Answering service vs AI receptionist for contractors

Who picks up

A live answering service is a team of people working from a script you give them. An AI receptionist is software that answers in a natural voice, asks your questions and passes the lead on. Some companies offer both, with the AI handing hard calls to a person.

People handle unusual calls well and some callers prefer them. AI answers every call the same way at any hour and does not get busy when several calls come in at once. Neither one knows your trade unless someone sets it up properly.

How they bill

Pricing models differ more than prices. Three common ones, each with a published example as of October 21, 2026:

• Per call: Smith.ai’s live receptionist Starter plan is $300 a month for 30 calls.
• Per unique customer: Goodcall’s Starter plan is $79 a month for 100 unique customers.
• Per minute: Rosie’s Professional plan is $49 a month for 250 minutes. Vise is also per minute: $99 for 150 minutes or $299 for 800.

Which billing model suits a contractor

Look at your own calls. If you get many short calls, per-minute plans stretch further. If calls run long because customers describe the job in detail, per-call or per-customer billing can work out cheaper. Pull a month of call logs and run the numbers for two or three providers. Do not rely on anyone’s "about X calls" estimate, including ours.

What happens after the call

This matters more than most people think. Ask how the lead reaches you: a text, an email, an app, or a dashboard you have to check. On a job site, a text you can read in five seconds beats a portal you will not open until evening.

Ask what is in the message. You want the name, number, address, what is going on and how urgent it is. If you still have to call back just to find out what the job is, the service has not saved you much.

Urgent calls

For trades with emergencies, ask exactly how urgent calls are handled. Can they transfer to you or your on-call person? What happens if nobody answers? Who decides what counts as urgent? The answer should be: you do.

Setup: who does the work

Some services are self-serve: you write the script or build the agent. Others set it up for you. Self-serve is cheaper and flexible if you enjoy tinkering. Done-for-you saves your evenings and usually gets the trade questions right the first time.

A simple way to decide

• You want a person on every call: choose a live answering service.
• You want every call answered the same way, any hour, at a lower monthly cost: choose an AI receptionist.
• You need help with more than the phone: consider hiring.

Where Vise fits

Vise is a done-for-you AI receptionist for contractors. It answers 24/7, finds out the job and where, sends urgent calls to you and texts you the lead. It does not book; if you want estimates put on your calendar, that is Booked Estimates, a separate service.