Phone answering service for small business
The short answer
CoveDesk is a phone answering service for small businesses. A trained voice assistant, set up and run by our team, answers your calls in your business’s name, 24/7, puts urgent calls straight through to you or whoever is on call and texts you the details of the rest. Front Desk is $249 a month, with 250 minutes included, then $0.35 a minute. You keep your number, we do the setup, and it isn’t a live receptionist.
Answer every call, or only the ones you can’t get to. Here’s what callers hear, what you get after each call, what it costs and what it doesn’t do yet.
What’s included
- Every call answered in your business’s name, day or night, by a trained voice assistant, set up and run by our team
- A script we write for your business: your services, your area, your hours and the questions to ask
- Urgent calls put straight through to you, or to whoever is on call that week
- Spanish too, at no extra cost: it greets callers in English and switches when they speak Spanish
- A text after each call with who called and what they need, plus transcripts and recordings in the CoveDesk app
- Missed-call texting, so a caller who hangs up first still hears from you
- A weekly summary of what we caught
- Setup done for you, with a test call before anything goes live
What callers hear
A friendly answer in your business’s name, not a voicemail. Callers hear a short notice at the start of the call. Then the front desk asks the questions you chose and tells the caller what happens next. It never quotes a price or promises a time you haven’t agreed to.
- Caller
- Water is coming through my kitchen ceiling. Can someone come out tonight?
- Front desk
- I’m sorry, that sounds stressful. Is the water still coming in right now?
- Caller
- Yes, it’s dripping fast.
- Front desk
- I’m putting you through to the owner now. If they can’t pick up, they’ll call you back on this number.
What you get after each call
A text on the phone you already carry, with the caller’s name, number, address and what they need. The transcript and recording wait in the CoveDesk app, and once a week you get a summary by email.
Brightwater Well & Pump: URGENT call from Riley Brooks, (317) 555-0142 in Lawrence: no water in the house since this morning. Wants a callback. Details: [link]
Urgent calls put through
You decide what counts as urgent for your business: no heat, a burst pipe, a car stuck on the road, a customer on the way. Those calls ring straight through to you. Everything else becomes a text, so you call back when you’re free.
Someone else on call? List the people who take urgent calls: anyone on your team, or a name and a mobile number. The ones who take a week turn over every Monday, and you can add one person for weekends and one for nights. Urgent calls go to whoever is on call at that moment, and that person gets the urgent-call text too. With nobody listed, it’s you. If the person on call doesn’t pick up, it doesn’t go on to try a second or third.
Spanish-speaking callers
Turn on “Answer in Spanish too” and the front desk still greets every caller in English, then switches to Spanish when the caller speaks Spanish. It asks the same questions it would in English. Your text and your CoveDesk account stay in English, and the text says “Caller spoke Spanish.” It’s included in every front desk plan at no extra cost.
All day, after hours, or overflow only
Prefer to answer your own phone during the day? Your front desk can pick up only after hours, or only when you don’t answer within a few rings. Same plan, same price. You can change it whenever your week changes.
You keep your number and your phone company. Your calls forward to your CoveDesk number when you choose. We walk you through it for your phone, and it’s easy to turn off.
What it doesn’t do
It isn’t a live receptionist service. If a person on every call matters most to you, choose a live service. What CoveDesk doesn’t do yet. No calendar booking yet. Job software integrations: none yet.
See how it compares with live services and software voice assistants on our guide to choosing an answering service.
