# Porter guides --- > An AI chatbot for your website, set up for you in about 48 hours. It answers customer questions day and night and emails you every quote, booking, and call back request. From £99 a month. --- # AI Receptionist for Small Business: Is It Worth It? (UK Costs, Setup and a 30-Day Test) Source: https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-for-small-business (updated 2026-10-31) ## The short answer - An AI receptionist is worth it for most small businesses that miss enquiries after hours or reply slowly when the team is busy. - It pays for itself if it wins you one extra customer a month. Work it out with the simple sum below. - Free chatbots exist, but you build and maintain them yourself and they often give generic answers. Done-for-you website options like Porter start at £79 a month. - Set it up on your real content, read the first 50 chats, and judge it on leads after 30 days. Most small businesses do not have a receptionist problem. They have a timing problem. The enquiries arrive in the evening, at the weekend, or while everyone is with a customer, and by the time someone replies the person has gone elsewhere. An AI receptionist fixes the timing. Whether it is worth paying for depends on how many enquiries you miss and what a new customer is worth to you. This guide gives you a quick way to work that out, what the options cost, how to set one up without a tech team, and how to test it properly in 30 days. If you want the basics first, our [UK guide to AI receptionists](https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-uk) explains how they work and the difference between phone and website versions. ## Is an AI receptionist worth it for a small business? For most small businesses, yes, as long as at least one of these is true: - **You get enquiries outside office hours.** Evenings and weekends are when people browse and compare. - **Your team is often busy with customers.** Viewings, appointments, site visits, and clinic lists all take people away from the inbox. - **You answer the same questions every week.** Fees, opening times, areas covered, how to book. - **One new customer is worth a lot.** An instruction, a new patient, a placement, or a new client account. It is probably not worth it yet if you get only a handful of enquiries a month, if almost all of your work comes from walk-ins or repeat customers, or if someone already replies within minutes all day and all evening. ## How to work out if it pays for itself You do not need a spreadsheet. You need three numbers: 1. **Missed or late enquiries a month.** Count the ones that arrive out of hours or wait more than a few hours for a reply. Your inbox timestamps will tell you. 2. **How many of those would become customers** if you answered them quickly. Be cautious. One in 20 is a sensible starting guess. 3. **What one new customer is worth** to you in the first year. Multiply the three together, then compare the answer with the monthly cost. > Example, using made-up numbers: an estate agent gets 30 enquiries a month outside office hours. If 1 in 20 turns into an instruction, that is 1.5 extra instructions a month. If an instruction is worth £1,500 in fees, one extra instruction a year covers Porter's first year in full (£490 setup plus 12 months at £79 is £1,438). Use your own numbers. The same sum works for a clinic (value of a new patient), a recruiter (value of a placement), or an accountant (value of a new client over a year). If the answer is close, look at the time saved on repeat questions too. ## What does an AI receptionist cost a small business? Costs depend on the type of service more than the brand. Here is what to expect and what to watch for. | Option | How it is usually priced | Watch out for | | --- | --- | --- | | Free chatbot plan | Free, with limits | Chat caps, their branding, you build it yourself | | DIY chatbot builder | Monthly subscription | Your time to set up, train, and keep it up to date | | Done-for-you website AI receptionist | Setup fee plus monthly fee | What the setup covers and the chat allowance | | Phone AI receptionist | Base fee plus per minute or per call | Costs rising in a busy month | | Human call answering service | Per call or per minute, often with a minimum | Most take a message rather than answer questions | Porter is a done-for-you website AI receptionist: £490 setup and £79 a month for up to 500 chats, or £149 a month for busier sites. See [full pricing](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#pricing). For a side by side comparison of phone, website, and human options, see [AI receptionist vs virtual receptionist vs call answering service](https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-uk#ai-receptionist-vs-virtual-receptionist-vs-call-answering-service). ## Is there a free AI receptionist for small business? There are free chatbot plans, and they can be a fair way to test whether visitors use chat at all. The catch is the work. You write the answers, connect the alerts, and keep it up to date when your prices or hours change. Many free plans also show the provider's branding and cap the number of chats. The bigger risk is quality. A chatbot that answers from general internet knowledge instead of your own pages will sometimes give a confident wrong answer, such as a price you do not charge. For a small business that reputation hit costs more than the subscription you saved. If you go free, test it hard with awkward questions before it goes live, and read every conversation for the first few weeks. ## How to set up an AI receptionist in a small business Setup is mostly about your content, not technology. These are the steps that matter: 1. **List the 20 questions you hear most.** Ask whoever answers the phone and the inbox. 2. **Check the answers are on your website.** Fees, areas covered, opening hours, and how to book. If they are not written down, the AI should not guess them. 3. **Decide what counts as a lead** and where the alert goes. A shared inbox that nobody checks is the most common failure. 4. **Set the handover rule.** When it does not know, it should say so and take a name and a phone number or email. 5. **Test it with awkward questions.** Ask for a price that is not on your site, a service you do not offer, and an area you do not cover. 6. **Update your privacy note** so visitors know chats are stored and for how long. 7. **Go live and read the first 50 chats.