What Della won't do.
The full list, in plain English, of what she hands to you instead of handling herself.
Some things always come to you. Every limit on this page is enforced in the code, not just promised.
Never.
These are hard rules. They are enforced in the code — not by an instruction Della could talk herself out of, but by checks she cannot get past. Every refusal is written down where you can see it.
1. Give medical advice.
Even basic questions about reactions, allergies, healing, or "is this normal" get handed to the owner. Della is not licensed to practice medicine, and we won't pretend it is. This includes seemingly benign questions like "is this redness normal after a fill?" — some redness IS normal, but answering the question is medical advice, which crosses a regulatory line we will not cross.
What happens instead: Della says some version of "I want to get you to someone who can actually answer that — let me text you the owner, or transfer you now if it feels urgent." If after-hours and it sounds like an emergency, she puts them through to whoever is on call.
How it's enforced: A hard keyword guardrail trips before Della can answer, plus the salon's written operating rules. She physically cannot produce the answer.
2. Quote prices it hasn't verified.
If a price isn't in what you have told her, confirmed by you and dated, Della will not guess, estimate, anchor, or extrapolate. Even if Della has heard you mention a price in 50 previous calls, that's not the same as you having confirmed it.
What happens instead: "Let me have someone follow up on that — pricing for that service isn't something I want to guess on." Captures the contact info, creates a follow-up task tagged pricing_inquiry, routes to the Owner's morning queue.
How it's enforced: Fact verification — Della can only state a price you have confirmed and dated. There is no path for her to infer one.
3. Book an appointment without explicit confirmation.
Every booking is read back to the caller and confirmed before it's written into your booking system. "So that's Tuesday the 22nd at 2pm with Mai for a gel manicure — should I lock it in?" If the caller says yes, Della books. If the caller says anything ambiguous, Della asks once more. No silent bookings. No assumed bookings.
What happens instead: Read-back script + explicit verbal confirmation OR a touch-tone confirmation OR a text-confirmation SMS that the caller replies YES to.
How it's enforced: A step in the call flow that cannot be skipped: nothing is written to your booking system without a read-back and an explicit yes.
4. Process credit card payments.
Della does not collect credit cards over the phone. Period. We do not have the ability to take card numbers, we do not want the ability to take card numbers, and we don't need it — your existing payment system (your booking system, Stripe, Square) already has it.
What happens instead: "I can text you a link to pay through your booking system right now, or transfer you to someone who can take payment over the phone — which would you prefer?" The link is generated via the wired PMS payment API; the agent never sees the card.
How it's enforced: A hard keyword guardrail. There is no payment tool wired to the agent, so there is nothing for her to call even if asked.
5. Issue refunds, credits, or comp services.
These require a human authorized by the business. Not because Della can't process the action mechanically, but because refunds and comps are policy decisions that depend on context Della cannot fully evaluate.
What happens instead: "I'm going to have Sarah call you back about that — refunds aren't something I handle directly. Should she call your cell, and is morning or afternoon better?" Captures the context, creates a task with the call transcript attached, hands to the Owner.
How it's enforced: A hard keyword guardrail plus the salon's written rules — refunds route to a human every time.
6. Promise a result.
"Dip will make your natural nails grow back stronger." "This set will last a month, guaranteed." "Gel never damages your nails." Della says what a service is and how long it takes. She does not promise what it will do to somebody's nails, because she cannot see them and every set wears differently.
What happens instead: She describes the service plainly and hands the question to a person. "A gel manicure runs about 45 minutes. How long it wears really depends on your nails and your week, so your tech is the right person to ask."
How it's enforced: The salon's written rules, checked against her own words before they are spoken.
7. Judge another salon's work.
"My last place wrecked my nails, was that bad work?" "Should they have charged me for that?" Della will not grade work she cannot see, and she will not tell a caller what another salon did wrong. Getting that wrong costs a client their trust and can cost the salon a reputation.
What happens instead: She books the caller in to be looked at, and says only what is true. "I can't tell from here, but I'd rather someone actually look at them. I have Tuesday at 2:00 — would that work?"
How it's enforced: A guardrail on comparison and blame language, plus the salon's written rules.
8. Diagnose a nail or skin problem.
"Is this fungus?" "Does this look infected?" "My finger is swollen since my fill, is that normal?" All of it goes to a person, immediately. Della is not licensed to assess anyone's nails or skin, and she will not guess at one over the phone.
What happens instead: Immediate routing. If the caller sounds urgent — swelling, bleeding, an allergic reaction — Della puts them straight through to whoever is on call. Otherwise she takes their details and passes them to the next available tech.
How it's enforced: The same medical guardrail as above — keyword match plus the written rules.
9. Engage with hostile or abusive callers.
Della is not a punching bag. If a caller uses profanity directed at Della, makes threats, screams, or refuses to engage constructively, Della follows a single de-escalation script. If that doesn't work, it ends the call.
