After hours and weekends
Answer the enquiries that arrive when the office is shut, which is when a large share of them arrive.
AI Receptionist
An AI receptionist that answers every call, day or night.
Every call answered on the first ring, 24 hours a day. The caller is understood, qualified against your own rules, booked into a live calendar and written into your CRM — and anything that needs a person reaches one.
Megabite builds the AI receptionist around your existing phone number, calendar and systems rather than sitting beside them. It is a configured, integrated system, not an off-the-shelf answering service.
Inbound calls, out-of-hours cover and overflow, for businesses in the UK and Spain.
- Answered 24/7
- Qualified, not just logged
- Booked into live diaries
- Escalated when it matters
What it actually does
Not a voicemail with better manners.
An automated receptionist that only takes a message moves the work to tomorrow. The point of an AI phone receptionist is that the call reaches a useful conclusion while the caller is still on the line.
The agent holds a real conversation: it establishes who is calling and why, asks the questions you would ask, and then does something about the answer. Where the enquiry is routine it completes it. Where it is not, it hands over to a person with the context already gathered.
Workflow: Call answered → intent identified → qualified → booked, routed or escalated → recorded
- Answer on the first ring, with no queue
- Handle many calls at the same time
- Identify why the person is calling
- Answer approved common questions
- Capture names, numbers, addresses and requirements
- Qualify against your criteria before booking
- Check live calendar availability and book
- Take a message and confirm what happens next
- Transfer urgent or high-value calls to a person
- Write the summary and transcript into your CRM
Straight comparison
AI receptionist or virtual receptionist?
These are different products, and the honest answer is that one is not simply better. A virtual receptionist is a person answering your calls from elsewhere. An AI receptionist is software doing it.
| AI receptionist | Virtual receptionist (human) | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Every hour of every day, including weekends and holidays | Whatever hours you pay for; out-of-hours usually costs more |
| Simultaneous calls | No practical limit — a surge is answered in parallel | Limited by how many people are on shift |
| Consistency | Asks the same questions the same way every time | Varies by individual, training and how busy they are |
| Cost behaviour | Setup plus a monthly fee; usage scales with call minutes | Typically per call or per minute, so cost rises with volume |
| System integration | Built into your calendar and CRM, so the record is written directly | Depends on the provider; often a message passed to you |
| Genuine judgement | Bounded — it follows rules and escalates outside them | A person can read a situation and improvise |
| Emotional situations | Should hand over. A complaint or a distressed caller needs a person | Handles this properly, and is the right choice for it |
Our position is that most businesses want both behaviours, not one: AI handling the volume, the repetition and the hours nobody is there, with a clear route to a human the moment the call stops being routine. That is how we configure it.
Same search, different words
Digital receptionist, virtual receptionist, AI receptionist.
People arrive at this looking for quite different things under names that have blurred together. It is worth being clear about which one you actually want, because the wrong one is an expensive mistake.
- AI receptionist. Software holding the conversation, qualifying the caller and completing the task. What this page describes.
- Virtual receptionist services. Usually a person answering remotely, charged per call or per minute. Better for genuinely complex or sensitive calls.
- Digital receptionist. Often means a lobby or door screen for visitor sign-in, not telephony at all. Worth checking before you buy.
- Electronic receptionist. Usually the older auto-attendant: “press one for sales”. A menu, not a conversation.
- Phone receptionist. Either an employee or an outsourced answering service, depending on who is describing it.
- Answering service. Typically takes a message and passes it on. It does not book, qualify or update anything.
If what you need is message-taking at the lowest possible cost, a productised answering service will serve you better than we will. What Megabite builds is the case where the call has to reach a conclusion — qualified, booked and recorded in your systems.
Two businesses are called at ten past seven in the evening. One rings out to voicemail. The other answers, understands the enquiry, checks the diary and books the appointment before the caller has put the phone down.
Only one of them was open.
The research on response speed is widely misquoted. We set out what it actually establishes, and what it does not.
Out-of-hours is where the gap is usually widest, because it is the one time no amount of trying harder helps. Nobody is there.
How it is put together
Built around your number, not a new one.
In most cases your existing telephone number stays exactly as it is. Calls divert to the AI receptionist on the conditions you choose — always, only after hours, or only when the line is busy or unanswered.
Each stage is built only where it earns its place. A business losing evening calls needs something different from one whose reception is drowning at eleven in the morning.
- Divert on your termsKeep your number and choose when calls route to the agent: out of hours only, on busy or no answer, or for every call.
- Answer and understandThe agent greets the caller as your business, establishes the reason for the call and answers approved questions.
- Qualify against your rulesThe questions, the criteria and the thresholds are yours. Anything falling outside them is held or escalated rather than actioned.
- Book, route or transferInto live calendar availability, to the right team or branch, or straight through to a person where the call warrants it.
- Record and follow upCRM updated, summary and transcript stored, confirmation sent to the caller, and reminders scheduled.
Where it earns its place
The hours and the volumes people cannot cover.
A 24/7 AI receptionist is worth having for specific, identifiable reasons rather than as a general upgrade.
Busy-period overflow
Take the calls that currently ring out because everyone is already on the phone or with a customer.
Repetitive qualification
Collect the same details in the same order every time, without a person doing it for the twentieth time that day.
Front-line triage
Sort the routine from the urgent so the people who can help spend their time on the calls that need them.
Appointment booking
Turn a call into a confirmed slot in a live diary rather than a note for somebody to action later.
Multi-site routing
Send callers to the correct branch, department or specialist based on rules rather than a menu they have to navigate.
Use your own figures
What could unanswered calls be costing you?
Enter the figures you use inside your own business. The calculator does not predict guaranteed revenue. It shows the potential commercial value of the gap using the assumptions you provide.
