finally address the customer who calls a busy professional, can't get through, and is left with the frustratingly outdated process of leaving a voicemail and waiting for a game of phone tag to begin. We knew we could do better.
Ella: The market has many new AI phone agents. Some business owners might worry they're too complex to set up or that their clients will dislike talking to a 'robot.' How does Phone Booking address those fears?
Aviram: That’s where our 'zero setup' philosophy is key. Many AI tools are powerful but require complex configuration. Phone Booking leverages the settings you’ve already created for your booking page. It understands your availability and questions without any extra work.
This also addresses the fear of a "robot" saying the wrong thing. Our system is designed as an intentionally bounded conversation—it can schedule a meeting or take a message, and that's it. This minimizes risk and builds trust, which was critical for us to create a product for the mainstream market, not just a tech experiment.
Ella: You’ve called Phone Booking the "next generation of voicemail." How does it fundamentally change the dynamic of a missed call?
Aviram: A traditional voicemail is a passive dead end. Phone Booking turns a missed call into an active opportunity. First, it offers the caller the immediate option to schedule a meeting right there in the conversation, capturing their intent on the spot. Second, if they do leave a message, our AI transcribes and summarizes it, delivering it to your email. You can read it at a glance, identify urgency, and respond faster. It makes the entire process more efficient and valuable for both the business and the client.
The Impact: For Busy Professionals and Their Clients
Ella: How do you see Phone Booking changing the day-to-day workflow for a busy solo professional or an overloaded office team?
Aviram: It creates more scheduling opportunities and saves a significant amount of time. For businesses serving communities that prefer calling, you're opening up a brand-new, accessible scheduling channel. For everyone else, you're capturing those "scheduling moments" when you can't answer the phone. The time savings come from eliminating phone tag. That back-and-forth of missed calls and follow-up emails is replaced by a single, productive interaction.
Just like online scheduling eliminates email back-and-forth, Phone Booking eliminates phone tag. Both tools create more scheduling opportunities and save you valuable time.
The Journey: From Idea to Innovation
Ella: Every innovative product has its challenges. What was the most significant hurdle the team had to overcome in bringing Phone Booking to life?
Aviram: One of the biggest challenges was ensuring a true real-time experience. Delays that might be acceptable in an asynchronous text chat feel very unnatural in a phone conversation where you expect an immediate response. The other major challenge was finding the right balance between conversational complexity and setup effort. We actually started by exploring a full-fledged, complex AI conversation, but we realized the real breakthrough was creating a product that delivered significant value with zero setup for the user. We believe this ease of adoption is the future for mainstream AI products.
The Future: A Glimpse of What's Next
Ella: Where does Conversational Scheduling go from here? Can you give us a glimpse into the future?
Aviram: This is just the beginning. We see the AI conversations becoming richer with more context, much like our routing forms qualify prospects online today. We also envision the AI agents handling more actions, like transferring an urgent call to an available team member instead of just scheduling for later. Finally, the AI will handle more nuanced scheduling "micro-negotiations"—like prioritizing your preferred meeting times first—in a way that’s much more natural than a graphical interface can be.
Ella: One last question. If there’s one core message you want a business owner to take away from this launch, what would it be?
Aviram: It’s simple: if you still use a traditional voicemail for your business, you're outdated. Once you experience how effectively Phone Booking can turn your missed calls into scheduled meetings and actionable messages, you won't see any reason to go back.
