An AI receptionist that answers every call, done for you.
Day, night, and while you are with a customer.
We build and run an AI receptionist for your business. It picks up your line in your business's name, answers the questions callers actually ask, takes their details, books the appointment onto your calendar, texts them a confirmation, and hands the call to a person when one is needed. Not software you configure. We set it up, we run it, and your phone stops going to voicemail. Live in 14 days.
Why do small businesses miss so many calls?
Because the person who should answer is doing the job the caller is calling about. The plumber is under a sink. The injector is with a patient. The loan officer is on another borrower's call. The dealer's salesperson is on a test drive. Nobody is being lazy; the phone simply rings at the moment the business is busiest, and the caller goes to voicemail. Most of them do not leave one.
The only published field test we could find measured it directly. 411 Locals monitored the phone lines of 85 small businesses across 58 industries for 30 days, calling during standard business hours.
| What the data says | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Calls to small businesses answered by a person | 37.8% | 411 Locals, 85 businesses, 58 industries |
| Calls sent to voicemail | 37.8% | 411 Locals, 85 businesses, 58 industries |
| Calls with no response at all | 24.3% | 411 Locals, 85 businesses, 58 industries |
| Lift in qualifying odds, lead contacted at 5 min vs 30 min | 21x | Lead Response Management study |
Full citations are in the Sources section at the bottom of this page. The 411 Locals test was published in 2016 and is still the most cited measurement of the problem; the many "62% of calls go unanswered" claims online trace back to it.
Read the first three rows together: roughly six of every ten calls to a small business during business hours never reach a person. That is during business hours. After 6 pm and on weekends the number is closer to all of them, because nobody is there to pick up.
What a missed call actually costs
- The caller had intent. Nobody phones a med spa, a mortgage broker or a roofer for fun. A call is a lead that has already decided to talk to a human today.
- They rarely wait. The person who got voicemail calls the next business in the search results. The lead is not lost to a competitor's marketing; it is lost to their receptionist.
- Callbacks are slow and awkward. Even when you do call back, it is hours later, the caller is now busy, and you are the one leaving voicemail.
The fix is not a bigger front desk or a rule that everyone answers. It is a receptionist that is never with another customer, never off shift, and never on lunch, which is exactly what an AI receptionist is.
One receptionist that handles every call
Six things, set up for you and tuned to how your business actually answers the phone. Your team keeps working. Callers get a person-quality conversation and a booked appointment.
Answers in your business's name, 24/7
Every call is picked up within a couple of rings, at 2 pm on a Tuesday or 9 pm on a Sunday. The greeting, the tone and the voice are chosen with you during setup so it sounds like your business, not a call center.
Answers the questions callers actually ask
Hours, location, parking, what services you offer, what to bring, whether you take their insurance, how long an appointment takes. We write the answers with you, and the receptionist only says what you have approved.
Books appointments on your calendar
It reads your real availability, offers two or three open slots, books the one the caller picks, and puts it on the right calendar: yours, a provider's, or a salesperson's. Reschedules and cancellations work the same way.
Texts the caller a confirmation
Before the call ends, the caller has a text with the time, the address, and anything they need to bring. A reminder goes out before the appointment. Fewer no-shows, fewer "what time was it again" calls.
Takes messages and routes them
When a call is for a specific person or needs a decision, the receptionist takes the caller's name, number and reason, and sends a summary by text or email to the right person the moment the call ends. No more sticky notes on the monitor.
Transfers to a human when it should
If the caller asks for a person, if the topic is outside what the receptionist is allowed to answer, or if it is an emergency by your definition, the call is transferred live to whoever is on duty, with a short spoken summary so nobody starts from scratch.
How do AI receptionists work?
An AI receptionist answers your phone line, listens to what the caller says, works out what they want, replies out loud in a natural voice, and takes an action such as answering a question, booking an appointment or transferring the call, all within about a second per turn until the call is resolved. Under the surface it is three pieces working together: speech recognition that turns the caller's words into text as they speak, a language model that understands the request and decides what to say and do next using only the information your business has approved, and a voice that reads the reply back. The receptionist is connected to your calendar so bookings are real, and to your phone line so callers dial the number they already know.
