AI receptionist or answering service: which one suits a trade?

When you're up a ladder or under a sink, the phone still rings. If nobody answers, the caller rings the next name on the list, and you find out about it, if at all, from a missed call with no voicemail.

There are two ways to hand the phone off: a person at an answering service, or an AI receptionist. Each suits a different kind of caller, so it's worth knowing what you're buying before you sign up for either.

What an answering service does well

A good answering service puts a real person on the line in your business's name. That counts for a lot.

• Judgement. A person can tell when something sounds wrong and act on it.
• Warmth. Someone with water coming through the ceiling hears a human voice.
• The odd call. The question nobody planned for still gets a sensible answer.

Where it falls short

The catch is usually what happens after the call. Some services can book into your diary, but many take a message: a name, a number and a note. The call back is still yours to make.

• The call back is still on you. You come off the job at five with six messages to return, and by then some of those people have found someone else.
• Busy times queue. The first cold snap is when everyone rings at once, for you and for every other firm the same service answers for.
• The bill moves with the calls. Many are priced per call or per minute, so the busiest month costs the most. Check how yours charges before you sign.

What an AI receptionist does well

• Every call, any hour. Evenings, weekends, bank holidays, and the Saturday afternoon your phone's on silent.
• Several calls at once. Nobody hears an engaged tone or waits in a queue.
• Books on the call. It checks your diary and puts the job in while the caller's still there.
• One record. Who rang, what they need and when they're booked, in one place rather than on the back of an envelope.
• The same questions every time. You get the details you need for the job, not whatever someone remembered to ask.

Where it falls short

• It only knows what it's been told. If something isn't in its instructions it should say so and take the details for you, not guess. Ask any supplier what theirs does when it doesn't know.
• Some callers want a person. A good one hands them over or takes a message, rather than trapping them in a loop.
• Emergencies need more than a booking. It should tell the caller who to ring, whether that's 999 or the gas emergency line on 0800 111 999, and alert you straight away.
• It shouldn't pretend. If someone asks whether they're talking to AI, the answer should be yes. Steer clear of anything set up to say otherwise.

Which one suits you

• Mostly new enquiries and bookings: an AI receptionist. That's the work it's built for, and booking on the call is where your time comes back.
• Mostly complicated or sensitive calls: a person. Judgement matters more than speed there.
• A mix of both: use both. The AI answers and books, and hands the awkward ones to a person, whether that's you or a service.
• You rarely miss a call: neither. Keep your money.

Before you sign up for either

• Ring it yourself, the way a customer would.
• Ask whether it books jobs or just takes messages.
• Ask how it hands a caller to a person, and to whom.
• Ask what it does in an emergency.
• Ask what a busy month costs, not just a quiet one.
• Ask where the details end up, and whether you can see them from your phone.

What we do about it

Cobalt's receptionist answers in your business's name and books callers into your diary on the call. Every caller ends up in one record you can see from your phone. When someone needs a person it hands them over, emergencies get the right advice and an alert to you straight away, and anyone whose call is missed gets a text back. If a caller asks whether it's AI, it says yes.

The easiest way to judge it is to ring it. 07401 200177 is our own, and it answers as Cobalt the way it would answer as your business. The full list of what it does is on what we can do, and both plans are priced in public.