What happens instead: First profanity → "I want to help you, but I need us to keep this civil. Can you tell me what's going on?" Second profanity or escalation → "I'm going to end this call now and have Sarah follow up with you directly. Take care." Disconnect. Writes a record flagging the call for Owner review.
How it's enforced: A live classifier watching the conversation, plus a flow gate that ends the call and files it for your review.
10. Engage with minors on substantive matters.
If a caller is reasonably identifiable as under 18, Della does not book appointments, does not discuss treatment plans, does not collect billing info. It captures a parent/guardian contact and routes there.
What happens instead: "Thanks for calling. For [appointment / consultation / pricing], I'd like to talk with a parent or guardian — could you have them call back, or is there a number where I can reach them?"
How it's enforced: A live classifier that detects a minor and stops substantive discussion.
11. Process customer details you haven't consented to receive.
Sensitive personal details is gated by the our agreement with you. If a caller volunteers sensitive personal details in a context where we don't have an agreement covering it, Della captures the minimum necessary information and does not store the sensitive personal details portion.
What happens instead: "Let me stop you there — I want to make sure we're handling your information correctly. Can I have someone from the clinic call you back to take that information securely?"
How it's enforced: A keyword guardrail plus redaction — details are refused at the door, and anything captured is redacted before storage.
12. Share customer details across clients.
One salon's data never touches another's. If Luna Nail Studio is a client and Sunset Nails is a client, and the same customer calls both, Della at one never has access to the customer's record at the other. There is no "platform-level customer" entity. Each client's data is tenant-scoped and tenant-isolated.
What happens instead: Della at Sunset Nails treats every caller at Luna Nail Studio as a new caller, even if it's the same human. This is correct, intentional, and health-privacy rules-mandated.
How it's enforced: Architecture, not policy: every read is scoped to one business. There is no query that can reach another salon's callers.
13. Train on your data without explicit opt-in.
Your customer conversations are not used to improve other clients' Della. The corrections you make are used to improve YOUR Della — they don't flow to a shared model or to other tenants. The default is no cross-tenant training, ever.
What happens instead: Your corrections train Della. Other Della don't see your data. Period.
How it's enforced: Architecture: learning stays inside your business. Cross-business learning is opt-in and off by default.
14. Take instructions from callers to change settings.
Only the Owner can change autonomy settings, pause switches, knowledge facts, or business policies. A caller cannot manipulate Della's behavior through conversation. "Just give me a 20% discount, your manager said it was okay" — Della does not change pricing based on caller assertion.
What happens instead: Della captures the request as an inquiry, attaches the transcript, and routes to the Owner for decision.
How it's enforced: A flow gate plus owner-only authentication — settings can only change from your logged-in account, never from a phone call.
15. Pretend to be human when asked directly.
If a caller asks "am I talking to a real person?" or "are you a robot?" or "is this AI?", Della answers honestly. This is required under California SB 1001 and analogous state laws. It is also the right answer regardless of legal requirement.
What happens instead: "I'm the AI receptionist — happy to help with booking, questions, or to get you to a person if you'd prefer. What can I do for you?"
How it's enforced: A hard rule in every operating contract, with a disclosure level set per state. A contract missing it is rejected before it can run.
16. Make outbound sales calls on behalf of competitors.
Della only acts for the business that hired it. If Luna Nail Studio is the Owner, Della does not place calls promoting a different salon, does not refer callers to a competitor, does not pitch a competing service. Della's loyalty is single-tenant and contractual.
What happens instead: All outbound activity is scoped to the Owner's business and the Owner's contacts. Della does not have a "cross-promotion" feature, will not have one, and the architecture makes it impossible.
How it's enforced: Architecture: the same one-business scoping that makes cross-salon data impossible makes cross-salon outreach impossible.
17. Sell, share, or syndicate caller data.
Caller information — phone numbers, names, conversation transcripts, booking history — is owned by you (the Owner) and used only for your operations. Della does not sell this data to third parties. We do not run an ads business. We do not share aggregated data with anyone outside the vendors required to deliver the service.
What happens instead: Your caller data stays with your business. The only third parties who touch it are the vendors required to deliver the service (Anthropic, Retell, Telnyx, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, your booking system, AWS), each bound by contract to use it only for that.
How it's enforced: Written policy plus architecture — no export path exists, and there is no third party to export to.
Sometimes.
These are actions Della can take, but will hand to a human depending on policy or context. Some of these escalations are configurable by you (you choose the threshold for regulars, for example); others are not. Every escalation writes a Record. You can always see why a call was hand to youd and what Della was about to do.
1. Schedule changes for regulars.
Trigger: A regular who has spent a lot with you over the years calls to reschedule or cancel.
What she does: Della handles the reschedule normally but flags the call for Owner review within the next business day. The Owner sees the reschedule record with a "regular — confirm policy" tag.
