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Answer and Capture

Every call answered. Every job written down.

A managed AI receptionist built around your services, your hours, your qualifying questions and your rules about when a person takes over.

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What the phone is actually costing you

“The phone goes while you’re under a house, driving, or already talking to someone. It rings out. They don’t leave a message — almost nobody does. They ring the next number on Google, and by the time you see the missed call at two o’clock, it’s gone.”

If that sounds familiar, this is the system that fixes it. Here is exactly how it works.

What is included

What you get

Answers using information you’ve approved
Asks your qualifying questions in order — job type, suburb, urgency, access
Handles the same six questions you answer forty times a week
Books it, takes a message, or transfers, depending on your rules
Sends you a structured summary after every call

How it works

The workflow, step by step

What kicks it off

A call comes in while you’re on the tools or driving

What gets written down

Greeting, then job type, suburb, urgency, access and contact number confirmed

What runs on its own

Books it, takes a message, or transfers based on your rules

Where you step in

You read the summary and decide whether to call back straight away or let the system handle it

Where it ends up

Lead added to your pipeline with all details

Example in practice

Diagram showing an AI receptionist answering a call, asking qualifying questions, and creating a callback task in the CRM.

Made-up example. The real one gets built around your business.

What it won’t handle

  • It won’t improvise answers outside the information you’ve approved. If it doesn’t know, it says so and takes a message.
  • It won’t quote a price or commit to a time unless you’ve told it to.
  • It won’t handle every unusual situation. Complaints, safety issues and anything involving money above your published ranges go to you.
  • It should never be the only path for a customer in genuine distress.

About the cheap options

There are flat-rate services at a lower monthly price with unlimited minutes. They give you a generic receptionist that works fine for straightforward businesses. This is configured around your services, your suburbs, your qualifying questions and your escalation rules, then tested against real scenarios before it ever answers a customer. If the generic one suits you better, use it. You’ll save money and we’d rather tell you that now.

SMS sender ID registration

Since 1 July 2026, alphanumeric sender IDs used to text Australian mobile numbers must be registered on the ACMA SMS Sender ID Register. This applies to confirmation texts this system sends — not just marketing. If you want your business name showing as the sender rather than a number, that sender ID now has to be registered. We’ll handle the registration through your provider as part of setup. Unregistered sender IDs get shown as “Unverified” or may be blocked by carriers. We can’t guarantee a registration will be approved — that’s the provider’s and ACMA’s call, not ours.

What it connects to

Software it works with

Stated honestly: native means we connect directly. Via Make or Zapier means an automation layer sits between. Via API means a custom connection. We will never claim a native integration that has not been built.

Your existing phone number (call forwarding)
CRM dashboard for captured leads
Email and SMS notifications to you
Calendar and booking tools via link or API where available

Pricing

Three tiers, one product.

Simple Reception

Setup from $290 · From $199/month · includes up to 40 answered calls

Answers calls, handles your common questions, collects job, suburb and contact details, simple routing, and sends you a written call summary.

Booking & Workflow Reception

Setup from $690 · From $349/month · includes up to 100 answered calls

Everything above plus calendar booking, changes and cancellations, qualifying questions, writing the enquiry into your CRM, and business rules about who gets what.

Advanced Front Office

Setup from $1,900 · From $749/month · includes up to 300 answered calls

Multiple locations or departments, custom API integrations, complex escalation, outbound follow-up on approved lists, call-quality review and ongoing tuning.

All prices in AUD, excluding GST. SMS, ad spend and third-party software are charged at cost and confirmed in writing before any work begins.

CALL CHARGES

How the call charges work.

Most services make this impossible to work out in advance. Ours doesn’t.

  • Each plan includes a set number of answered calls a month
  • Additional answered calls are from $2 each
  • That covers the call itself — there is no separate per-minute telephony charge and no minute counting
  • Texts the system sends are charged separately at provider cost

Worked example — not a quote

AI receptionist, Simple: from $199/month, including up to 40 answered calls.

Say the business takes about 60 calls in a month. That’s 20 extra answered calls, from $2 each — about $40. So roughly $239 for the month.

Your expected figure is confirmed in writing before launch. Every figure carries “from” or “up to”.

WHY IT’S NOT A PHONE MENU

It’s a conversation, not a menu.

It’s not a phone menu. Nobody presses 1 for accounts. The caller says what they need in their own words — “I’ve got a blocked drain in Bomaderry” — and the system picks up the job, the suburb and the urgency from that.

WHAT MANAGED COVERS

What you’re paying for month to month.

Conversation design
Configuration
Testing before launch
Knowledge updates when your services or prices change
Error review
Support

Substantial new functionality — a new integration, a second location, a rebuilt call flow — is quoted separately. We don’t promise unlimited changes, optimisation or support.

IT LEARNS YOUR LANGUAGE

Your words, not a dictionary’s.

It’s configured with your service names, your suburbs, the way you describe jobs, and your pricing language, so it doesn’t mangle terms your customers use.

WHERE YOUR DATA GOES

Plain about data.

Calls are handled by a telephony provider and an AI voice service. Recordings and transcripts are only created if you enable them. Some providers process data outside Australia. We’ll tell you which providers your build uses.

