A person answers your phone 40 hours a week — minus lunch, breaks, sick days, and two weeks in July. This answers all 168, books the job while you do the important stuff, and costs about a third as much. Here's the honest math, and then the actual prices.
This isn't compared against another app. It's compared against what it actually costs to hire somebody in Santa Clarita to sit at a desk and answer your phone.
Because that's the part that actually decides whether a caller reaches you or your competitor.
Every company selling this says it sounds human. I'd rather you decide for yourself, right now, before you look at a single price.
Not a demo line. Not a recording. That's my real business number, running the same setup I'd put on your phone. If I wouldn't put it on my own line, I've got no business selling it to you. Call it and judge the quality yourself — nothing to fill out, nobody following up unless you ask.
Ask about work I don't take on. Ask something with no clean answer. See whether it makes something up or admits it doesn't know and offers to have me call you.
Cut it off mid-sentence. Change your mind halfway through a booking. Trail off. Be a real person having a real phone call, not a polite tester.
Try to book a time that's already full and watch whether it works around you or falls apart. This is where most AI phone systems come undone.
11pm on a Sunday. That's the point. The forty-hours-a-week version of this is asleep, and mine is still booking work. Call at 2am on a holiday if you really want to make it interesting.
It tells you up front the call is recorded and AI-assisted — California requires that, and I'd tell you anyway. Then listen to what happens next. That's the part worth hearing.
Every plan is billed monthly — you're never paying a year up front. Commit to a term and the monthly price drops.
Most of the businesses I set up need both — the receptionist answers the phone, the site books the people who'd rather not call. Do both together — a full website build plus a receptionist plan — and your receptionist setup fee comes off entirely.
You pay the setup fee, and then I get to work — and you can still get me on the phone any time you want. Same build, same person, same result as if we'd met in your shop.
That's the only thing you pay to start. You won't be billed for a month of service until you've had a month of service. Then a short intake form: your services, hours, FAQs, and where the hot calls should go.
Buying online doesn't skip the conversation — it just skips the sales pitch. Book a call before I build, during, or after. If you'd rather walk me through your business face to face first, do that. This thing is going to represent your name, and you should have a say in how it sounds.
I write the script, tune the voice, wire it to your calendar, and test it against real calls. You get a recording to approve before anything touches your live line.
Go live on the 5th and the 5th of next month is both your first bill and your money-back cutoff — so you've had a full month of it working before you pay for any of it. Setup and tuning happen on my time, not yours.
Setup, testing, and tuning happen first — on my time, not yours. Only once everything is live and working the way it should does your first month begin.
It runs from the day it goes live to that same date the next month. If it isn't earning its keep by then, you get your setup fee back and your first bill never goes out. That holds whether you're month-to-month or on a term.
The guarantee comes first. Cancel in your first month and nothing reverts and nothing gets invoiced. You owe nothing.
No. Your number stays exactly where it is. We forward it to the AI — either only when you don't pick up, or all the time if you'd rather it answer everything. Either way it's reversible in about five minutes.
$24 an hour at 40 hours a week — the high end of average for a receptionist in Santa Clarita — is $4,160 a month in wages. Add employer payroll taxes and workers' comp and you're at roughly $4,550. That's before health coverage, paid time off, or the weeks it takes to hire and train somebody. I'd rather show you a number you can check than one that flatters me.
It sounds like a real person, and most callers just book and hang up. California law requires a disclosure that the call is recorded or AI-assisted, so that goes in the greeting. It's one short sentence, and it has never cost anyone a booking.
Because sending business texts legally means registering your number with the mobile carriers, and that filing can take weeks. I do the whole thing for you. Everything else on the plan goes live first while it clears.
Every plan includes a pool of answered minutes — 1,000 on The Front Desk, 1,500 on The Whole Job. That's more than a typical shop uses, and most months you'll never think about it. If you go past it, additional answered minutes are $1.00 each, invoiced after the fact. And I'll call you before you get near your limit, not after. Nothing gets sprung on you.
Month-to-month: Cancel any time. No term, nothing to revert.
On a term: Cancel any time. Leave before your term is up and your rate reverts to month-to-month for the months you used — I invoice the difference. Nothing owed if you cancel inside your first month.
You are never on the hook for the rest of the term. There's no early termination penalty beyond giving back the discount you already received. Either way, just let me know — no hoops, no retention department.
No. Every plan is billed monthly, including the 12-month. Committing to a term just locks in a lower monthly rate — you're agreeing to stay for that many months, not writing one big check.
Yes, and a lot of people do. You pay the difference from that point forward, and I start the phone number registration the day you upgrade. The same goes for your billing term — start month-to-month, watch it work for a few weeks, and once you know you're keeping it, move onto a 6 or 12-month term and drop your monthly price. The lower rate starts the month you switch and holds as long as you finish the term.
Me. RunSmooth is one person — no call center, no support queue, no handoffs. That's the whole point of hiring me instead of a platform.
30 minutes, no pitch. Tell me how calls come in today and where your day gets stuck. I'll tell you which plan fits — or that neither one does.
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