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.
A small Help Scout team gets every conversation pre-drafted from its own Docs articles, and still sends every reply personally.
Help Scout teams pride themselves on personal replies, but small teams still retype the same answers every day. This copilot drafts a suggested reply in each conversation your team opens, using your Docs articles, policies and the customer's profile. The draft appears as a note with links to the Docs it used, and a teammate adjusts it and sends it in their own voice.

AI Support Copilot for Help Scout drafts a suggested reply in each Help Scout conversation your team opens, using your Docs articles, policies and the customer's profile. The draft appears as a note with links to the Docs it used, and a teammate edits and sends it. It never emails customers itself.
Small support teams grow by doing more with the same people, and in Help Scout that usually means long days of careful, repetitive writing. Hiring is slow, and quality slips when everyone is stretched. After launch, each conversation opens with a grounded draft and its sources, so your team keeps the personal touch while replying faster. The Scope Card lists the Help Scout fields, Docs sources and approval rules in writing before you order, so you know exactly what is drafted and that customers only hear from your team.
Each Help Scout conversation gets a suggested reply as a note, with links to the Docs articles it used. Teammates can open the source in one click before editing and sending.
Drafts use the customer's Help Scout profile through the agreed field mapping. The reply can speak to their situation, and a teammate still shapes every word before it goes.
The copilot never emails customers itself. It only writes notes, and your approval rules across up to six workflows set how drafts are used. A person sends every reply.
Your portal lists these the moment you order. Delivery starts the working day after everything is in and your access is checked.
| Option | Delivery time | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 20–30 working days | $5,900 |
| Express | 15–25 working days | $6,800 |
| Rush | 10–20 working days | $7,650 |
Before you start: Export a month of Help Scout productivity and happiness reports. Note the Docs articles your team links most often.
These are things to track, not promised results. Outcomes depend on your data, your team and your market.
The build is a one-time cost. Running it costs roughly $50 to $250 a month for AI model usage and hosting in your own accounts, on top of your Help Scout plan. A small team with steady volume tends to sit near the lower end.
Any usage while we test is billed to you as well.
Ask about running costsA second mailbox with its own rules, a third connected system, or more than six workflow types need a written Change Quote. Mention it at checkout and you get the quote.
Request a custom versionMonthly maintenance covers monitoring, fixes and change hours for work such as new Docs categories or revised policies. It starts after the post-launch support period, bills monthly and can be cancelled any month.
$295/mo (5% of the build price a month, includes 2 change hours)
Optional. Starts after the post-launch support period. Cancel any month.
How maintenance works| Do it yourself with a SaaS tool | Hire a custom agency | Upmark Labs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | AI assist features bill per user or per resolution | A freelance support contractor bills hourly | Ours is one fixed price, shown on this page before you buy |
| Tone | Generic phrasing | Depends on who answers | Ours drafts to match the replies you share |
| Sources | May pull from anything indexed | Whatever the contractor remembers | Ours drafts only from your Docs and policies |
| Delivery | Quick to switch on, slow to trust | Time to brief and train | Ours has a fixed delivery time shown before you buy, with faster options |
Yes. Docs articles are part of the two-way sync and form the core of what it drafts from, alongside your policies and any approved documents, up to 100 in total. Each draft links the Docs articles it used, so a teammate can check the source before sending.
In a note inside the conversation, which customers cannot see. The teammate copies the text into the reply, adjusts it and sends. Nothing is emailed to the customer by the copilot. If a draft is not useful, the teammate simply ignores it and replies as normal.
Not much. Most of the intake is collecting things you already have: access, Docs, policies and ten sample conversations, sent within the 72-hour window, plus the thirty-minute admin call. After that, expect time to review the drafted test scenarios and to attend the recorded 60-minute handoff.
Yes. It reads the customer details held in Help Scout, so a draft can greet the person correctly and reflect what you know about them. If account or billing details live in another tool, that tool can be the second connected system, letting drafts quote real figures.
One fixed price covers the whole build and is shown on this page before you buy, with express and rush delivery listed beside it at a set extra cost. Each includes the documented mapping, fifty conversation scenarios, two rounds of changes and a recorded 60-minute handoff, then 30 days of support.
The build covers one channel, typically one Help Scout mailbox with its own rules. A second mailbox that shares the same Docs and policies may fit inside the agreed scope; one with different rules needs a Change Quote. Add a checkout note and the answer comes.
Order the Help Scout edition and every conversation your team opens carries a draft from your own Docs, ready to adjust and send in your voice.

Finds gaps in your help center and drafts new articles from resolved tickets.

Answers frequently asked questions on your website from an approved FAQ set.

Scores conversations against your quality rubric and highlights coaching points.