What is the difference between text-back and an AI receptionist?
Text-back replies in writing after you have missed a call; an AI receptionist picks up the call and deals with it there and then.
Missed-call text-back does nothing until you have already missed a call. The phone rings out, and seconds later the caller gets an SMS from your business asking what they need. You have not spoken to anyone. You have converted a lost call into a text conversation you can pick up in twenty minutes.
What happens when you miss a call
A customer rings while you're up a ladder.
Example for Riverside Electrical, a fictional business. A customer rings and nobody can get to the phone. Within seconds they get a text from the business's number: "Hey, sorry we missed your call. What do you need done?" They reply: "Half the power's out at my place in Maylands." The reply waits on the owner's phone, instead of the customer ringing the next business.
Example for a fictional business.
An AI receptionist answers the phone. It picks up, works out what the caller wants, answers questions it has been taught, and books the job into your calendar while you are still on the roof. Nothing rings out, so there is no missed call left to chase.
What happens when a customer rings you
Your customer rings your business number.
Example call to Northside Electrical, a fictional business. Your customer, Tom, rings your business number about: Kitchen circuit keeps tripping, Chermside QLD. Your AI receptionist answers, asks what the job is, where they are and if it's safe, then books Today 3:30pm and reads it back. Tom gets a text: Hi Tom, you're booked with Northside Electrical today at 3:30pm at 7 Hamilton Rd, Chermside. Reply here if anything changes. You get an email: New booking: Tom, 0491 570 142. Kitchen circuit keeps tripping, no burning smell or heat. 7 Hamilton Rd, Chermside. Today 3:30pm.
Example call for a fictional business.
Read the whole call
- AI receptionistThanks for calling Northside Electrical. You're speaking with their AI receptionist. What's the job, and where are you?
- TomThe power to our kitchen keeps tripping. We're in Chermside.
- AI receptionistOkay. Any burning smell, or anything hot to touch near the switchboard?
- TomNo, nothing like that.
- AI receptionistThanks. I have an electrician free this afternoon at 3:30, or tomorrow at 9. Which is better?
- TomThis afternoon.
- AI receptionistSo that's Tom, today at 3:30pm, 7 Hamilton Road, Chermside. Is that right?
- TomYep.
- AI receptionistDone. I'll text you the details now.
How do they compare side by side?
Text-back is written, cheaper and leaves the booking to you; the receptionist speaks, books and costs more.
| Missed-call text-back | AI voice receptionist | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Texts the caller within seconds of a call ringing out. | Answers the call, qualifies the job and books it into your calendar. |
| Our price | $299/mo. Includes the website and review automation. | From A$499/month. Includes review automation, and a website if you need one. |
| Does it speak to anyone | No. Written only. | Yes. It answers the call and speaks to the caller. |
| Can it book a job | Not on its own. You book it when you read the reply. | Yes, straight into the calendar, while the caller is still on the line. |
| Can it answer questions | No. | Within what it has been taught about your business. It takes a message rather than guessing. |
| After hours | Texts back at 2am the same as at 2pm. | Answers at 2am the same as at 2pm. |
| Work left for you | Read the replies and ring the real ones. This is the catch: it creates a queue. | Read the summary email. The booking is already in the diary. |
| Where it fails | Callers who will not text, and volumes high enough that the queue becomes its own job. | Callers who hang up on anything that is not a person, and businesses too complex to teach it. |
| Right for | Sole traders and small crews missing roughly ten to twenty calls a month. | Higher volume, urgent work, or callers who simply will not text. |
Which one should you buy first?
If you want calls answered and booked for you, the AI receptionist. Text-back suits owners who would rather answer every call themselves.
The managed system costs more, and it covers more: the receptionist, the follow-ups, the review requests and a website if you need one. For a one-van business missing a handful of calls a month, the text-back on its own can be enough.
At ten or fifteen missed calls a month, the text-back captures most of the available value. The caller gets an immediate response, they stop ringing your competitors, and you deal with a handful of texts over lunch. Adding a receptionist at that volume buys you the removal of a task that takes ten minutes a day.
There is a second reason, and it is the one people underestimate. A text-back cannot say anything wrong. It sends the message you approved, every time. An AI receptionist is having real conversations about your business with your customers, which means it needs to be taught properly and checked, and it is a bigger thing to get right. If you are not going to invest attention in that during setup, you will get more value from the simpler product.
When is the AI receptionist worth the extra money?
When callers will not text, when replies pile up, when most calls are the same few questions, or when you are losing after-hours work.
Four situations where the extra money earns itself, rather than just feeling nicer.
- Your callers will not text. If your customers skew older or the work is genuinely urgent, a text-back leaves value on the table. Some people will simply ring the next number rather than reply to an SMS.
- Volume is high enough that replies pile up. Thirty missed calls a month is thirty text conversations. That is no longer a time-saver, it is a second job you have created for yourself.
- Most calls are simple and repetitive. Do you service my suburb, what does a call-out cost, can you come Thursday. If most of your phone time is those three questions, an AI answers them the same way every time and books the ones that qualify.
- You are losing after-hours work. A text at 11pm gets read in the morning. A call answered at 11pm gets booked at 11pm. For emergency trades that difference is the whole margin.
What are the downsides of an AI receptionist?
Some callers hang up on an AI, it only knows what it has been taught, and its voice will not suit every business.
We sell one, so take this as coming from someone with an interest, and weigh it anyway.
- Some people hang up on an AI. Not most, and fewer every year, but some. The mitigation is making it easy to reach a person: ours takes their details and emails them to you straight away. Anyone who tells you the hang-up rate is zero has not looked.
- It is only as good as what it is taught. An agent that does not know your service area will confidently accept a job ninety minutes away. Setup is the work, and the products that skip it are the ones that disappoint.
- Judge the voice with your own ears. Every agent on the market sounds different, and a phone voice that suits one business is the wrong feel for another. Ring it and decide for yourself before you buy.
How can you test one before you buy?
Ring our own line: an AI receptionist answers it.
- Our AI receptionist. 0468 050 520. Our AI receptionist answers, tells you how it would work for your business and books you a call with Sam.
- The text-back. There is nothing to talk to: the caller gets one text, seconds after the call rings out. The missed-call text-back page walks through what the caller gets, step by step.
Two minutes on the phone to it will tell you more than the rest of this page. Both plans are priced here, 14-day free trial on either, no setup fee, month to month. Card required; billing starts on day 15 unless cancelled.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of these, checked on the date shown above. Where a company does not publish a price, this page says so rather than guessing one.