An AI Answering Service for Inbound Business Enquiries
An answering service exists to make sure someone picks up. Vocanta does that, and then goes a step further: it qualifies the enquiry against your questions and can book the appointment on the call rather than just taking a message.
A message is not an outcome
A traditional answering service records who called and passes on a note. The enquiry still waits for someone on your team to call back — often the next working day, by which point the caller has booked elsewhere.
- Messages arrive without the detail your team actually needs
- Follow-up depends on someone being free to call back
- Callers repeat themselves twice — once to the service, once to you
- Coverage costs rise with call volume
Answer, qualify, and finish the job
Vocanta handles the enquiry to a conclusion where it can, and escalates cleanly where it cannot.
- Step 01Immediate pickup
Calls are answered as they arrive, including nights and weekends.
- Step 02Full intake
Your intake questions are asked every time and confirmed with the caller.
- Step 03Booking where possible
If the enquiry needs an appointment, the agent offers your available slots and confirms one.
- Step 04Escalation where needed
Urgent or out-of-scope calls are transferred or flagged with the reason.
What you get
The same process applies at 3pm and 3am.
Nothing is forgotten because the shift changed.
Plans cover a monthly call-time allowance rather than charging per seat.
Rules you define decide what counts as urgent and where it goes.
Caller, enquiry and outcome, ready to export.
You point the relevant calls at Vocanta and keep your existing numbers in place.
Where businesses use it
- Out-of-hours answering for service businesses
- Weekend and bank-holiday cover
- Overflow during marketing campaigns
- Emergency callout triage with defined escalation rules
- Small teams without a dedicated receptionist
AI answers first. People take over when it matters.
Vocanta is not designed to replace your team. You decide which situations must reach a person — and when a caller asks for one, or the enquiry falls outside the configured scope, the agent says so plainly and follows your escalation rule: a transfer, a message with a callback time, or an agreed follow-up. The reason for every escalation is recorded.
How we handle your call dataQuestions we get asked
How is this different from a human answering service?
A human answering service normally takes a message for your team to action later. Vocanta answers the same calls, asks your qualification questions, and where the enquiry allows it books the appointment or transfers the caller on the same call — with the details recorded either way.
Can the AI transfer a call to a person?
Yes. You decide which situations need a human. When one of those comes up — or when a caller asks for a person — Vocanta transfers the call to the right team member, takes a message with a callback time, or agrees a follow-up, and records the reason for the escalation so whoever picks it up has the context.
How much does it cost?
Plans start at £250 per month and are priced by the amount of call time you need rather than by seat, billed monthly or annually with a 20% saving on annual billing. Extra call time can be added at any point and you can change plan monthly.
How quickly can we go live?
Setup starts with a short call to agree which calls Vocanta answers, the questions it asks, and where each outcome should go. You then choose the voice in the Voice Studio and we test the flow on your own example enquiries. Most businesses are answering live calls within a few working days, with no engineering work needed from your side.
How is our call data handled?
Call data and contact details are transmitted over TLS and stored encrypted at rest, inside an access-controlled workspace, and integration credentials are handled server-side rather than in the browser. You can export contacts and call outcomes at any time or ask us to delete your workspace data, and a Data Processing Agreement is available on request. Vocanta does not currently hold SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA certification.
Hear it answer a call like yours.
A 20-minute demo: we walk through your inbound calls, show the agent handling one of them, and tell you plainly what it will and will not do.