AI Phone
Receptionist and order taker on your business number, with 500 answered minutes a month included.
$149 per location per month
AI Phone
AI receptionist cost: $149 a month, orders included
AI Phone answers your line, takes orders into your register and hands the rest to a person, for $149 with 500 minutes.
Then 20¢ a minute, with a hard ceiling at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up. No setup fee, no contract. See Esplanda pricing.
Illustrative example
In short
An AI receptionist from Esplanda costs $149 per location per month, with 500 answered minutes included. After that it is 20¢ a minute, and the line stops at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up, so a strange month can't become a bill you never agreed to.
One number does two jobs. On a support call it answers hours, stock, price and order status from your live register. On a sales call it takes the order and writes it into the register as a real transaction.
- Answers from your register
- Takes orders
- Hands over to a person
- Says it's an AI
- No card details on calls
Two different things
Your customers' calls, and your calls to us
Esplanda sells two things with "phone" in the name. One answers your customers. The other is you calling us. This page is about the first.
| AI Phone | Esplanda phone support | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is calling | Your customers | You and your staff |
| Who answers | Esplanda's AI, on your business number | An Esplanda person |
| The job | No customer call goes unanswered, and a sales call becomes an order | Something in Esplanda needs fixing and you want a human voice now |
| Price | $149 per location per month, 500 minutes included, then 20¢ a minute | $129 a month, or $0 while you process card payments with Esplanda |
Email and chat support are free to every store, whichever phone line you buy. How a receptionist call flows, and why it says it's an AI, is on AI receptionist.
01Support calls
The receptionist half: answers from the shelf
Most calls to a local business are the same six questions, and each one pulls someone off the counter. AI Phone answers all six from data Esplanda already holds.
- Live stock and price. "We have three left, and it's $34" is the shelf talking: it reads your catalog from Esplanda POS, or from a Square, Clover, Lightspeed or KORONA register through POS integration.
- Shaped to your trade. Stock and price in a grocery or convenience store; hours, menu and "is my pickup ready" in a restaurant; whether a part is in and what it costs in a hardware store.
- Service businesses too. In a salon, barbershop, clinic or trades business it answers hours, location, services and prices, takes the caller's name, number and request, and puts it on the customer record with the transcript for a person to book.
- It hands over. A caller who asks for a person, a complaint, a refund or a dispute goes to a human straight away, with the transcript.
02Sales calls
The order taker: a real order, not a link
Written into the register
Four sandwiches for twelve, a case and two bottles for six, pipe and fittings before seven: items and quantities confirmed against stock, pickup or delivery chosen, and the order written in as a transaction your staff can pick and fill.
Never takes card details
Not once, not for a regular. Payment happens at pickup, on delivery, or through a payment link you send once the order exists.
Counted like any order
Phone orders sit in your sales and your stock count next to counter and online orders. Strongest in food, grocery and convenience, liquor and wine, and retail with a real catalog.
Want the same answers in text on your website? The AI chatbot for small business builds orders from the same live stock for $29 a month, with the first 90 days free and no minute meter.
The allowance
What 500 minutes really covers
500 answered minutes per location per month is roughly eight two-minute calls a day, every day. A minute allowance only means something as a number of calls.
| Kind of call | Typical length | How many fit in 500 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Hours, directions, is it ready | Well under a minute | Hundreds |
| Do you have it, and what does it cost | About a minute | Around 500 |
| A short pickup order | Two to three minutes | Roughly 170 to 250 |
| A multi-item order with swaps | Four minutes or more | Around 125 |
Told at 500, not on the invoice
Past 500 minutes each minute is 20¢, and you are told the moment you cross 500. A busy Friday dinner service or a holiday week on the phone can go past it, and the overage is priced and visible in advance.
A hard ceiling at 1,000
At 1,000 minutes the line stops and waits for you to approve a top-up, so a month where something odd happens on your number stays a bill you agreed to.
