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.
Inbound
AI IVR Intelligence
Callers say what they want in their own words instead of pressing numbers through a menu, and reach the right place faster.
Callers dislike keypad menus. They listen to options that do not fit, press the wrong number and hang up or land in the wrong queue. This build replaces that menu with a short conversation: the caller says what they need in their own words, and the call goes to the right destination. Your extensions, queues and departments stay exactly where they are.
- Callers say what they need instead of pressing numbers
- Keeps your existing extensions, queues and departments unchanged
- Hands unclear calls to a person with the transcript so far
$4,900
20–30 working days
Optional maintenance $249/mo
What it is
AI IVR Intelligence replaces your keypad menu with natural language understanding: callers say what they need instead of listening through a list of options. It works out the intent, then routes the call, answers a short set of approved questions, or transfers to the right destination.
Why businesses buy it
Every misrouted call costs twice: the caller's patience and a colleague's time passing them on. Multi-level menus also push callers to hang up before reaching anyone. This build removes the keypad step and routes by what people actually say, so more calls reach the right place first time. Nothing behind the menu needs redesigning. The Scope Card sets out the destinations, flows and systems before you order, so you know exactly what changes for callers and what stays the same for your team.
Problems this solves
Callers sit through long keypad menus and pick the wrong option
AI IVR Intelligence lets callers say what they need in their own words. It works out the intent and routes the call, so nobody has to remember which number means what.
Simple questions still wait in a queue for a person
A short set of approved questions, drawn from your documents or FAQ set, is answered by the IVR itself. Everything else goes to the right destination through one of up to five call flows.
Misrouted calls get passed between departments several times
Routing follows the workflow, prompt and guardrail configuration agreed with you. Calls land with the right team first, with live transfer to a person when needed.
Changing the phone menu means calling the telecom vendor
The admin guide and recorded handoff session show your team how routing and answers are set up. Two rounds of revisions are included while the flows settle in.
A good fit if
Your current menu has several levels or options, and callers regularly hang up or mis-press before reaching the right one.
You want to keep your existing call destinations and extensions, just remove the keypad step in front of them.
Different callers ask for the same destination in different words, which a fixed menu structure cannot account for.
You track abandoned or misrouted calls and want that number to go down without redesigning your whole phone system.
Not the right fit if
You want the destination itself to decide where a call lands based on rules, not the caller-facing menu experience. See AI Voice Routing, the routing engine that can sit behind any front door.
You want a full conversation with the caller, not just faster menu navigation. See AI Voice Receptionist, or AI Inbound Call Agent.
Most calls need real troubleshooting once they land. See AI Voice Customer Support, which resolves support calls from your knowledge base.
You are calling out rather than receiving calls. See AI Outbound Calling Agent.
How it works
- The call is answered and the caller is asked, in plain language, what they are calling about, instead of being read a numbered list.
- It matches what the caller said to the menu destinations you defined, the same set your keypad menu used to point to.
- If the caller's intent is ambiguous, it asks one short clarifying question rather than guessing or looping back to a menu.
- Once the intent is confident, the call is routed to that destination, whether that is a department, a queue or a person.
- A small set of pre-approved questions, such as hours or location, can be answered directly without routing at all, if you choose to include them.
- Every call is logged with the intent it matched, the destination it reached, and a transcript, so you can see where your menu traffic actually goes.
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 RingCentral, with the number your current menu sits on.
- A map of your existing menu: each destination, and the extension or number it reaches.
- Any short list of questions you want answered directly instead of routed, along with the approved answers.
- The escalation number for calls that cannot be matched to a destination.
- Your preferred voice, and the call-recording disclosure wording.
- 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 destination map and sign off the test calls.
- 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 existing menu structure mapped.
Weeks 1–2
Intent recognition and routing logic built against your destination map.
Week 3
Phone system and CRM connected, live routing tested.
Weeks 3–4
Fifty test calls run across every destination, transcripts sent to you.
Week 4
Your review, with two rounds of changes to the routing logic.
