Times and dates were being read out as digits. The assistant handed “09:00” and “Wednesday 12 August” straight to the speech system, so what your caller heard depended entirely on which voice was reading — anything from “oh nine hundred” to “zero nine zero zero”. It now says “nine o’clock”, “half past five in the afternoon”, “quarter to three”, “midday” and “Wednesday the twelfth of August”, which is both clearer and the same every time.
It only ever says a time it can also understand. We checked every one of the 1,440 minutes in a day: the assistant speaks it, then reads it back to itself. Anything it could say but not understand is left as it was — because the worst thing that can happen on a call is a caller repeating exactly what they were just told and not being understood.
“Have you got anything on Thursday?” now gets you times. That phrasing — along with “what times are free?”, “is there anything free next week?”, “any space on Friday?” and simply “anything Thursday?” — was not recognised as a question about your diary at all, so the caller was asked what time they wanted instead of being offered any. All of them now bring back real appointments from your timetable.
“After work” means the evening. Along with “before work”, “after lunch” and “end of the day”, it used to mean nothing, so a caller who had said exactly when suited them was offered the opposite end of the day. One business open until eight in the evening was telling callers there was no after-work appointment available. Saying “after work please” once times have been read out now narrows them properly.
“A week today” meant today. One of the commonest ways to book anything in Britain, and it booked the caller in for the same day — as did “two weeks today” and “a fortnight today”. A wrong day is worse than no day, because the caller accepts a time and only finds out on the day. Fixed, along with “can I come at noon?”, which had never been understood as a time at all.