AI receptionist / front desk agent

Stop losing jobs to missed calls.

FrontDeskAgent answers your business calls 24/7, qualifies leads, books appointments, sends emails and texts, and hands urgent jobs to the right person. Installed from £700, managed from £400/month.

New: open the live receptionist in the bottom corner and ask about pricing, missed calls, bookings, OpenZero, Voicebox, or self-hosting. It now talks through the OpenZero bridge and tries the server Voicebox voice before falling back to the visitor's browser voice.

Voice upgrade available: the public demo uses the hosted FrontDeskAgent voice lane. A live installation can use a more natural approved company voice, including a director-matched voice profile when the director gives written permission.

Calls Email Calendar SMS CRM Worldwide
Installation from £700 Managed retainer from £400/month Live demo available after quick scope check

Try the AI before you buy

Hear a 60-second receptionist flow, then request a live test call.

Play the demo call and pretend you need a plumber, electrician, appointment, quote, or urgent callback. Live phone demos are arranged for qualified enquiries so the test call matches the buyer's industry.

Request live demo number

The production system can speak through the hosted voice lane or a private Voicebox endpoint. With written approval, the voice can be shaped around the director's own voice or a polished brand voice for the company.

The hidden leak

Phones ring when your best people are already busy.

Contractors are on site. Universities are dealing with queues. Professional firms are in meetings. Customers do not wait. They call the next company.

24/7

Always answered

After-hours, lunch breaks, weekends, job sites, meetings, and staff shortages stop turning into silent lost revenue.

Fast

Speed-to-lead

The agent captures what the caller needs, checks urgency, sends a summary, and can book or escalate without waiting for a human to type notes.

Lower cost

Less front desk pressure

Keep skilled staff focused on the work that needs them while routine answering, sorting, booking, reminders, and follow-up run automatically.

Buyer-ready demo

Show a real call path before the agent goes live.

The strongest AI receptionist offers let buyers see the workflow quickly. FrontDeskAgent is sold around a practical test: answer the call, ask the right questions, take action, and leave a clean record.

Live call simulation 00:42
Caller

Do you cover emergency leaks tonight?

Agent

Yes. What postcode is the property, and is water still running?

Caller

It is in Manchester. The stop tap is not working.

Agent

I can mark this urgent, collect the address, and send the engineer summary now.

Booked SMS sent Owner notified

Trained from the company website

Services, locations, opening hours, policies, FAQs, pricing rules, and special instructions are turned into a controlled knowledge base.

Actions, not just chat

Calendar booking, SMS links, email summaries, CRM notes, staff alerts, human transfer, payment link sending, and approved callbacks.

Test call before launch

The business can hear the greeting, check questions, test transfers, review transcripts, and approve the workflow before public calls are routed.

Director voice option

Where a director gives written consent, the installed receptionist can use a director-matched voice profile or a premium company voice that sounds much more natural than the browser sample.

Missed-call calculator

One recovered job can pay for the month.

Use a conservative estimate. If the business misses calls after hours, during jobs, or while staff are busy, the lost pipeline can become larger than the retainer very quickly.

Estimated annual missed revenue £36,400 Estimate only. Actual results depend on industry, lead quality, response speed, and fulfilment capacity.

Proof-style workflow

Buyers can inspect the outputs before approving the build.

The agent is not judged by conversation alone. The useful proof is the transcript, email summary, booked calendar slot, and clean handover to staff.

Call transcript

Emergency plumbing lead

Caller: Leak under kitchen sink, water still running, Manchester M14.

Agent: Urgency marked high. Address captured. Engineer summary sent.

Calendar booking

Today 18:30-19:30

Emergency leak inspection booked. Confirmation sent. Staff notification delivered.

Before / after

Missed call to booked job

Before: voicemail, no details, slow callback. After: answered, qualified, booked, summarised, and followed up.

What the agent does

More than call answering. A working front desk layer.

01

Answer and qualify calls

Natural conversations, service-area checks, caller details, urgency detection, quote intake, call transfer rules, recordings, and transcripts.

02

Book appointments and jobs

Connect calendars, collect availability, send confirmations, flag emergencies, text booking links, and route booked work to the right team.

03

Send and reply to emails

Organise inboxes, draft replies, answer routine questions, send approved responses, escalate sensitive messages, and keep enquiry history clean.

04

Make approved outbound calls

Follow up missed calls, confirm appointments, chase documents, remind customers, request reviews, and reconnect leads before they go cold.

05

Use your company knowledge

Train on websites, services, hours, locations, policies, pricing rules, FAQs, documents, and scripts so callers get answers that fit the business.

06

Match the approved brand voice

Use a company-approved tone, greeting, and voice profile with permission, so the experience feels like the business rather than a generic bot.

Industry playbooks

Specific questions beat generic bot scripts.

Each industry gets its own intake flow, escalation logic, booking rules, and handover format so the agent feels useful from the first live call.

Trades

Plumbers, electricians, HVAC, roofing

Postcode, job type, urgency, access details, photos or videos by SMS, appointment window, payment link, and emergency escalation.

Construction

Contractors and site services

Tender enquiries, site visit requests, supplier calls, project scope, location, deadline, decision maker, and team routing.

Education

Universities and training providers

Admissions questions, course routing, open-day booking, department transfer, multilingual support, and seasonal call overflow.

Professional

Legal, property, recruitment, clinics

Lead qualification, conflict checks where appropriate, meeting booking, document chasing, inbox triage, and sensitive-call handoff.

Live workflow

One caller becomes a booked, logged, followed-up opportunity.

The agent can answer, ask the right questions, identify value and urgency, place the booking, email the customer, notify staff, and create a clean record.

