AI receptionist · staffing
A staffing branch’s phone starts before the branch does. Workers call at 5:30 a.m. to say they cannot make it, clients call at 7 to say three people did not show, and applicants call all day to ask whether anything is open. The receptionist answers from the information you approve, tries the coordinator you choose, and leaves every callout, order and status question as a record your coordinators can act on.
From $49/month with 250 AI minutes and one US local number included. Additional AI time is $0.09 a minute on managed plans. See full pricing
I cannot make my shift. Am I confirmed for tomorrow? When does my pay come through? The receptionist cannot see your scheduling or payroll system and does not pretend to. It takes the worker’s name, the client site, the shift and the question as a message for the coordinator, and states your callout and pay-schedule policies as you set them.
A warehouse needs six more pickers for tonight, an office needs a front desk fill for the day, a site supervisor wants to know where the two people who were confirmed are. The receptionist captures the order with the site, the shift, the headcount and the start time, tries your on-call coordinator, and your coordinator fills it. The receptionist assigns nobody.
Are you hiring? Do you have anything in light industrial? What documents do I bring? The receptionist answers from the openings summary and the application process you approve, and captures the applicant’s name, number and the kind of work they want.
Illustrative example A 5:40 a.m. call from a worker who cannot make a 6 a.m. shift. The business, the caller and the policy are invented; the receptionist opens every real call with its AI disclosure.
Thanks for calling Pinnacle Staffing. I am an AI receptionist for the team. How can I help?
This is Luis Herrera. I am on the 6 a.m. shift at the Fulton distribution center and my car will not start. I am not going to make it.
Thank you for calling it in, Luis. Pinnacle asks workers to report a callout as early as they can, and every callout is logged with the time it comes in, as the agency set it. Just to confirm: the 6 a.m. shift at the Fulton distribution center, today?
Yes, that is the one. Can I still get a shift tomorrow? And I never got last week’s pay stub.
I cannot assign shifts and I cannot see payroll, your coordinator and the office handle those, but I will put both questions in the record so nothing is lost. What is the best number to reach you today?
This one is fine.
Thank you. Let me try the on-call coordinator now. Please hold for a moment.
Dana picked up. I am connecting you now.
Synthetic example record The call record shows a callout: Luis Herrera, 6 a.m. shift today at the Fulton distribution center, car trouble, reported at 5:40 a.m., asked about a shift tomorrow and a missing pay stub, callback at the number he called from, transfer to the on-call coordinator at 5:41 a.m. answered. Dana talks to Luis directly and starts calling replacements for Fulton before the shift begins; the pay stub question waits for the office in the same record.
Every answer comes from the business information you approve during setup. The receptionist does not guess at prices, areas or policies you have not given it.
The hardest hour of a staffing day is the one before the office is staffed. Callouts for 6 a.m. shifts arrive at 5:15, and the client’s supervisor calls at 6:10 because two people did not show. The receptionist answers both, states your callout policy as you wrote it, logs the site and the shift, and tries your on-call coordinator so replacements can be called while there is still time.
Second and third shifts do not stop at five, and weekend orders come in on Friday night. The receptionist takes the order or the callout in full, tries the on-call coordinator, and leaves the record in the inbox and on your webhooks so the branch opens on Monday to a list rather than a voicemail box. During a job fair or a seasonal ramp it answers each applicant with the application steps you approved, and a waiting queue with position announcements is available for the moments when several people call at once.
How after-hours answering works → What happens when three people call at once →
When a caller describes danger, the receptionist uses only the safety wording you approve, tries your on-call transfer and marks the request urgent. It gives no safety advice of its own and promises no arrival time. For a life-threatening situation, approve a line that tells the caller to hang up and call emergency services.
The same table on every receptionist page, because the limits matter as much as the features when you are choosing.
| On a call | Today | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Questions about hours, services, areas and prices | Handled on the call | Answered from the business information you approve. A question you have not covered gets a plain "I do not have that" and a message for your team, never a guess. |
| Reaching a person on your team | Handled on the call | A transfer to one eligible US destination, with the teammates you list tried in turn when the first does not pick up. |
| Closed hours, a busy line and holidays | Handled on the call | Your closed-hours message, a bounded waiting queue with position announcements, and the fallback path you configure when every AI line is busy. |
| Messages and callback requests | Captured for your team | Name, number, the request in the caller’s words and the details you ask for, in your inbox and on your webhooks the moment the call ends. |
| Appointment and estimate requests | Captured for your team | The request, the address and the caller’s preferred times. Your team confirms the time from the record; the receptionist writes no calendar. |
| Emergencies and safety | Captured for your team | Only the safety wording you approve, such as where a shutoff valve is, then the on-call transfer and an urgent request. It gives no medical, legal or electrical advice of its own. |
| Dispatching a crew or promising an arrival time | Not part of the receptionist | Not the receptionist’s job: your dispatcher assigns the work and your team confirms the visit from the record it leaves. |
| Texting the caller afterwards | Not part of the receptionist | It sends no text messages. Requests reach you in the inbox, on your signed webhooks and through the API. |
| Writing to a calendar, a CRM or a dispatch system | Not part of the receptionist | No named connector exists. Results reach other systems through signed webhooks, CSV export and the API. |
| Recording the whole call | Not part of the receptionist | Full-call recording is not part of the receptionist offer. Every call leaves a record of what was asked and what was answered. |
| Languages other than English | Not part of the receptionist | English today. |
| Guaranteed answer rates, response times or outcomes | Not part of the receptionist | Capacity is per plan on shared fleet, not reserved hardware. When every AI line is busy, callers follow the fallback path you chose. |
When a call ends without a transfer, the receptionist leaves your team a request instead of a missed-call notification. For staffing agencies that record holds:
Requests land in the team inbox and on your configured webhooks, with the call record beside them. Read how the receptionist handles a call, see how intake questions are chosen, or see what reaches your team.
Published plans, no quote required. Each managed plan includes one standard US local number; the lower BYO price is for businesses that already run their own Twilio account.
| Plan | AI minutes included | Number included | Your own Twilio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 250 | $49 | $39 plus your Twilio bill |
| Business | 1,000 | $139 | $109 plus your Twilio bill |
| Scale | 2,000 | $269 | $219 plus your Twilio bill |
Example from the rate card 120 calls a month averaging 3 minutes each use about 360 AI minutes after the 30-second per-call minimum. The cheapest managed plan for that month is Starter at $59: the $49 subscription plus $10 of additional AI time. With your own Twilio account the cheapest plan is Starter at $45, plus your carrier bill. Non-AI incoming time, connected transfers, extra numbers and taxes are not in these figures.
Get a supported US local business number without setting up your own Twilio account. Search by city, state or area code during paid setup; actual inventory, the number quote, accepted billing/funding and call qualification determine activation. AI time is metered per second with a 30-second minimum per AI-handled call. Every rate and term is on the pricing page.
No. It takes the callout or the order and tries your on-call coordinator. Your coordinators assign shifts and fill orders from the record; the receptionist never tells a worker they are confirmed.
No, and it says so when asked. It answers from the policies you approve, such as your callout rule and your pay schedule, and takes everything specific to a worker as a message for the coordinator or the office.
The receptionist answers at 5 a.m. the same way it does at noon: it logs the callout with the time, states your policy, and tries the on-call coordinator and up to three teammates in turn. If nobody answers, the record reaches your team inbox and webhooks immediately.
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An electrician’s phone mixes real danger with routine estimates.
Start with your website, review every answer before you pay, and keep your existing number.