Enter your three figures to see the potential value of the gap.
Potential revenue at risk each month£0
Potential revenue at risk each year£0
The agent does not need to rescue every missed call for the work to pay for itself. The review uses your own figures to establish whether the gap is worth closing at all.
Integrate before replacing
Built around the systems you already use.
Megabite improves what happens around your current systems. We do not recommend replacing a capable CRM or phone system to add call answering, qualification and booking. Where the connections themselves are the work, that becomes a systems integration question.
- Your existing telephone number
- Phone system or VoIP provider
- Live calendars and diaries
- CRM or job-management software
- Website enquiry forms
- Email and SMS
- WhatsApp Business
- Branch and department routing rules
- Internal notifications
Integration depends on the access, APIs and restrictions of each provider. Megabite checks feasibility before promising a connection.
Honest fit
When an AI receptionist is the wrong answer.
This is a built, integrated system. That makes it a poor choice for some businesses and a good one for others, and it is cheaper for everyone if we establish which before you spend anything.
Where it tends to pay
- One call is worth having. A single new customer is worth a meaningful amount, so recovering a few calls a month covers the cost.
- Calls arrive outside office hours. Evenings, weekends and holidays are currently unanswered.
- Enquiries are repetitive to qualify. The same questions get asked on most calls.
- Appointments matter. The commercial next step is a booking in somebody's diary.
- Volume is spiky. Busy periods overwhelm whoever is answering.
Where we would say no
- You want the cheapest possible answering service. If per-call message-taking at a low monthly fee is what you need, a productised provider will serve you better than we will.
- Call volume is very low. A handful of calls a month will not justify a built integration.
- Margins are thin per customer. The arithmetic has to work on your numbers, not ours.
- Every call is genuinely complex. If nothing about your calls is routine, there is little for the agent to complete.
- Most calls are emotional or sensitive. Complaints, distress and disputes belong with a person from the first second.
Investment
What an AI receptionist costs to build properly.
Every implementation connects a different combination of phone system, calendars and CRM. The figures below are starting points, not fixed quotations.
Review
Free. A short commercial conversation about how calls reach you now, what happens to the ones nobody answers, and whether the gap is worth closing. If it is not, we will say so.
Setup
From £1,500. Covers the call routing, agent configuration, qualification rules, calendar booking and CRM workflow. Where the figure lands depends on how many systems are connected and how complex the rules are.
Managed service
From £195 per month. Covers hosting, monitoring, workflow management, agent configuration and an agreed monthly usage allowance. It scales with call volume and the number of workflows maintained.
These are starting points rather than fixed prices. Additional usage is charged according to connected call minutes and agreed messaging usage. Multi-site, multilingual and complex CRM implementations are scoped separately. You receive a firm figure after the review, not before. Prices exclude VAT or IVA where applicable.
Applied by sector
The same agent, tuned to the calls you actually get.
Qualification rules only work when they match the enquiry. These pages set out how the agent is configured for specific sectors.
Valuations, viewings and applicant calls.
Qualify vendors, buyers, landlords and tenants, and book into a valuer’s live diary around the clock.
AI for estate agentsAnswer while the crews are on a roof.
Triage emergency and storm damage, capture access details and book the survey.
AI call answering for roofingCall back before the other three quotes.
Qualify on ownership, roof and usage so only worthwhile surveys reach the diary.
AI lead response for solarStraight answers
What people ask before starting.
The system draws on workflow automation and controlled AI automation. Neither is the point—the answered call is.
Will callers know they are speaking to AI?
They should. We configure the agent to be straightforward about what it is rather than pretending to be a named member of staff. In our experience people mind far less about talking to software than about not being answered at all.
Can it transfer a call to a person?
Yes, and defining when it must is part of the build. Urgent, high-value, complex, sensitive or simply insistent callers can all be routed to a human, with the context already captured.
Do we have to change our phone number?
Usually not. Your existing number is diverted to the agent on the conditions you set. This depends on your telephone provider and setup, which is confirmed during the review.
Can it cover only evenings and weekends?
Yes, and that is a common starting point. Cover the hours nobody is there, prove the workflow, then extend to overflow or full-time cover if it is earning.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
With Megabite, setup starts at £1,500 with a managed service from £195 per month, plus usage. That reflects a system integrated with your calendar and CRM rather than a per-call message-taking service, which is available far more cheaply elsewhere and may suit you better.
Is this available in the UK?
Yes. Megabite works across the United Kingdom, Spain and wider Europe, with direct numbers in the UK and Spain.
Is it suitable for a small business?
It depends on call value rather than company size. If one recovered customer is worth several hundred pounds or more, the arithmetic often works for a small business. If calls are few and low value, it will not.
Can it handle several calls at once?
Yes. Simultaneous calls are one of the clearest advantages over a human answering service, which is limited by how many people are on shift.
What happens to the information from the call?
It is written where you need it — CRM record, calendar entry, notification, and a stored summary and transcript. Retention and access are agreed during the build and covered in our privacy notice.
Will it book things we do not want?
Only if the rules allow it. Booking can be restricted by area, job type, minimum value, availability or any criterion you set, and anything outside those rules is held for a person to review.
Does this guarantee more customers?
No. It improves how reliably calls are answered, qualified and booked. It cannot guarantee customer behaviour or sales outcomes, and the review uses your own figures to test whether the opportunity is real.
Find out what the unanswered calls are worth
Start with the calls you are missing now.
A short, free conversation about how calls reach you today, what happens to the ones nobody picks up, and whether an AI receptionist would pay for itself on your numbers. If the answer is no, we will tell you at that first call rather than build something you do not need.
The initial conversation is free and takes about twenty minutes. Costs begin only if you decide to proceed.