Customer Support and Voice AI
AI receptionist for small business: calls, bookings and handoffs
What an AI receptionist does on a real call, the rules that apply, a sample greeting and a pass/fail checklist to launch one safely.
Outbound
AI Voice Collections Assistant
Courteous outbound payment reminder calls that follow your collections policy exactly, and escalate anything sensitive.
Chasing overdue payments is awkward work that staff put off, and cash sits unpaid while it waits. AI Voice Collections Assistant makes courteous reminder calls that follow your collections policy word for word, offers the payment options you approve and hands hardship or disputes straight to a person. You set the tone, the timing and the escalation rules.
- Makes polite reminder calls that follow your collections policy
- Offers only the payment options you have approved
- Sends hardship and disputes straight to a person
$4,900
20–30 working days
Optional maintenance $249/mo
What it is
AI Voice Collections Assistant places first-party payment reminder calls to your own customers, following the tone, sequencing and compliance rules in your collections policy. It offers the payment options you approve and hands hardship or dispute situations straight to a person. It is not built for third-party debt collection.
Why businesses buy it
Overdue invoices tie up cash and staff time, and reminder calls are the job most teams leave for later. When calls are rushed or inconsistent, customers feel pressured or forgotten. This assistant makes the same courteous call every time, inside your policy, and stops the moment a customer mentions hardship, a dispute or legal action. Your team handles only the conversations that need judgment. The Scope Card lists the call flows, the escalation rules and the testing before you pay, so you can show exactly how it treats your customers.
Problems this solves
Overdue payment reminders are put off because nobody enjoys making them
The agent places reminder calls about overdue payments, following the tone and sequence in your collections policy. Your team no longer has to work through the list by hand.
Collection calls vary in tone and can breach your policy
Compliance rules from your policy are built into the workflow, prompt and guardrail configuration. Every call follows the same approved script and sequencing. Transcripts let you check calls against the policy.
Customers in hardship get pushed when they need a person
The agent listens for hardship or dispute situations. It hands those calls straight to a person instead of pressing on with the script. The reason is noted for your team.
Customers willing to pay are not told their options
The agent offers only the payment options you approve, such as a date to pay. Each outcome is logged in your connected system for follow-up.
A good fit if
You already have a written collections policy, including calling windows, permitted phrasing and escalation rules, that a script could follow exactly.
Overdue reminder calls are currently inconsistent, delayed, or dependent on whoever has time to make them.
You want a calm, courteous tone on every call, with no pressure tactics or phrasing outside what you approved.
You want hardship claims, disputes or legal mentions routed straight to a person, every time, without exception.
Not the right fit if
The call is a general reminder or check-in unrelated to an overdue payment. See AI Voice Follow-Up, built for broader re-engagement triggers.
You want the call to negotiate a settlement or new terms, which needs a person's authority. Use this build for reminders and route negotiation calls to your team.
The call should also try to sell something, not just collect a payment. See AI Voice Sales Agent.
You need a general outbound base without collections-specific compliance framing. See AI Outbound Calling Agent.
You collect debts for another business, or debts you bought. Third-party debt collection is excluded from this build; it needs a licensed collection agency.
How it works
- The call is placed to the customer on file, only within the calling windows and frequency limits your collections policy allows.
- It opens with a courteous, factual reminder of the amount owed and the due date, using only the phrasing you approved.
- It offers the payment options and channels you set, such as a payment link or a callback number, without pressuring the customer toward any one option.
- If the customer mentions hardship, disputes the amount, or raises anything legal, the call is escalated immediately to the person or queue you designate, with no further collection attempt on the call.
- Where the customer confirms a payment plan you have pre-approved as an option, it can record that commitment for your team to confirm.
- Every call is logged with the outcome, whether that is acknowledged, escalated, payment made, or no answer, written into your CRM or collections system.
What you provide within 72 hours
Your portal lists these the moment you order. Delivery starts the working day after everything is in and your access is checked.
- A telephony account in your name, such as Twilio, Vonage or Exotel, approved for outbound calling.
- Your written collections policy, including calling windows, frequency limits and approved phrasing.
- The payment options and channels this call is allowed to offer.
- The escalation contact for hardship claims, disputes or anything requiring legal awareness.
- Access to the billing or CRM system this line should read balances from and log outcomes to.
- Admin access and API keys for every connected system, shared by adding our team as a user or creating a key you control, never by email.
- One person who can approve the collections scripts and sign off the test calls.
- Documented prior consent for every number we call, with your lists scrubbed against applicable do-not-call lists before each campaign. We do not give legal advice, so confirm your calling obligations with your own counsel.
- An API key for your own AI model account (for example OpenAI or Google Gemini), created for this build with a spending limit.
The 72-hour rule. Send everything on your checklist, including access, within 72 hours of ordering so your build starts on time.
Timeline
Start
Intake confirmed and your collections policy and escalation rules recorded.
Weeks 1–2
Reminder flows built to match your approved phrasing and payment options.
Week 3
Billing or CRM system connected for balances and outcome logging.
Weeks 3–4
Fifty test calls run, including hardship and dispute scenarios, transcripts sent to you.
Week 4
Your review, with two rounds of changes to the phrasing and escalation rules.
