Live Virtual Receptionist Service with Smith.ai

North America-based bilingual agents

Not all 24/7 receptionist services are the same. Our friendly, professional agents, based in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, greet all callers with a smile and keep your clients happy. You can be confident that a real person is handling your calls, just like you would "in-house."

Better than a call center service, fully customized

We have the highest standards for bandwidth, hardware, and professional skills. Your callers will think they are talking to a live receptionist sitting in your office, when they are actually in the comfort of their own quiet home office.

Call centers take 5 to 15 minutes to answer calls while virtual receptionist services take 1 to 2 minutes.

Much more than call answering

We are not your average phone receptionist service. We provide much more value. Our live, virtual receptionists help with qualifying new leads, appointment scheduling, making outbound calls, accepting payments, logging notes in your CRM, sending follow-up messages, and much much more. Instead of having your important calls reach an answering machine or go straight to voicemail, you can have the peace of mind knowing that a friendly live agent is on the phone on your behalf. No more chasing leads, leaving voicemails, or missing out on precious new business. Stay focused on your work, while we handle your calls.

For small businesses and enterprise sales departments

As a business owner or operator, it is important to take advantage of any opportunity you can get to increase efficiency and productivity. Solo and small businesses need every call answered, as every missed call is a missed opportunity. But leads are precious to larger companies, too. We can provide overflow coverage for SDRs after-hours, on the weekends, or if all sales reps are already on the phone with other clients, during high call volume times.

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Where we reach, engage & qualify leads to build your book of business.

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Web Chat

The best channel for sales, service & support by utilizing bots, humans, or both.

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Detailed call intelligence gives you the upper hand

Leverage real-time historical call data displayed in Smith.ai’s convenient online dashboard to predict business growth and costs, and make better business decisions with superior accuracy. Access everything that happened on a call, including receptionist’s notes and metadata such as actions completed, caller disposition, priority, relevance, and much more.

Smith.ai is trusted by 3,000+ businesses

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“I continue to be surprised with how we turn to Smith more and more as we automate, optimize, and outsource our workflows.”

Alex McFarland

Persevus

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Improve customer experiences with 24/7 engagement. We offer features and pricing for organizations of all sizes.

North America-based agents
Best-in-class AI technology
Live-staffed website chat
Bilingual services
Sales development & outreach
Rich call intelligence

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END-TO-END INTEGRATIONS

We play well with your software

Calls, chats & appointments are automatically logged in your systems. Real-time syncing with over 5,000 integrations.

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Frequently asked questions

The best virtual receptionist and chat services do much more than pick up phone calls, answer live chat inquiries, and take messages for you and your staff. At Smith.ai, we provide professional live agents who are capable of a wide range of services from call handling, to appointment scheduling, to lead intake, to website chat, and more. Whether you need a live person or staff on duty 24/7, during daytime hours, for overflow support only, or just after hours answering services (nights and weekends), here are the answers to the most common questions we receive about our 24/7 answering services, specifically.

A professional answering service, like Smith.ai, can offer your business 24/7 availability for phone answering--no more missed calls or missed business opportunities. Live answering services can take over answering any incoming call and can provide open availability so that callers can have a memorable and positive experience with your business, whether your office is open or closed. This frees your staff from regular call handling duties to focus on their specific job duties without having to worry about interrupting work to pick up the phone. Your inbound calls will be screened so that your team will be able to talk to callers who are real leads or clients and never have to waste their time weeding out spam calls or telemarketers. Smith.ai's virtual receptionists can also qualify leads and transfer them directly to your sales team whenever they're available so that your experts can send them down the sales funnel and convert more leads into loyal clients. With 24/7 virtual answering services, your business can exude professionalism at all times and grow more successful by the hour.

By through utilizing a 24/7 answering service, business owners can:

Minimize distractions & protect team's time : With spam and telemarketing calls being filtered out and regular client calls being answered and screened, your team will be able to focus on more important tasks and avoid constant interruptions.
Reduce call handling times : Around-the-clock answering guarantees phone calls will be picked up immediately so callers won't hang up, go unanswered, or be stuck waiting on hold. Workers can also be able to dedicate specific periods of time to answer filtered calls, which leads to quicker response times.
Improve productivity : 24/7 answering allows your staff to focus on their more important work while a trained representative answers client questions and sends qualified leads directly to available sales teams, encouraging optimum productivity and allowing for more sales to be made in less time.
Boost client satisfaction & business reputation : With 24/7 answering, incoming calls will be immediately answered, displaying the illusion of a larger business. With callers feeling valued, your business will exude professionalism and your company's reputation will be stronger than ever.
Enhance lead conversions : By transferring only real clients and potential prospects, virtual receptionists enable your team to convert leads at a faster rate without the hassle of answering and screening calls themselves.

A great 24/7 answering service can make all the difference for your business. It's important for businesses to have control over their day to day tasks and not be constantly interrupted by random phone calls. Smith.ai can provide a professional frontline so that your business can rest easy knowing that your clients will receive top-tier service any time they call. We are your phone call guardians and can deliver exceptional service so that even if you aren't able to answer, callers can still have a great experience with your business and not your answering machine, thanks to Smith.ai's answering service.

