24/7 VIRTUAL RECEPTIONISTS

Print shop answering service with outbound callbacks

Smith.ai's print shop answering service takes care of all your receptionist needs — from call handling to payment collection to appointment booking.

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Incoming calls are unpredictable.

Calls come in, but you're not always available to answer them. We capture leads, book appointments, collect payment, and log details instantly in your systems.

Take on design projects while we handle the calls.

There’s too much to do, and you can't delegate a printing specialist's work. Hand off "the rest" to our receptionists. We capture leads, set appointments, and follow-up to win business.

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

Capture and book appointments with 24/7 Live Chat.

Keeping a print shop up and running can be time-consuming. Our 24/7 live agents respond instantly to chats and texts, so new online leads are converted while you stay focused on important work.

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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

“So much more than an answering service. Smith.ai gives us a personal way to focus on executing at the fast pace required in startup life.”

Edward Aten

Merchbar

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TALK TO OUR TEAM of experts

Book a consultation

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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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 print shop answering services do much more than pick up phone calls and take messages for home and office. At Smith.ai, we provide virtual receptionists capable of a wide range of services from call handling, to scheduling, 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 shop owners and printing specialists.

Whether you're a small, locally-owned print shop, or a part of a larger printing franchise, you're sure to have plenty of customers to take care of. You want to give them the absolute best service you can, but with so much to do and only so many hours in the day, providing that outstanding customer service you'd like to be known for can be a real struggle. That's where a trusted print shops answering service comes into play. Print shops can hand off their most time-consuming administrative responsibilities, like call handling or appointment scheduling, so they can get back to focusing on more important work, like custom design projects. Listed below are a few of the most frequently reported benefits that print shops have enjoyed when using an answering service like Smith.ai:

Expanded availability‍

24/7 availability means your customers, new and old, will always speak with a real human being, whether your shop is busy or closed, or your team is otherwise unavailable. Plus, Smith.ai's virtual receptionists deliver personable customer service that'll keep your customers satisfied and your reputation spotless.

Increased lead captured

Missed calls result in missed opportunities. Don't let your busy schedule get the best of you and cost you valuable customers. Answering services provide nighttime, overflow, weekend, and after-hours availability, so each of your potential customers will receive an immediate, high-quality assistance, all without you having to lift a single finger.

Boosted work productivity

By handing off your call-handling responsibilities to a trusted print shop answering service, you can anticipate less time wasted on the phone and more time spent on important projects, like installing new printing equipment, allowing for more productive work to get done and more growth possibilities to come your way.

Enhanced client satisfaction and business reputation

Smith.ai knows how to deliver exceptional customer experiences, so regardless of your business size, our virtual receptionists got you covered. Every Smith.ai virtual receptionist is highly-trained in customer service and lead intaking. Let us put our award-winning practices to work for you by delivering the impeccable responsiveness you want your shop to be known for.

Get more for less

For the low monthly price equivalent to a gym membership, print shops can enjoy all the benefits of several experienced in-house receptionists wrapped into one simple-to-use service. Customers who use Smith.ai instead of hiring in-house receptionists can save upwards of $30,000/year, not to mention limited shop space and training hours.

Keep up with leads and clients

Answering services like Smith.ai can send over detailed call summaries after each call, so you can track all of your valuable customer's information with ease. Our virtual receptionists can even offer live chat and text message answering, so your customers have more than one way to get in contact with your salon, allowing them to choose the communication method they prefer.

A live print shops answering service can revolutionize the way you do business. Smith.ai's virtual receptionist services are specially designed to accommodate your business needs, whatever they may be. Whether you're on a limited budget, overwhelmed by growing business demands, or simply looking to enrich your customer service, Smith.ai can provide unique support wherever you need it most. The power of a dozen highly-experienced in-house receptionists wrapped into one can rest in the palm of your hand, and with a nearly unlimited list of features available for you to take advantage of, Smith.ai can seamlessly integrate with your shop to help it reach new, unprecedented heights.

Smith.ai’s answering service can offer print shops with convenient services, like…

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, much more…‍

Our many notable features and long list of useful resources make Smith.ai's answering services the clear choice for print shops looking to offload some of their growing administrative demands, boost their productivity, and improve their customer service. Smith.ai has long been dedicated to offering comprehensive administrative support to print shops like yours. For years now, our staff has been able to provide our award-winning services to countless satisfied clients. Read some of the 5-star reviews from clients like these to learn why print specialists and shop owners from across the nation trust Smith.ai to deliver remarkable virtual receptionist services.

