AI Receptionist - An AI receptionist for your small business
An AI receptionist handles agreed first-response work across calls, web enquiries and after-hours messages. It can capture contact details, send an approved acknowledgement, gather qualifying information and trigger the next step. Pricing, technical judgment, complaints and unusual circumstances stay with a person. It is designed for small businesses that cannot always answer while doing the work.
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Who this is for.
This service is designed for small businesses and trades where the phone is still the primary way customers make contact, and where the owner or a small team is often too busy on a job to pick up.
If any of these sound familiar, an AI receptionist is probably the right fit:
- You are a sole trader or run a team of fewer than ten people
- Enquiries come in outside business hours and nobody is there to answer them
- You know missed calls are costing you jobs, but hiring a receptionist is not the answer
- Your follow-up is inconsistent because you are running a job and the callback slips
The businesses getting the most from this service right now are in trades: builders, cleaners, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, and similar. The problems are identical across every one of them. The phone rings at 9pm. Nobody picks up. The customer calls the next person on Google.
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The missed-call maths.
The numbers are not flattering, but they are worth looking at honestly.
Here is an illustrative frame that holds broadly across service businesses:
A missed call is not automatically a lost job, but a slow response gives the caller time to try the next provider. The honest calculation uses your own call logs: count unanswered new-business calls, identify which received a timely response, then compare booked work. We do not publish a generic missed-call revenue figure because job value and conversion vary too widely.
An AI receptionist picks up where the human did not. It does not pretend to be a human. It captures the name, the job, the contact details, sends an acknowledgement that makes the customer feel heard, and queues the follow-up so you can call back when the job is done. The lead does not evaporate.
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What is included.
The AI receptionist service is a managed, done-for-you system. You do not need to configure anything. We build it around your business and manage it on an ongoing basis.
| What you get | What it does |
|---|---|
| Missed-call text-back | When a call rings out, an automatic text goes to the caller within seconds: personalised to your business, not a generic template |
| Web enquiry capture and response | Enquiries from your website or contact form get an immediate, relevant reply. No delay, no template email that sounds like nobody read it |
| 24/7 lead follow-up | If a lead does not reply to the first message, the system follows up. You control when and how many times |
| Lead qualification | The AI asks the right questions so you know what the job is before you call back. No back-and-forth to get basic information |
| CRM | Every lead is logged, with contact details, the conversation, and the status. You always know what came in and what is outstanding |
| Review requests | After a job is marked complete, a review ask fires automatically. The business that asks consistently gets the reviews; most do not ask at all |
| Monthly report | A one-page summary: leads in, responses sent, reviews generated, what is working |
The system runs inside the CRM, which we set up and maintain. You see everything in the CRM. You do not need to learn any new software beyond checking what came in.
04
Proof this works.
A representative trades workflow begins when a new caller is not answered. The receptionist records the contact, sends an immediate acknowledgement, gathers the few details needed to route the enquiry and books the agreed next step. The owner sees the conversation and handles pricing, technical questions and anything outside the approved path.
ScottishWill is a Scottish will-writing service whose entire operational layer runs on AI. Enquiries are handled, follow-ups fire automatically, and the owner can step away without a single task falling over. The method we use for the AI receptionist service is the same method that powers ScottishWill. It is not a demo. It is a running business.
05
The honest limits.
An AI receptionist is the right tool for a specific problem: handling the enquiry and follow-up layer of a local service business. It is not a magic machine that solves sales problems that exist for other reasons.
It will not fix the issue if:
- Your prices are materially higher than competitors and customers are leaving on price, not speed
- The quality of the job itself is the reason customers do not come back
- You have no web presence or Google Business Profile, and nobody is finding you in the first place
It will make a real, measurable difference if customers are reaching out and not getting a fast, professional response. That is the problem it was built to solve.
We will tell you in the £750 AI Ops Review if this is the right fit for your business. If it is not, we will say so.
06
Joining the waitlist.
The AI receptionist service relaunches in September 2026 behind a focused niche. We are building the first cohort around trades businesses: the use case is the clearest, the results are the most measurable, and the two businesses we are already working with in this space are providing the real-world evidence the product needs before we open it wider.
If you are a trades business or local SME and this sounds like the right fix, join the waitlist now. We will contact you first when the September launch opens. There is no payment until you are onboarded and the system is running.
07
Frequently asked questions.
Is the AI receptionist a chatbot?
No. A chatbot mainly answers questions inside a conversation. An AI receptionist is connected to the operating workflow: it can capture an enquiry, send an approved acknowledgement, collect required details, update the CRM and trigger the next step. It works within defined permissions and hands pricing, technical judgment or sensitive situations to a person.
Does it work for my type of business?
The service is built for trades and local service businesses where enquiries come in by phone and web form, and where missed or slow responses cost real jobs. Builders, cleaners, landscapers, plumbers, electricians, and similar businesses have identical lead-handling problems. If your business takes enquiries, this works. If you are not sure, book a AI Ops Review and we will tell you honestly whether it is the right fit.
Will customers know they are talking to an AI?
The system is transparent. The initial text-back and responses are clearly from your business, not a claim to be a human receptionist. In practice, what customers experience is speed and professionalism: a response within seconds rather than a missed call that never gets returned. Most customers care about being responded to quickly and clearly. The AI receptionist delivers that.
What happens after the three-month minimum?
After the three-month minimum, the service continues on a rolling monthly basis. You can stop with one month's notice. The three-month minimum exists because the system needs time to train on your business, your common job types, and your communication style. Cutting it short before that calibration completes would produce worse results and would not be fair to either side.
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Ready to stop losing jobs to a missed call?
The AI Ops Review is £750 and includes a 45-minute working session plus a written plan. It will establish whether the AI receptionist is the right fit, the controls it needs and what should stay with a person.
Or, if you know you want in for September, join the waitlist now and we will reach out first.
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Related: AI Employees explained · Managed Operations service · AI for trades businesses · Proof and case studies
Assist IQ is a trading name of PCMG Consulting Services Ltd, registered in Scotland (SC852814). Based at 5 St Murdochs Crescent, Arbroath, Angus, DD11 5DA.
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The AI Ops Review is £750. It gives you a written plan, a clear order of attack, and an honest view of what should stay human.
No prep. No data handover. Start with the problem, not the software.