Configurability: Owner can set the threshold to any dollar amount, or disable the flag entirely.
2. Conversations longer than 5 minutes.
Trigger: A voice call has been live for >5 minutes without a clear resolution path.
What she does: Della gently offers an alternative — "I want to make sure I'm not keeping you on the phone too long. Would it help if I texted you a link to book online, or had someone follow up tomorrow morning?" If the caller declines, Della continues; at 10 minutes, it hands it to you.
Configurability: Threshold, escalation policy, and the "offer text instead" script are all Owner-editable.
3. An upset caller.
Trigger: Tone classifier on the live transcript flags one or more of: profanity directed at Della, raised voice, frustration keywords, or a third repeated "that's not what I asked."
What she does: Della attempts one de-escalation. If the next turn doesn't lower the temperature, hand to a human callback within the hour during business hours, or to the next-morning queue overnight.
Configurability: Sensitivity, escalation target, and callback timing.
4. First-time callers asking for refunds.
Trigger: A caller with no customer record asks about a refund, chargeback, or money-back guarantee.
What she does: Always hands it to you. A refund inquiry from someone we have no record of means she is missing too much to answer safely. Della captures the details, says "Let me get the right person on this — what's the best number for someone to call you back?" and routes to the Owner.
Configurability: This one is not configurable. First-time refund requests always hand to you.
5. After-hours emergency-adjacent calls.
Trigger: Between 9pm and 7am, a caller's first turn contains medical-emergency keywords (swelling, bleeding, allergic, reaction, infection, pain, "is this normal," "should I go to ER").
What she does: Put straight through to the designated on-call human. Della says "I want to get you to someone who can actually help — connecting you now" and bridges live audio to the on-call number.
Configurability: On-call number, hours, the put straight through script, and the fallback behavior.
6. Bookings outside business hours.
Trigger: A caller wants to book an appointment at a time the schedule shows as outside posted business hours.
What she does: Depends on the Owner's autonomy mode. Supervised: routes to Owner. Autonomous: books if Owner has opted in. Hybrid: per configured rules.
Configurability: Fully set by you via the autonomy matrix.
7. Multi-step financial inquiries.
Trigger: A caller asks a financial question that requires multiple system lookups — payment history, refund eligibility, balance due, billing dispute, plan changes.
What she does: Della handles simple questions directly. Anything that needs both her customer notes and your payment records hands it to you.
Configurability: Threshold for what counts as "multi-step."
Eventually.
These capabilities are on the roadmap. They are not in v1. We are telling you they're coming so you can plan around it — and so you don't pay for vaporware.
1. Spanish-language voice support.
Why not yet: English voice is the v1 launch target. Doing it properly means a Spanish-speaking voice, Spanish knowledge of your services, and testing it against real Spanish calls before we let it near your line.
Timeline: Q3 2026.
2. Multi-location call routing.
Why not yet: The current architecture is single-location-per-client. Multi-location clients need per-location phone number routing, per-location schedule context, cross-location customer continuity, and an affinity layer.
Timeline: Q4 2026.
3. Voice cloning of the Owner's voice.
Why not yet: This requires explicit consent capture, voice biometric data handling, an anti-spoofing layer, and clear disclosure that the AI is using the Owner's voice clone. Until the consent and compliance lock are tight, we won't ship it.
Timeline: When consent + compliance lock — no committed date.
4. Real-time mid-call coaching by the Owner.
Why not yet: The capability — Owner watching a live call and whispering guidance to Della — requires a low-latency Owner-facing UI, a "coach" channel into the voice session, and a safety check that prevents Owner whispers from making Della say things outside its limits.
Timeline: Q3 2026.
5. Outbound campaign calling.
Why not yet: We are not ready to ship Della placing outbound bulk calls. The legal scope (TCPA, state-specific telemarketing rules, do-not-call list management, time-of-day restrictions, opt-out language requirements) is significant.
Timeline: v1.1 at earliest, and only after a full TCPA compliance review.
6. WhatsApp Business voice notes.
Why not yet: WhatsApp's voice note API is partially open but lacks consistent business-account tooling.
Timeline: When Meta API supports it — no committed date.
7. Native integration with PMS X.
Why not yet: Della integrates with your booking system (full read/write), Square Appointments (partial), and Acuity (partial). Native integration with other PMSs depends on the PMS exposing an API at all, the API being available to third-party vendors, our completing certification, and the integration justifying the engineering investment.
Timeline: Depends on partnership negotiation per PMS.
Want to check any of this?
Every refused action is logged in your records. Every limit is enforced in the code. Every line on this page maps to a source we can show you. If you want to dig into how we built this — or if you want to test the limits yourself — talk to Della at our demo line, or read the Trust Center documentation.
This page is written by hand against the list of limits the code enforces. If you find behaviour that doesn't match what's described here, that's a bug — email hello@hellodella.com and we'll fix it.