If you run a small trade or service business, you’ve probably been pitched an AI receptionist this year. They’re everywhere, and they do something useful: they answer your phone when you can’t.
But they’re not the only way to stop losing jobs when you’re busy, and for a lot of one-to-five person businesses they’re not the easiest place to start. This guide explains what an AI receptionist and a website chatbot each do, where each one fits, and how to decide.
What an AI receptionist does
An AI receptionist is a voice assistant on your phone line. You forward your calls, or just your missed calls, to the service. When it answers, it talks to the caller, answers common questions from information you’ve given it, and takes a message or books a time. You get a summary, usually by text or email.
It suits businesses where:
- most work comes in by phone
- customers would rather talk than type
- you want calls booked straight into a calendar
The trade-offs are worth knowing before you sign up. Callers are talking to an AI on your own number, and some won’t like that. You’ll need to set it up with your services, prices and rules, and keep that up to date. And pricing is usually by the minute or in monthly bundles of call minutes, so a busy month costs more.
What a website chatbot does
A website chatbot sits on your website as a chat button. When someone visits at 9 pm with a question, it answers in writing, and when they want a quote or a call back, it takes their details and passes them on.
Older chatbots ran on scripts and menus, and most people found them frustrating. The newer kind reads your website and answers from what it says, so it can handle “Do you cover Marrickville?” or “Do you fix heat-pump hot water?” without you writing a script.
It suits businesses where:
- customers find you on Google and look at your website before they call
- your website already answers most common questions
- you want enquiries in writing, with the details you need to quote
The trade-offs: it only helps people who visit your website, and it only knows what your website says. If your website is thin, the answers will be too.
The question that decides it
Ask yourself one thing: where do your missed enquiries actually go?
If your phone rings while you’re on a roof and nobody leaves a voicemail, that’s a phone problem, and an AI receptionist or an answering service is the fix.
If people look at your website in the evening and never get in touch, that’s a website problem, and you’d never know it was happening. If nothing on your website answers their question, they’ll try the next result.
Plenty of people don’t want to ring a tradie at night. They’ll read your website instead.
Many businesses have both problems. That’s fine: these tools don’t compete, and you can use one for each.
Why the website is the gentler first step
If you’re unsure about AI talking to your customers, starting on your website has some advantages:
- Your phone doesn’t change. Customers who ring still get you.
- Everything’s in writing. An enquiry arrives with the chat that led to it, so you can see exactly what was said.
- It’s easy to check. A good chatbot answers only from your website, so if an answer is off, you fix the page and the answer changes with it.
- It’s easy to undo. It’s one line of code on your website, so you can switch it off without touching your phone.
What to look for in either tool
Whichever you choose, check these before you sign up:
- Where do its answers come from? You want answers from your own information, and an honest “I don’t know” when it doesn’t have one.
- How do enquiries reach you? A text and an email you’ll actually see beats an inbox you have to remember to check.
- Does it say it’s AI? Customers should know who they’re talking to.
- What does a busy month cost? Look at the price for your busiest month, not your quietest.
- Can you try it first? A free trial on your own website or phone line tells you more than any demo.
Where Ernie fits
Ernie is a website chatbot built for local service businesses. It reads your whole website, answers from it day and night, and texts and emails you the job details when someone wants a quote, a booking or a call back. It doesn’t touch your phone.
You can see what it would say on your own website for free, or read the side-by-side comparison with AI receptionists.