** Fix gaps by adding the missing information to your site or the bot's notes. With Porter we do steps 2 to 6 for you, install it in about 48 hours, and you approve the answers before it goes live. ## A simple 30-day test Give it a month before you decide. Here is what to look at each week: ### Week 1: accuracy Read every chat. Is it answering from your information, and is it handing over when it should? Fix anything it got wrong. ### Weeks 2 and 3: leads Count the leads it captured and when they arrived. Note how many came outside office hours, because those are the ones you would have missed. ### Week 4: decide Add up the leads, how many became customers or booked calls, and how much time the team saved on repeat questions. Compare that with the cost using the sum above. ## Common mistakes to avoid - **Letting it guess prices.** Only allow it to quote what is written down. - **Sending alerts nowhere.** Lead emails must go to someone who replies the same day. - **Training it on old pages.** Out of date fees or services lead to awkward conversations. - **Hiding the chat.** If visitors cannot see it on mobile, it will not catch anything. - **Never reading the chats.** The conversations tell you what customers want to know. Add those answers to your website too. ## Where Porter fits Porter is a website AI receptionist for UK small businesses, built for [estate agents, clinics, recruiters, and B2B teams](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#industries). It answers from your own pages, says so when it does not know, and emails you every quote, booking, and call back request with the page the person was on. It does not answer phone calls. If most of your enquiries come by phone, read [how to choose the best AI receptionist](https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-uk#how-to-choose-the-best-ai-receptionist) first. You can [try the live demo](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#demo), or [send us your website](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#see-it) and we will reply with a short plan and a date for a draft. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is an AI receptionist worth it for a small business? Usually, if you get enquiries outside office hours or your team is often too busy to reply quickly. Multiply your missed enquiries by the share that would become customers and by the value of a customer, then compare that with the monthly cost. ### How much does an AI receptionist cost for a small business in the UK? Free chatbot plans exist but you build them yourself. Done-for-you website options such as Porter cost £490 to set up and £79 a month. Phone AI receptionists and human answering services usually charge per minute or per call. ### Is there a free AI receptionist for small business? There are free chatbot plans with limits on chats and features. They can work for testing, but you have to write and maintain the answers yourself, and you should check carefully that it does not make up prices. ### Do I need technical skills to set one up? No. Most of the work is gathering the answers to your common questions. Installing a website chat usually means adding one line of code, and a done-for-you provider will do that for you. ### How long before I see results? You should see the first leads within days if your site gets regular visitors. Give it 30 days before deciding, so you can compare leads, out-of-hours enquiries, and time saved. --- # AI Receptionist UK: How They Work, What They Cost, and How to Choose One Source: https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-uk (updated 2026-10-31) ## The short answer - An AI receptionist answers customer questions and takes contact details when your team cannot, day and night. - There are two kinds: phone AI receptionists that answer calls, and website AI receptionists that answer in a chat window. - Website options are usually a flat monthly fee. Phone AI and human answering services usually charge per minute or per call. - Choose one that answers only from your own information and hands over to you when it does not know. An AI receptionist answers your customers when nobody in the office can. It replies to the questions you hear every day, takes the details of anyone who wants a quote, a booking, or a call back, and passes them to you straight away. UK businesses are searching for one because the enquiry nearly always turns up at the wrong moment. A buyer asks about a viewing at 9pm. A patient wants a price on a Sunday. By Monday morning they have already called someone else. This guide covers the two main types of AI receptionist, what each one costs in the UK, which businesses get the most out of them, and the questions to ask before you sign anything. ## What is an AI receptionist? An AI receptionist is software that handles the first conversation with a customer for you. It uses a language model to understand what someone is asking, answers from information about your business, and collects contact details when a person needs to follow up. There are two kinds, and the difference matters more than any feature list: - **Phone AI receptionists** answer calls with a synthetic voice. They suit businesses where most enquiries arrive by phone, such as trades and busy surgeries. - **Website AI receptionists** answer in a chat window on your website. They suit businesses where people research online first, such as estate agents, clinics, recruiters, solicitors, and accountants. Many small businesses need the website version more than they realise. People now look up prices, opening hours, and areas covered before they ever pick up the phone. If the site cannot answer them at 10pm, they go back to Google and try the next result. ## AI receptionist vs virtual receptionist vs call answering service These terms get mixed up a lot. Here is how they compare for a typical UK small business. | | Website AI receptionist | Phone AI receptionist | Human call answering service | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Where it works | Chat on your website | Your phone line | Your phone line | | Hours | 24 hours, every day | 24 hours, every day | Depends on the plan | | Answers real questions | Yes, from your own pages | Yes, from a script or knowledge base | Usually takes a message | | How you are charged | Monthly fee, chat allowance | Usually per minute or per call | Usually per call or per minute | | Best for | People who research online first | Phone-heavy trades | Businesses that want a human voice | A human call answering service, sometimes called a virtual receptionist, is a team of real people who answer your line using your company name. They are friendly and reliable, but most take a message rather than answer detailed questions, and the cost goes up with every call. A phone AI receptionist can answer questions as well as take messages, which is a big step up from voicemail. The voice quality has improved a lot, but some callers still hang up when they realise it is not a person. A website AI receptionist has the least friction for the customer. Nobody