Before you sign with an answering service, get answers to 12 questions in four groups: who answers and when, what they do with a call, what the bill really includes, and how you leave. Then make five test calls yourself, including one at 11 p.m. and one as an unreasonable caller. The checklist below lists each question, what a good answer sounds like and what should make you walk away. Medical practices have extra rules, so they should also read answering service for a medical office.

Group 1: who answers, and when

1. "Is a person or an AI answering, and can I choose?" Some services use live agents, some use AI, and many mix the two. A good answer is specific: "A live agent answers 24 hours a day, and an AI handles overflow when all agents are busy." A red flag is a vague "our team," because you can't tell if you are paying for people. The tradeoffs between the options are in answering service vs virtual receptionist.

2. "What are your hours, and what do you do on holidays and in busy periods?" A service that answers 24 hours a day can still be slow at 8 a.m. on a Monday when everyone's callers hit at once. Ask how many rings before they pick up and what happens when all agents are on calls. A good answer gives a number of seconds. A red flag is "we're never busy."

3. "How do I keep my number?" You should be able to forward your current number to the service and turn forwarding off whenever you want. If the service insists you move your number or get a new one, you are trading flexibility for convenience.

Group 2: what they do with a call

4. "Will you follow my script, and can I change it myself?" Write out the greeting, the three questions you want asked, and the cases that need an immediate call to you. A good service enters it in writing and lets you edit it. A red flag is "our agents use their judgment," which means your callers get a different experience every time.

5. "What counts as urgent, and how fast do I hear about it?" You decide the definition: a burst pipe, a locked-out customer, a client who says they are canceling. A good answer is a written rule and a stated way of reaching you, by call or text, with a backup person if you do not answer. A red flag is that urgent calls go into the same message queue as everything else.

6. "What can the agent actually do on the call?" Take a message, transfer, book into your calendar, answer from a list of facts about your business, take a payment. Each added task is a line on the bill, so ask which ones are included. If you want bookings, ask whether the agent can see your real availability or only writes down a requested time for you to confirm later.

Group 3: what the bill includes

7. "How is a minute or a call counted?" Some services round every call up to the next full minute, and others bill in smaller steps. Some count time on hold, transfers and the agent's time writing up the message after you hang up. A 40-second call billed as a minute is 50 percent more than you thought, and over hundreds of calls that adds up. Ask for the rule in writing. The three pricing models and what they cost at 20, 60 and 150 calls a month are in answering service cost.

8. "Do spam calls, wrong numbers and hang-ups count?" A business line gets junk calls. If the service bills every one, a quiet month of real customers can still produce a loud invoice. A good answer is that they screen obvious spam or do not bill for calls under a few seconds. A red flag is "every call is billable."

9. "What is the price above my plan, and is there a cap?" Overage rates are where bills jump in a busy month. Ask what you pay for the 51st call on a 50-call plan, and whether you can set a maximum monthly spend. Ask about setup fees, minimum terms and charges for outbound calls.

Group 4: messages, quality and leaving

10. "How do I get a message, and how fast?" You want the caller's name, number and reason in one place, in a form you will read. Text, email and an app are the usual options. Ask for a sample message from a real call, and check that the phone number is written in a way you can tap. Ask whether you get a recording or a transcript, and how accurate transcripts are on names and street addresses, which software tends to get wrong.

11. "Can I hear a recording of a real call, and who else can?" Listening to a handled call tells you more than any sales page. Ask how long recordings are kept, who at the service can open them, and how you delete them. Call-recording laws differ by state, and some require every person on the call to consent, so ask how the service tells callers about recording. The rules are summarized in is it legal to record business calls.

12. "How do I cancel, and what do I get back?" A good answer is "month to month, cancel anytime, and we'll export your call history on request." A red flag is an annual term that renews automatically. Ask whether a notice period applies and what happens to your forwarded number. A service you can leave easily is one that has to keep earning your business.

Five test calls to make

Do these before you sign, and again in the first week. Use a phone that is not on the account.

  1. Call at 11 p.m. Is the greeting right, and how many rings did it take?
  2. Call during the busiest hour of the day. Do you get the same quality when the agents are busy?
  3. Ask a question that is not in the script, such as "can I speak to someone about a refund?" Does the agent say what they don't know and take a message, or make something up?
  4. Be an impatient caller. Interrupt and ask for a human. Does the agent stay calm and keep to your instructions?
  5. Hang up after five seconds, then call from a number the service has not seen. Check the first invoice to see how junk calls were counted.

Time how long each message takes to reach you, and read it as a customer would. If the message you get does not tell you who to call back and why, the service is not working for you, however good the greeting sounded. The three questions you can ask an AI receptionist vendor in the same spirit are in three questions for AI receptionist vendors.

How to score the results

Give each vendor one point per question with a clear, written answer, and subtract a point for each red flag. A vendor with 10 or more clear answers and no red flags on questions 5, 7 and 12 is worth a month's trial. If two vendors tie, pick the one with the shorter commitment. The goal is to find out in a month, with real callers, whether the service is something you would miss if it stopped.

If the phone is where you lose jobs, Rocketship can answer it around the clock once your number is forwarded to a Rocketship line ($5 a month), taking the caller's details and booking a time. A 7-day free trial lets you run the same five test calls on it; a card is required to start.