Virtual Office Telephone Answering Service

A virtual office gives you a business address and phone presence without a physical front desk. The telephone answering part fills the gap: when a customer dials your public number, the call is sent to a receptionist service instead of ringing an empty office. AllDayDesk uses an AI receptionist, so there is no front-desk hire and no office to staff.

You keep your existing number. Call forwarding sends calls from your provider to AllDayDesk, and the receptionist answers in your business name using the information you saved: services, hours, pricing you choose to share, and how you want messages handled. Calls, transcripts, summaries, and bookings all show up in your dashboard so you can review everything later.

Around-the-clock availability describes when the service can answer, not a promise that every single call connects. If the receptionist does not know an answer, a price, or whether a time is open, it takes a message for you instead of guessing.

• You keep your current public business number.
• Your provider forwards calls to AllDayDesk based on your instructions.
• The AI receptionist answers using your saved business details.
• It can take messages and book new appointments into the built-in dashboard calendar.
• Transcripts and summaries of every call appear in your dashboard.
• When something is unknown, the caller is asked to leave a message.

Setup starts online. You choose your business from a list or enter its website, and AllDayDesk builds a draft profile from that information. You check the details, correct anything wrong, and add what is missing, such as services and the hours you want honored.

Next, you hear a personalized sample of the receptionist answering for your business. The sample is a preview only and creates no real booking. If you like what you hear, you move on to phone setup, which is where you connect your number.

Phone setup depends on your provider. Most owners activate forwarding themselves using a star code or their provider's account portal. For example, Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination number for all-call forwarding and *73 to turn it off, while T-Mobile uses **21*1 followed by the number and # for unconditional forwarding. Comcast Business and Spectrum Business manage forwarding through their online account portals instead. Because instructions differ by product, check your own provider's guide before dialing anything.

• Choose your business or enter its website to build the profile.
• Review and correct the details AllDayDesk found.
• Listen to a personalized sample call; it creates no real booking.
• Choose phone setup and follow your provider's forwarding instructions.
• Verify forwarding with a real test call from another phone.

New appointments made by the receptionist go to the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar by default. Before booking works, you configure your services and your availability so the receptionist knows what can be scheduled and when.

If you already keep your schedule in Google Calendar, you can optionally connect it in Settings. You connect and authorize your Google account yourself; it is not linked automatically. Existing appointment changes are different from new bookings: when a caller wants to move or cancel an existing appointment, the receptionist records it as a request for you to approve, not a confirmed change.

AllDayDesk does not connect to other third-party calendars or industry scheduling software, so if your schedule lives somewhere other than the dashboard calendar or Google Calendar, you would manage it manually from the dashboard.

• New bookings land in the built-in dashboard calendar by default.
• Configure services and availability before booking goes live.
• Google Calendar is an optional connection in Settings, authorized by you.
• Changes to existing appointments 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, so treat it as one tool among several rather than a promise of live contact.

Message taking is the everyday path. When the receptionist does not know an answer, cannot confirm a price, or cannot verify an opening, it takes a message. You see the message, transcript, and summary in your dashboard and decide how to respond. This keeps the caller from waiting on hold and keeps you from being interrupted for routine questions.

• Transfers require you to set a destination and rules first.
• Neither pickup nor an immediate response is guaranteed on a transfer.
• Unknown answers, prices, or availability become messages for you.
• Messages, transcripts, and summaries are all visible in the dashboard.

Virtual office answering services generally come in two forms: human receptionist services and AI receptionist services. Human services, such as Ruby's live virtual receptionists, advertise plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026, while Smith.ai sells human receptionist plans with per-call pricing that depends on the needs you select. These are documented starting prices from the providers' own pages, not quotes we have verified for your situation; included minutes, overage rates, hours, and contracts vary, so compare current quotes directly.

AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist service, which means pricing is based on included minutes rather than per-call human labor, and the receptionist is available around the clock. The tradeoff is that an AI receptionist handles routine answering, messages, and new bookings rather than the full scope of an in-house employee. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that in-house receptionists also greet visitors and handle office tasks beyond the phone, so a phone service is not a full replacement for a front-desk role if your business needs those duties.

A fair way to decide: list the call types your business actually gets, mark which ones a service must handle without you, and check each provider's documented features against that list rather than relying on marketing claims.

• Human services: Ruby advertises plans from $245/month; Smith.ai uses per-call pricing for human receptionists.
• AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist with plan-based included minutes; pricing is shown separately on this site.
• In-house reception covers visitor greeting and office tasks, not just phone answering.
• Compare documented features and current quotes, not advertised starting prices alone.