24/7 VIRTUAL RECEPTIONISTS

Education answering service for colleges and universities

Work smarter, not harder. Use Smith.ai's education answering service to outsource call answering & book appointments. Perfect for colleges & universities.

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Students watch a female teacher instruct on a laptop computer.

Incoming calls are unpredictable

Calls come in, but you're not always available to answer them, especially while you're working with kids. Colleges often experience a large volume of calls, especially during application and enrollment periods. With our answering service, we ensure that all callers to your college, university, or higher education organization receive the information and accommodations they need. By doing so, you’ll leave a positive impression on prospective students and also keep current students happy. While you are in the classroom or out-and-about on campus, we can screen callers, book appointments, and log details in your CRM and calendar.

Teach your students while we handle the calls

There's too much to do. And you can't delegate an educator's work. Hand off "the rest" to our receptionists. We can talk to new leads, book appointments, and take payments. While you are busy teaching in the classroom or handling other administrative duties, our virtual receptionists can be there to take messages from your current students or set up office meetings with any potential students. No matter the situation, every caller can be accommodated by a live person through our telephone answering service.

We provide 360-degree coverage to manage both your inbound and outbound customer engagement.

Powerful call intelligence gives your business the lead

Make better business decisions with real-time call data, visualized in every Smith.ai client dashboard. Every call summary is enriched with metadata including actions completed, caller disposition, priority, relevance, call recording and transcription, and more. See the big picture with historical tables and charts to predict business growth, costs, and ROI with superior accuracy.

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. Learn more.

82%

of consumers expect an immediate response to a sales inquiry

50%

of lead generation budgets are wasted on leads who are never contacted

79%

of marketing leads never convert into sales

67%

of customers who receive excellent service spend up to 14% more

Answer faster with Live Chat & texts

New students come to your website with questions. With Smith.ai 24/7 Live Chat, we respond in seconds to turn prospective students into paying students. Plus, we answer texts, too.

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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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Smith.ai is trusted by 3,000+ businesses

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4.9 stars

5.0 stars

4.7 stars

“After the Woolsey fire I thought my business would close. But I am able to grow with Smith.ai chat and phone answering services.”

Sara Gepp

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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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end-to-end integrations

We play well with your legal software

All activities — from calls and chats to appointments and payments — logged in your firm's preferred software.

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Frequently asked questions

The best education and enrichment answering services do much more than pick up phone calls and take messages for teachers. At Smith.ai, we provide virtual receptionists capable of a wide range of services from call handling, to appointment scheduling services, to lead intake, to website chat, and more. Whether you need a virtual receptionist for full-time call handling, overflow support only, after-hours, or triage, here are the answers to the most common questions we receive from educators and enrichment professionals.

Education and enrichment businesses are often busy working on providing an educational environment for their students and can't be expected to answer every call that comes in, but providing quality customer support through a reliable education and enrichment answering service has been shown to improve businesses in a variety of ways. Here are a few of the benefits education and enrichment businesses experience with us:

Expand availability

With a phone answering service that's available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, your clients will always have a real person to talk to, whether your school is busy, closed, or on holiday. Your parents' questions always receive a thoughtful response with our 24/7 answering service.

Increase leads captured

Missed calls mean missed opportunities. Don’t miss out on leads just because you’re not always able to pick up the phone. Answering services provide nighttime, weekend, and after-hours availability so your after-school program will never miss another call.

Boost work productivity

Through outsourcing call handling to an answering service, you’ll be able to spend time where you need it most and focus on more important work to build your educational business.

Enhance client satisfaction and business reputation

At Smith.ai, we know great customer service and how to deliver it for a range of business types and industries. Our virtual receptionists are trained in customer service and hospitality, so let us put best practices to work for you and deliver an exceptional and professional response that represents your school well every time.

Save money and time

No need to allocate limited time and money towards hiring an in-house receptionist when you can get all of the services you need and then some with an answering service for a fraction of the price. On average, customers who use Smith.ai save upwards of $30,000/year.

Stay up-to-date with leads and clients

Phone answering services can provide your education and enrichment business with detailed call summaries after each call and even provide your students and parents with chat and text messaging so you can stay in contact with your most valued applicants and pupils.

An education and enrichment answering service can provide your business with much needed relief, whether your educational team is on a budget, overwhelmed by overflow calls, or simply looking to enrich your school's customer service. With Smith.ai's bilingual answering service allowing you to capture international students or students who speak different languages, your education and enrichment business can receive even more benefits to help your school accomplish its goals, whatever they may be.

Smith.ai’s answering service can provide education and enrichment businesses with…

24/7 availability

After-hours & overflow answering

Bilingual answering

Outbound call-backs

Spam blocking

Appointment scheduling

Sales development

Payment collection

CRM Integration

Lead development

And much more…‍

With nearly limitless features, Smith.ai's answering service is guaranteed to grow your university's productivity, revenue, and outreach. Smith.ai has offered quality service to education and enrichment businesses for years and our clients trust Smith.ai to provide their schools, tutoring centers, and after-school programs with premium support. Read our 5-star reviews to learn why business owners prefer Smith.ai.

