The Complete Guide to Online Virtual Receptionists for Small Businesses

When you miss a call, what’s the cost to your business?

It might be minimal. But it could be substantial. If you miss that vital call from a golden ticket customer you’ve been pestering to sign or renew, it might be your one and only chance. That customer may never call back, and you may not be able to reach them again. What might have been never materializes.

This is caused by a reliance on humans not being busy. But, in reality, we’re always busy. Fielding other phone calls, fighting fires, and planning in meetings means you’re not always free to answer every single call that enters your business.

Online virtual receptionists can fill that gap: handling inquiries, scheduling, and following up around the clock.

What Is an Online Virtual Receptionist?

An online virtual receptionist is a remote or automated service that answers calls, screens inquiries, manages call flows, schedules appointments, and routes messages on behalf of a business.

There are two main types of virtual receptionists:

• Live virtual receptionists: Real people working remotely to handle calls and manage voicemails.
• AI virtual receptionists: Digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language understanding. They answer calls to your business phone number and handle the entire conversation.

Hybrid options exist, where you might outsource your business-hours calls to a human and rely on digital assistants for out-of-hours, but AI receptionists increasingly outperform traditional services in speed, cost, and availability. After all, they don’t need lunch breaks or a good night’s sleep.

Live virtual receptionist vs. AI virtual receptionist

Feature	Live Virtual Receptionist	AI Virtual Receptionist
Who They Are	Real people working remotely to answer calls, manage schedules, and handle admin tasks.	Software assistants powered by AI and natural language understanding.
Availability	Limited to business hours, though some services offer 24/7 coverage.	Available 24/7 without breaks or downtime.
Scalability	Requires hiring or expanding the team for increased volume.	Easily scales to handle thousands of calls simultaneously.
Cost	Usually higher due to human labor costs.	More cost-effective long-term after setup.
Integration	Limited to manual systems or supported software.	Integrates seamlessly with CRM, calendars, and ticketing tools.
Data Handling	May require human discretion; prone to error or privacy risk.	Secure and automated data logging (depending on setup).
Best For	Businesses needing personalized, relationship-driven communication.	Businesses prioritizing efficiency, cost savings, and availability.

How Online Virtual Receptionists Work

Unlike a basic answering service that answers calls and takes messages, an online virtual receptionist looks after the entire interaction. For example, instead of simply improving your answer speed, taking a message, and getting an expert to call back, these digital assistants help with troubleshooting and navigation.

• Call or message intake: The system instantly answers incoming calls, chats, or texts.
• Natural conversation: Using speech recognition and conversational AI technology, it generates AI responses and handles common inquiries.
• Smart call routing: For complex issues, it routes the call to the right department or staff member.
• Calendar sync: It automatically books, reschedules, and confirms appointments.
• CRM updates: It captures customer info and logs every interaction for future context.

How it works

Of course, there’s a lot of complex programming and data processing happening in the background of an online virtual receptionist. These are highly developed and constantly self-optimizing tools that combine a multitude of technologies into a single digital assistant.

• AI models trained to interpret intent and sentiment.
• Text-to-speech and voice cloning for lifelike responses.
• Integration with business tools (Google Calendar, Outlook, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.).
• Real-time analytics dashboards tracking customer calls, bookings, and revenue impact.

Common Use Cases for Businesses

While viewed as one of the best AI tools for small businesses, online virtual receptionists have use cases across a variety of verticals.

Home and field services

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) specialists, along with plumbing, electrical, and landscaping businesses, use virtual receptionists to handle 24/7 appointment booking, emergency calls, and after-hours requests.

Example: When a customer reports a broken air conditioner at 10 p.m., the online receptionist troubleshoots and then books the next available technician, sends a confirmation text, and logs the job in the company’s CRM.

Healthcare and dental offices

These offices can schedule patient appointments, answer insurance questions, and maintain HIPAA compliance while freeing up front-office staff.

Example: Patients can confirm or reschedule cleanings through automated SMS links, while the AI provides accepted insurance details and updates patient records securely in the practice management system.

Law firms and professional services

AI virtual assistants can qualify new client inquiries, schedule consultations, and route calls to attorneys or accountants with full context.

Example: When a client calls about a personal injury case, the system collects key details, checks attorney availability, and books a consultation. This ensures the lawyer receives a complete summary before the meeting and isn’t going into it cold.

Restaurants and hospitality

AI receptionists can take reservations, confirm bookings, and answer menu or policy questions when staff are busy serving guests.

Example: A busy restaurant uses a virtual assistant to manage incoming calls during peak dinner hours so staff can focus on providing great in-person service. The virtual receptionist confirms table availability, takes reservations, and answers common questions like “Do you have gluten-free options?”

Fitness and wellness centers

These businesses can use AI receptionists to manage class bookings, membership inquiries, and reschedule requests while trainers stay focused on clients.