24/7 professional phone answering services are invaluable to your business's success. Without having to deal with call interruptions, spam blocking, or appointment setting, you can improve your team's responsiveness and productivity and put your business well ahead of your competitors. Whether your business needs lead screening assistance, customer service support, or just help off-setting call handling pressure on your team, an around-the-clock answering service can transform your business into the best version of itself.

As far as 24/7 answering is concerned, call centers and in-house staff can't perform as well as a virtual receptionist service. While they may be able to answer calls more frequently and consistently than employees with other duties, call centers and in-house staff tend to deliver sub-par quality on the calls they answer.

Answering phone calls isn't rocket science, yet still call centers and in-house staff often fail to perform in a manner that prioritizes your teams' time and your callers' satisfaction. Call centers and in-house staff often cannot provide 24/7 availability, are not equipped to answer common questions callers have, and often come with excessive background noise and basic call handling, leaving callers understandably annoyed.

Answering services that utilize live professional virtual receptionists like Smith.ai offer thoughtful accommodations, like scheduled call-backs to adhere to your team's schedule. We even offer options such as our bilingual answering service so your callers can speak in the language they prefer. By paying attention to the details, Smith.ai's phone answering service can relieve your busy team of call handling pressures, provide your callers with outstanding customer service, and help your business thrive. Hiring a call center or an in-house staff rather than outsourcing 24/7 answering to an answering service may risk your reputation, your productivity, and your customer satisfaction.

If you're a small business, this rings especially true for you. Over 80% of consumers prefer to talk to a real person over the phone yet call center agents and in-house staff can sound rehearsed, impersonal, and unsettling. This can destroy any initial impression a caller may have and erode any trust they may have in your business, which is critical to establish in the initial conversation with a caller.

It's well known that call centers customarily:

Engage in poor phone etiquette
Leave callers on hold for extended periods of time
Have limited availability
Fail to check your teams' availability or integrate with your calendar
Are unable to qualify leads or block spam

With over 82% of customers wanting their issues resolved quickly , call centers fall short of providing satisfactory service to callers. Incoming calls answered by call center agents take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes , whereas calls answered by a virtual answering service usually only take anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes. And with only 44% of callers reporting call centers to be helpful compared to nearly 76% of callers reporting non-call centers, like live answering services, to be helpful, it's clear to see that hiring a call center will result in longer call times and unsatisfactory customer service.

In-house staff also regularly:

Come unequipped to address customer service concerns
Have extremely limited phone coverage availability
Cost companies more than they bring in
Staff phone lines instead of manning tasks where they can provide more value
Have little to no ability to block spam, sales, or telemarketing calls

Even with a full-time in-house receptionist, over 62% of calls go to voicemail or are left unanswered. Despite being their sole purpose, in-house staff still fail to answer phone calls, which can cost your business potential customers, as up to 50% of sales go to businesses that answer first. With many in-house staff having limited customer service knowledge, current clients are lost as well since over 71% of clients will end a business relationship due to poor phone etiquette. Hiring an in-house staff to answer calls is arguably counterintuitive to your business's success.

All of these common issues with call centers and in-house staff can lead to clients hanging up the phone and potential prospects taking their business elsewhere, resulting in your company losing leads, customer loyalty, money, and time. By hiring a virtual answering service, such as Smith.ai, instead, your team can avoid losing out on clients by having a knowledgeable and friendly dedicated receptionist available at all times to answer clients' questions, screen leads, and send the most important calls directly to your staff whenever they're ready for them.

If that isn't enough, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that on average, answering services cost only about 20% of what an in-house staff or call center costs despite offering more features and better quality services.

As a matter of fact, Smith.ai's virtual receptionists can:

Answer inbound calls, texts, and web chats any time of day or day of the week
Schedule appointments and call-backs according to your team's availability
Send call summaries to your team after each conversation
Qualify and nurture leads with personal and friendly customer service
Prepare callers with information that allows for a smoother transition
Block spam calls for no additional charge

Outsourcing 24/7 answering to an answering service like Smith.ai instead of a call center or in-house staff can save your business from overextended budgets, embarrassing client interactions, missed lead-capturing opportunities, and frustrating workplace complications. Rather than risk your revenue and client relationships on inexperienced or ineffective call center agents or in-house staff, trust Smith.ai's reliable service to nurture callers, capture leads, and take the pressure off of your busy staff.

Keeping a business up and running is no simple task. That's why it's easy to see how quickly businesses can run into problems they struggle to resolve themselves. Common problems that indicate your business may benefit from 24/7 answering are:

My team struggles to keep up with phone calls and remain productive

Business calls don't just come in when your team is ready and available. For teams that already have enough on their plate, the amount of phone calls that need to be properly answered can be overwhelming to say the least. With over 20% of calls being spam , it can be even more difficult to determine which callers are real clients or leads. Answering Calls consistently and correctly is crucial for your business's success, but team members might have to neglect more important work to do so, leaving your staff with a growing list of tasks they can't seem to get done.

