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Temporary answering service with 24/7 virtual receptionists

Get professional receptionist skills when you need them without hiring a full-time staff member. Use our outsourced virtual receptionists for all your call-answering needs.

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Friendly professionals answer calls 24/7

Our friendly, professional receptionists, based in the U.S. and Mexico, answer your inbound calls with a smile and keep your clients happy. We can cover your front desk 24/7 while your in-house staff is away. As a business owner, it is essential to take advantage of any opportunity you can get. All missed calls are missed opportunities. By utilizing our phone answering service, you can be confident that a live agent is answering your incoming calls, screening and nurturing leads. Not only will your customers have a line of communication with your business outside of your regular office hours, you'll be able to focus on other tasks that add value to your business.

Schedule and confirm appointments

No need to hire a receptionist for scheduling and appointment setting. We can make bookings with new leads and current clients, on the calendar you already use.

Even with a full-time in-house receptionist, over 62% of calls go to voicemail or are left unanswered.

Update CRM and calendar

Since we integrate with many popular CRMs and calendars, plus Zapier and Make, we can log communications and schedule appointments just like your full-time front desk receptionist does.

Process client payments

Our live receptionist can also take payments on behalf of your business. Using your payment system, like PayPal or LawPay, we can charge for consultations or call to collect on due or overdue invoices.

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Outreach Campaigns

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.

Outreach calls and campaigns speed-up sales and support

Smith.ai receptionists make calls on your behalf, improving your speed-to-lead and unburdening staff who need to reach out to clients. We'll call-back online leads who complete web forms, contact donors for donation renewals, chase down payments on unpaid invoices, and more. We'll even send follow-up emails and texts after every call to ensure a connection is made.

Smith.ai is trusted by 3,000+ businesses

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“I’m really grateful for how much Smith.ai has done to elevate my practice and make my life easier. To me, they’re more than just an answering service. They really do assist with scheduling, follow-ups, and providing a stellar client experience. I appreciate their service and will continue to refer my friends to them!”

Christine Schafer

The Legacy Law Firm

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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 7,000 integrations.

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Frequently asked questions

The best virtual receptionist and chat services do much more than pick up phone calls, answer chats, 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 live 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 temporary receptionist and front desk services, specifically.

An answering service, like Smith.ai, can offer your business temporary receptionist and front desk service. In doing so, answering services can take over phone answering, appointment scheduling, and other receptionist duties for your business, freeing 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. Let our virtual receptionist answer your inbound calls so your staff can focus on creating more value to your business. Your clients will be able to talk to a real person who can represent your business and provide quality, time-efficient customer service consistently. With temporary receptionist and front desk services, your business can exude professionalism at all times and grow more successful by the hour.

By enabling temporary receptionist and front desk services through a live answering service, your business 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 : Temporary receptionist and front desk services allow phone calls to be picked up immediately so callers won't hang up, go to voicemail, or be stuck waiting on hold. Workers can also be able to have their time considered, as temporary receptionists can evaluate and update your teams' calendar, leading to more efficient scheduling.
Improve productivity : Enabling temporary receptionist and front desk services will take the pressure of customer service duties off of your team so they can place their focus on more important tasks. Your staff can get back to business without the worry of missing calls. With a live agent properly greeting your potential leads, you can be confident your team's time is being spent effectively elsewhere.
Boost client satisfaction & business reputation : With temporary receptionist and front desk services, your client 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 : Through providing reliable front desk support, your team can convert leads at a faster rate without the hassle of answering calls or screening leads themselves.

A temporary receptionist and front desk 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 telephone calls. Smith.ai can provide a professional buffer and frontline so that your business has the option of answering calls when your team is available or scheduling call-backs when they're not, saving you time. 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 voicemail box, thanks to Smith.ai's answering service.

Temporary receptionist and front desk services are invaluable to your business's success. Without having to deal with constant call interruptions, you can improve your team's responsiveness and productivity and put your business well ahead of your competitors. Whether your company needs lead screening assistance, customer service support, or just help off-setting call handling pressure on your team, a temporary receptionist and front desk service can transform your business into the best version of itself.

As far as temporary receptionist and front desk services are concerned, call centers and in-house staff can't perform as well as an answering service. While they may be able to answer calls more frequently and consistently than employees with other duties, call centers and in-house receptionists 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 answer calls, screen leads, and schedule appointments in a manner that prioritizes your teams' time and your callers' satisfaction. Call centers and in-house staff are often not equipped to answer common questions callers have and 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 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 temporary receptionist and front desk services 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 or transfer calls to wrong departments
Fail to check your teams' availability before transferring calls
Have trouble screening and qualifying leads
Fail to set adequate expectations for callers being transferred

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 answering service, 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 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 telephone 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 cell phone and potential prospects taking their business elsewhere, resulting in your company losing leads, customer loyalty, money, and time. By hiring a temporary answering service, such as Smith.ai, instead, your team can avoid losing out on clients by having a knowledgeable and friendly virtual receptionist available at all times to answer clients' questions, screen leads, and schedule appointments.