Nowadays, you got to have "front desk" support, so when it comes to choosing between hiring an in-house receptionist and an answering service, affordability becomes the deciding factor. Keeping prices as low as possible without sacrificing the quality of work is key, but with an in-house receptionist, you might not be getting exactly what you're paying for. To give you a more in-depth look into the real cost of "front desk" support, we've compiled a brief list of some of the common expenses print shops can expect when hiring in-house receptionists.

The average salary nation-wide for an in-house receptionist is about $37,000 and they frequently come with hidden 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 print shops happens to be based in a popular part of town, that final cost will most definitely be higher, especially when you add in all the time you'll have to spend on-boarding and training your new hire. Over time, these costs tend to pile up. And when your in-house receptionist inevitably comes in late, calls in sick, requests time off, takes personal leaves of absence, goes on vacation, etc., it's your shop that'll be getting the short end of the stick. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can complete the exact same amount of tasks as an in-house receptionist can, and then some, barring coffee runs, of course. With virtual receptionists, you simply get more bang for your buck, making Smith.ai the better investment in the long run.

Smith.ai’s answering service costs as little as $285/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 you save big, but you'll also see a noticeable improvement in your shop's overall productivity, lead conversion, and net profit. Contrary to in-house receptionists, virtual receptionists can answer calls outside of normal business hours, enabling you to capture and covert nearly 27% more leads. Smith.ai’s agents can even respond to live chats and texts, which is how 46% of customers prefer communicating with businesses, opening up a whole realm of lead conversion opportunities you were never able to reach before.

Virtual receptionists can provide additional sales assistance as well by making outbound calls to capture potentially interested leads, satisfying the over 67% of clients who base their decision to hire a business on the initial responsiveness to their call or email. With leads receiving timely, professional responses every time they contact you, your lead conversion rates are practically guaranteed to explode overnight. When you entrust your leads into the hands of Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists, you can rest assured that you'll be getting the most for your money. Read our article to learn more about the differences between an in-house vs. a virtual receptionist.

Owning and operating your own print shop is no walk in the park. From difficult and demanding customers to occasional equipment failures, print specialists have to learn to be prepared for the worst. With unpredictable work environments like this, issues will inevitably sneak up, and sometimes, those issues can't be resolved internally. Outsourced support, like an answering service, can help you out of even the most tricky situations, enabling print technicians to get back to more important work knowing that the fires are being put out for them. Common scenarios that we've seen print shops struggle through that have required a virtual receptionist service's assistance for are:

I can't afford the front-desk support I need

With so much that requires your attention, you simply can't get everything done yourself. That's why administrative support can come in handy. Handing off your administrative duties to trained professionals can help offset overwhelming workloads for busy print shop teams. Unfortunately, many smaller shops don't often have the budget to allow for pricey in-house receptionists or call centers, meaning they lose out on the invaluable administrative support that competing print shops might be able to afford.

Constant phone calls distract from work

Calls come in whether you're available to answer them or not. When printing specialists repeatedly have to take time away from their customers to answer the phone throughout their day, they can quickly get distracted. And when it takes, on average, about 23 minutes to get back to a task after being interrupted by a phone call, the quality of their work and the strength of their customer relationships suffer.

Growing business demands are overwhelming

Businesses grow and while that growth can be great for a shop's profit margins, increasing demands can be a considerable hinderance for smaller print shops. Growth means more: more calls to answer, more projects to take on, more customers to assist. These demands can become increasingly overwhelming for smaller printing teams whose workloads are already massive.

I can't afford to offer the 24/7 availability clients want

When the work day ends, printing technicians deserve to go home and spend time away from customers. But just because your team clocks out for the day doesn't mean calls stop coming in. And when you're unavailable to answer their calls, you miss the over 27% of leads who call outside of regular business hours. Many print shops would like to offer after-hours answering, but can't afford expensive in-house receptionists and can't trust unreliable call centers.

If you've found your shop stuck in any one of these sticky scenarios, don't panic – an answering service can help you out. By entrusting our trained receptionists to address your administrative demands, you'll be able to take a huge chunk of your overwhelming workload off of your shoulders while your customers, new and existing, will be treated to the finest customer service available. Smith.ai's virtual receptionists are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you and your clients in every way they can. So whether your print shops could use some additional lead screening, appointment scheduling, or call handling support, our award-winning team of virtual receptionists can put their services to good use and keep your shop productive, your profits growing, and your customers happy.

As any professional will tell you, business rarely ever runs smoothly, no matter what industry you're in or company size you have. Inevitably, sticky situations require you seek out external support. A few of the most commonly reported issues we've seen countless print shops need virtual receptionist services for are:

I'm unable to offer the responsiveness leads demand

Responsiveness has proven time-and-time again to be of the utmost importance for just about any and every client-facing business, but unfortunately, smaller print shops simply don't have the bandwidth to provide that kind of responsiveness. Smaller staffs and restricted business hours means print shops are only equipped to offer limited customer service, leaving potential customers unsatisfied and existing clients unlikely to return.