Go-live
Live on your line, 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
- A natural-language IVR, configured and live on one phone number
- Workflow, prompt and guardrail configuration for up to five call flows plus live transfer
- Connection to up to two agreed systems, with answers drawn from up to 50 documents or an FAQ set
- A test report from 50 test calls, with transcripts
- An admin guide, a recorded 60-minute handoff session and 30 days of post-launch support
Expected benefits and how to measure them
- Callers can reach the right place faster by saying what they want.
- Staff can take fewer calls that were meant for another team.
- Routine questions can be answered without joining a queue.
- Transfers per call
- Use your phone system's transfer report to compare average transfers per call before and after launch.
- Menu abandonment
- Count calls dropped during the IVR stage in the four weeks before and after go-live.
- Calls resolved at the IVR
- Count calls the IVR answered without a transfer, from the call log after launch.
Before you start: Export a month of IVR data showing option choices, drop-offs and transfers. List the questions your team hears most often.
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 one time. Running it is billed in your own telephony and AI accounts, roughly $0.13 to $0.31 per call minute all in, covering the voice platform, the AI model and telephony, plus number rental. Because this build replaces a menu rather than holding a full conversation, most calls are short, so total cost tracks call volume closely.
AI usage during build and testing is also billed to your own accounts, so every provider relationship stays yours.
Ask about running costsCustom requirements
Need more than five destinations, or logic that reaches beyond a menu replacement? 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.
Request a custom versionKeep it running
We recommend monthly maintenance: monitoring, fixes and monthly change hours, enough to add or rename destinations as departments shift. Maintenance 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 cloud phone system's IVR builder is a feature bundled into a per-seat plan | A custom build gets quoted after discovery calls | Ours is one fixed price, shown on this page before you buy |
| Caller experience | Still requires pressing numbers through a tree | Depends entirely on what the agency scopes | Ours lets callers say what they want in their own words |
| Delivery | Menu builders are self-serve but take your team's time to configure | An agency build usually runs several weeks | Ours has a fixed delivery time shown before you buy, with faster options |
| Visibility | Basic call logs with little intent detail | Depends on what was agreed with the agency | Ours logs the intent matched and the destination reached on every call |
Questions about this product
Does AI IVR Intelligence replace our phone system, or sit in front of it?
It sits in front of your existing phone system and destinations. Your extensions, queues and departments stay exactly where they are; this build replaces the keypad menu callers hear before reaching them, so the destinations do not need to change, only how callers get routed to them.
How is this different from AI Voice Routing?
This build is the caller-facing menu replacement: it is what the caller hears and speaks to. AI Voice Routing is the backend decision engine that can sit behind this build, behind a receptionist, or on its own. If you need the routing logic without a new menu experience in front of it, Voice Routing is the closer fit.
What happens if the AI cannot work out what a caller wants?
It asks one short clarifying question rather than looping the caller back through a menu. If the intent still is not clear, the call goes to the escalation number you set, with a transcript of what was said so far, so the person picking up is not starting cold.
What's the monthly cost of running AI IVR Intelligence?
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. Because this build is designed to route quickly rather than hold a long conversation, most calls are brief, keeping the per-call cost low.
How long until our menu is replaced?
The delivery panel on this page shows the timeline for each speed. The clock starts once intake is complete: your current menu options, destinations, escalation number and system access. We then run fifty test calls using the different ways real callers phrase requests, and you get two rounds of changes before the keypad menu is switched off.
Do callers know they are speaking to an AI system instead of a menu?
Yes. The greeting includes a short disclosure in wording you approve, delivered before the caller responds, which several US states and countries require for automated calls. You set the exact phrasing at intake and can update it later through maintenance.
Can we add a new destination after launch?
Yes. Renaming an existing destination or adjusting its wording fits inside the monthly change hours included with maintenance, so small changes do not need a new quote. A genuinely new destination beyond the five already in scope is scoped and quoted as an Additional Workflow, priced and agreed before that work begins.
Guides on this topic
All guides Let callers say what they want instead of pressing numbers.
Order AI IVR Intelligence and your keypad menu is replaced with natural language routing on a fixed delivery date.
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