How to choose an answering service or AI receptionist: 10 questions to ask

Ask these before you sign

Good answers to all ten usually separate a service that works from one that merely exists.

• Can I hear it handle a call for my kind of business before I pay?
• What does it do on a call: take a message, qualify the caller, or book?
• What happens on an emergency or urgent call?
• Who sets it up and who keeps tuning it after launch?
• Do I get recordings, transcripts and summaries of every call?
• Does it connect to my calendar?
• How do I forward my number, and can I turn it off myself?
• What are the contract terms and the cancellation process?
• How does it handle a caller who wants a real person?
• What reporting shows me what it caught that I would have missed?

Test it like a customer

Call the demo as if you were a customer with a real problem. Interrupt it, ask a trade-specific question, and ask something it should not know. Judge how it recovers.

Watch for these red flags

Any of these is a reason to keep looking:

• No way to hear a sample before buying.
• Generic scripts with your business name dropped in.
• No call records.
• Long contracts with no trial or cancellation path.