Questions people ask before they sign up

It picks up the calls you cannot get to, in your business name, and takes the caller's details for you. You keep your own number and divert it whenever you want the service to answer. The message comes back to you by text and email so you can ring the person back.

The same idea, described from the caller's side. It does the front desk job: answers, greets, takes details, books times, says when you are open and puts the right callers through to you.

It is not sitting in your office, which is why it costs a fraction of a desk.

It is the reception job without the reception. Somebody answers the phone in your business name, takes the caller's details, books a time, says when you are open and puts urgent callers through to you.

There is no counter and nobody sitting at it, which is why a virtual front desk costs a fraction of a real one.

In practice very little, and the two words get used for the same thing. Where people draw a line, an answering service takes a message and a virtual receptionist also books appointments and transfers calls. This does both, so you can call it whichever you prefer.

Calls are answered by software that talks. Most callers get their question dealt with and do not think about it. If somebody asks directly whether they are speaking to a person, they are told plainly.

It never pretends to be you and it never gives your customers a false name. We do not think a booking is worth lying to your customers for.

It will not give advice, quote a price it has not been given, argue with a complaint, or handle a caller who is distressed. It is reception, not a clinician, not a lawyer and not you.

Anything of that kind gets put through to you, or written down and flagged so you ring back first.

No. You keep the number on your van, your website and your invoices. Nothing is ported and nothing is transferred.

It is a short code you dial on your own phone, and it differs between carriers. We send you the exact code for your carrier and the code to turn it off again.

You can divert everything, or only the calls you do not answer yourself, or only the hours outside your working day. Most people start with the last one.

Yes. An 0800 number, a landline and a mobile can all point at the same answering, with the same greeting and the same messages coming back to you.

Yes. You say which callers matter and when you are willing to be interrupted, and those calls get put through. Everyone else is written down and sent to you, so the phone stops going off in the middle of a job.

Yes. New Zealand calls run on +64 numbers and are handled in New Zealand data centres. Nothing is routed offshore for somebody in another time zone to pick up.

Both, within a minute of the call ending. The caller's number is in the message, so you tap it and ring back. A full write-up of the call is kept as well, so you can read what was actually said rather than a one line summary.

Yes, in the diary you already use, so it is the real diary and not a copy of it. It only offers times that are genuinely free.

It also confirms the day by name as well as by date, so nobody turns up on a Monday thinking it was Tuesday.

To your phone first, always. After that it can go into Google Calendar or Calendly, a CRM like HubSpot or Pipedrive, your accounts in Xero or MYOB, a job board in Trello, or a channel in Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Running something else? Tell us what you use and we will quote the integration work.

Card details are never read out over the phone. Where a payment is needed, a secure link goes to the caller by text and they pay on their own phone. Nobody at this end ever hears or holds a card number.

The details still get taken, and if the call is not going well it is ended politely and flagged to you as one to ring back yourself. A written note that says "ring this person, we could not get the address" is more use to you than a guess.

No term and no cancellation fee. If you stop, you take the divert off your number and that is the end of it.

Yes. Pay as you go costs NZ$10 a month for the number, then NZ$1 a minute. You start with NZ$10 free credit, so a quiet month stays small.

How pay as you go works

Pay as you go is NZ$10 a month for the number plus NZ$1 a minute. The business monthly plan is NZ$129 for the first three months, then NZ$199, and includes 200 minutes, 50 texts and three calls at once. There is no setup fee and no lock-in.

For most small businesses, considerably, because you are not paying a salary, holidays, sick days, KiwiSaver, ACC or for a desk to sit at.

The fairer comparison is not the money though. A part timer works your daytime hours. This also answers at seven in the morning, at nine at night and on a Sunday.

Yes, on your own number with your own callers, and you are told before it ends rather than after. Nothing rolls into a plan you did not agree to.

What the free trial includes

Your account opens as soon as you enquire, and your answering is set up and trained on your business within 24 hours. Nothing changes on your phone until you put the divert on yourself.

Yes. Each business gets its own number, its own greeting and its own messages, all on one account and one bill. It is common with people running two trading names off one van.

No. There is nothing to install on your phone and nothing to install on a computer. The only thing that changes is a divert on your number, and you control that from your own handset.

Yes, and people do it constantly. Christmas hours, a week away, a new service, a price change. Tell us and it is updated, usually the same day.

You and the people you give access to. Call records are kept so you can read them, and they are not sold, shared or used to sell anything to your customers.