AI receptionist or answering service?

If you're missing calls and don't want to hire someone, there are two ways to have them answered. A live answering service has a person pick up in your business's name. An AI receptionist, like Call Welcome, answers with a voice that tells the caller it's an AI. Both take a message so you can call back. They differ in who's on the line, what they can decide, and when they're there. We make one of the two, so read this knowing that. We've tried to be straight about where a person does better.

What a live answering service does well

• A person answers. Some callers would rather talk to a person, and with a live service they do.
• Judgement on odd calls. A good operator can calm an upset caller, make sense of a muddled story, and work out what to do with a call nobody planned for.
• More than messages. Some services also book appointments for you. One we looked at sells it as an add-on to its plans.

If those matter most to your callers, a live service may be the better fit, and the rest of this post won't change that.

What an AI receptionist does well

• It's always on. It answers at 2 a.m. on a Sunday just as it does at 10 on a Tuesday morning. There are no shifts, and no lunch breaks.
• The same price at 2 a.m. Our plans are sized in minutes, not hours of cover, so a call at night costs the same as one at noon. Nothing is added for evenings, weekends or holidays.
• A transcript of every call. Calls aren't recorded, but each one is transcribed, and the transcript waits in your portal. You can read what the caller actually said, not just a summary of it.
• Texts right away. Each message is texted to you as soon as it's taken: the caller's name, number, address and the problem.
• Emergencies flagged. You decide what counts as an emergency for your business: a burst pipe, no heat in a cold snap, a garage door stuck open. The receptionist listens for them, and puts them straight through to your phone or texts them to you right away, as you choose.
• Safety first, whatever your trade. A caller who mentions a gas smell or a carbon monoxide alarm is told to get out and call the gas company or 911 from outside. Smoke or fire, an electrical shock or someone hurt means calling 911 now. Either way, you get a SAFETY text right away.
• It knows what you tell it. It answers the questions you write for it, such as your hours, your service area and how you charge for a visit, and it politely turns away sales calls.

Where a person is better

Here it is plainly.

• Callers who want a person. Some callers don't want to talk to an AI, and nothing we do will change that. Our receptionist tells every caller it's an AI at the start of the call (here's why). A caller who'd rather not talk to it can still leave a name and number for you, but some will simply hang up.
• Hard calls. A caller who's upset, confused or hard to hear is easier for an experienced person. The receptionist asks them to repeat rather than guess, and takes a message, but it won't talk someone down the way a good operator can.
• Decisions on the spot. It never promises an appointment time, says a job is booked, or quotes a price you haven't given it. If your callers need a time booked while they're on the line, a service that books appointments can do that, and ours doesn't.
• Questions you didn't plan for. If a question isn't covered by what you've written, the receptionist says you'll confirm and takes a message. A person can sometimes use common sense and answer it.

On these calls it still tries to take a message and text it to you. But a person handles them better, and you should know that before you choose.

How to choose

Four questions get you most of the way.

• When do you miss calls? If it's mostly while you're on a job, in the evening or on the weekend, check that whatever you pick answers at those times, and what it charges for them.
• What does a caller need from that first call? If a message and a quick callback do the job, an AI receptionist covers it. If callers need a booking or a decision while they're on the line, a person, or you, will do it better.
• How many calls, and how long? Count the calls you miss in a typical week before you compare plans. The calculator shows what those calls might be worth to you, and which of our plans they'd need.
• What will it cost? We've compared the prices, with sources, in what an AI receptionist costs in Canada.

You don't have to decide in the abstract. The trial is free for 14 days, you keep your own number, and turning forwarding off puts things back the way they were. If your trade has emergencies, like plumbing or heating and cooling, its page shows how the receptionist handles them.

Get started · from $99/mo →