Honest comparison
AI receptionist vs. answering service: one takes messages, one books jobs.
A human answering service charges $500–650 a month to tell your customers you'll call them back. Here's the honest side-by-side — including where a staffed service still wins.
Free for 2 weeks — no card — then $30 per booking you confirm. No contract.
Monthly cost · Human answering service
$500–650/mo, plus per-minute overages
DispatchAnswer
$0/mo — $30 per booking you confirm
What the caller gets · Human answering service
“Can I take a message?” — you still make the callback
DispatchAnswer
A booked appointment, pending your one-tap Confirm Text
Speed to answer · Human answering service
Your caller waits in a queue behind other clients' calls at peak
DispatchAnswer
Picks up the instant your call forwards — 24/7, no queue
Knows your business · Human answering service
A shared operator working from a one-page script
DispatchAnswer
Trained on your services, service area, hours, and booking rules
After the call · Human answering service
A message in your inbox waiting for a callback
DispatchAnswer
Full transcript and summary texted to you in about a minute
Getting out · Human answering service
Monthly contracts; cancelling often takes calls and notice periods
DispatchAnswer
No contract — cancel with an email
To be fair
When a human answering service is the right call
If your calls routinely need human judgment mid-call — legal intake, medical triage that must stay human, callers who need long hand-holding — a staffed service or an AI-plus-human hybrid earns its monthly fee. But if most of your calls are “I need someone out here — when can you come?”, paying $550 a month for message-taking is the expensive way to say “we'll call you back.”
You hold the leash
The Confirm Text, on by default.
Every call is recorded, transcribed, and texted to you. Nothing lands on your calendar until you confirm it from one text — and nothing ever bills except bookings you confirmed.
Straight answers
Common questions on the switch
Keep digging
The three pages owners read before saying yes
Settle it with your own ears
Hear the demo, run the free pilot, read the Confirm Texts.
Two weeks free, $30 per booking you confirm, cancel with an email. The comparison that matters is the one on your own calendar.
Free for 2 weeks — no card — then $30 per booking you confirm. No contract.