Example: When a member cancels a yoga class, the system automatically opens the spot and notifies the next person on the waitlist, keeping the schedule full without staff involvement.

Key Benefits of an Online Virtual Receptionist

24/7 availability

You won’t miss customer or prospect calls if you have a service that’s genuinely always on (and not prone to burnout like humans).

AI assistants like XBert respond instantly after hours, on weekends, and during holidays. This means you can adjust your service level agreements or offer priority customer support solutions.

Professional image

Creating a positive first impression is vital in the era of demanding customer experience. With the best live answering services, callers hear a friendly, branded greeting and consistent tone, projecting reliability and care. You can customize greetings, tone of voice, and content specific to your own business.

Write your script, upload it to XBert, and let AI take care of the rest. Your new receptionist then handles the calls while you get on with running your business. (Take a listen to these conversations here!)

Cost efficiency

You might want to sit down for this nugget of ROI gold…

According to Indeed, the average call center agent’s hourly rate is $18.55. If your call center handles 5,000 calls a month and each agent handles 50 calls per day, your total human cost is $20,000 per year per employee. If you had used the XBert AI online receptionist, this would come in at under $5,000.

Moving to a pay-per-interaction, not per-hire solution, could mean major cost savings while introducing 24/7 service.

The cost of an answering service is also put under the microscope when compared to the best virtual receptionists. Outsourcing specialists like MoneyPenny or AnswerConnect may offer tailored answering solutions, but with tons of staff manning the phones, there’s a high cost associated with being always on and maintaining a consistent level of service.

👉 Calculate Your Cost Savings: AI Receptionist ROI Calculator

Multichannel communication

Sure, your current receptionist does more than sit by the phone waiting for it to ring. And so do online virtual receptionists. They can handle voice, SMS, chat, and email from one unified inbox — ensuring context never gets lost.

But we’re not talking about replacing your receptionist. Removing their repetitive and mundane tasks means they’re free to spend time on more human-focused tasks. They’ll thank you for the number of times they no longer have to say, “Thanks for calling ABC,” and see their productivity boosted in other areas.

Lead capture and CRM sync

Did you know that XBert automatically collects customer information, qualifies leads, and updates CRM records, ensuring every opportunity is followed up on?

Using an AI assistant dramatically reduces the potential for:

• Incorrect information entry
• Manual duplication across systems
• Assignment to the wrong sales personnel

It also speeds up the data entry time and helps funnel sales material and context to the right teams for follow-up calls and emails.

Intelligent scheduling

Take away the constant back and forth to find mutual times, and let smart calendar integrations handle confirmations, reminders, and rescheduling. This automated diary and calendar management is proven to reduce no-shows and manual work.

Instead of waiting for colleagues to respond, XBert can find gaps where sales reps, customer service staff, or technicians are free and schedule in line with customer demand.

Scalability

Whether you receive 20 or 20,000 business calls a day, AI receptionists can handle unlimited interactions simultaneously. There’s no need to schedule breaks or time for meetings. Simply implement your chosen online virtual receptionist, and let it take care of the time-consuming (and let’s be honest, energy-sapping) work for you.

With market-leading tools like XBert, there’s no upper limit on calls handled, and you can manage multiple inbound calls, texts, and chats simultaneously, scaling instantly without wait times or busy signals.

How Businesses Train and Customize Their Virtual Receptionist

When digital receptionists were first introduced, they were robot-centric and prone to errors with live customers. That is very much in the past, with today’s superior models boasting considerable credentials:

• Setup simplicity: Go live in under three minutes with plug-and-play onboarding.
• Personalization: Choose your AI’s voice, greeting, and hours of operation.
• Knowledge base: Train it on FAQs, service info, pricing, and company tone.
• Multilanguage support: Choose English, Spanish, or custom languages to support your customers.
• Testing and optimization: Monitor transcripts and refine responses continuously.
• Integration: Sync seamlessly with NextivaONE, CRMs, and scheduling systems.

XBert AI: The Future of Reception Is Online and AI-Driven

As humans, we are flawed. It’s taken some time to realize this. But with the acceleration of AI development, we can see that it’s obvious that systems are better suited and more productive.

AI receptionists such as XBert are revolutionizing the way businesses operate. They replace reactive, labor-intensive call handling with proactive, intelligent engagement. That’s a win for both your customers and your staff. Nextiva’s XBert AI embodies that shift: an always-on, customer-ready employee that scales with your business needs and never takes a break.

It’s not just a call answering service. It’s your front desk team, customer service representative, and scheduler rolled into one intelligent platform.

The bottom line?

Businesses that adopt AI receptionists early gain a competitive edge, like faster response times, happier customers, and higher revenue per lead. You can set up your AI receptionist in minutes. And if you’re not satisfied with the service, a 30-day money-back guarantee is also available.

Ready to save on costs while providing an always-on service? Take a look at XBert AI here.