AI voice receptionists
We build AI receptionists that answer every call, on your infrastructure
It answers at two in the morning, books the appointment, writes it into your system and leaves you a transcript. What makes it different from every hosted alternative is where it runs: the call audio, the transcripts and your customer data stay on infrastructure you control, and never reach a third-party platform.
from $1,000 to build and deploy. Then telephony and compute at cost, on your own accounts.
It runs as overflow beside your existing phone system first. Nothing changes for the callers you already reach.
Before anything else
We are not going to quote you a missed-call statistic
Every page selling this runs a figure about how many calls small businesses miss. We cannot verify any of them, so we are not repeating them. The number that matters is yours, and you already have it.
Pull last month's call log. Count the calls that rang out, went to voicemail, or came in outside your hours. Multiply by what an average new customer is worth to you over a year, then take whatever share of those callers you believe would have gone elsewhere.
If that number is smaller than $1,000, this is not worth doing and we will say so on the call. In most of the businesses we talk to it is not close.
Cannot get the data out of your phone system? That is a common problem and usually a solvable one. Send us what you have and we will work it out with you.
Built around your calls
It is scripted for your industry
A dental practice, a law firm and a plumber miss completely different calls, and the rules about what a machine must never say differ just as much. Pick yours.
Not on the list? The build is the same work. Tell us what your phone does all day.
Self-hosted
The difference is where it runs
Every alternative in this market is a hosted platform, which means your call recordings and your customer records live on someone else's servers. Here is what that changes, including the two rows where hosted wins.
| A hosted platform | Yours, self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the call audio is stored | DisadvantageOn the vendor's servers, in a location set by them | AdvantageOn infrastructure you control |
| Who can play back a recording | DisadvantageTheir staff and their subprocessors, under their policy | AdvantageWhoever you grant access to, under yours |
| Whether your calls train anyone's model | DisadvantageGoverned by terms they can revise | AdvantageNothing leaves your systems to be trained on |
| What happens to your call history if you leave | DisadvantageExport what they offer, on their timetable | AdvantageIt is already yours. Nothing to retrieve |
| How you delete a call | DisadvantageRequest it, then trust the confirmation | AdvantageDelete it, because the file is on your disk |
| What it costs to run | DisadvantagePer minute, at their rate, with their margin | AdvantageTelephony and compute at cost, on your own accounts |
| Time to get running | AdvantageOften the same day, on their templates | DisadvantageLonger, because it is built around your calls |
| Who keeps it running | AdvantageTheir engineers, included | DisadvantageYours or ours, and that is a real commitment to make |
Self-hosted is not automatically safer. A neglected server you own is worse than a platform someone maintains properly. It is the right answer when the data matters more than the convenience, which in these industries it usually does.
Both directions
It does not only answer. It calls out.
Inbound is where most businesses start, because that is where the losses are obvious. Outbound is where the money nobody is chasing usually sits.
Inbound, from day one
- Answers on the first ring, including at 2am
- Books straight into your calendar or practice system
- Qualifies before it books, so you do not get jobs you cannot take
- Escalates anything on your list to a human immediately
- Answers the questions your team repeats all day
Outbound, once inbound is settled
- Follow-up on estimates and treatment plans nobody chased
- Recall, booster and service reminders
- Confirmation calls that release no-show slots in time to refill them
- Waiting-list callbacks when something frees up
- Reactivation for customers you have not seen in a year or two
Outbound calling is regulated in most places. We build the consent rules, the calling windows and the do-not-call handling to your jurisdiction before it dials anyone.
Building something more involved than reception? See how we build voice agents.
What a call looks like
The 2am call that usually rings out
Tuesday, 2:07am. Water is coming through a kitchen ceiling.
- AgentBell Plumbing, this is the automated line and I can get an engineer to you. Are you able to tell me what is happening?
- CallerThere is water pouring through the kitchen ceiling.
- AgentLet us stop it first. Do you know where your main shutoff is, usually near the meter or where the supply enters?
- CallerFound it. It is off.
- AgentGood, that buys us time. Can I take the address and a number to call back on?
- Caller42 Prescott Avenue, and this number is fine.