I can't afford to hire front desk support

Front desk support, whether it's in-house receptionists or call centers, can cost tens of thousands of dollars and with slimmer budgets set in place, business can often be left desperate for phone answering assistance. Paying more than you can afford for services you need can put your business in a dangerous position and trying out free services, such as Google Voice, can be just as detrimental to a business as having nothing at all. Without call handling support in some way, shape, or form, your business can lose out on leads and dismantle client relationships. Businesses can benefit from utilizing a temporary answering service during the times they expect an uptick in call volume.

My staff has difficulty finding and capturing leads

Staff members may not have the time or expertise to convert leads consistently. When a representative can't provide open availability to callers, struggles to portray confidence in your company's services, or forgets to schedule a consultation, clients may lose interest quickly and feel less secure about entering into a relationship with your business, costing you not only your revenue, but your reputation as well.

Clients are frustrated with our slow response times

The only way a business can succeed is when clients are happy so when clients inevitably have questions about their services or concerns about their products, businesses need to be prepared to answer them. Businesses regularly struggle to find the time to answer clients' questions in a quick and efficient manner. Whether staff members have limited availability and either can't get to the phone in time or leave clients on hold, clients can get irritated and hang up, going to the next company they find in their search results. It is important that phone calls from leads are returned in a timely manner, which is why we also offer a call-back service to help drive more sales.

If your business is facing one or any of these challenges, an answering service that provides 24/7 answering can help you convert more leads and deliver excellent services to clients who call. An answering service, such as Smith.ai, can take the pressure off of your team and allow your business more flexibility in time and in budget without compromising your client relationships. Smith.ai's virtual receptionists can assist your callers by getting them the answers they need quickly with no long waits or holds and help your team answer calls when and how they prefer. Smith.ai's answering service offers the fastest, easiest, and most affordable way to resolve your business's issues and leave your callers with a smile on their face.

Businesses of every size can benefit from outsourcing call handling and enabling 24/7 answering, whether it helps to take the load off of a small, family owned business or to increase efficiency in a large corporation. For example:

For small businesses, 24/7 answering means a professional "big company" phone presence and not having to pick up every call

Small businesses are often up to their necks in tasks that need to be done. They don't need to spend more of their restricted time screening and qualifying leads or their narrow budget on hiring front desk support, which is why they can benefit from using an answering service for small businesses. 24/7 answering gives small businesses the opportunity to answer every call, nurture every lead, and schedule every appointment without any effort from their overworked staff. This allows small businesses to maximize their productivity without sacrificing their much-needed time, money, or outreach towards current and potential clients. No more wasted days struggling to answer every call, text, and Facebook message.

With an endless amount of projects that need to be done, calls that come in to medium sized businesses are often left unanswered or mishandled, resulting in missed leads and frustrated clients. Balancing daily tasks with call handling is difficult for any company, let alone a company with limited staff, availability, and resources. Outsourcing call handling and permitting 24/7 answering enables medium sized businesses to place the responsibility of customer service and lead screening into the hands of a trustworthy agent so that their team can get back to running daily operations without worrying about neglecting callers.

For large businesses, 24/7 answering means personalized customer interactions and no spam or telemarketing call interruptions

Many larger businesses have staff that are far too busy to answer calls themselves. It can be tedious for sizable staff to focus on the smaller details, like providing personalized one-on-one customer service, when there are such vast operations to run. It's also very costly to hire in-house staff and, for companies at the enterprise level, scaling at lower cost is a core objective. 24/7 answering can make it easier for large businesses to function at a high volume without neglecting the details that can separate a good company from a great one. By allowing answering services like Smith.ai to answer calls, schedule appointments, and qualify leads for them, larger businesses no longer have to choose between interrupting work to answer calls or neglecting callers.

Having a well-informed team of virtual receptionists who are trained in customer service represent your company when you're busy or closed can transform your business's efficiency for the better, no matter what size your business is. Whether you want to improve your company's customer service or increase your business's lead conversion rate, an answering service that delivers 24/7 answering can help accomplish your company's goals and get your team back to focusing on their work.

Use our best practices to hit the ground running with Smith.ai virtual receptionists, and achieve results from Day One.

NEVER MISS A CALL

Live virtual receptionist service 24/7

North America-based bilingual agents

Better than a call center service, fully customized

Much more than call answering

For small businesses and enterprise sales departments

Get the most out of Smith.ai

Outreach Campaigns

Web Chat

Detailed call intelligence gives you the upper hand

Smith.ai is trusted by 3,000+ businesses

TALK TO OUR TEAM of experts

Book a consultation

END-TO-END INTEGRATIONS

We play well with your software

Frequently asked questions

What are the benefits of a 24/7 answering service?

What’s the difference between a 24/7 answering service and a call center or in-house staff?

How much does a 24/7 answering service cost?

What common business problems indicate that I need 24/7 answering?

What are the ways 24/7 answering can help small, medium, and large businesses?

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