What it costs
Prices in US dollars, from our current price list. Taxes may apply.
| Service | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Front Desk | $249/mo250 front desk minutes a month included, then $0.35 a minute. No setup fee | We write the script for your business. Every call is picked up, day or night, by a trained voice assistant, set up and run by our team, that answers in your business’s name. You get the details by text. |
| Front Desk 500 | $319/mo500 front desk minutes a month included, then $0.35 a minute. No setup fee | Front Desk with more minutes, for busy phones that want no surprises at the end of the month. |
| Text-Back | $99/moNo setup fee | We set up your text line and handle the texting registration. When you can’t pick up, the caller gets a text from your business right away, so they don’t call the next company on the list. |
| Front Office | $449/mo250 front desk minutes a month included, then $0.35 a minute. No setup fee. 12-month term | We run the whole front office for you in one plan: phone answering, missed-call texting, your Google profile and a website, with a monthly check-in. |
| Extra Number or Location | $49/moMonth-to-month | A second published phone line, for example for a second area. It shares your front desk minutes. |
Minutes are counted by the second and added up over the month, then rounded once, not per call. Extra minutes are $0.35 each, and you get alerts at 80% and 100% of your minutes. Spam calls and calls under 15 seconds don’t count toward your minutes. They still show in your call log, labeled.
Free 14-day pilot. We answer your calls free for 14 days so you can see what you’ve been missing. We handle everything: we set it up, write the script with you and run it, and it’s live within 48 hours. Start with just your after-hours calls if you like. At the end we go over the calls we caught together, and you decide whether to keep it.
30-day money-back guarantee. If it isn’t working for you, tell us within 30 days of your first plan payment and we’ll end the plan and refund your first month’s plan fee. It covers Text-Back, Front Desk Starter, Front Desk, Front Desk 500, Front Office, Google Business Profile Management and the website subscription. The refund is the plan’s first monthly fee, or the whole yearly fee if you paid for the year. It doesn’t cover extra minutes, other add-ons, leads or one-time work such as a profile cleanup, a listings fix or a website build. The full terms.
How it works
Talk to us
A short call about your business, where you work and where calls slip through. Ask for a free missed-call check and we’ll show you what callers run into now.
We write your script
Your greeting, services, area, hours, the questions to ask, what counts as urgent and when to put a call through. You read it and change anything.
We set up your CoveDesk number
We register it for business texting with the phone carriers. Their review times vary, so we keep you posted.
Turn on call forwarding
All calls, after hours only, or the ones you don’t pick up. You keep your number.
A test call, then go live
We call through together and check every step, from the greeting to the text you get afterwards.
Who it suits, and who it doesn’t
A good fit for
- Owners who are busy with customers all day and lose business to voicemail
- Businesses that get calls at night and on weekends
- Owners who want it set up and run for them
- Anyone who wants to start with after-hours calls only
Not the right fit if
- You want a live person on every call. Choose a live receptionist service.
- You need appointments booked into a calendar or your job software today
- You need a second or third person tried when the one on call doesn’t answer
- Your callers need Spanish from the first word, or a language besides English and Spanish
Common questions
How much does an answering service cost for a small business?
What is a virtual answering service?
Is CoveDesk a 24/7 answering service?
How do I choose between answering service companies?
Is an answering service worth it?
Is CoveDesk a live receptionist service?
Can I keep my business phone number?
Is there a free trial?
Guides
Phone answering services
Forwarding your calls step by step, live or software, and what to ask before you sign.
Virtual receptionist services
What a virtual receptionist does, published prices, and how to choose.
After-hours answering service
Nights, weekends and holidays: how to set them up, and each service’s published terms.
Best answering service for small business
Picks by need with prices, contracts, trials and languages, and who each service suits.
Answering service pricing
How answering services bill, published prices, and the extra fees to ask about.
Answering service vs voicemail vs receptionist
Voicemail, texts, an answering service or a receptionist: what each costs and gets you.
Free tools
Answering service cost calculator
Work out a monthly bill from your calls and call length, and compare it with a receptionist on payroll.
Missed call calculator
See what the calls you don’t answer may be worth in a month and a year, from your own numbers.
Voicemail greeting generator
Scripts for on-a-job, after-hours and holiday voicemail, plus a missed-call text.
Ask about phone answering
Tell us how things work today and we’ll tell you what would help and what it costs, even if it isn’t CoveDesk.