AI voice receptionist
Your phone, answered properly while you are at dinner.
We design, set up, manage and maintain an AI voice receptionist built around your business. It picks up the calls you cannot take out of hours, gets the details right, and tells you what needs you tonight and what can wait until the morning.
An AI voice receptionist is software that answers your business phone, holds a spoken conversation with the caller, and does something useful with it: takes a message, qualifies an enquiry, books a slot or flags an emergency. Werehouse Media runs it as a managed AI phone answering service: we design, implement, manage and maintain one for each client, built around that business's own calls rather than a generic script.
Implementation starts from £999, and the managed service starts from £250 a month, including the voice platform, the phone line, a monthly usage allowance, monitoring and ongoing changes. The most common use is out of hours, for the evening and weekend calls a tradesperson, clinic or small firm cannot answer. It is worth having when those missed calls cost more than it does, and we will tell you if they do not.
Out of hours
What happens to the call you miss at 7pm?
Usually it goes to voicemail, and the caller decides whether to wait for you or ring the next name on the list. When the problem is a leaking pipe or a boiler that has given up, waiting until the morning is rarely what they had in mind. The job goes to whoever picked up.
Picture a plumber who has just sat down to dinner with their family. The phone goes. Answering means leaving the table, and ignoring it might mean losing the work. Neither is a good option.
With an AI receptionist on the line after hours, the call is answered by an assistant that says plainly what it is and asks the questions you would ask. You finish your meal. The caller knows their details have been taken and when to expect a call back.
How an out-of-hours call runs
- 1It answers, and says what it is.A calm, natural voice tells the caller they have reached your automated assistant, and that the call is recorded if it is.
- 2It asks what you would ask.What the problem is, where they are, how urgent it is, and the best number to call back on. The questions and their order are designed with you.
- 3It checks your rules.A genuine emergency, as you define it, sends you a text straight away with the caller's name, number and address. Everything else waits for the morning.
- 4It tells the caller what happens next.Nobody is left wondering whether their message went anywhere, or when they will hear from you.
- 5It writes it all down.A summary of every call reaches your phone or your inbox with the recording, so you call back knowing the job instead of asking who it was.
Pricing
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Implementation starts from £999 as a one-off. The managed service starts from £250 a month, with a usage allowance included. Your exact price depends on what the receptionist has to do, and it is fixed in writing before any work starts. If you are not sure missed calls are the real problem, we can check first with a systems audit, normally £495 and free for a limited time.
One-off
Implementation
From£999
Designing the receptionist around your calls, building it, and testing it before it speaks to a real customer.
- A conversation about the calls you actually get
- Call design: what it asks, and where every call ends
- Your emergency rules written down and built in
- Greeting, voice and wording agreed with you
- Text and email call summaries set up
- Tested with real questions before launch
- A written record of what it says and does
Monthly
Managed service
From£250/month
The part that keeps it working. We run it, watch it and change it when your business changes, so it does not quietly get worse.
- The voice platform and the phone line
- A monthly usage allowance, agreed in writing
- Monitoring, with faults fixed by us
- A monthly review of real calls
- Changes to hours, rules and wording
- One invoice, and one place to ask
Larger builds
More sites, systems or rules
Quoted
For receptionists that book into your systems, cover more than one site, or answer for a regulated firm. Priced on what it has to do, and fixed in writing before we start.
- Booking into a calendar, CRM or practice system
- Several numbers, sites or teams
- On-call escalation to the right person
- Rules for regulated firms, tested before launch
- Recording and retention set to your policy
What is the usage allowance?
Every managed service includes a monthly allowance of call time, sized to the calls you actually get and written into your quote before anything starts. If your calls grow past it, we tell you before it reaches your bill. The rate beyond the allowance is in the same written quote, so a busy week never turns into a surprise invoice.
Why a managed service, and not an app you run yourself?
Because an AI receptionist is not something you set up once and forget. The platforms underneath regularly change their voices, prices and models. Callers find the question nobody planned for, and your hours, services and prices change too.
A receptionist nobody looks after gets quietly worse while still sounding confident. The monthly fee pays for somebody to be responsible for it working, and that somebody is us. Off-the-shelf apps do exist, and a business with simple calls and the time to configure one should consider them. What they do not include is anyone designing the call around your business, or noticing when it starts getting things wrong.
What stays yours?
Your phone number stays with your own phone provider and forwards to the receptionist when you choose, so it never becomes ours. Your call recordings, transcripts and messages are yours, available whenever you ask and handed over in full if you leave. The call design is written down, so another provider could rebuild it without starting again. The account it runs on is ours, which is what lets us be responsible for it.
The honest benefits
What does an AI receptionist actually change?
Less than the adverts suggest, and more than a voicemail box. These are the changes you can reasonably expect when one is set up properly.
- Your evenings stop being on call by default. Only the calls that meet your emergency rules interrupt you. Everything else is written down and waiting.
- Fewer enquiries go to the next name on the list. A caller who is answered, listened to and told when to expect you has less reason to keep ringing round.
- Better call-backs. You ring back knowing the problem, the address and how urgent it is, rather than starting with an apology and a notepad.
- A record of every call. Messages stop being half-remembered from a hurried conversation on a job, or scribbled on the back of an invoice.