Call answeredCaller need captured
Lead qualifiedBudget, service, urgency
Calendar bookedConfirmation sent
Inbox updatedSummary and transcript
Follow-up callApproved callback queued

Built for real operators

Targeted for companies where missed contact costs real money.

Construction firms Plumbers Electricians Universities Estate agents Clinics Legal intake Recruitment Hotels Training providers

Trades and construction

Emergency jobs, site enquiries, quote requests, supplier calls, appointment booking, and after-hours lead capture.

Education and public services

Admissions questions, department routing, appointment reminders, inbox triage, multilingual support, and high-volume seasonal calls.

Professional offices

Reception coverage, lead qualification, meeting booking, document chasing, email organisation, and clean handover notes.

Simple entry pricing

Start with a managed AI receptionist. Scale to a full platform.

Launch package

AI Receptionist Install

£700 one-time

Setup, business knowledge capture, greeting and flow design, call routing, inbox rules, calendar connection, and launch testing.

Request install
Managed service

Front Desk Retainer

£400 / month

Server maintenance, prompt tuning, workflow updates, monitoring, monthly improvement work, and support for the active agent setup.

Start managed plan
Large companies

Private / Self-hosted

Custom quote

For higher call volume, stronger data control, dedicated servers, in-house models, Voicebox local voice output, private voice routing, and lower long-term API spend.

Discuss enterprise
Payment route: invoices are issued after scope approval, with PayPal or bank transfer available depending on the agreed setup.

Open-source release

Install the CPU-first self-hosted edition on your own server.

Developers can now run FrontDeskAgent privately with SQLite, Flask, OpenZero-first auto routing, Ollama, llama.cpp, GGUF models, optional OpenAI-compatible API fallback, Voicebox local voice output, and a no-model safety layer. The open-source edition is useful for experiments, local control, and teams that want to inspect the stack before a managed rollout.

git clone https://github.com/ResearchForumOnline/FrontDeskAgent.git
cd FrontDeskAgent
python3 -m venv .venv
pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m frontdeskagent.setup_wizard
python -m frontdeskagent.app

Deployment

Cloud API or private server. The right setup depends on call volume and data needs.

Fast API build

Best for quick launch. Uses managed AI, telephony, email, and calendar services with clear spend control.

  • Fastest route to live calls
  • Lower upfront infrastructure
  • Good for small and medium companies

Hybrid setup

Best for growing businesses. Keep critical workflows on your server while using specialist APIs where quality matters.

  • Better cost control
  • More custom routing
  • Good for multiple teams or locations

Private/self-hosted

Best for larger organisations. Dedicated infrastructure can reduce API dependency and keep sensitive workflows under tighter control.

  • Dedicated servers
  • Private knowledge base
  • Enterprise security review

More information

Pages built for the questions buyers search before they book a call.

Clear pages for AI receptionist capability, industry use cases, pricing questions, and agency partnership routes.

Why not a basic answering bot?

Most tools answer the phone. The money is in the workflow after the greeting.

Buyer concern
Basic AI receptionist
FrontDeskAgent managed install
Setup
The business still has to build prompts, rules, and integrations.
Done-for-you call flow, website knowledge, test calls, and launch checks.
Actions
Often limited to messages or simple booking.
Calls, SMS, email, calendar, CRM notes, transfers, callbacks, and alerts.
Fit
One generic receptionist for every industry.
Industry playbooks for trades, construction, education, property, legal, clinics, and more.
Cost control
Per-minute or per-call costs can grow without a plan.
API, hybrid, or self-hosted route selected around volume, budget, and data needs.

Why buy now

The first recovered job can pay for the month.

When a customer needs a plumber, a contractor, a course place, a viewing, a consultation, or an urgent repair, speed matters. FrontDeskAgent keeps the business responsive even when the team is unavailable.

24/7 coverage Calls answered Email sorted Leads followed up

Built and maintained in the UK

Managed by an AI and server automation specialist.

FrontDeskAgent is positioned as a managed implementation service: call flow planning, AI setup, server maintenance, workflow tuning, integrations, security review, and monthly improvement work.

UK based AI workflow setup Server maintenance Monthly tuning

Start installation

Tell us what your front desk needs to handle.

Send the business type, current phone setup, inbox needs, calendar or CRM, call volume, and what counts as an urgent lead.

Prefer direct contact? Email hello@frontdeskagent.online or request a demo at demo@frontdeskagent.online.

Questions buyers ask

Clear answers before installation.

Can it replace a receptionist?

It can handle the routine front desk load: answering, qualifying, booking, messaging, inbox sorting, and follow-up. Sensitive decisions and exceptions can still be routed to the right person.

Can it sound like our business?

Yes. The agent can use your approved greeting, tone, scripts, and a consent-based voice profile. Self-hosted builds can now connect to Voicebox for local open-source voice output, while managed builds can use approved premium voice routes. It should never impersonate a real person without permission.

Can it make calls as well as take calls?

Yes, when approved. It can call back missed leads, confirm appointments, chase documents, remind customers, and send follow-up summaries.

Can callers get texts during the call?

Yes. The agent can send booking links, payment links, document links, location links, confirmations, and follow-up messages when that workflow is approved.

Can it work in more than one language?

Yes. Multilingual answering can be included where the business needs it, with transcripts and summaries kept readable for the team.

Can it be self-hosted?

Yes. The open-source edition can be installed from GitHub for private CPU-first testing, and larger companies can request a managed private or hybrid build with dedicated infrastructure.

Featured ecosystem video

TalkToAI: ZeroThink, OpenZero, and sovereign AI infrastructure.

Watch the full walkthrough of the TalkToAI ecosystem: ZeroThink, OpenZero, local-first AI infrastructure, research direction, and the practical stack being built for builders, businesses, universities, and serious operators.