FAQ

Questions about AI Receptionists & Voice Agents

What does the caller hear first?
Your greeting, in a voice you’ve picked. Whether it identifies as AI is your decision and we’ll talk it through.
Does it work with ServiceM8 or Simpro?
We connect through Zapier and Make, which handles most actions. That is not the same as a native integration built by the software vendor. If you need a job created inside ServiceM8 mid-call, there are providers who do that better and we’ll tell you so.
What if two calls come at once?
Both get answered. That’s the main advantage over a person.
After hours and public holidays?
Configured per your hours. Different scripts for different times if you want.
Are calls recorded?
Only if you choose to. If so, that has to be disclosed and handled properly — we’ll cover it in setup.
What’s in a call summary?
Caller name and number, job type, location, urgency, anything unusual, and the action taken.
Will it sound like a robot?
It sounds like a person on the phone, but anyone paying attention can tell it’s AI. The voice is natural and the conversation flows, but it’s not trying to trick anyone into thinking it’s human. Whether you disclose it as AI is your decision, and we’ll talk it through.
What happens when it doesn’t know the answer?
It says so and takes a message. It won’t guess or improvise outside the information you’ve approved. A confident wrong answer is worse than an honest “I’m not sure, let me get someone to call you back.”
Can a person take over mid-call?
Yes. You set the rules for when that happens — specific keywords, call types, or situations like a complaint or an emergency. The caller gets transferred or you get a notification with the call details, depending on how you configure it.
Can I keep my existing number?
Yes. Calls forward from your existing number to the AI receptionist. Your customers don’t see any change.
How many calls are included before I pay extra?
Simple includes up to 40 answered calls a month, Booking includes up to 100, and Advanced includes up to 300. Additional answered calls are from $2 each. Your expected figure is confirmed in writing before launch.
Do I get charged per minute?
No — one flat rate per answered call, telephony included. There is no minute counting and no separate telephony charge.
Can it book into my system?
It depends on the system. ServiceM8, SimPRO, AroFlo and similar Australian job-management tools — some actions are available through their APIs or through Make or Zapier, which we use to connect them. That is not the same as a native integration built by the software vendor. We’ll tell you honestly what’s possible with your specific setup before we build anything, and if a particular connection needs a native integration we haven’t built, we’ll say so.
What happens if I cancel?
Monthly things run month to month. Cancel or pause whenever you like. If you cancel, calls stop forwarding to the AI and go back to wherever they were going before. Your customer data stays in your CRM, which is yours.
What happens to my calls if your system goes down?
Calls fall back to your phone, just like they did before. We build in a fallback so that if the AI service is unavailable, calls ring your number directly. It’s not as good as having the AI answer, but it’s better than a busy signal.
Why not just buy the software myself?
You can, and for a straightforward business that’s a reasonable choice. What you’re paying for is the mapping, the build, the testing, the edge cases, and someone who fixes it when it stops working. The software itself is one part of it. If you’ve got the time to learn it, configure it, test it and maintain it, you’ll save on the monthly fee.
Can it transfer urgent calls to me but take a message for everything else?
Yes. You set the rules — specific keywords like “emergency” or “urgent,” call types, or times of day trigger a transfer to your phone. Everything else takes a message and sends you a summary. You decide what counts as urgent, not the AI.
What happens if it mishears an address or a name?
It repeats what it heard back to the caller for confirmation: “Just to confirm, that’s Smith, S-M-I-T-H, in Wollongong?” If the caller corrects it, it updates. If it’s not sure, it flags the field as uncertain in the summary so you know to double-check. It does not submit a guess silently.
How long does it take to set up?
A simple receptionist is typically a week from approval to live. Booking and workflow setups take two to three weeks because of the integration testing. Advanced front-office builds with custom API connections take longer — we’ll tell you the timeline before we start, not after.

What goes with this

What usually goes with this

If you’re answering calls with this, you’ll want the CRM behind it so nothing slips through.

Missed-Call Text-Back Automation

The cheapest system we build and the one most likely to pay for itself in week one — a text goes out within seconds of a missed call, captures the reply, and turns a lost lead into a callback.

Explore

CRM & Lead-Pipeline Automation

Every enquiry from every channel in one place, with an obvious next action on each one.

Explore

Online Booking, Reminders & No-Show Automation

Customers book themselves, get reminded, and confirm with one tap, and the ones who can’t make it tell you in advance instead of not showing.

Explore

Related guides

Read before you decide

Can an AI Receptionist Book Into ServiceM8, SimPRO or AroFlo?

What ServiceM8, SimPRO and AroFlo actually expose, what "booking into" means, what happens with incomplete details, where a person takes over, and what changes the build cost.

How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost in Australia?

The three cost layers that catch people out — setup, monthly management and call usage — our published prices, how they compare to the market, and what to ask any provider.

AI Receptionist vs Virtual Receptionist vs Voicemail

Honest comparison of all three — who each genuinely suits, including when a human service or good voicemail is the better answer. Disclosure: we sell AI reception.

See also

Pricing·Demos·Work·Contact

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