- AgentThank you. Our after hours call-out is $180 plus parts and I am paging the on-call engineer now. Stay on the line and I will keep you company until they pick up.
What the business gets
Water stopped before anyone arrived, address and access taken, the call-out rate stated up front so there is no argument at the door, and the job in the scheduling system before the technician is in the truck.
Sample script on a fictional business. Yours is written around your own calls.
How we build it
Nothing switches over until you have read the transcripts
- 1
We listen to a week of your calls
Not a discovery workshop. The actual calls, because the ones you think you get and the ones you get are rarely the same list.
- 2
We write the scripts and the handoff rules with you
What it says, what it books, and the list of situations that must reach a human immediately. You write that list, not us.
- 3
It runs beside your phone system, not instead of it
Deployed on your infrastructure as overflow, picking up only what would otherwise ring out. Nothing changes for the callers you already reach.
- 4
You read the transcripts, then decide
Every call is on your own systems from day one. You switch more of the line over when the transcripts convince you, and not before.
The price
from $1,000
That is the build: scripting, integration, deployment and testing on your infrastructure. After that you pay your telephony and compute providers directly on your own accounts, so there is no per-minute margin sitting between you and your own phone line. We show you what a month costs at your call volume before you commit.
Questions people actually ask
What does self-hosted actually mean?
The agent runs on infrastructure you control, whether that is a server in your building or a cloud account in your own name. The call audio, the transcripts and the customer details are on your systems rather than ours or a platform vendor's. You can audit where it all sits, and when you delete a call it is gone because the file was on your disk.
What is included in the price, and what recurs?
from $1,000 covers the build: scripting from your real calls, integration with your booking or CRM system, deployment on your infrastructure, and testing. That is the build: scripting, integration, deployment and testing on your infrastructure. After that you pay your telephony and compute providers directly on your own accounts, so there is no per-minute margin sitting between you and your own phone line. We show you what a month costs at your call volume before you commit.
Do we need our own server?
Not necessarily. Self-hosted means the infrastructure is yours, not that it is physically in your building. For most businesses that is a cloud account in your own name, which we set up and hand over documented. If you have a server and a reason to use it, it runs there instead.
Can we keep our existing phone number?
Yes, and most deployments start that way. The agent sits behind your current number as overflow, so it only picks up what would otherwise ring out. Your regulars still reach the people they expect.
What happens when it gets something wrong?
It hands over. You write the list of situations that must reach a human and the agent follows your list rather than improvising. Every call is transcribed, so when something does go wrong you can read exactly what was said instead of reconstructing it from memory.
Does it do outbound calls?
Yes, as an add-on once inbound is running well. Reminders, confirmations and follow-up are the ones worth doing first. Outbound calling is regulated in most places, so we build the consent and timing rules to your jurisdiction before it makes a single call.
How long before it is answering calls?
Usually two to three weeks from the first call recording to running as overflow. Most of that is scripting and integration, not deployment. If your booking system has no usable API we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
We already pay for an answering service. Why change?
Two reasons, and if neither applies then do not change. Cost per call, once you compare a per-minute rate against telephony at cost. And where your recordings live, which matters more in some industries than others. Ask your current provider where the audio is stored and what happens to it when you leave.
Who you would be working with
We have been building phone and booking systems for years
Voice agents are new. Call routing, booking flows and integrating with the software a business already runs are not, and that is most of the work.
CallPanther
We designed the IVR for a call tracking platform: the menus a caller hears, the options they can choose, and the routing rules deciding which team each choice reaches. Making a call flow simple for the caller and still flexible for an agency running many numbers is the same problem a voice agent script solves.
Local Business Pro
A platform where calls, SMS and web chat land in one shared inbox, with AI call answering and routing on the phone side, bookings dropping onto the calendar, and connections out to HubSpot, Housecall Pro and Gmail. The integration work is the part that decides whether a voice agent is useful or a novelty.
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Start with the audit
Find out what your phone is actually losing
Send us a month of call data and we will tell you what is ringing out, what it is plausibly worth, and whether this is worth building for you. If it is not, we will say so.