What it will not do
It will not win work on its own: you still have to call back, quote and turn up. It does not replace a person for difficult or sensitive conversations. It will occasionally mishear a street name or a surname, which is why every summary includes the caller's number and the recording. Anyone promising otherwise is selling you the demo, not the service.
The refusal
Who should not buy one?
Four situations where the answer is no. We would rather say so before you spend anything than after an invoice.
You rarely miss a call that matters
Our rule of thumb is that below about five missed calls a week, it seldom pays. If your average job is £200 and callers happily ring back in the morning, keep your money. If one missed job is worth £4,000, the sum works at far fewer calls. Tell us the numbers and we will do the arithmetic with you on a call, before anything is invoiced.
Your calls are emotionally loaded
Complaints, bereavement, safeguarding, or anything where the caller needs to believe a person is listening. Automating those saves a few minutes and can cost a relationship. That is a line we hold across everything we automate.
Your callers want a specific person
If most calls are existing customers trying to reach whoever is already handling their job, an AI receptionist is an obstacle with a helpful voice. A properly set up phone system with sensible routing costs less and works better.
A person answering is part of what you sell
Some businesses genuinely trade on the voice that knows every caller by name. If that is yours, keep that person, and put the money into being found by more of the right callers instead.
Where it works
Which businesses is an out-of-hours AI receptionist right for?
Trades and field service. Plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, locksmiths and roofers often get their most urgent calls when they are off the tools. A receptionist that takes the address and the fault, checks whether it is an emergency by your definition, and texts you only the real ones is worth more here than almost anywhere.
Dental and clinical practices. Evening and weekend calls from people wanting an appointment or worried about pain. It takes the details, books routine appointments where your system allows it, and directs anyone describing an emergency to the service your practice specifies, without ever giving clinical advice.
Small professional and regulated firms. A financial, legal or healthcare firm cannot let software act on an instruction, and should not want to. The receptionist takes the request in full, says plainly that nothing happens until a person confirms it, and leaves a sorted call-back list for the team before they start.
What should an AI receptionist never be allowed to do?
It should never give clinical, legal or financial advice, or promise a price or a time you have not agreed. It should never confirm an order or instruction that a person should sign off, take a payment, or take or change bank details. And it should never pretend to be a person. Those limits are written into the call design and tested before launch, rather than left to the model's judgement.
It should also be upfront about recording. The ICO's guidance on recording telephone calls says you must tell callers that you are recording the call, and why. So where calls are recorded, the receptionist says so at the start of every call.
Straight answers
Common questions.
How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK?
With Werehouse Media, implementation starts from £999 as a one-off, and the managed service starts from £250 a month. The monthly fee includes the voice platform, the phone line, a usage allowance sized to your calls, monitoring and ongoing changes. Receptionists that book into your systems, cover several sites or answer for a regulated firm are quoted in writing before work starts. Off-the-shelf apps cost less, and leave the setup and the upkeep to you.
Can it answer my calls out of hours only?
Yes, and that is the most common way to use it. During the day your phone works as normal. Outside the hours you choose, or when you do not pick up, calls forward to the receptionist, depending on what your phone system supports. We check that before anything is built, and changing the hours later is part of the managed service.
What happens if a caller has a real emergency?
You decide what counts as an emergency, and we write those rules into the call. A burst pipe or a family with no heating might mean an immediate text to you with the caller's name, number and address. Anything else waits in your morning summary. The receptionist tells the caller which of those will happen, so nobody is left wondering.
Will callers know they are talking to an AI?
Yes. It says it is an automated assistant at the start of the call, and if the call is recorded it says that too, as the ICO expects. The voice is natural and it handles ordinary conversation well. It can still mishear a name or a street, which is why every summary includes the caller's number and the recording.
Can it book jobs into my calendar or CRM?
Often, where your calendar or system allows it. Text and email call summaries are part of every implementation. Booking into a calendar, or writing into a CRM or practice management system, depends on the system involved, so it is priced into your written quote rather than guessed at here.
Who looks after it once it is live?
We do. The managed service covers monitoring the line, reviewing real calls every month, fixing anything callers get stuck on, and changing hours, rules and wording when your business changes. If the platform underneath changes, dealing with that is our job, not yours. You get one invoice and one place to ask.
What happens if I want to stop?
Your phone number never moves, because it stays with your own provider. You keep your recordings, transcripts and messages, and you get the written call design, so another provider could rebuild it. The notice period is set out in your written agreement before anything starts.
Is an AI receptionist GDPR compliant?
It can be, and that depends on how it is set up rather than on the product's marketing. Callers are told the call is recorded and why, recordings are kept only as long as you need them, and the data processing terms between us are agreed in writing. We cover this during setup, not after launch.
Who should not get an AI receptionist?
If you rarely miss a call that matters, the sum does not work: our rule of thumb is about five missed calls a week. If your calls are emotionally loaded, such as complaints, bereavement or safeguarding, a machine answering first costs more in goodwill than it saves. And if your callers mostly need a specific person, a well set up phone system is cheaper and better.
After the call
Local SEO for trades: be the one they call
An answered phone only helps if people find your number first.
Why quotes go cold
Most enquiries are lost to silence, not price, including the ones your receptionist took.
Enquiry and quote automation
What happens to the message next: logged, routed and followed up without retyping.
Next step
How many calls do you miss after hours?
If you do not know, your phone's missed call list already does. Tell us roughly how many, and what a typical job is worth, and we will tell you straight whether this pays.