The price of a receptionist is one of the most important factors to consider when deciding on whether to hire an answering service or a traditional, in-house receptionist. Let’s look at the average price for an in-house receptionist.

The average salary nation-wide for an in-house receptionist is about $37,000 and they often come with hefty, additional fees, such as:

Medical, dental, and vision insurance, costing about $11,000/year
Life and disability insurance, costing about $2,000/year
401K’s, retirement and pension plans, costing about $2,000/year
Paid sick leave, holidays, and vacations, costing about $5,500/year
Commuting reimbursement, costing about $5,000/year
Child care subsidy and parental leave, costing about $3,000/year
Health and wellness programs, costing about $1,000/year
Bonus pay, costing about $2,000/year
Company retreats, team bonding events, and employee outings, costing about $4,000/year
Free lunch, snacks, and drinks, costing about $3,500/year

Total Cost in Addition to Salary: $77,000/year

If your school is located in a highly populated area, that price may be even higher. In-house receptionists can add to that cost when they inevitably come in late, call in sick, request time off, take personal leaves of absence, go on vacation, and so on. Contrarily, Smith.ai's virtual receptionists can accomplish the same tasks as an in-house receptionist and then some, barring coffee runs and supply restocks, of course, and are much less expensive, as your school doesn't have to pay for any time off, benefits, or salaries.

Smith.ai’s answering service costs as little as $292.50/month, with no hidden fees. Ever. By hiring an answering service instead of an in-house receptionist, your business could save over $33,000/year on salary alone, and possibly up to $40,000/year in benefits beyond salary payments. Not only will your business save money, but your business will also be able to optimize productivity and revenue like never before. Unlike in-house receptionists, virtual receptionists can answer calls outside of regular business, which is far more important than you might recognize, as 27% of leads call after hours. With Smith.ai's after hours answering service, agents can answer live chats texts. SMS answering can be overlooked, but over 46% of customers prefer communicating with businesses through text message.

Virtual receptionists can even provide sales assistance by making outbound calls to convert more leads, which has been proven to be helpful. It's critical for businesses to respond promptly, as over 67% of clients base their decision to hire a business on the initial responsiveness to their call or email. Long waiting periods encourage leads to take their business elsewhere and you may not have the chance to explain why you're the right tutoring center or after-school program to hire. With Smith.ai's education and enrichment answering service, your business can receive all the benefits of an in-house worker without the unnecessary cost. Read our article to learn more about the differences between an in-house vs. a virtual receptionist.

Running an education and enrichment business can get hectic, from managing projects and tasks to overseeing company development and growth. Businesses like these constantly face issues that impact their ability to succeed. The most common scenarios that education and enrichment businesses use virtual receptionist services for are:

I can’t afford to hire staff, but still need “front desk” support

“Front desk” support is an invaluable way to provide education and enrichment businesses with regular administrative assistance that can help operations run a lot more smoothly. When schools and universities have a limited budget, however, they may not be able to afford pricey in-house receptionists, especially when they already have to pay for office rent, school supplies, and student care themselves.

I need time to focus without constant interruptions from calls

Calls come in whether your education and enrichment business is available to answer them or not. When teachers and tutors have to answer phone calls in addition to their regular education duties, they may struggle with falling behind on more important tasks and losing focus. On average, it takes about 23 minutes to get back to a task after being interrupted by a phone call.

My business is growing and my team can’t handle it all

Businesses grow and it can be challenging to keep up. With calls that need to be answered, appointments that need to be scheduled, and invoices that need to be sent, it’s easy for teams to feel overwhelmed.

I can’t offer around-the-clock availability to answer calls

When the work day ends, teachers and other education professionals want to go home and enjoy their free time away from students and parents, but calls don’t stop coming in and leads can often be missed, as over 27% of leads call outside of normal business hours. Schools may not be able to provide after-hours availability, but may still want to offer accessible customer service.

If your education and enrichment business is experiencing one or any of these scenarios, an answering service can help by allowing you to outsource these tasks directly to a professional agent. An answering service will take on some of the more time-consuming responsibilities, addressing and alleviating the tedious issues your business faces. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can accomplish the same, whether your school needs assistance handling phone calls, blocking spam, or qualifying leads. By eliminating the need to allocate time to screening calls and answering clients’ questions, your education team can get back to focusing on more important work without neglecting your client relationships.

Education and enrichment businesses, like any business, often find themselves in compromising situations that require outsourced assistance to resolve. Some of the most common problems are:

I can’t keep up with incoming calls and messages from clients

With a limited staff and an endless list of assignments, education and enrichment businesses frequently struggle to answer phones and respond to messages from clients in addition to their regular duties. Running a tutoring center and providing quality customer service at the same time can prove to be difficult and lead to poor performance in both.

