AI receptionist

The AI receptionist is a second thing you can sell, with a website or on its own: a phone number answered around the clock by an assistant built from Klaudius's research on the business. You pitch it with one demo number that answers as each prospect's own business, so an owner can hear theirs before they buy.

What it does

The client's own phone is untouched. Their handset forwards the calls it doesn't answer (busy, unanswered or no signal) to the new number, so the owner always rings first and the AI only picks up calls that would otherwise go to voicemail.

It says it's an AI, finds out what the caller needs, and takes a name, a number and the job. It texts all three to the owner while the caller is still on the line, and puts emergencies, or anyone who asks for a person, through to the owner's mobile. It keeps a written transcript, never a recording. It won't quote a price it wasn't given, promise a slot or invent availability, and it never makes calls.

It suits trades, salons, studios, garages, cleaners and vet receptions. Klaudius won't set it up for legal, medical-advice or financial-advice businesses, or anywhere a mishandled call could become a safety issue.

Costs and margin

It runs on a pay-as-you-go voice platform.

Pitching costs about $1–2 a month, however many businesses you pitch. That's the shared demo line: one number that recognises each prospect by caller ID and answers as their business. Only call time grows, at about 6–7 cents a minute for prospects who ring.

A huge margin, every month. A done-for-you AI receptionist typically sells for around $199–299 a month in the US and £99–149 in the UK. Each client's receptionist typically costs you under ten dollars a month to run: their own number ($1–2 a month), about 6–7 cents per answered minute, and the texts to the owner (a cent or two each in the US, about 5–11 cents in the UK). Thirty forwarded calls come to around $6–9 for the month, and even a busy trade's line runs to only $25–40. Ask Klaudius for the going rate in your market.

Setting it up

It runs on a pay-as-you-go voice platform account. Opening it, adding a little credit and connecting it in Settings → AI receptionist takes one sitting, and Help in the app walks you through each step. Then you set up your demo line and ring it yourself, so you hear it greet you before a prospect does.

Some paperwork comes once per country: in the US, the texts to owners need a one-time registration, and in the UK and much of Europe each number needs identity documents. Klaudius tells you what to supply when it's needed.

How it gets pitched

Once the demo line exists, a pitch in your language can carry one extra line inviting the owner to call it and hear it answer as their own receptionist, and Klaudius registers that business on the demo line as the pitch goes out. Switch this with Pitches can include the demo number in Settings → AI receptionist.

The demo greets the owner as their business and knows their services, prices, opening hours and reviews, so it can play out a real customer enquiry for their trade. It always says it's an AI and a demo, and asks unknown callers which business they're calling about. It takes no real messages and calls nobody back, and prospects expire from it after a few weeks.

You can also sell the receptionist on its own, with no website, or give each business one pitch (a website or the receptionist, never both). Ask Klaudius to change what you sell.

When a client says yes

Pick AI receptionist under Client add-ons on the Runs page and press Start, or open a converted client in Pipeline and choose Set up receptionist…. It asks one batch of questions: the owner's mobile, what counts as an emergency (it suggests a list), the greeting, and which jobs to qualify rather than just take a message for. It also checks the client can set up call forwarding.

Then it sets up a local number (price first, then your yes), the assistant, the owner texts and the safety rails: a ten-minute cap per call, and calls ring the owner if the assistant is ever unreachable. Your first install also buys one number that sends every client's owner texts, which in the UK and some other countries has to be a mobile. Last, you ring the new number, describe a job and ask for a person, to check the text and the transfer.

The client gets a one-page sheet: three dial codes typed once into their phone (forward when busy, unanswered and unreachable), each with a check. No app, no new hardware, no change of number; the same codes in reverse switch it off.

At handover, have them turn voicemail off or lengthen its delay, or voicemail answers first. Then test from their real number three ways: unanswered, while their line is busy, and from a number not in their contacts. Forwarding that quietly never fires is the commonest reason these get cancelled, so test again after any change of phone or carrier.

Day to day

Ask Klaudius for the receptionist check each morning to see yesterday's calls with transcripts and the month's minutes. In Settings → AI receptionist, set Warn me after a number of minutes a month. It's a warning only and never stops calls; when a check finds you past it, Klaudius alerts you.

When a client cancels, have them dial the codes off first, then ask Klaudius to remove their assistant and release the number so the rental stops. Releasing it while their forwarding is on would send their missed calls to a dead line.

To change a voice, on the demo line or a client's line, ask Klaudius for the options in that country.

What to charge

A flat monthly retainer, never per minute, sold on the missed jobs it recovers. See Pricing, or ask Klaudius for pricing guidance for your market.

Read more on the blog: Pitching personalised AI receptionists at scale.