A call answering service picks up your business calls when you can't and gets each caller's name and reason to you, as a message or as the call itself. Three different products get sold under that one name. One puts a receptionist on your line. One puts an AI voice on it. The third, which is what we sell, keeps your own phone ringing and asks each unknown caller who they are first. They bill in different units, sound different to the person calling, and suit different owners. Below is how each one works, what it's good at, and how to tell which your business needs. Where one of the other two fits better than ours, we'll say so.
What "virtual" means in a virtual answering service
A virtual answering service isn't in your building. Your calls are forwarded to it, and whoever or whatever answers works from somewhere else. All three kinds below are virtual in that sense. If "virtual" is the word you've been shopping with, our virtual receptionist guide goes further: it sets four staffed services' own listed prices side by side, each with its date, and lists the questions to ask before you sign.
1. A live answering service
You forward your line to a team of receptionists. They answer as your business, find out what the caller needs, and either send it on to you or transfer the call. AnswerConnect describes its receptionists as "an extension of your brand" who capture leads and transfer urgent calls, and Ruby sends its notifications through a mobile app and email.
On a typical call, the receptionist answers with your greeting and follows your instructions for that kind of call, and depending on the plan that can run past answering into intake, scheduling or order taking. The virtual receptionist guide lists what four staffed services include and how each one bills.
Ruby's receptionist plans are a monthly number of receptionist minutes, and AnswerConnect's are too, with a per-minute rate once you pass the plan. Smith.ai bills its human receptionists by the call: a monthly allowance of calls and a charge for each one over it. How the unit is counted makes a real difference to the bill. AnswerConnect rounds every interaction up to the nearest minute, and so do we for each call, so it's worth asking any service, us included.
The strength here is a person on the line. A receptionist can follow a caller who wanders off script, and the three services above all answer around the clock. Ruby includes after-hours, weekend and holiday coverage on every plan, AnswerConnect answers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and Smith.ai charges the same for a 2 am call as a 2 pm one.
The cost follows your call volume, so a busy month shows up on the bill, and so can junk calls if the service counts them. Smith.ai says it won't charge for spam or unsolicited sales calls on its human plans as long as the lines you forward pass Caller ID. Before you sign with anyone, ask how spam is counted, what happens when you pass the plan's limit, and whether booking appointments costs extra. At Smith.ai, booking on the human plans is a per-call add-on.
2. An AI answering service
Here an AI voice agent picks up your calls. Smith.ai's AI Receptionist, for example, handles every call with AI first and can hand a complicated one to a live receptionist. It bills by the call, with a monthly allowance and a per-call rate after that. Numbers Smith.ai already knows as spam are filtered out before the AI answers and don't count against the allowance.
The appeal is coverage without a payroll: an AI can answer at any hour, and some will set the appointment too. Smith.ai lists 24/7 AI call answering and AI scheduling with Calendly among its AI Receptionist features. The trade is that the AI becomes the first voice on your line, for a brand-new lead and for the customer you've known for ten years. If you like talking to your own customers, weigh that before you switch.
3. AI call screening
Screening keeps you as the one who answers. Your cell forwards every call to your VettedCalls number first. Saved contacts, and callers who got through in the last 60 days, skip the questions. Anyone else hears a greeting in your business name, says who's calling and why, and presses 1 or 2 to be put through. Your phone then rings in the Cloud Softphone app with the caller's number showing, and when you answer, you hear their name and reason read to you before the call connects. That's call screening in short.
A caller who never presses a key hears that the number doesn't accept unsolicited calls, and the call ends. We also keep one spam registry across every customer, and a number that collects 10 counted flags is blocked for all of them. If a caller says one of your priority words, the call skips the press 1 step and rings you right away, day or night, on every plan.
What happens when you don't pick up depends on the plan:
- Pro, $29.99 a month: the caller goes to voicemail. You get the transcript by email, and callers who pressed 1 get a text back saying you missed them.
- Receptionist, $99.99 a month (coming soon): an AI receptionist answers when you don't, and outside your business hours, callers who pass screening go straight to it. Priority calls and saved contacts that you miss still go to voicemail.
- Team answering is an add-on to Pro. Add up to 4 more people for $10 a month each. Everyone's phone rings together and you share the minutes. Whoever answers first gets the call.
The plans are a flat monthly price with minutes included: 800 voice minutes on Pro, and 1,500 voice and 250 AI minutes on Receptionist (coming soon). AI minutes are the time the AI receptionist spends on calls. Voice minutes cover every call we answer, spam we block included, and each call rounds up to the next whole minute. The pricing page has the overage rates and the yearly prices.
Screening has limits you should know about. The AI doesn't book appointments: it takes the caller's details and the days that work, and you confirm the time when you call back. It won't quote your prices either (the one exception is a flat trip charge, if you set one); it tells callers the team will go over pricing on the callback. And we don't make outbound calls. You call people back from your own cell.
Message taking: what lands on your phone
A message answering service has one job when you can't talk: get the caller's name, number and reason to you in a form you can act on. The three kinds do it differently.
With a live service, a person takes the message. At Ruby it's a written message that appears in the Ruby app and on Ruby's site, and it may be emailed or texted to you. Davinci Virtual lists voicemail management with its Business plan.