Two things it is not. It is not a phone menu ("press 2 for hours"); callers talk normally and interrupt when they want to. And it is not a chatbot reading a script; it holds a real back-and-forth, asks follow-up questions, and knows when to stop and hand over. What it will not do is guess. If a caller asks something outside what you have approved, it says so and gets a person.
What does a call with an AI receptionist sound like?
Short, natural, and in your business's name. Here is a real-shape example from a call to a med spa at 8:40 pm on a Thursday, after the front desk has gone home. Names are placeholders.
Notice what the receptionist did not do. It did not quote a price, give medical advice, or promise a result. It answered what it was allowed to answer, booked the consult, texted the confirmation, and left the clinical conversation to the injector. Every business has its own version of that boundary, and we write it with you before the receptionist takes its first call.
Is an AI receptionist better than an answering service or a front desk?
It depends what you are paying for. A front desk person, a traditional live answering service, voicemail and an AI receptionist each solve a different part of the problem. Here is where each one lands on the things that decide whether a caller becomes a customer.
| Front desk staff | Live answering service | Voicemail | LeadSixty AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers after hours and weekends | No | Yes, if you pay for it | Records a message | Yes, always |
| Answers while staff are with a customer | No, that is when calls are missed | Yes | Records a message | Yes |
| Answers questions about your business | Yes | From a script, often "someone will call you back" | No | Yes, from answers you approved |
| Books directly on your calendar | Yes | Sometimes, often billed per booking | No | Yes, with a text confirmation |
| Handles several calls at once | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Knows your business the same way every time | Depends on the person and the day | Depends on which agent picks up | n/a | Yes, identical on every call |
| Cost structure | Salary, benefits, coverage gaps | Per minute or per call; AI-first plans at one large provider start at $300 a month for 30 calls | Free, and it costs you the caller | One-time setup plus a flat monthly retainer, quoted on the call |
| Time to live | Weeks to hire and train | Days | Now | 14 days |
The $300 for 30 calls figure is Smith.ai's published AI-first Starter plan at the time of writing, linked in Sources; other providers price per minute. Honest note: a great front desk person is still better than any AI at reading a distressed caller, and a live answering service is better when calls routinely involve emergencies that need judgment. The AI receptionist wins on the calls you are missing right now: the routine ones that arrive when nobody is free, after hours, or all at once.
Who does an AI receptionist make sense for?
Any business whose phone rings while the people who answer it are doing billable work. The setup is the same; what changes is the questions it answers, the calendar it books onto, and where the line is drawn on what it may say.
- Loan officers and mortgage brokers: answers rate-shopping callers without quoting a rate, books the pre-approval call, and pairs with the 60-second text follow-up on web leads.
- Insurance agencies: takes quote requests and policy questions after hours, books the producer, and never states a premium or says coverage is bound.
- Real estate teams: answers sign calls and listing inquiries while agents are at showings, books the showing, and routes sellers to the listing agent.
- Car dealers and brokers: answers "is it still available" at 9 pm, books the test drive, and leaves payment and financing questions to the desk.
- Med spas and aesthetic clinics: books consults, explains what to expect, and keeps every clinical question with a provider.
- Home services: answers while the technician is on a roof or under a sink, books the estimate, and flags true emergencies for an immediate transfer.
- Dental offices: handles new-patient calls, insurance-accepted questions and appointment changes when the front desk is checking in patients.
- Law offices: takes intake details for new matters, books the consultation, and transfers existing clients to their attorney's line.
Three steps. Fourteen days. Your number stays the same.
Free Where AI Fits call
We look at how your calls are handled today, when they are missed, what callers usually ask, and where a receptionist would pay for itself. You leave with a written picture, whether or not you hire us.
We build and install in 14 days
Voice and greeting chosen, approved answers written, calendar connected, transfer rules and boundaries set, test calls made with your team, your existing number forwarded. Nothing for your staff to learn.
We run it, you take the booked calls
Every call is recorded and reviewed. We add answers for questions callers asked that we had not covered, tune the transfer rules, and send you a weekly summary of calls, bookings and messages.
