AI receptionist
The AI receptionist that answers every call
It answers day or night with your hours, stock and today's prices, takes phone orders and passes tricky calls to a person.
AI Phone is $149 per location per month with 500 answered minutes, then $0.20 a minute. Web chat is its own $29 line, with the first 90 days free; owner inbox triage and the staff answer device come with either. See Esplanda pricing.
Illustrative example
The boundary
What it answers, and what it hands to a person
A missed call costs most in the rush, when everyone is serving someone. An AI receptionist for small business picks up and answers from your own data, where an answering service or a virtual receptionist reads from a script. You decide where the line sits.
It answers
- Opening hours, holiday hours included, directions and parking
- Whether an item is in stock and what it costs today
- Order and delivery status, delivery areas and minimums
- A table or appointment request: name, number and what they want, on the customer record with the transcript, for a person to book
- The phone order itself, written straight into your register as a real transaction, with a confirmation text to the caller and payment at pickup, on delivery or by a payment-only link
- One upsell, drawn from what that caller has actually bought before, never invented
- Full details for a callback
It hands to a person, every time
- Any complaint, and any caller who sounds upset
- Refunds, returns and disputed charges, the same rule that keeps refunds waiting for you in the app. See why Esplanda is safe to trust.
- Anything urgent, medical, legal or safety-related
- Negotiation, and quotes for work with no set price
- Anyone who asks for a person
- Any tricky call: a handover, never a guess
It never asks for, reads out or stores card details, and it never argues. Payment happens at pickup, on delivery or through a link you send for payment only, after the order exists. Move the line further in at any time: your hand-over list is one of the limits you set once, alongside the ones behind our business automation software.
Where a missed call costs most: the after-work rush at a liquor store, dinner service at a restaurant or bar, a crew out on a job for a service business.
How it works
How an AI receptionist works, call by call
An AI receptionist listens to the caller, looks up the answer in your own systems and replies out loud, the way a person at the counter would. No menu and no “press one for opening hours”: the caller talks, and it either answers or hands the call over.
First ring, and it says what it is
It picks up and introduces itself as your store’s automated assistant.
The caller asks in their own words
Nothing to press and no menu to sit through.
It looks up the real answer
Hours from your calendar, stock and price from the register, order status from the order record.
It answers, or it hands over
If the topic is on your hand-over list, the caller asks for a person or the call gets tricky, it goes straight to a person.
A warm transfer
The live call goes to the number you chose, with the reason told to whoever picks up.
A callback, transcript attached
If nobody is free in the time you set, it takes full details and raises a callback with the transcript.
Set up on the number you already have
Keep your published business number. You forward it to Esplanda and choose when the AI receptionist picks up.
After hours
It answers when you’re closed, with your next opening time and holiday hours, and takes the details for a callback.
When the line is busy
It picks up when the store line is busy or nobody answers in the time you set, so the rush never rings out.
Alongside your staff
The store phone and the AI ring together, and the AI waits the seconds you set so whoever is free can take the call first.
Every call
It answers every call, day and night, and transfers to a person whenever the caller asks.
It says what it is
Says it's an AI, on every call
It introduces itself as your store's AI receptionist in its first sentence, on every call. It's built in, so callers always know who they're talking to.
It's increasingly the law
More US states now expect a caller to be told when they're talking to an automated system. Saying it on every call is the careful default.
Callers accept it
People are fine with an assistant that says what it is. They resent finding out halfway through the call.
Handovers go better
A caller who knows it's an AI hears "let me get someone" as an upgrade, not a correction.
Live answers
Answers straight from your shelf
A standalone answering service can take a message. An answering service has no view of your register, so the caller still doesn't know whether the bottle is on your shelf. Esplanda's AI receptionist reads your register and tells them.
- One source for stock and price. Keep the register you have, or use ours: it reads our POS system with inventory management, which is free, or a Square, Clover, Lightspeed or KORONA register connected through our POS integrations.
- The same live data as the back office. It answers from the same numbers as the AI business assistant, so the phone and your morning briefing agree.
- Every call counted. Call volume, what callers ask about, the share answered, transfers and missed calls recovered, in one view.
Holiday hours come from the store details you keep in Esplanda.
Beyond the phone
Four doors, one answer engine
The spoken phone line and the website chat helper are bought separately, and owner inbox triage and the staff answer device come with whichever of the two you have. No bundle, no tier.
| Channel | Who it answers | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Web chat | Visitors on your own website | AI Chat & Order Helper, $29 a month, first 90 days free |
| Owner inbox triage | Your business mailbox, sorted into a short digest | Comes with either line |
| Staff answer device | Your own staff on the floor, asking out loud | Comes with either line |
| AI phone line | Anyone who calls the business number | AI Phone, $149 per location per month: 500 answered minutes, then $0.20 a minute |
The split is a cost fact, not a packaging choice. A written answer carries no meter, so the AI chatbot for small business is $29 a month with unlimited sessions and the first 90 days free. A spoken minute costs real money on a phone carrier, so the phone line carries its own price and its own allowance.
Email, and the memory between conversations
It remembers the last conversation
A customer who emailed on Tuesday and calls on Friday picks up where they left off, even when someone else answers.
