Upfirst’s answering service for small business makes sure calls are professionally answered at any time of day or night — 24/7 — and captures the information you need.
"With Upfirst, someone who would’ve been on hold now gets help right away. Whether they just want to know the exam fee or refill a prescription, the AI can handle it. Clients love that."
"We’re often busy with pets and can't always get to the phone. Now every call gets answered and we get a clear summary so we can respond fast."
"Your AI, she’s amazing. She sounds great and is very responsive. Residents love it because they feel heard, and prospects get the information they need right away."
"Upfirst fit our non-profit's budget and ended up giving us more flexibility and control over calls than we got with our previous answering service."
Introduction
Whether you’re a solo attorney, or a busy catering business, you can’t afford to miss your calls. According to online review statistics, 37% of negative reviews stem from poor communication. But being there around-the-clock is hard. Front office staff may be busy with with other work, or simply out to lunch. You may not be large enough to dedicate the necessary back office staff, or just don’t want to manage the complexity of running a phone answering service.
Upfirst’s AI-based phone answering service makes sure every call is answered, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It can even ask the caller questions to collect the information you need. As an added bonus, our telephone answering service knows as much about your business as an expertly trained employee, all at the fraction of a typical outsourced phone answering service.
Quick, easy setup
Here’s how to get started with your virtual receptionist answering service and answer every incoming call.
Sign up for an account with our call answering service. You'll have the option to connect your phone number or select a new one. Then you can choose your AI agent’s voice, set up a welcoming greeting, and fill it in on the details about your business.
Our phone call answering service can do more than just pick up calls. You an also connect it to your scheduling system or CRM and have it automatically create appointments or log customer information. Just like an outsourced receptionist—only faster, because it’s AI.
It's easy to train our AI-based call answering service. Once you've given it information about how you'd like it to answer calls, give it a ring and test it out. We generally recommend a few practice calls to fine-tune responses. Just like a human-based call answering service, you'll want to provide a script and guidelines for what to say if a caller asks unexpected questions. This was you can rest assured knowing your AI will only provide approved information.
This is the fun part. Set your answer service live and enjoy the extra time you'd have on your hands now that you don't have to be glued to the phone.
With Upfirst, you'll always be kept in the loop. Our business answering service will automatically send you an easy-to-read summary with the details of the call. You can even listen to the recording within your dashboard. And if you'd prefer important calls to be forwarded to you, you can do that too.
With our live answering service, you can provide a better customer experience for less money. It's powered by AI, which means it's more affordable and learns quickly.
Unlike most answering services, Upfirst is affordable — even for small businesses. Because our answering service is powered by AI, we can offer it at a lower price than traditional virtual receptionists.
When you use an answering service, your customers' calls are answered on the first ring. They can help right away — in contrast to leaving a voice message. It's cheaper for you and better for business.
Some businesses try to run an in-house answering service using fractional employees, but this seldom works to provide a high-quality service because of split attention and insufficient availability.
Even if you invest in full-time staff to man the phones, you can't be sure every call will get answered. Our answering service can pick up multipe calls at once so no lead is left hanging.
You don't have to settle between an expensive after hours answering service or picking up the phone yourself. Upfirst is a cost effective way to answer customer calls day and night.
Use of a dedicated service that is available 24/7 to pick up calls in a timely manner and with a good voice manner adds to your company’s professional presentation and reputation.
With a live answering service, you get 24/7 availability, bilingual support, message taking, appointment scheduling, plus call screening and forwarding.
Our business answering service lets you be there for customers even outside regular business hours, without having to hire an expensive firm to pick up calls for you. Just connect your phone number, train your AI, and set it live to start answering phone calls no matter the time or day. Your customers will never be sent to voicemail again.
Ever see a missed call with no message? Or even worse, ever listen to a long voicemail that is missing all the important details you need? Tell our AI-powered small business phone answering service what info you need to collect from callers and it will gather it for you. You'll get a quick, skimmable email with the details.
Upfirst does more than just answer calls. Think of it like a virtual receptionist service that can take messages, transfer calls, and even schedule appointments. All you have to do is connect it to the software you already use.
For important leads or customers, you may want to pick up the phone yourself. No problem. Give our call handling service for small business the criteria for when a phone call should be forwarded, and it will follow your directions. That way you can run your business knowing only the important calls will make it your way.
Most answering services for small business know next to nothing about your business. Sure, they can take a message – but that's about all they can do. With Upfirst, you can feed the AI phone assistant your training materials, website, brocures, and FAQs. The more it knows about your business, the more helpful it can be.
Who we serve
At Upfirst, call answering service isn't your average virtual receptionist. It's AI-driven, so it learns the ropes of any industry fast. You can have it up and running in minutes, and it gets smarter about your business with every call.
Have a question about our answering service that isn't answered here? Get in touch with our team.
How much does your answering service cost?
Our answering service has simple, transparent pricing with no setup fees or long term contracts. You can try it free for 14 days. Plans start at $24.95 per month for 30 calls, $59.95 per month for 90 calls, $159.95 per month for 300 calls, and $299 per month for 600 calls. Every plan includes full access to the Upfirst virtual receptionist features, call routing, and call handling workflows.
How do I set up your answering service?
Getting started is quick. After you start your free trial, you'll customize the AI agent's greeting and choose its voice. Then, you'll add some information about your business in the AI's Knowledge and add any rules for handling calls. If you need, you can set up call transferring, scheduling, or text sending rules. Test some calls to make sure everything sounds just the way you like, and then go live by forwarding calls from your existing business phone to your Upfirst agent.
I don't want to change my business phone number. Do I have to change it?
You can absolutely keep your existing business phone number. When you sign up, you'll choose a phone number for your Upfirst agent, and then simply set up call forwarding with your phone provider so that calls are forwarded to and answered by your receptionist.
Can Upfirst schedule appointments to my calendar?
Yes. Upfirst can book appointments through Google Calendar or Outlook, text callers a link to your booking page, or collect contact details so you can follow up and confirm times later.
How does Upfirst handle spam calls?
Upfirst automatically filters spam and unwanted calls. You are never charged for spam calls, short calls, quick hang ups, or calls that last less than 15 seconds.
Does Upfirst's answering service support multiple languages?
Yes. Upfirst can speak and understand more than 30 languages. It can switch languages automatically when it detects what the caller is speaking, and it can translate call transcripts into your preferred language.
Am I able to use Upfirst just some phone calls, like after hours or overflow?
You can. Many businesses use Upfirst strictly for after hours support or as an overflow answering service during busy times. You control when calls are sent to Upfirst through simple routing rules through your phone provider.
Can your answering service transfer calls?
Yes. Upfirst offers call transfers based the rules that you set up. You can set what scenarios a call should transfer to you or someone else on your team, and create a call transferring schedule so calls aren't transferred to you in the middle of the night. Upfirst can also transfer only real callers to you, and prevent spam or sales calls from reaching you.
Be one of the first to try Upfirst — an AI-powered virtual answering service that picks up the phone for you. Try for free today!
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