Best Virtual Answering Service: A Practical Guide to Choosing One

A virtual answering service answers your business phone when you cannot. Instead of hiring an in-house receptionist, calls are handled by a remote service: a team of human agents, an automated AI receptionist, or both working together. The service takes messages, answers basic questions about your business, and in some cases books appointments.

It helps to separate this from a full receptionist role. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in-house receptionists also greet visitors and handle office tasks beyond the phone, so a phone service is not a full employee replacement — it covers the phone side of the job.

Most services work by call forwarding: you keep your existing business number and forward calls to the service when you are unavailable, busy, or after hours. How you set that up depends on your phone carrier or phone system.

• Human virtual receptionists: trained people answer in your business name.
• AI receptionists: automated systems answer instantly using saved business information.
• Hybrid services: AI handles routine calls and escalates to humans when needed.
• Call forwarding connects your existing number to the service, so you keep your number.

Human virtual receptionist services, such as Ruby and AnswerConnect, staff your calls with trained agents. Ruby advertises plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026, and AnswerConnect offers 24/7 live answering by people. Humans handle nuance well, but plans are priced accordingly and may include minimums, overage fees, or contracts — always verify the current quote, included allowance, and hours before signing.

AI receptionists answer automatically using information you provide about your business. Smith.ai, for example, offers a distinct AI receptionist product with on-demand escalation to its live agent network. AI options are typically priced by the minute rather than per call, and they are available around the clock without staffing schedules.

A practical way to decide: if your callers ask varied, judgment-heavy questions — legal situations, sensitive personal matters — a human service may fit better. If most calls are routine (hours, location, pricing basics, booking a slot), an AI receptionist handles them consistently and can be available around the clock.

• Check whether pricing is per call, per minute, or a flat monthly plan.
• Ask what happens when the service does not know an answer — a good service takes a message instead of guessing.
• Confirm hours of coverage and whether after-hours answering costs extra.
• Ask about contract terms and how included minutes or calls are counted.

Use this checklist when evaluating any virtual answering service. It applies whether the provider is human-staffed, AI-based, or hybrid, and it focuses on things you can verify before you pay.

• Coverage: confirm when the service answers — business hours, after hours, weekends, or around the clock — and how that matches when your callers actually call.
• Message handling: ask what happens when the service cannot answer a question or find a price. Taking a message for you is the honest fallback.
• Appointment booking: if you need booking, ask which calendar the service writes to and whether you must configure your services and availability first.
• Call transfers: if you want calls transferred to you, confirm you must set up the destination and rules yourself, and that pickup is not guaranteed.
• Visibility: you should be able to see calls, transcripts, summaries, and any bookings in a dashboard.
• Number setup: confirm you can keep your existing number by forwarding calls, and ask for setup instructions for your specific carrier.
• Trial or sample: listen to how the service sounds with your own business details before committing.

You do not need a new phone number. Most services work by forwarding your existing number to the service, and the setup steps depend entirely on your phone provider. Mobile carriers use star codes: for example, Verizon wireless uses *72 plus the destination for all-call forwarding, *71 for unanswered calls, and *73 to disable. T-Mobile uses codes like **21*1 followed by the destination and # for unconditional forwarding.

Business landline and hosted systems usually manage forwarding through a portal or their own codes. Spectrum Business Voice handles it in the online account under Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager, while AT&T Phone for Business uses *72 for all calls and *92 for no-answer forwarding. The exact product name on your bill matters — carriers often use different codes for wireless, landline, and hosted products.

One important limitation: Google Voice explicitly does not support forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system, so a Google Voice number is not a compatible path to an AI answering service.

• Identify your exact phone product (wireless, landline, hosted) before using any instructions.
• Test forwarding with a real outside call after activating it.
• Keep the disable code handy so you can turn forwarding off anytime.

AllDayDesk is this site's own AI answering service, and it fits the AI end of the spectrum described above. It answers calls around the clock using business information you save, takes messages when it does not know an answer or price, and shows calls, transcripts, summaries, and bookings in your dashboard. You keep your existing number by forwarding calls, with setup instructions that depend on your phone service.

Setup works in a few steps: choose your business or enter its website, check the details it pulled together, hear a personalized sample call, and choose how to connect your phone. The sample is a demonstration only and creates no real booking. New appointments go to the built-in AllDayDesk calendar by default once you have configured your services and availability, and an optional Google Calendar connection is available in Settings after you connect and authorize your account. Changes to existing appointments are passed to you as requests, not confirmed changes.

• Around-the-clock availability describes when the service is available to answer, not a guarantee that every call connects.
• Transfers to you require you to configure a destination and rules; pickup is not guaranteed.
• Pricing is displayed separately on the pricing page, not in this guide.

Start by listing what your callers actually ask for. If it is mostly messages and simple answers, an AI receptionist priced per minute may cost less than a human plan, depending on your call volume — compare quotes at your expected usage. If callers need judgment and empathy on complex matters, compare human services on their included allowance, hours, and contract terms — starting prices like Ruby's $245 per month are only the entry point, and Smith.ai's human service prices per call.

Then verify the practical details: that your phone number can be forwarded, that you can review calls, transcripts, summaries, and messages in a dashboard, and that you can hear exactly how your business will sound before you commit. A service that cannot show you a sample of its own answering is one to be cautious about.

• Match coverage hours to your real call pattern, not to a plan tier name.
• Compare total monthly cost at your expected call volume, including overage rates.
• Confirm calendar and transfer behavior before signing, not after.