Is it worth it
What one missed call is worth to you
A missed call in a shop is a basket. In a service business it is a job. That difference decides how fast $149 pays for itself, so here is the whole range.
| Kind of business | What one missed call is | Recovered calls that pay the $149 |
|---|---|---|
| Trades, repair and home services | A job, often in the hundreds, and it goes to whoever picks up second | One |
| Salons, barbershops and clinics | An appointment, often a client who would rebook for years | One or two |
| Restaurants and bars | A table or a pickup order, in the hour nobody can reach the phone | A handful |
| Hardware, parts and specialist retail | A large basket from a caller ringing two other shops | Two or three |
| Liquor, wine, grocery and convenience | A basket: at a $50 average, $50 | Around three |
Evening and weekend calls are the easiest to recover in every row: the 8pm call reaches nobody today. See the trades in service business management software, restaurant management software and liquor store software.
On every call
What happens on a call, in five steps
The number on your door stays the same. You forward your line, or we provision a number you forward to.
The call arrives on your number
Forwarded from the line you already have. Nothing changes for your customers.
It says what it is
It tells callers it's your store's AI receptionist, first, on every call. Callers trust an assistant that says what it is.
It answers from live data
Hours, directions, price, stock and order status, read from your register at the moment of asking, not from a script written in March.
A sales call becomes an order
Items and quantities confirmed against stock and written into the register. With no catalog to order from, it captures the name, number and request for a person.
A person, when it should be
Complaints, refunds, disputes, anything unclear, or a caller who simply asks, handed over with the transcript. The transcript lands on the customer record either way.
What it costs
$149 a month, with a ceiling you control
One flat price per location, bought on its own beside the free register. Phone support is a separate line, for when you need a person at Esplanda.
Minutes after 500
Told when you pass 500. The line stops at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up.
20¢ a minute
Esplanda phone support
A person at Esplanda when the register won't take a card at four on a Saturday. $0 while you process with Esplanda.
$129 a month, or $0
Email and chat support free · No setup fee · No contract · Every line on Esplanda pricing
Free phone support follows the processing relationship: see credit card processing for small business. If processing moves elsewhere, phone support returns to $129 at the next billing date, with 30 days' notice, and that is written into your contract. A store that does not process with Esplanda pays $129 from the start. More on POS system support.
Questions
AI receptionist cost questions owners ask
How much does an AI receptionist cost with Esplanda?
AI Phone is $149 per location per month, including 500 answered minutes. After 500 minutes it is 20¢ a minute, and the line stops at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up. There is no setup fee, no contract and no discount, and it takes orders as well as answering questions.
What is 500 minutes in real calls?
Roughly eight two-minute calls a day, every day of the month. A call asking whether you have something in stock and what it costs is usually well under two minutes, and a call that becomes a multi-item order runs longer. A restaurant taking phone orders through a busy Friday dinner service can go past 500, and the extra minutes are priced in advance.
What happens when I use up the 500 minutes?
The line keeps answering and each further minute is 20¢. You are told when you pass 500, not after the fact. At 1,000 minutes the line stops and waits for you to approve a top-up, so a runaway month never produces a bill you did not agree to.
What is the difference between AI Phone and Esplanda phone support?
AI Phone answers your customers when they call your business. Esplanda phone support is a person at Esplanda you call when something in your account needs fixing. Phone support is $129 a month, or $0 while you process card payments with Esplanda, and email and chat support are free to everyone. The two are priced and bought separately.
Does it take the order, or text the caller a link?
It takes the order. The items, the quantities and the pickup or delivery choice go into your register as a transaction your staff can see and fill, the same as an order typed at the counter.
Does the AI phone take card details on the call?
Never. It never asks for card details over the phone, not even for a regular. Payment happens at pickup, on delivery, or through a payment link you send once the order already exists.
Does it tell callers it's an AI?
Yes, on every call, as part of how the product works. A growing number of US states require that disclosure, and callers accept an assistant that says what it is far better than one they discover halfway through.
Is an AI receptionist worth $149 for my business?
It depends on what one missed call is worth to you. In a salon, barbershop, clinic or trades business a missed call is an appointment or a job, and one recovered call usually covers the month. In a restaurant it is a table or a pickup order in the busiest hour. In a liquor, wine, grocery or convenience store it is a basket, so at a 50 dollar average about three recovered calls a month pay for it, and you can check that against your own missed calls today.
Answer the calls you already paid for
Start free today, or book a demo and we'll walk through AI Phone on a store like yours: the questions it answers, the orders it takes and where the 500 minutes go.
Esplanda POS and your website are free to start, with no card needed. Add paid tools only when you want them.