has to make a call, and the answer arrives in seconds. The trade-off is that it only helps people who visit your site. ## How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK? Prices vary more by pricing model than by provider, so it helps to know what you are comparing. - **Website AI receptionists** are usually a flat monthly fee with a chat allowance. Porter, for example, is £99 a month for up to 500 chats, plus a one-off £650 setup that covers training the bot on your site and installing it. See [our pricing](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#pricing). - **Phone AI receptionists** usually charge per minute or per call on top of a base fee. A busy month can cost far more than a quiet one, so ask what happens when you go over the allowance. - **Human call answering services** usually charge per call or per minute, often with a monthly minimum. - **A part-time or full-time receptionist** is the most expensive option. A full-time role at the National Living Wage is roughly £25,000 a year in wages alone, before employer's National Insurance, pension, holiday cover, and sick days. And they still go home at 5.30pm. > A quick way to judge the cost: work out what one new customer is worth to you. If an AI receptionist catches one extra valuation, one new patient, or one new client a month, it has usually paid for itself. Our [small business guide](https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-for-small-business#how-to-work-out-if-it-pays-for-itself) shows the sum step by step. ## Which businesses get the most from an AI receptionist? The pattern is the same in every trade that does well with one: high-value enquiries, the same questions over and over, and a team that is often busy with customers. ### Estate and letting agents Viewing requests, valuation bookings, and questions about fees and areas covered come in all evening and all weekend. An AI receptionist answers the routine ones and sends you the valuation leads straight away, while they are still warm. ### Dental and private clinics Patients want to know prices, whether you offer finance, and when the next appointment is. Reception is often on the phone or with a patient. A website AI receptionist can answer from your price list and take a booking request when nobody is free. ### Recruitment agencies Candidates ask about roles and how to apply, and clients ask about terms. An AI receptionist can point candidates to the right page and flag hiring managers who want a call, so consultants spend their time on the conversations that make money. ### Solicitors, accountants, and B2B teams Most first enquiries are about what you do, what it costs, and whether you are the right fit. An AI receptionist can explain your services and fixed fees, then book a call back with the right person. ## How to choose the best AI receptionist Most providers will show you a slick demo. These are the things that decide whether it actually works for you: - **It answers only from your information.** It should use your pages and your notes, not general knowledge from the internet. Ask what it does when it does not know an answer. The right reply is that it says so and takes the customer's details. - **It never makes up prices.** This is the most common problem with cheap AI chatbots. Test it yourself by asking for a price that is not on your site. - **You hear about leads fast.** You want an email or alert the moment someone leaves their details, with their question and the page they were on. - **You can read every conversation.** You should be able to see what the bot said and fix anything it got wrong. - **You approve it before it goes live.** A good provider lets you read sample answers first. - **It is clear about data.** Ask where conversations are stored, who can see them, and how long they are kept. Under UK GDPR you need to be able to explain this to your customers. - **The cost is predictable.** Check what happens when you go over the allowance and how long the contract runs. ## Questions to ask before you sign - Can I try it on my own website before I pay the monthly fee? - What does it say when it does not know the answer? - How quickly will I be told about a new lead, and how? - Where is the conversation data stored, and when is it deleted? - What does a busy month cost compared with a quiet one? - Can I change what it says without paying for a new setup? - What is the notice period if it does not work for us? Running a small team? Our guide on [whether an AI receptionist is worth it for a small business](https://ukaireceptionist.com/guides/ai-receptionist-for-small-business) covers setup steps and a simple 30-day test. ## Where Porter fits Porter is a website AI receptionist built for UK small businesses. We train it on your own pages, install it in about 48 hours, and you approve the answers before it goes live. When someone wants a quote, a booking, or a call back, you get an email with their name, contact details, question, and the page they were on. It does not answer phone calls. If most of your enquiries come by phone, a phone AI receptionist or a call answering service may suit you better. Plenty of businesses use both: the phone service for callers, and Porter for the people who research online first and never ring. You can try it the way a customer would on [our homepage](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#demo), or [send us your website](https://ukaireceptionist.com/#see-it) and we will reply with a short plan and a date for a draft. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is an AI receptionist worth it for a small business? It usually is if you get enquiries outside office hours or your team is often too busy to reply quickly. Compare the monthly cost with the value of one new customer. If it catches one extra lead a month, it has normally paid for itself. ### Can an AI receptionist answer phone calls? Some can. Phone AI receptionists answer calls with a synthetic voice. Website AI receptionists, like Porter, answer in a chat window on your site and take call back requests instead. ### Is an AI receptionist GDPR compliant? That depends on the provider and how you set it up. Ask where conversations are stored, who can access them, and how long they are kept, and make sure your privacy notice covers the chat. ### Will an AI receptionist replace my receptionist? For most small businesses, no. It handles the repeat questions and the out-of-hours enquiries so your team can spend their time on the customers in front of them. ### How long does it take to set up? Porter takes about 48 hours once we have your website, the email address for alerts, and the pages the bot may use. Phone systems can take longer because they need call forwarding and voice testing.