AI Receptionist vs Human Receptionist: The Real Cost for Contractors

You need someone answering your phones. Every contractor who's been in business for more than a year knows this. The question isn't whether to have a receptionist — it's what kind.

The old answer was simple: hire someone. Put them at a desk with a phone. Pay $15-20/hr plus benefits, payroll taxes, vacation, sick days, and training.

The new answer is different. And the math isn't even close.

The Full Cost of a Human Receptionist

Most contractors think hiring a receptionist costs "$15-20 an hour." That's the salary. It's not the cost. Here's what you actually pay:

And that's for one person, 40 hours a week. What happens at 6 PM? Saturday? 2 AM when a pipe bursts? Nobody answers. The revenue walks.

The Full Cost of an AI Receptionist

Side-by-Side: What You Actually Get

Cost is only half the story. Here's what each option delivers in practice:

Where Humans Still Win

This isn't a hit piece on receptionists. Human receptionists are genuinely better at certain things:

• Complex, emotional conversations. A homeowner who just had a house fire needs human empathy. AI is getting better at this, but it's not there yet for truly emotional situations.
• In-person interactions. If you have a physical office where customers walk in, you need a human at the desk. AI answers phones, not doors.
• Highly custom workflows. If your booking process involves 15 conditional steps and exceptions for different types of work, a well-trained human can handle nuance that AI might miss.
• Relationship building. Some high-end contractors want their receptionist to know regulars by name and build personal rapport. That's a human strength.

What About Virtual Receptionist Services?

There's a middle option: virtual receptionist services like Ruby, Smith.ai, or Nexa. These are real humans at call centers answering your phone. Here's how they compare:

Virtual receptionist services work — but they're generic. The person answering doesn't know the difference between a panel upgrade and a panel replacement. They read from a script. They can't answer trade-specific questions. And once you hit your call limit, the per-minute overage fees add up fast.

An AI receptionist trained for your trade knows your business, your services, your pricing, and your calendar. It doesn't watch the clock. It doesn't charge per minute.

The ROI Math

Let's make this concrete. A plumbing company with 30 calls/day:

• 27% missed (industry average) = 8 missed calls/day
• $1,200 average job value (Housecall Pro data)
• 30% conversion rate on answered calls
• 8 × 30% × $1,200 = $2,880/day in lost revenue
• Monthly: $63,360 lost (22 working days)

An AI receptionist at $500/month captures even half of those missed calls:

• 4 extra jobs/day × $1,200 = $4,800/day recovered
• Monthly: $105,600 recovered
• ROI: 211x

Even if your numbers are half of this — even a quarter — the AI receptionist pays for itself in the first day of every month. The remaining 29 days are pure profit.

The Bottom Line

For contractors, the receptionist question comes down to this:

1. If you have no one answering phones — an AI receptionist is the single highest-ROI investment you can make. Period. Nothing else in your business returns $200 into $10,000+.
2. If you have a human receptionist — add AI for after-hours, weekends, and overflow. Your receptionist handles 40 hours; AI handles the other 128.
3. If you use a virtual receptionist service — run the numbers. You're likely paying more for less coverage and generic scripts.

I've built AI receptionists for 10 contractors. Every single one had the same reaction after the first week: "Why didn't I do this sooner?" The answer is always the same — they didn't know the option existed.