Voicemail
£0/moAnd roughly four in five callers hang up without leaving a message, so you never learn the call happened.
- No record of who called
- Nothing booked, ever
- They call the next name down
Automation · 10
The phone gets answered. Every time.
A voice that picks up around the clock in your business’s name, knows your services, your hours and your prices, and books straight into your diary. Anything it cannot answer becomes a message with a summary rather than a missed call.
£595 setup£299 a monthAnswers 24/7
Who it is forClinics, vets, garages and agents — anyone whose phone rings while they are with someone.
15 secondsAutomation · 10No sound
The cost of leaving it.
What happens now
The third ring, and they are gone
You are with a patient, under a car, on a roof. It rings out. Most people who reach voicemail do not leave one — they call the next name on the list, and you never learn that the call happened at all.
- Rings out while you are working
- Voicemail nobody leaves a message on
- No record that anyone called
- The next firm on the list answers
What happens instead
Picked up on the second ring
It answers, says who it is, finds out what they need, answers what it can from what you have told it, and either books them in or takes a message with a proper summary. You get the transcript either way.
- Answered in your business’s name
- Says up front that it is an AI, and recorded
- Books into your real availability
- A summary and a transcript to you
What it actually sounds like.
A real call shape, 41 secondsEvery objection to this product is really the same one: the fear of sounding cheap in front of a customer. A transcript is the only honest answer to that, so here is one — including the part where it refuses to guess.
Inbound · 19:42 · Wednesday
Recorded
Receptionist · 00:02
Good evening, Elliott Heating. I’m the AI receptionist and the call is recorded — how can I help?
Caller · 00:09
Hi — my boiler’s making a banging noise. Can someone come out?
Receptionist · 00:13
Sorry to hear that. Is it losing pressure or leaking at all, or just the noise?
Caller · 00:19
Just the noise. It’s still heating.
Receptionist · 00:22
That’s a repair visit rather than an emergency. I can do Wednesday at half eight or Thursday at two — which suits?
Caller · 00:29
Wednesday. And roughly what will it cost?
Receptionist · 00:33
I don’t quote on repairs — that’s for the engineer once he’s seen it. I’ll put a note on so he calls you first thing with a figure. Can I take a number?
Wed 08:30 · RepairBooked into the diary
Callback flaggedPrice question — for a human
The important line is 00:33. It was asked a direct question about money and said it does not answer that, rather than inventing a number — because pricing is put out of scope on almost every build we do. What it cannot answer becomes a callback with a summary, which is a far better outcome than a confident wrong figure.
What we actually build.
Your number keeps working exactly as it does now. Calls are forwarded, never ported, so nothing about your line changes and you can turn it off at any point.
Day 1What it needs to know
Services, hours, prices, the four questions you get asked every week, and the ones it must never attempt to answer.
Day 2The voice
Chosen and tuned with you. It opens by saying it is the AI receptionist and that the call is recorded — that is not optional and it is not buried.
Day 3The diary and the handover
Connected to your calendar, with clear rules for what gets booked, what gets a callback and what reaches you immediately.
Day 5Live
Forwarded from your existing number after you have called it yourself and been satisfied. Off again in one call if you want.
What is included.
- It says what it isOpens by saying it is an AI and that the call is recorded. No pretending to be a person.
- Your number, forwardedNever ported. Your line stays yours and this can be switched off in a minute.
- Books into your diaryAgainst genuine availability, with the rules you set.
- Transcripts and summariesEvery call, whether it booked or not, with a plain summary at the top.
- Escalation rulesWhat it must hand straight to a human, defined by you, not guessed at.
- Minutes cappedA stated monthly allowance with the overage rate written into the contract.
£595setup, then £299 a month
Live in five working days. Rolling monthly with one month’s notice, minutes capped with the overage stated in the contract.
Get it nowIt is not competing with nothing.
Monthly cost, like for likeThe choice is never “receptionist or no receptionist”. It is this against the three things businesses actually do instead, each of which has a real and knowable cost.
Call answering service
£150–400/moA person takes a message. They do not know your prices, your services or your diary, so almost nothing gets booked.
- Messages, not bookings
- Per-call charges that scale badly
- Reads from a script, off-hours patchy
Hire someone
£1,900+/moGenuinely better in the hours they work — which is about a quarter of the week once you take off evenings, weekends and holiday.
- Salary, NI, pension, cover
- Nine to five, five days
- Recruitment and training first
AI Receptionist
£299/mo + £595 setupAnswers every call at any hour, knows what you told it, books into your real diary, and hands anything else to you with a summary.
- Twenty-four hours, seven days
- Books, does not just take messages
- Transcript of every call
- Off again in one phone call
Salary figure is a full-time administrator on roughly £25,000 with employer National Insurance and pension on top, before recruitment, cover or training. We have not counted the calls a person misses while already on one.
What it plugs into.
Named, not implied“Integrates with your systems” is what people say when it does not. Here is the actual list. If yours is not on it, say so on the call — most things with an API can be connected, and we will tell you straight when one cannot.
01
Your diary
Read live, so the times it offers are times you are genuinely free.
- Google Calendar
- Microsoft 365 / Outlook
- Calendly
- Acuity
02
Practice & trade systems
Where the diary is not a calendar but the software the business runs on.
- Dentally
- Cliniko
- Jane
- Commusoft
- ServiceM8
03
Where the record lands
Every call, booked or not, with a summary at the top and the transcript under it.
- HubSpot
- Pipedrive
- Your inbox
- SMS
04
Your phone line
Forwarded, never ported. The number stays in your name with your provider.
- BT / EE
- Virgin
- Any VoIP provider
- Mobile
The questions everybody asks.
Will people know it is a machine?
Yes, because it tells them in the first sentence, along with the fact that the call is recorded. Some callers will ask for a human and it hands them straight to a message — that is a better outcome than a caller who works it out halfway through and feels tricked.
What if it gets something wrong?
It only answers from what you have given it. Anything outside that becomes a callback with a summary rather than a guess. Prices and clinical or legal questions can be put entirely out of scope, and for most clients they are.
Do I have to change my phone number?
No, and we would advise against it. Your existing number is forwarded, never ported, so the line stays in your name with your provider and switching this off takes one call.
Is recording calls legal?
It is, provided callers are told at the start, which it does, and provided the recordings are handled properly — which is what the data processing agreement we sign with you covers.
What happens to my minutes?
You get a stated allowance each month and an overage rate written into the contract before you sign. Nobody gets a surprise bill because a campaign went well.
Tell us about the business.
Four fields. We come back the same working day with a straight yes, a price and a start date — or an honest no if this would not pay for itself in your business.
Would rather just book a time? Pick a slot here — thirty minutes, weekday afternoons. Or email hello@designsurrey.co.