Telephone Answering for Small Business

When you run a small business, the phone rings while your hands are full. Telephone answering services handle those calls for you: they pick up in your business name, answer common questions, take messages, and can book appointments based on your rules.

AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist. It answers using the business information you save — services, hours, pricing you choose to share, and how you want calls handled. It is available around the clock, though no service can guarantee that every single call connects. Most owners answer their own phones; this covers the times you cannot.

When the caller asks something AllDayDesk does not know — an exact price, a special situation, an open slot — it takes a message instead of guessing. You see the message in your dashboard.

• Answers in your business name using your saved details
• Takes messages when an answer, price or appointment is unknown
• Calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings appear in your dashboard

Setup starts by choosing your business or entering its website. AllDayDesk pulls in your public business details, and you check that everything is correct before going further. Then you hear a personalized sample call so you know how your receptionist will sound. The sample is only a preview — it does not create a real booking or contact anyone.

Finally, you choose phone setup. You keep your public number and forward calls to AllDayDesk. The exact forwarding steps depend on your phone service, so follow the guide for your carrier.

Once calls flow in, everything lands in your dashboard: the call itself, a transcript, a short summary, and any booking made.

• Step 1: Choose your business or enter its website
• Step 2: Check the business details it found
• Step 3: Hear a personalized sample call (no real booking is made)
• Step 4: Choose phone setup and forward your existing number

You do not need a new phone number. You forward calls from your current line to AllDayDesk, and the steps depend on your carrier and product. Check which service you actually have first — the same carrier often uses different steps for mobile, landline, and business voice products.

Examples from published carrier guides: Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination for all calls and *71 for unanswered calls, with *73 to turn it off. T-Mobile uses codes like **21*1 followed by the destination and # for unconditional forwarding. Spectrum Business Voice manages forwarding in its online portal under Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager, where you choose all calls or busy/no-answer. Optimum Business Phone uses *72, wait for dial tone, then the destination, with *73 to disable.

If your carrier does not support conditional forwarding (forwarding only when busy or unanswered), the alternative is unconditional all-call forwarding, where every call goes to AllDayDesk. Confirm the exact steps with your own provider before relying on them.

One important limit: Google Voice does not support forwarding its calls to an automated system, so a Google Voice number cannot be forwarded to AllDayDesk.

• Identify your exact carrier product before using any code
• All-call forwarding sends every call; conditional forwarding sends only busy or unanswered calls
• Forwarding setup is done with your phone provider, not inside AllDayDesk

New appointments made by your receptionist go on the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar by default. This works once you have configured your services and availability, so the receptionist knows what can be booked and when.

If you prefer, you can connect Google Calendar in Settings after connecting and authorizing your Google account. This connection is optional — the dashboard calendar works on its own.

Changes to existing appointments are different: the receptionist passes those requests to you rather than confirming them itself. You decide whether to accept a reschedule or cancellation.

• Built-in dashboard calendar is the default for new bookings
• Optional Google Calendar connection in Settings, after you authorize your account
• Existing appointment changes are requests for you, not confirmed changes

Sometimes a caller needs you directly. AllDayDesk can transfer calls to you, but only after you configure a transfer destination and the rules for when transfers happen. A transfer is not guaranteed to be picked up or answered immediately — if you are unavailable, the call may not reach you.

When an answer, price, or appointment time is unknown, the receptionist takes a message instead of guessing. Messages appear in your dashboard with the call transcript and summary, so you can call back on your own schedule.

• Configure a transfer destination and rules before transfers work
• Transfers are not guaranteed to connect or get an immediate response
• Unknown answers become messages you see in the dashboard

Small-business owners generally weigh three routes: handling calls themselves with voicemail, hiring a human receptionist or live answering service, or using an AI receptionist. Each has trade-offs.

Voicemail costs nothing extra but pushes work onto callers, who must leave details and wait for a callback. Human services answer with a real person; published starting prices for some live services run higher per month (for example, Ruby advertises plans starting at $245 per month), and in-house reception covers much more than phones, including greeting visitors and office tasks. AI receptionists like AllDayDesk answer around the clock at a lower monthly cost, with the trade-off that a machine, not a person, is speaking.

Compare on what matters to you: hours covered, how bookings are handled, what happens with unknown questions, and total monthly cost including per-minute overages. AllDayDesk pricing is shown separately.

• Voicemail: free but callers do the work and wait for callbacks
• Human receptionist or live service: a real voice, typically higher monthly cost
• AI receptionist: around-the-clock coverage using your saved business details