Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists vs. Alert Communications: In-Depth Comparison

Outsourced receptionists are most valuable when they sound and act like they are sitting in your office. Smith.ai receptionists (backed by our proprietary technology) answer every call with your custom instructions, the caller’s location, and notes on previous calls with that person. That way, they can proceed comfortably to scheduling appointments, taking payments, qualifying leads, and basic intake. All this for a flat per call fee.

Alert Communications can offer similar services including intake and scheduling, but you’re paying per minute for each call. Their receptionists are likely to take their time with longer intake — frustrating new leads. This could lead to high costs for you and fewer callers converted to new clients.

What else causes high prices with Alert Communications? Charging for spam and wrong numbers, which can really add up since they offer 24/7 service. It’s no wonder that their plans start at almost $150 per month. Smith.ai offers 24/7 answering too, but we only charge for the calls you want — which means those midnight spam, sales calls, or wrong numbers won't count against your quota. Our plans start at $255/month, which is affordable for almost every business.

There are several other features that set Smith.ai ahead of Alert Communications: we can record and transcribe calls, send alerts and transfer notices via email, text message, and Slack; our platform integrates with Zapier (and therefore hundreds of other platforms); we can connect multiple lines to provide an operator service; we have a call-tracking dashboard so you can check lead conversion; and we integrate directly with 30+ CRM, billing, and scheduling platforms (your first CRM integration is free, too).

For personalized answering, predictable pricing, lower starting monthly costs, more platform integrations, and AI-assisted professional and friendly receptionists, businesses prefer Smith.ai to Alert Communications.