Go-live
Live and calling on your collections schedule, recorded handoff session held, support begins.
| Option | Delivery time | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 20–30 working days | $4,900 |
| Express | 15–25 working days | $5,750 |
| Rush | 10–20 working days | $6,600 |
What you receive at handover
- AI Voice Collections Assistant, configured and deployed on one outbound number
- Workflow, prompt and guardrail configuration based on your collections policy, including hardship and dispute handoffs
- Up to five call flows with live transfer, connected to up to two agreed systems
- A test report from 50 test calls, with transcripts you can check against policy
- An admin guide, recorded 60-minute handoff session and 30 days of post-launch support
Expected benefits and how to measure them
- Overdue accounts can be contacted promptly and consistently.
- Calls can follow your collections policy every time.
- Vulnerable customers can reach a person sooner.
- Overdue accounts contacted
- Compare the share of overdue accounts called each week, from your billing system, before and after launch.
- Payment commitments
- Count promises to pay logged by the agent, and how many are kept by the agreed date.
- Days sales outstanding
- Track this figure in your accounting software for the quarter before and after go-live.
Before you start: Export the overdue ledger and how many accounts were called last month. Note your current days sales outstanding.
These are things to track, not promised results. Outcomes depend on your data, your team and your market.
Running costs
The build price is paid once. Call minutes are billed directly in your own accounts, roughly $0.13 to $0.31 per connected minute all in, covering the voice platform, the AI model and telephony, plus number rental. Collections calls are usually brief and structured, so cost tends to track the number of overdue accounts contacted each cycle, plus telephony minutes spent on unanswered attempts.
AI usage during build and testing is billed to your own accounts too, so every provider relationship stays yours.
Ask about running costsCustom requirements
Need phrasing reviewed for a specific jurisdiction, or escalation logic beyond the Scope Card? Add a note at checkout and you get a written Change Quote, with work starting only once you accept it. Larger or bespoke projects go through the Custom AI request form instead. This build follows the policy you provide; confirming that policy meets your legal obligations remains your responsibility.
Request a custom versionKeep it running
Monthly maintenance covers monitoring, fixes, updates, a monthly health report and change hours to update phrasing or payment options as your policy evolves. It starts after the thirty days of included support and can be cancelled any month.
$249/mo (the minimum fee, includes 2 change hours)
Optional. Starts after the post-launch support period. Cancel any month.
How maintenance worksHow this compares
| Do it yourself with a SaaS tool | Hire a custom agency | Upmark Labs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | A collections software add-on charges per account or per seat | A custom build gets quoted after discovery calls | Ours is one fixed price, shown on this page before you buy |
| Tone control | Depends on how well the platform lets you script phrasing | Depends entirely on what the agency scopes | Ours only ever uses the phrasing you approved |
| Delivery | A self-serve platform still needs your team to configure it well | An agency build usually runs several weeks | Ours has a fixed delivery time shown before you buy, with faster options |
| Escalation | Depends on whether hardship or dispute detection is built in | Depends on what was agreed with the agency | Ours escalates hardship, disputes and legal mentions immediately |
Questions about this product
Will the AI Voice Collections Assistant pressure customers to pay?
No. It reads a courteous, factual reminder using only the phrasing you approve, offers the payment options you set, and does not use pressure tactics or improvise beyond that script. Anything sensitive, such as a hardship claim or a dispute, is escalated to a person immediately rather than pushed through.
How is this different from the AI Voice Follow-Up agent?
Follow-Up handles broader re-engagement triggers, such as missed calls or abandoned bookings, with no payment or compliance framing involved. This build is purpose-built for overdue payment reminders, with phrasing controls and mandatory escalation for hardship, disputes and legal mentions that a general follow-up build does not include.
What happens if a customer disputes the amount owed or mentions hardship?
The call stops collecting immediately and is escalated to the person or queue you designate, with the transcript attached. This is a fixed rule in the build, not a configurable option, because those situations need a person's judgment rather than continued automated contact.
What are the monthly running costs for AI Voice Collections Assistant?
Connected call minutes run roughly $0.13 to $0.31 all in, covering the voice platform, the AI model and telephony, plus number rental, paid directly in your own accounts. Collections calls are usually short, so cost tracks the number of overdue accounts contacted each cycle fairly closely.
How long until it is making reminder calls?
Delivery starts once your intake is complete and access is verified, and the fixed time for each speed is in the price and delivery panel on this page. The longest part of intake is agreeing phrasing and escalation rules with whoever owns your collections policy, so involving them early keeps the date steady. We then run fifty test calls before launch.
Do customers know they are speaking to an AI collections agent?
Yes. The call opens with a short disclosure in wording you approve, delivered before the reminder is read. Several US states and countries have specific disclosure and consent requirements for automated debt collection calls, and the wording is set during intake and can be updated later through monthly maintenance.
Can we update the phrasing or payment options later?
Yes. Updates to approved phrasing or payment options fit inside the monthly change hours in maintenance. A structurally new overdue stage or escalation path beyond the five flows in scope is scoped and quoted as an Additional Workflow before the work starts.
Can AI Voice Collections Assistant be used for third-party debt collection?
No. It is limited to first-party reminders to your own customers about money owed to your business. Collecting for another business, or collecting debts you bought, is excluded. For US buyers, the FDCPA and Regulation F set call-frequency and disclosure limits on debt collection calls. We do not give legal advice, so check your obligations with counsel.
Guides on this topic
All guides Send every overdue reminder the same courteous way, every time.
Order AI Voice Collections Assistant and it is making policy-compliant reminder calls on a fixed delivery date.
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