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:

Integrate with your team's CRM and calendar
Schedule call-backs, appointments, and consultations
Send call summaries to your team through your preferred method
Block spam, sales, and telemarketing calls
Process payments and send invoice reminders
Foster leads with personal and friendly customer service

Outsourcing temporary receptionist and front desk services 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.

Cost is an important factor when deciding whether your business should sign up for an answering service or not. Many answering services often hide their true prices to trick you into signing up. Luckily, Smith.ai's pricing is always clearly advertised upfront so that determining the cost for temporary receptionist and front desk services can be simple and painless.

When signing up for Smith.ai, there are:

You shouldn't have to go bankrupt to receive high-quality services that can set your business apart from the others. With Smith.ai, you'll never be charged with random, unrecognizable, or hidden fees or stuck paying for something you didn't sign up for. You can rest easy knowing what you see is always going to be exactly what you get.

Even better - Smith.ai's temporary receptionists, among other features, are incredibly affordable. Monthly plans start at as little as $292.50/month or, if you prefer, you can create a customized plan that fits your business needs. No matter which plan you choose, you'll never have to spend more than you should, since Smith.ai's virtual receptionist pricing follows a per-call rather than per-minute pricing model. That way, you don't have to pay for someone to sit around while your phone isn't ringing as you would with an in-house staff member. You only ever pay for the plan you sign up for - nothing more.

To save you even more money, Smith.ai offers 10% off when you pay upfront annually. You'll be able to save money and receive the exact same services as you normally would on a monthly payment plan. It's a win-win.

If your business might benefit from bundling call handling and front desk support with live website or text message answering, Smith.ai also offers a 5% bundled discount for receptionist and chat services. This'll put money back in your pocket and give your business the opportunity to take advantage of unique services other answering services don't offer, granting your business a leg up in your industry.

Whatever your business can afford, investing in an answering service that offers temporary receptionist and front desk services will be well worth it. While other businesses may be stuck spending massive amounts of time and money on front desk support or call centers, you'll be able to save both by utilizing an inexpensive and flexible service that provides you with lead intake assistance, call-handling support, and help scheduling appointments. Customers will run to your business for your reliable customer service, quick answering, and well-prepared 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 a temporary receptionist and front desk service 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 reliable front desk support. Paying more than you can afford for services you need can put your business in a dangerous position and trying out free services 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 could lose out on leads and ruin client relationships.

My staff has difficulty finding and capturing leads

Staff members may not have the time or expertise to convert leads consistently. When a representative fumbles over your business's mission, struggles to portray confidence in your company's services, or forgets to mention their contact information, 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. Unfortunately, companies 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 temporary receptionist and front desk services 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 hassle and help your team decrease their workload through reliable front desk support. 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 temporary receptionist and front desk services, 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, temporary receptionist and front desk services mean a professional "big company" phonepresence 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. Temporary receptionist and front desk services give small businesses the opportunity to manage your staff's time more efficiently while still providing high-quality customer service. 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 dedicated to answering calls and scheduling appointments instead of working on important business projects.

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 front desk services 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 during or after business hours.

For large businesses, temporary receptionist and front desk services mean 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 unbelievably expensive to hire in-house staff and, for companies at the enterprise level, scaling at lower cost is a core objective. Temporary receptionist and front desk services 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, screen leads, and schedule appointments, larger businesses no longer have to choose between interrupting work to answer calls and schedule appointments or providing sub-par customer service.

Having a well-informed team of virtual receptionists who are trained in customer service and who can represent your company when you're busy can transform your business's efficiency for the better, no matter what size your business is. Whether you're hoping to improve your company's customer service or increase your business's lead conversion rate, an answering service that delivers temporary receptionist and front desk services can help you accomplish your company's goals and get your team focused on their work once again.

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Get Smith.ai today.

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SUPPORT YOUR IN-HOUSE TEAM

Temporary answering service with 24/7 virtual receptionists

Friendly professionals answer calls 24/7

Schedule and confirm appointments

Update CRM and calendar

Process client payments

Get the most out of Smith.ai

Outreach Campaigns

Web Chat

Detailed call intelligence gives you the upper hand

Outreach calls and campaigns speed-up sales and support

Smith.ai is trusted by 3,000+ businesses

Christine Schafer

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 temporary receptionist and front desk service?

What’s the difference between a temporary receptionist or front desk service and a call center or in-house staff?

How much does a temporary receptionist and front desk service cost?

How do I know if my business needs a temporary receptionist and front desk services?

What are the ways temporary receptionist and front desk services can help small, medium, and large businesses?

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