One record per customer
Calls and emails are logged against the customer’s record, the same record behind our customer loyalty software, and every call is transcribed in full.
What people ask shapes the shelf
Callers asking again and again for an item you don’t carry is a stocking signal, and what people ask about informs what you promote.
Two language questions, kept apart. The phone line speaks English and Spanish to callers. The language you and your staff work in is a separate list, and the staff answer device sits on that side: see the admin and the conversation layer, in your own language.
Compared
AI receptionist vs answering service vs voicemail
Voicemail records the problem. An answering service or a virtual receptionist takes a message about it. Esplanda’s AI receptionist answers the question, from your stock and your calendar.
| On a call | Voicemail | Answering service | Esplanda AI receptionist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picks up on the first ring | Yes | Usually, after a queue | Yes |
| Says if an item is in stock | No | No | Yes, from the register |
| Gives today's price | No | No | Yes, from the register |
| Takes the order | No | No | Yes, into the register; payment at pickup, on delivery or by a payment-only link |
| Holiday hours | If you re-record it | If briefed that week | Yes, from your calendar |
| Many calls in the rush | Yes | Callers wait | Yes, at the same time |
| An upset caller | No | Yes, a trained person | Handed to a person, with the reason |
| A record of the call | The message | A note | A full transcript |
| Cost per location per month | Included with your phone line | A monthly fee set by each service | $149 per location per month, 500 answered minutes included, then $0.20 a minute |
Tricky calls hand over to a person. Strong accents, very fast speech, noisy lines and calls with several conditions hand over sooner, and every answer comes from the hours and details you publish.
AI receptionist pricing
Two lines, each on its own
Take the phone line, the website chat or both. Each is its own monthly line, with no bundle and no tier.
-
AI Phone: receptionist and order taker
$149 per location per month
- Answered minutes included
- 500 per location per month
- After that
- $0.20 a minute
- Your ceiling
- Stops at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up
- Languages on the phone
- English and Spanish
- What the line does
- Everything on this page
-
AI Chat & Order Helper, on your website
$29 per location per month
- First 90 days
- Free
- Chat sessions
- Unlimited, with no meter
- Answers from
- Your live stock and prices
- Orders
- Built item by item, straight into your register
- Owner inbox triage
- Comes with it
- Staff answer device
- Comes with it
Both lines answer from the same engine and the same live data. 500 answered minutes is roughly eight two-minute calls a day, every day of the month. On the phone, minutes past 500 are $0.20 each on their own invoice line; Esplanda tells you when you pass the 500th minute, and at 1,000 the line stops and asks before going further.
No setup fee and no contract on either line. See Esplanda pricing.
Questions
AI receptionist questions owners ask
What is an AI receptionist?
An AI receptionist is software that answers your business phone, holds a normal spoken conversation, handles the routine questions and transfers the call to a person when it should. Esplanda's AI receptionist answers from your live store data, not a script, and tells every caller it's your store's AI receptionist.
How does an AI receptionist work?
It picks up, listens to the caller in their own words, looks up the answer in your own systems and replies out loud: hours from your calendar, stock and price from the register, order status from the order record. If the topic is on your hand-over list, the caller asks for a person or the call gets tricky, it transfers the live call with the reason, or takes details for a callback with the transcript attached.
Will callers know they're talking to an AI?
Yes. Esplanda's AI receptionist says it's an automated assistant in its first sentence, on every call. Callers accept an assistant that says what it is, and a handover to a person then feels like an upgrade.
What can an AI receptionist answer, and what goes to a person?
It answers hours including holidays, directions, whether an item is in stock and what it costs today, order and delivery status. It takes reservation and appointment requests for a person to confirm, and writes phone orders straight into your register. Complaints, refunds, anything urgent, medical, legal or safety-related, negotiation and any caller who asks for a person go straight to a person.
Can I keep my business phone number?
Yes. You keep your published number and forward it to Esplanda, then choose when the AI receptionist picks up: after hours, when the line is busy, alongside your staff or on every call.
Is an AI receptionist better than an answering service or a virtual receptionist?
For routine calls, yes: it picks up on the first ring, handles many calls at once and answers from your register, where an answering service or a virtual receptionist takes a message from a script. Upset callers and tricky calls go straight to a person, with the reason told to whoever picks up.
Does it work with my register and customer records?
Yes. It reads stock and prices from Esplanda POS, which is free, or from a connected Square, Clover, Lightspeed or KORONA register. Every call is transcribed and logged against the customer's record, so the next conversation starts where the last one ended.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
AI Phone is $149 per location per month, with 500 answered minutes included, then $0.20 a minute, and the line stops at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up. No setup fee and no contract. Web chat on your site is the separate AI Chat & Order Helper at $29 a month, with the first 90 days free; owner inbox triage and the staff answer device come with either line.
Stop paying for calls nobody answers
Start free today, or book a demo and hear the AI receptionist answer for a store like yours.
Esplanda POS and your website are free to start, with no card needed. Add paid tools only when you want them. AI Phone is $149 per location per month with 500 answered minutes, then $0.20 a minute; web chat is $29, with the first 90 days free.