Growing administrative responsibilities keep me from more productive work

Many smaller print shops don't have the budget to allow for pricey in-house receptionists or call centers, leaving them to their own devices when it comes to administrative tasks, like call handling. But with countless assignments being added to their to-do list each day, printing specialists can have a tough time keeping up. Unsurprisingly, in cases like these, productivity take a huge hit.

I can't respond to new leads in time and it's costing me money

Printing teams can't be expected to sit by the phone all day, and when more important work projects come up (which they often do), call handling and lead screening will quickly fall to the wayside, leaving potentially interested customers unanswered and unconverted. Attempting to balance daily business projects with customer service demands often proves to be too much for even the most experience printing specialists.

Competing shops are responding to potential clients faster than me

Smaller print shops are at a clear disadvantage when it comes to differentiating their business from their larger, corporate competitors. Providing first-rate customer experiences through immediate, thoughtful responses can place any business in good standing with interested customers, but with limited business hours and in-store staff, delivering competitive customer service can be a major challenge for smaller print shops.

Capturing and converting leads is a challenge

Finding and converting new clients is, of course, a necessity for any print shop owner looking to generate business. But owning and operating your own shop can take up a lot of time, leaving many shop owners struggling to balance their everyday duties with growing lead conversion demands. If left unanswered, leads will quickly turn to the nearest print shop available to answer their call, costing busy print shops valuable customers.

Storing and tracking customer data is overwhelming

Knowing exactly how, when, and why customers call is absolutely crucial for maintaining and building client relationship, but for busy print shops who, like many client-facing businesses, disperse client data across different software platforms, it can be a struggle to properly store and track of client information. And when client information isn't located in a hurry, print shops can expect to miss out on numerous lead generation and conversion opportunities.

If your shop has come face-to-face with any one of these detrimental obstacles, know that a virtual receptionist service is equipped to help business of all sizes combat common problems like these. One of the best aspects of Smith.ai answering services is that our virtual receptionists direct their attention to the specific problems you experience. Our crew of virtual receptionists will allocate time wherever you need the most help, whether that's something as straightforward as call handling or something more complicated, like lead converting. Smith.ai caters to your business needs, no matter how complex. Sign up risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee and witness first-hand how Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can alleviate even your most challenging print shop issues.

When thinking about hiring a virtual receptionist service, a good place to start is to review what areas your print shop could use some additional support in. To figure out which services you and your team might benefit from the most, consider the problems that seem to be recurring issue for you. For example:

Are spam calls taking over your phone lines?
Do lead screening demands overwhelm your work day?
Does your team struggle to provide the responsiveness your customers want?

Whatever you struggle with, Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can help you get even your most frustrating problems under control by adjusting their service to fit your needs, ensuring their time is spent wherever you need it.

Once you've pinned down some of the issues Smith.ai receptionists can help you with, consider your shop's activity level:

Do you receive more text messages than phone calls?
Would after-hours answering help you reel in more leads?
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 twenty calls a month or 2,000, 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 quick and simple. No annual contracts, no hidden setup fees, and no scripts required.

To sign up with Smith.ai, follow these three easy steps:

Customize your instructions – Just answer a few, quick questions about your team 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 notable 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 you find that we're not the right fit for you, you can receive up to $1,000 back within the first 14 days.

So whether your print shop would prefer to hire a full-time virtual receptionist or merely an overflow or after-hours call answering service, Smith.ai can provide quality call answering, lead screening, and sales development, among many other amazing services, to give you the comprehensive support you've been looking for. Signing up with Smith.ai means you aren't just gaining a virtual receptionist service, you’re gaining an entire team of reliable, friendly, and experienced professionals who can transform the way you do business for good. And once you start using Smith.ai's virtual receptionist service, we guarantee you'll never want to go without it again.

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

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24/7 VIRTUAL RECEPTIONISTS

Print shop answering service with outbound callbacks

Incoming calls are unpredictable.

Take on design projects while we handle the calls.

Powerful call intelligence gives your business the lead

Outreach calls and campaigns speed-up sales and support

Capture and book appointments with 24/7 Live Chat.

Get the most out of Smith.ai

Outreach Campaigns

Web Chat

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

end-to-end integrations

We play well with your legal software

Frequently asked questions

What are the benefits of a print shop answering service?

How much money will I save by hiring an answering service for my print shop instead of an in-house receptionist?

What kinds of scenarios do print shops need virtual receptionist services for?

What are some of the common problems that indicate my print shop could use a virtual receptionist service?

What do I need to prepare to get started with a print shop virtual receptionist service?

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