A virtual receptionist you share with forty other businesses
The arrangement is a room of people answering for many companies at once, reading your greeting off a screen. It works, and it is why the category exists. What it cannot do is know your prices, see your diary, or be there at 3am, because all three of those are staffing, and staffing is what you were buying.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callYvonne Adeyemi“The last place answered with the wrong company name.”
Answered as the business, not as a call centre
- Not shared
- The agent answers for your business only, with your services and your prices
- No staffed hours
- There is no schedule of when cover starts, and nothing to switch on at 5pm
- Per month
- Not per minute. Your bill does not go up because a caller was chatty
Not a message. A booking
Every one of these is something the product does on a real call, not a capability statement. Where it refuses to act, that refusal is the design.
It answers as your business, because it is only your business
A shared receptionist has your greeting and nothing else. They cannot say what you charge for a call-out or whether you cover the next county, because thirty other scripts are on the same screen. This one is configured with your services, your prices and your radius, and answers from them.
It sees the diary a virtual receptionist cannot
This is the structural limit of the category. Handing a third party live write access to your calendar is a security decision most small businesses never make, so the receptionist takes a message and you book it later. Here booking is the default: it reads the capacity left in your Google, Outlook, Apple or CalDAV calendar and writes the appointment.
There are no staffed hours to run out of
Every virtual receptionist plan has a coverage window and a price that rises with it, and the calls that arrive outside it go to the same voicemail you were trying to escape. Cover here is not a shift, so there is no edge to fall off and no upgrade that buys you evenings.
The meter is not running
Per-minute billing quietly changes how a receptionist behaves, because shorter calls are cheaper calls, and it makes your worst month your most expensive. Plans here are flat with unlimited call flows and a talk-time allowance, sized on how many unique customers you cover.
It escalates to you the way a good receptionist would
You first, then your second number, then whoever is on call, each leg accepted by pressing 1 and each with a one-line brief attached. What climbs the ladder is your decision per classification, so it is not interrupting you with a booking.
Everything it did is on the record
Recorded, transcribed, classified, searchable, with what it captured and what it booked. You do not have to trust a summary written by someone answering for forty companies.
What people say before they say yes
In the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“A real person is better on the phone than software.”
On warmth and on the genuinely odd call, yes, and that is not a small thing. On knowing your call-out fee, your radius and whether Thursday afternoon is free, a shared receptionist is worse than software, because they were never given the information. The comparison is not human against machine; it is informed against uninformed.
“My virtual receptionist already books appointments.”
Some do, through a portal you granted access to, within the hours you pay for. If yours does and the cover is genuinely round the clock, this is a smaller upgrade than the page implies. Most plans in this category book by taking a request and passing it on.
“I like being able to tell them something and have it change.”
So do we, and here you change it yourself. Hours, services, prices, escalation rules and refusals are settings that take effect on the next call. No email to an account manager and no wait for a script update to be applied.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you cannot. These are the lines it does not cross, and the words it uses instead.
It never invents a price
It states the call-out fee and the rates you configured, and nothing else. Where it does not know, it says so and brings it to you rather than guessing — a number said on the phone is a number you are held to at the door.
What it actually says
“I'm not going to guess at the repair before someone's seen it — you'd only be annoyed if I got it wrong.”
It never promises an hour it cannot keep
Work in the field is booked in windows, because a specific time is a promise the traffic breaks. It offers the window that actually has capacity left, and it will not invent one to end the call politely.
What it actually says
“I can do Tuesday morning, between eight and twelve — I won't give you an exact hour and have you waiting in all day.”
It never sends anyone to voicemail
If the transfer ladder runs out and nobody accepts, it takes the details, commits to a specific callback window and flags it. A beep is the one outcome worse than not answering at all.
What it actually says
“I can't reach anyone this minute, so let me take the details and someone will call you back before nine tomorrow.”
The job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
How is this different from a virtual receptionist service?
Three ways that matter: it is not shared with other businesses, there are no staffed hours, and it books into your calendar rather than taking a request. The similarity is that neither of us sits in your office.
Do I get a dedicated number?
You keep the number you already publish. Calls route to the agent and nothing on your van, your website or your Google listing has to change.
Can it take a message when that is the right answer?
Yes. Where it cannot help, it takes the details, commits to a specific callback window and notifies you. It is the fallback rather than the default.
Is there a per-minute charge?
No. Plans include unlimited call flows and a monthly talk-time allowance, and differ only in how many unique customers you answer for.
What about calls outside business hours?
There is no outside. Your working hours change what it does with a call, not whether it answers one: whether it books, escalates or commits to a callback.
Who it is for
Sized by the business rather than the trade — because a two-van shop and a twelve-crew company buy this for different reasons.
Answered for your trade, in your words
The questions, urgency rules and escalations are configuration. 31 trades have their own page.