On Pro, the caller leaves a voicemail of up to 120 seconds. You get a text alert, an email with the full transcript and a link to play the recording, and an entry in your dashboard. By default the text carries what the caller said when the transcript is ready within 15 seconds. Financial, wellness and community accounts get a short alert with the caller's name, number and topic instead, unless they switch the full text on, and attorney accounts have voicemail transcription off, so an attorney plays the recording. A caller who pressed 1 also gets a text in your name saying you missed the call, unless you've turned that off in Settings.
On Receptionist (coming soon), the AI gets the caller's name and reason, confirms the callback number by its last four digits and asks which days work. It also has a take-a-message tool that texts you "AI MESSAGE from [name] ([number])" with a summary, but its instructions don't require that on every call, so the record to rely on is the summary and transcript in your dashboard's AI call history.
A priority call is the exception on every plan. If you miss it, it goes to voicemail, and you get a text marked "Missed PRIORITY call," or "PRIORITY voicemail" if the caller leaves a message. Nothing is texted to the caller.
A live answering service and VettedCalls, call by call
Take a customer you've never spoken to who phones at 2:15 on a weekday afternoon while you're on a job.
- At a live answering service, a receptionist answers in your business name and asks what the call is about. Depending on the instructions you left, they take a message, or they hold the caller and check with you before they transfer it. You're billed for that receptionist's time or for the call, whichever unit your plan uses.
- At VettedCalls, your cell has already forwarded the call to us. The caller hears a greeting in your business name, has 4 seconds to start talking, and an AI model reads what they said before they hear the press 1 or 2 prompt. From there it rings you the way section 3 describes, and a miss goes to voicemail on Pro or to the AI receptionist on Receptionist (coming soon).
What you pay a live service for is a person reaching the caller even when you can't talk. What you get from us is the caller reaching you, with the junk filtered out first.
Four questions that tell them apart
Who is the first voice your caller hears?
With a live service, a receptionist. With AI answering, the AI. With screening, a short greeting in your business name, and then you, if you pick up.
What are you billed for?
Receptionist minutes, calls handled, or a flat plan with minutes included. Minutes favor short calls, per-call billing favors long ones, and a flat plan favors a steady month. Look at a typical month of your calls before you choose.
What happens to junk calls?
Ask each service, and get the answer in writing. On our side, a spam call we block still counts toward your minutes, usually as one minute, and a number blocked by the shared registry is blocked for every customer at once.
Who sets the appointment?
Smith.ai's receptionists can book onto your calendar as an add-on, and its AI lists scheduling as a feature. Our AI receptionist gathers the details and the caller's best days, and you confirm. If you want the service to own your calendar, that's a point against us.
Which one fits your business
- Pick a live service if every caller has to reach a person, or if nobody on your side can return calls during the day. You're paying for people, and sometimes that's exactly the right purchase.
- Pick AI answering if you'd rather never pick up yourself and you want the AI to put jobs on the calendar too.
- Pick screening if you answer most of your own calls and what's hurting you is junk calls and the ones you miss. Start on Pro if voicemail is fine for the calls you can't get to. Receptionist (coming soon) fits if a missed call usually means a lost job, and Team answering on Pro if two or three people share the line.
One check before you choose us: your carrier has to allow call forwarding. Setup covers 16 carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, but some prepaid and MVNO plans can't forward. If yours can't, you get a full refund within the first 14 days. The after hours answering service page shows what Receptionist does with a night, a weekend and a holiday, and the features page covers the rest.
Weighing a particular service? We've put VettedCalls side by side with Ruby, Smith.ai and AnswerConnect. The virtual receptionist guide has their entry prices.
Common questions
What does an answering service for a small business cost?
It depends on what you're billed for. Ruby and AnswerConnect sell a monthly block of receptionist minutes, Smith.ai sells its receptionists by the call, and its AI Receptionist bills by the call too. Our plans are a flat monthly price with minutes included: Pro is $29.99 and Receptionist (coming soon) $99.99 a month.
Can I keep answering my own calls?
Yes. With screening, a caller who gets through rings you in the Cloud Softphone app and you pick up like any other call. On Receptionist (coming soon), an AI receptionist answers calls you miss, except priority calls and saved contacts, which go to voicemail.
Do I keep my business number?
Yes. Your cell keeps its number and forwards every call to a VettedCalls number we set up for your account. We don't port numbers.
Does the AI receptionist book appointments?
No. It takes the caller's name, what they need and the days that work, confirms their callback number, and tells them someone will reach out to lock in a time. You confirm the appointment when you call back.
What happens to a priority call?
Priority Passthrough lets customers who say one of your selected priority words ring straight through to you, regardless of the time of day. The call skips the press 1 step and rings you right away, for up to 40 seconds, on every plan. If you miss it, it goes to voicemail and you get a text. The caller is not texted, because a priority call skips the press 1 step.
Is VettedCalls a live answering service?
No. There's no receptionist in the middle. The caller hears a greeting in your business name, an AI reads what they say, and your phone rings with their number showing. If you want a person on every call, a staffed service is the better fit.
What is a virtual answering service?
It's an answering service described by where it works: off-site, with your calls forwarded to it. Every kind on this page qualifies.
How does an answering service take a message?
At a live service a person takes it; Ruby, for one, delivers a written message in its app and on its site and may email or text it to you. On Pro the caller leaves a voicemail and you get a text alert and an email with the full transcript. On Receptionist (coming soon), the AI receptionist gets the caller's name, their reason and the days that work, and its summary and transcript go into your dashboard.