We sell one of these, so read this knowing that. The honest answer is that it depends on what you need done with the call, and a burst pipe, a bathroom enquiry and a sales call need three different things.
Fifteen minutes on Teams, with a real person.
An answering service is a person, usually in an office somewhere, who picks up in your name and takes a message. An AI receptionist is software that picks up in your name and, depending on the software, takes a message or takes the job. Voicemail is the thing both are replacing, and it loses the most, so it's in the comparison too.
The useful way to compare them is by call. Three calls cover most of a trade's week: the emergency, the enquiry for a quote, and the person trying to sell you leads.
Adminmate is an AI receptionist that takes the job. It answers in your business's name, works out what the job is, gives an emergency the safety words and reaches you at once, books the rest into hours you've opened, texts the customer to confirm, and deals with the sales calls so they never count. It comes with Solo and Team from £99 a month. That's our side declared.
Voicemail loses it. A person takes a message and tries to reach you; good services have an emergency rule. An AI receptionist that knows the trade asks for the stopcock, tells the caller what to do, and reaches you at once in the hours you cover. The customer isn't waiting on a callback with water on the floor.
Voicemail usually loses it to whoever answered. A person takes a name and a number. An AI receptionist takes the job properly, confirms it by text in your name, and it's on your phone with everything they said. Neither a person nor the software should quote a price; Adminmate won't.
Voicemail stores it. A person spends your paid minutes on it. Adminmate deals with it and it never counts towards your fair use. You can read what was said if you want to.
An awkward complaint, a customer who wants you and only you. A person can soothe; software should take it carefully, text you at once, and leave the judgment to you with everything in front of you. That's what Adminmate does, and it never puts the call through.
Enquiry to booked job in 90 seconds, while Dean was under a sink two streets away.
An example call, written out. Not a recording.
A good human answering service wins on the call nobody wrote a rule for. It can hear that someone is upset and slow down. It costs more per call, it goes home or hands over to a night team, and it takes messages because booking into your diary needs your diary, which it doesn't have.
Software wins on consistency and on being plugged into the job. It answers the hundredth call like the first, at any hour, and because Adminmate's receptionist is the same account as your diary, quotes and invoices, the call becomes a booked job rather than a note. It loses where judgment is needed, and the honest design is to take the call carefully, reach you at once, and never improvise a price or a promise.
Human answering services are priced per call or per minute, or on a monthly bundle, and the thorough call costs more. AI receptionists across the market run from pocket money to a few hundred a month, often with a setup fee and call limits, and the cheap ones take messages rather than jobs. Adminmate's call answering isn't sold on its own: it comes with Solo and Team, from £99 a month, with the quotes, invoices, chasing and diary in the same price. The price you see is the whole price, and you can cancel any time.
The cost that matters is the other one: the job that went to the next name while the phone rang out. The missed calls page goes through that honestly, with your own trade's figures in mind.
You could divert to a human service in the day and Adminmate at night, or the other way round; the divert is your phone's setting. Most trades find one that takes the job is enough.
If it's honest and takes the job, no. Customers want the problem to be somebody's and a text confirming it. Adminmate says what it is if asked, and it never pretends.
It can't quote a price or make a promise with money in it, so the worst case is a message taken clumsily, and everything the caller said is on the job for you to read. You stay in control, and anything that matters waits for your yes.
Book the demo: fifteen minutes on Teams with a real person, and you'll hear it take a call. The call written out on this site is the script it runs.
Two plans, printed in full. No tier you have to call to find out the price.
You, your van and your phone.
Up to ten of you, ten diaries.
Pay for the year at ten months' price. Cancel any time and the unused time is refunded.
Fifteen minutes on Teams with a real person. Bring the call you lost last week and we'll show you how it would have gone.
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