How an AI receptionist works
- The call
- You forward your business line to a number the receptionist answers, after hours or all the time. Your number stays with your carrier.
- The greeting
- It answers in your business name, says it is an automated assistant and that the call is recorded, and asks how it can help.
- The questions
- It asks one thing at a time, in short plain turns, and stops to listen when the caller interrupts.
- The booking
- It checks your calendar and books an open time, or takes the details for a callback.
- The handoff
- Urgent calls go to your on-call number. Anything it is not set up to answer becomes a message.
- The summary
- You get a text with who called and why. The call is recorded and transcribed for you to read.
What an AI receptionist handles well
- New-customer questions about your services, your hours and the area you cover
- Booking, moving and confirming appointments from your calendar
- Taking an address, a description of the job and a callback number
- Telling the urgent call from the routine one, and routing each
- Answering at 9 pm on a Sunday the same way it does at 10 am on a Tuesday
It is built from your own information: your services, your hours, your service area, what you do and what you leave to others. A caller who asks whether you cover their town gets the answer you would give.
What it hands to you
A good setup knows its limits. Ours is set up not to guess: it does not diagnose a fault, quote a price you have not given it, give legal advice or take a payment. Those calls become a message or a transfer to you. You set the rules before launch.
For the first two weeks we read each day’s calls the next business morning and fix what is wrong the same business day wherever we can. After that we read them with you once a month, and sooner whenever you flag a call.
Signs your business needs one
- Calls go to voicemail while you are on a job, with a client or at lunch
- People call after hours or on weekends wanting a time booked
- Your front desk is on another call when the phone rings
- You call back the next morning and the customer has already booked someone else
- You pay for an answering service and most of its calls are routine bookings
If two or more of those are true most weeks, it is worth a look. Count first: your phone’s call log or your carrier’s portal shows the calls that rang out.
When you may not need one yet
If a person answers nearly every call during the hours you are open, and after-hours calls are rare, a receptionist adds little. The same goes for a business where every call needs a judgment only you can make. In both cases a fast callback and a clear voicemail greeting may be enough for now.
If what you miss is the follow-up rather than the call, start with automation instead: a missed-call text-back, reminders and review requests that send themselves.
What it costs and how long setup takes
Ours is from $750 setup and $249 a month from launch, with 300 call-minutes a month included and $0.25 a minute after. Planned as eight working days from signing: we set up the number, run ten test calls, run it alongside your own answering for two days, then switch it on. Texting starts when the carrier registration clears, which takes days to weeks; we file it within one business day of signing.
For your setup work: a short list and one call. We need your hours, service area, what you do and do not do, your on-call number and your calendar, then a 30-minute walkthrough before it goes live.
Compare it with the alternatives in AI receptionist vs answering service, or see an example call on the AI receptionist page. We also set it up for dentists, HVAC companies, plumbers, salons, law firms and auto repair shops. We are based in Herndon, Northern Virginia and work with businesses in Reston, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun and DC, and remotely anywhere.