What happens in the 14 days
| Days | What we do | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Where AI Fits call, review of how calls are handled now, list of the questions callers ask most | One 30-minute call |
| 3 to 6 | Business line set up, voice and greeting chosen, approved answers written, calendar connected, texting number registered | Hours, services, locations, calendar access, business details for registration |
| 7 to 10 | Booking rules, transfer rules, boundaries on what the receptionist may say, test calls with your team | One 45-minute review call, feedback on test calls |
| 11 to 13 | Adjustments from testing, message routing set for each person, reminders configured | Approve the final script |
| 14 | Your existing number forwards to the receptionist, either always or only when nobody picks up. Monitoring on. | Ten minutes with your phone provider, which we walk you through |
You keep your phone number. Forwarding can be set to send every call to the receptionist, or only the calls your team does not answer within a few rings, or only calls outside business hours. Most businesses start with the second option and widen it once they hear the recordings.
What are the rules for an AI answering your phone?
Three things, all handled during the install.
- Call recording disclosure where required. Several states require both parties to be told a call is recorded. The receptionist's greeting includes the disclosure your state calls for, and recordings are stored in your account, not ours.
- The receptionist says it is an assistant. It introduces itself as your business's assistant and never claims to be a person. Callers who ask are told plainly. In practice almost nobody minds, because they got an answer instead of voicemail.
- No advice beyond what you approved. The receptionist does not give medical, legal, financial or pricing information unless you have written that exact answer. Anything outside the approved list gets a "let me get someone who can answer that" and a transfer or a message. The boundary is written into its instructions and tested before launch.
This is not legal advice. It is what a clean setup looks like, and we build it that way by default.
Who is this for, and who should not buy it?
Good fit: businesses where the phone rings while the people who answer it are doing the actual work: clinics, agencies, dealerships, trades, offices with one front desk person and a lunch break. Businesses that get calls after 6 pm and on weekends. Businesses paying for a live answering service that only takes messages. Businesses where a booked appointment is worth real money.
Not a fit: a business that gets a handful of calls a week and answers all of them. A business whose calls are mostly complex, emotional or emergency conversations that need a person from the first second; there the receptionist should only cover overflow and after hours. And a business that is not willing to write down what the receptionist may and may not say, because that list is what makes it safe.
Most clients pair the receptionist with our 60-second text follow-up on web and form leads, so calls and messages both get answered in under a minute, and some add the AI appointment setter for outbound booking on old leads. Those are scoped on the same call.
Questions business owners ask before they start
What is an AI receptionist?+
How much does an AI receptionist cost?+
Will callers know it is AI?+
What happens if the AI cannot answer a question?+
Can it transfer calls to me?+
Does it work after hours and on weekends?+
Is an AI receptionist better than an answering service?+
Do I have to change my phone number?+
How does it know what to say about my business?+
Can it book appointments on my actual calendar?+
What if two people call at the same time?+
Does it handle Spanish or other languages?+
How long does it take to go live?+
Who is this not a fit for?+
What else we build
The receptionist covers the phone. Our 60-second AI lead follow-up covers web forms, DMs and portal leads by text, and the AI appointment setter books outbound on leads that went quiet. Industry pages: loan officers, insurance agencies, real estate, car dealers, med spas.
- 411 Locals. "Small business owners don't answer 62% of phone calls." January 2016. 85 businesses in 58 industries monitored for 30 days: 37.8% of calls answered, 37.8% to voicemail, 24.3% no response (the source gives the identical 37.8% for both of the first two; the three sum to 100%). 411locals.us
- Oldroyd, James. "Lead Response Management Study." InsideSales.com / MIT, 2007. Odds of qualifying a lead 21x higher at 5 minutes versus 30 minutes. leadresponsemanagement.org
- Smith.ai. Receptionist plans and pricing. AI-first Starter plan listed at $300 per month for 30 calls, appointment booking $1.50 per booking, at the time of writing. smith.ai/pricing
Page updated September 7, 2026. Every number on this page is either cited above or describes how our own installs work.
Find out how many calls you are missing
Book a free 30-minute Where AI Fits call. We look at how your phones are handled today, when calls are missed, and whether a receptionist would pay for itself. No pitch if it is not a fit.
Book a Where AI Fits callor tell us in writing
Tell us what you want AI to handle and we come back with a straight answer, usually the same day. If it is not a fit, we say so.