What an AI answering service is
An answering service answers a business's phone when the business cannot. For decades that meant a room of operators reading a script. An AI answering service is software doing the same job: it picks up, talks with the caller, takes the details and passes the result to the business. The difference a caller notices is the hold queue, which software does not have; the difference the business notices is the price per minute and the record, because each call the software answers comes with its recording, its transcript and what was written down, the same minute.
Pickwick is an AI answering service for home-service businesses. It is not a phone menu, not a chatbot bolted onto a voicemail, and not a person; it says it is automated in its first sentence. Shops forward their existing number to it after hours, when the line is busy, or always, and switch back with one code.
What happens when it answers
- The notice first. "I'm an automated assistant, and this call is recorded," said by the system, not the model, in the caller's language.
- A hazard before anything else. Gas, carbon monoxide, smoke, sparking: a fixed line sends the caller to 911 before any booking talk.
- The details, read back. Name, callback number, address, the problem in the caller's words. Caller ID is wrong often enough that the read-back is not optional.
- Sorted, not just taken. Urgent calls are flagged to the people you list as they happen; routine jobs are penciled into the first open window from your hours.
- Your yes. By default nothing is booked until you approve it in the dashboard app, one tap. Routine jobs can book themselves if you choose; emergencies always wait for a person.
- A person when asked. A caller who wants a human is put through to someone you named; if nobody answers, a message is taken and a callback opened.
Can I get AI to answer my phone calls without changing my number?
Yes. Your number stays yours; Pickwick gets its own line and you forward to it. The three kinds of forwarding (always, busy, no answer) and the codes for AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Spectrum and Comcast Business are on forward your line. Setting your hours, your diagnostic fee in your own words, your service area and who approves takes about ten minutes and comes first; the first-week guide lists the four things to set.
What it costs
Per minute, from the moment a call is answered: $149 a month for 600 minutes (about 200 three-minute calls), then $0.49 a minute; $349 for 1,000 minutes; $749 for 2,500. No setup fee, month to month, Spanish included, and the first 14 days on your own number are free with no card. The numbers are on the pricing page, and the billing models of the market are compared in what an answering service costs.
What it will not do
- No pretending. It says it is automated in its first sentence and never claims to be a person.
- No invented prices or times. Your fee in your words, or a callback; an arrival window only from your hours and bookings.
- No repair advice beyond checking a thermostat or resetting a tripped breaker.
- No selling past a hazard. A caller who names gas, carbon monoxide, smoke or sparking hears a fixed 911 line before anything else.
Where a live service still wins
A caller who refuses to talk to software, a sales conversation that needs judgement, and a shop that wants somebody else to write the script. We say so because the comparison is fairer with the other side in it: AI receptionist vs answering service, and the two "alternative to" pages for Smith.ai and Ruby, with their published prices beside ours.
Built for the trades first
The pages for each trade say what their callers say after hours and what the agent does with each: HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Garage doors, Roofing, Appliance repair. Property managers have a page of their own, and Spanish answering is included on every plan.