Question 1

How much does an AI receptionist cost?

Accepted Answer

An AI receptionist costs between roughly $25 and $750 a month, depending on whether you configure it yourself or have it built for you. Ours starts at $150 a month for missed-call text back, which you can buy online, and $500 a month for the full receptionist plus a one-off setup fee. There is no per-minute billing, so a busy month does not arrive with a surprise.

Question 2

What do missed calls actually cost a small business?

Accepted Answer

On published averages, 62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered and 85% of those callers never ring back, so most missed calls are lost jobs rather than delayed ones. A lead costs about $53 to generate before anyone picks up, so the money is spent whether the call is answered or not. Put your own figures into the calculator on this page to see what yours come to.

Question 3

How fast do you have to call a new lead back?

Accepted Answer

Inside five minutes. MIT's study of more than fifteen thousand leads found that calling within five minutes rather than thirty made a business twenty-one times more likely to qualify the lead and a hundred times more likely to reach the person at all. Three quarters of businesses miss that window, which is why hitting it is worth so much.

Question 4

There are AI receptionists for under $100. Why is yours more?

Accepted Answer

Because those are software you set up and this is an agent we build. You paste your website into one of those and from then on it improvises your words to your customers, and you find out what it said from the customer. We write how yours answers, you approve the wording, it goes through our test bench before it speaks to anybody, and when something goes wrong there is a person who fixes it that day. If you would rather do the configuring and keep the difference, one of the cheaper ones is genuinely the right choice for you.

Question 5

How is this different from an answering service?

Accepted Answer

An answering service takes a message; this takes the booking. It asks the questions you would ask, checks your real availability, puts the appointment in your calendar and texts the caller a confirmation, all before they hang up. You get a booked job instead of a note to ring someone back.

Question 6

Can it book appointments into my calendar?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and during the call rather than afterwards. We either set up a calendar for you or connect it to the system you already use. It reads your live availability, offers times that are genuinely free, books the one the caller chooses, reads it back to them and texts it afterwards, at the time the caller actually chose in their own local time.

Question 7

What if a really valuable customer rings?

Accepted Answer

You tell it what a valuable job looks like in your trade, and when a caller describes one it stops and puts them through to a real person while they are still on the phone. It is not there to handle every call. It is there to handle the ones you would have handled badly at 9pm and to hand you the ones worth stopping for.

Question 8

Will my customers know it is not a person?

Accepted Answer

Some will ask, and when they do it tells them the truth straight away, first time asked. The people who mind are far fewer than the people who mind being sent to voicemail, and the ones who mind get put through to you rather than argued with.

Question 9

Does my phone number change?

Accepted Answer

No. Your number stays exactly as it is, on your website, your signage and your Google listing. It simply stops going to voicemail.

Question 10

Can you ring my old inquiries as well?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is usually the cheapest thing we do for a new client, because the list is already theirs and already paid for. An agent works through it one call at a time, books the people who turn out to be ready, and anyone who asks to be left alone comes off the list and stays off. Five hundred to set it up, then fifty dollars per appointment it books.

	Voicemail	Answering service	Hiring someone	Upshot
Answers at 9pm on a Sunday
Books the job while the caller is on the phone
Rings a new inquiry back inside a minute
Works through your old inquiry list
Knows your prices, your area and your rules
Never on hold, never engaged
Priced per month, not per call
Cost per month	free	per call	$2,000+	from $150

We answer your calls. And we make them.

The calls you miss, and the ones you never make

Answer every call

Text every missed caller back

Call every new lead back in 60 seconds

Wake up the leads that went cold

Ring a list you own, at volume

You already paid for the calls you’re missing

It does not take a message. It finishes the job

You don’t set it up.
We build it around your rules

Send us your website

Tell us your rules

It goes through the test bench, then live

Voicemail, an answering service, or another pair of hands

One month at a time. Stop it whenever it stops earning its keep

The things people ask first

Your phone is ringing right now. Somebody should answer it