What each one does
| Option | Who the caller deals with | Good at | Weak at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live answering service | A person at the service | Calm callers, emergencies, messages | Cost per minute or call; doesn’t know your jobs |
| AI receptionist | An AI voice | Volume, nights, collecting details | Some callers hang up on AI; needs a handoff |
| Missed call text back | A text from your business | Every missed call, at almost no cost per call | Nobody talks to the caller right away |
What they cost
From each vendor’s own pricing page, checked October 24, 2026:
- Ruby (live receptionists): from $250 a month for 50 minutes to $1,725 for 500 minutes, with after-hours, weekend and holiday answering included (Ruby).
- Smith.ai (live agents): from $300 a month for 30 calls, then $11.50 per extra call (Smith.ai).
- Goodcall (AI receptionist): from $79 a month for 100 unique callers (Goodcall).
Missed call text back is often built into phone systems and field service software, or sold on its own, so prices vary widely. Look at how each product counts usage: minutes, calls or unique callers. A storm week can change the bill a lot.
How to choose
Count your missed calls first
A week of real numbers tells you the size of the problem. See how to count missed calls.
Look at when they happen
Missed calls during jobs and lunch suit text back. Missed calls at night suit an answering service or AI voice, plus a text.
Decide which callers must reach a person
Emergencies and big jobs usually do. Routine questions often don’t.
Call it yourself before you pay
Phone the trial number as a customer would, with a real problem. You’ll know in two minutes whether your customers would put up with it.
Using two together
A common setup: text back on every missed call, plus a live or AI answering service for overflow and nights. The text catches callers who hang up before anyone answers. The answering service catches emergencies.
If you run Local Services Ads, a text back keeps the customer but doesn’t make the call answered. Google can bill unanswered business-hours calls, and missed calls can hurt your responsiveness, which feeds into your ranking (Google on billing, Google on ranking), so those calls need a person or an answering service.
If you use an AI voice, say so
Callers should know when they’re talking to an AI, and they should be able to reach a person or leave a message for one. Pick a product that says it’s an assistant at the start and hands off to a person for emergencies.
How we handle it
Missed call text back is in every plan. Overflow and after-hours answering is an add-on: an AI assistant that says up front that it’s an AI, takes the details and passes them to you.