The calculation, with the working shown
Start with what's leaking: your missed-call report gives the true weekly number (owners guess low, nearly always). Value a missed call conservatively — new-enquiry rate × conversion rate × average job value. Worked example, small garage: 25 missed calls/week, a third are new enquiries (~8), a third of those would book (~2.6 jobs), at £180 average = ~£470/week walking away. Against that, an AI receptionist deployed overflow-only (it answers only what currently dies in voicemail) costs a fraction of one recovered job weekly. Even cutting the assumptions in half twice, the arithmetic holds — which is why we show it in your numbers before you buy.
Where the ROI is real — and where it isn't
Strongest cases: appointment businesses (dentists, garages, salons, clinics) where a missed ring is a lost booking; trades on the tools all day; anywhere with lunchtime and 5:30pm leakage. Weaker cases, said plainly: very low call volumes (little to recover), sales processes needing deep human discovery on first contact, and callers your data shows demand a person immediately. The deployment that de-risks everything: start after-hours and overflow only — zero risk to answered calls, pure recovery of dead ones — measure a month against your own report, then expand or stop. The full capability detail lives in our AI receptionist guide; the pilot proves it in your business, not our brochure.
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Frequently asked questions
What does an AI receptionist actually cost?
A modest monthly fee — typically less than the value of one or two recovered jobs. We quote against your measured missed-call numbers so the payback maths is yours, not generic.
How fast is payback typically?
For appointment businesses with genuine missed-call leakage, usually the first month. The report tells us before deployment whether that's your profile — and we'll say if it isn't.
Will customers hate talking to an AI?
Deployed as overflow, the comparison is AI versus voicemail — and callers strongly prefer being helped, booked and texted a confirmation. Anything complex hands to your team.