Business owners should never have to worry about missing customer calls.With many options for live answering services, running a business is easier than ever before. Learn the differences in features between Smith.ai and Clementine virtual receptionists to help you make your decision.
Smith.ai
Clementine
Discussion: Smith.ai and Clementine offer a free trial period to allow businesses to try the service before they buy. However, because we do not charge a setup fee, it’s even easier to get started with our services.
Smith.ai and Clementine offer the following monthly plans:
Smith.ai
Clementine
Discussion: At Smith.ai, we charge by the call, while Clementine charges per minute. When virtual receptionist services charge by the minute, it can often lead to less predictable billing, since the number of calls a business received per month is often steady, but the length of each call is not. At Smith.ai, we offer affordable plans with per-call pricing for more predictable billing. Smith.ai customers are never charged for spam, sales, or wrong-number calls; Clementine charges for all calls, regardless of their disposition, but they will insert a pre-call announcement in an attempt to reduce the spam calls that get through to their agents.
If your calls average around five minutes each, which is the average according to the Invoca Call Intelligence Index, Clementine's prices are slightly lower than Smith.ai's. However, because Smith.ai's charges per-call, and does not charge for any non-relevant calls including spam or sales calls, your overall monthly costs will likely be lower with Smith.ai. Call volume often doesn't vary unless you're running a marketing campaign, but call length can be highly variable; when you're charged per minute, one call can add up in your monthly charges.
Additionally, if you are running a marketing campaign, per-call pricing allows you to more easily calculate new client acquisition costs: You know the total cost of all answered calls along with the cost of lead calls that resulted in new business.
Smith.ai
Clementine
Discussion: It’s important to know overage costs, because at some point, you're going to get more calls in a month than you predicted. At Smith.ai, we never penalize you for not perfectly predicting your monthly call volume (after all, how can you possibly know?). If you go over your calls, you’re still paying the same amount of money per call as the rate mapped out in your monthly plan.
Smith.ai and Clementine offer the following features with their live answering services:
Smith.ai has the following additional features
Clementine offers the following additional features:
Discussion: Clementine gives you a team of dedicated receptionists to handle your calls. While this may initially seem appealing, it's actually not in the best interest of the business. What happens if your call volume increases or there is inevitable staff turnover? Likely, there won’t be more receptionists available to answer calls immediately, because having dedicated receptionists for a business means training time, and that creates a lag between your needs and your receptionists' ability to address them.
At Smith.ai, each of our team members is equipped to handle calls for any business. Our proprietary software brings up all relevant information as soon as a caller dials your business number, so any receptionist can answer your calls with the greeting and information they need to represent your business like an in-house receptionist would. Our software presents them with the right information at the right time. And with our large suite of CRM integrations, post-call contact information and notes are instantly transferred to your records, eliminating copy-and-paste grunt work and inevitable typos.
Moreover, Smith.ai offers outbound calling for a much more complete service. We can call back leads who completed web forms, call clients with appointment reminders, provide work status updates, and much more. Sure, a 24/7 answering service is important to have for a small segment of businesses who require it (e.g., a locksmith), but for most businesses, the ability to offload outbound calling tasks is far more valuable on a regular basis.
At Smith.ai, each of our virtual receptionists comes with a professional background in customer service and/or hospitality, so you can rest assured that your calls are not simply being handled according to a script, but instead by real people who are well acquainted with American business etiquette, norms, and customs. We take our job seriously in representing your business and your reputation. Whether we're answering calls, returning calls, qualifying leads, or collecting payments, you can count on Smith.ai receptionists to be thorough and professional. With us, your business is in good hands.
Don't just take our word for it! Read what one Smith.ai client had to say about our quality of service and professionalism.
“[I] have used smith.ai for over a year and have been very impressed. Having a live answer phone service lifted our business to a professional level and gave our customers the confidence that they were dealing with a reputable company.”
- Craig DuAlba
Smith.ai virtual receptionists are trained to learn your business and build a relationship with your customers, just like an in-house receptionist. Discuss your options with us by calling (650) 727-6484 Monday through Friday between 5am – 6pm PT. You can also reach us by email at support@smith.ai. Signing up for our 20-call / 14-day free trial is a great way to get started.
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