I’m spending my whole day on administrative tasks and can’t get productive, real work done

With the cost of in-house receptionists being as high as it is, schools and tutoring centers are often left to delegate daily tasks themselves. Despite spending a large portion of their day performing administrative duties, education professionals often struggle to balance their important projects with their regular office tasks.

I’m missing calls from new business leads and it's costing me money

Responding to each call can feel impossible for education and enrichment businesses when they have higher priority assignments to address. Businesses can easily fall behind on responding to new inquiries so potential leads can be frequently missed. Leads don't wait for call-backs. They call the next education business in the search results. If businesses fail to pick up, they not only lose a lead, they lose ROI, money on marketing campaigns and ad spend, as well as conversion rates from ads.

I can’t respond fast enough to leads to beat my competition to new clients

With the crowded marketplace for education and enrichment businesses being what it is, it can be a major obstacle for schools and universities to distinguish themselves and stand out amongst other similar businesses. Providing quality customer service through quick and thoughtful responses can place businesses above their competitors, but many schools and universities often lack the time to do so.

I’m struggling to find and keep new clients

Arguably one of the most significant, yet strenuous aspects of growing a successful business is obtaining and keeping new clients. With so much time and effort being spent towards existing clients, education and enrichment businesses may not have the opportunity to seek out and nurture new clients. Tutoring centers and after-school school programs who spread their workload too thin may not be able to deliver quality customer service. Slow response times may frustrate customers and hurt client loyalty and retention, as well.

I can’t seem to keep track of my clients’ data

Maintaining detailed phone records and call summaries can be overwhelming for schools and universities who disperse client data across a multitude of software platforms. Knowing how, when, and why clients call is significant for any business hoping to successfully navigate client relationships, but unfortunately, is not always easy to accomplish.

If your education and enrichment business is facing any of these challenges, a virtual receptionist service may be useful. One of the many great things about Smith.ai is that our services fit your business needs, not the other way around. Our virtual receptionists can allocate time where you need it most and address the specific issues your business face, whether you need help qualifying and intaking new clients or sending invoices and collecting payments. Sign up risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee and see how Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can alleviate the problems your education and enrichment business faces.

Determining which services are important to your education and enrichment business is a good place to start. To figure out which services would be best for your business, ask yourself what problems or opportunities you face that a virtual receptionist service can address:

Does your business need a little extra help obtaining new clients?
Does your business fall behind in answering website and text messages?
Does your business struggle with blocking spam calls?

Whatever it may be, Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can adjust their service to better suit your business needs.

After that, think about what services would best fit your company’s activity level:

Does your business receive hundreds of calls a day or just a few?
Do you receive more online messages than calls?
Would your business benefit from 24/7 phone answering or would you prefer a particular time frame, such as 9-to-5, for answering calls?

Whether you get fifty calls a month or five, Smith.ai can customize your virtual receptionist service to fit your business activity so you only pay for what you need.

All you have to do next is sign up. Getting started with Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist service is simple and fast. No annual contracts, no setup fees, and no need to supply scripts.

Follow three simple steps:

Customize your instructions – Just answer a few, quick questions about your firm and the preferences you have and we’ll get you started. We’ll use your answers to customize the way our virtual receptionists answer your calls and your clients’ questions.
Send your calls to us – We work with every phone system and can set up customized rules for when we answer your calls. Or we can answer every call, 24/7!
Try risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee – Fully experience our call answering, scheduling, payments, and other phone services completely risk free for 14 days. If we're not the right fit for you, get your money back up to $1000 within the first 14 days.

Whether your business is looking for a full-time virtual receptionist or an overflow or occasional phone answering service, Smith.ai can offer customized assistance to your team with quality customer service, lead screening, and sales development. When you sign up with Smith.ai, you won’t just be gaining a virtual receptionist service, you’ll be gaining a professional, reliable, and friendly team who are guaranteed to transform your business by capturing leads and delighting current clients.

‍Learn how to get started with Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist service.

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

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Get Smith.ai today.

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24/7 VIRTUAL RECEPTIONISTS

Education answering service for colleges and universities

Incoming calls are unpredictable

Teach your students while we handle the calls

Powerful call intelligence gives your business the lead

Outreach calls and campaigns speed-up sales and support

Answer faster with Live Chat & texts

Get the most out of Smith.ai

Outreach Campaigns

Web Chat

Smith.ai is trusted by 3,000+ businesses

Sara Gepp

TALK TO OUR TEAM of experts

Book a consultation

END-TO-END INTEGRATIONS

We play well with your software

end-to-end integrations

We play well with your legal software

Frequently asked questions

What are the benefits of an education and enrichment answering service?

How much money will I save by hiring an answering service for my education and enrichment business compared to an in-house receptionist?

How do I know if I need virtual receptionist services for my college, university, or higher education institution?

What are the common problems that indicate my education and enrichment company needs a virtual receptionist service?

What do I need to prepare to get started with an education and enrichment virtual receptionist service?

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