What a virtual receptionist is
A virtual receptionist answers your business phone from somewhere other than your front desk. For years the phrase meant a person at an answering service working from your script; it now also means software that talks. Both take the call you cannot, take the caller's details and pass them on. They differ in what the caller hears, what each costs per minute, and what you get back afterwards.
Pickwick is a virtual receptionist that is software, built for home-service businesses, and it says what it is in its first sentence. This page is written so a shop comparing the two kinds can see where each one fits.
A person or a program: the honest comparison
| Live virtual receptionist | Pickwick | |
|---|---|---|
| The caller hears | A person giving your shop's name | "I'm an automated assistant, and this call is recorded," then a conversation |
| At 2 am | Answered after any hold, if the plan covers nights | Answered at once, same price per minute |
| A caller who smells gas | Whatever the script says | A fixed 911 line before anything else, in English or Spanish |
| Your diagnostic fee | From the script | In your words only; never invented |
| Booking | Varies by provider | Penciled in; by default you approve with one tap |
| What you get back | A message, by email or app | The recording, the transcript and what was written down, the same minute |
| Billing | By the minute or the call; bilingual often extra | By the minute from $149 for 600; Spanish included |
| Where it fails | The caller waits; the script runs out | The caller wants a person and nobody you named answers |
The case for the person, made properly, is in AI receptionist vs answering service. Two live services' published prices are beside Pickwick's on the Smith.ai and Ruby pages, with the date they were read.
What Pickwick does as your virtual receptionist
- Answers on the number you already have: you forward it after hours, when busy, or always, with one code, and switch it back the same way.
- Takes the name, callback number, address and problem, and reads the number and address back.
- Sorts urgent from routine: urgent to the people you list now, routine into the first open window from your hours.
- Answers questions from what you told it (hours, service area, your fee) and takes a callback for what you did not.
- Puts a caller who asks for a person through to someone you name, and takes a message with a callback if nobody answers.
What it costs
Virtual receptionist pricing, for Pickwick, is per minute: $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 refuses
- 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.
Which businesses
The home-service trades sign up on the site: HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Garage doors, Roofing, Appliance repair. Property management has its own page; other businesses go live through a guided setup. Not for healthcare practices for now.