What a virtual receptionist is
A virtual receptionist does the job of a front-desk person without sitting in your office. Calls to your number are forwarded, answered in your company's name, and handled the way you set: questions answered, estimates booked, urgent calls passed to you, everything else written up.
The receptionist can be a person working from a call center or from home, or an AI receptionist. Both are called virtual receptionists. What matters for a contractor is less who answers and more what they can do with the call: whether they know your work well enough to book the right job, at the right address, on the right day.
What contractors need from one
A contractor's calls are not a dentist's calls. They come from homeowners standing in front of a problem, from property managers with five units, from insurance adjusters and from other trades. A virtual receptionist built for an office often asks the wrong questions. One that suits contractors should be able to:
- Ask the questions that matter for the job: what is wrong, where, how old the system or roof is, whether it is getting worse, whether the caller owns the property.
- Check the address against your service area before booking, and tell callers outside it kindly.
- Tell a repair from a replacement from an estimate, and book each into the right kind of slot.
- Answer "are you licensed and insured?", "do you charge for estimates?" and "do you offer financing?" with your answers.
- Know which work you don't do, so you don't get booked for jobs you turn down.
- Handle the property manager or general contractor who calls about several jobs at once.
- Send the urgent ones (an active leak, no heat, a sparking panel) to whoever is on call.
What to give your virtual receptionist on day one
Whichever service you choose, it will only be as good as what you tell it. Write these down once; it takes about an hour and you will reuse it for every new hire too.
| Topic | What to write down | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Services | What you do and don't do | Repairs and replacements, no new construction |
| Service area | Counties, cities or zip codes, and any travel charge | Gwinnett and north Fulton; outside that, ask the owner |
| Estimates | Free or paid, on site or by photo, how long they take | Free on site for replacements, one hour |
| Booking | Which days and times, how many jobs a day, who goes | Estimates Tuesday and Thursday afternoons |
| Urgent calls | What counts, and who gets told | Active leaks go to the on-call tech, day or night |
| Prices | What you are willing to quote on the phone | Service call fee yes, job prices no |
| Credentials | License, insurance and warranty answers | Licensed in Georgia, insured, one-year labor warranty |
| Languages | Which languages your callers use | English and Spanish |
Human or AI: how to choose
A person-staffed virtual receptionist brings judgment and warmth, and is the better choice when most of your calls are difficult, emotional or need negotiation. It usually costs more per call, and coverage at night and at peaks depends on who is on shift.
An AI receptionist answers every call at once, at any hour, at a flat price, and books straight into your calendar. It is the better choice when most of your calls are routine requests you can write rules for. Our comparison of AI receptionists and live answering services goes through the trade-offs in full.
Questions to ask before you sign up
- Will you answer in my company's name, or with a generic greeting?
- Can you book estimates and jobs into my calendar, or only take messages?
- How do you tell an urgent call from a routine one, and how do I hear about the urgent ones?
- What do nights, weekends and holidays cost?
- Do I keep my number? What happens to my customer details if I leave?
- How do I change my hours or prices, and how fast is the change live?
- Can I call in as a customer and hear it before I commit?
B&G Solutions as your virtual receptionist
We answer every call 24/7, in your company's name, in English and Spanish. We book estimates and jobs into the calendar or booking app you already use and text the caller a confirmation. You decide what counts as urgent, and those calls come straight to you with the address and the problem already taken. Spam is stopped before it reaches you.
Plans start from $149 a month, month to month, or 15% off with an annual plan, with your price locked for 12 months. Setup takes about 48 hours, and you keep your number, your calendar and your customer list.