Guide · Reception
LiveIt answers web chat and email at any hour, quotes from your price list, records bookings for a person to confirm and hands the rest over. Text-first today; phone is planned. The first 30 days are free.
The role behind this guide is the AI inbound sales manager. Venue setups: café, salon, HVAC, restaurant, law firm, dental, auto.
Unistaff · Front desk
Reception
In one paragraph
An AI front desk is an AI employee that answers the enquiries a small business receives in writing. At Unistaff it is the AI inbound sales manager: it replies on your web chat and email at any hour, says it is your AI assistant, asks your trade's questions, quotes only from your price list, records booking requests a person confirms and hands anything unusual to a person.
How much does it cost?
The first 30 days are a free pilot: one AI inbound sales manager for one company on web chat and email, no payment and no card, stop at any time. After it, one flat monthly fee per AI employee is agreed on the pilot review. Messages and minutes are unmetered, and no list price is published.
Five moves, in this order, on every message. The rules on the AI disclosure, the price list and bookings are held in code on every reply, so a Sunday answer matches a Tuesday one.
Reply
Answers web chat on your site and email to a dedicated address, in the language the customer wrote in. The first message says it is the AI assistant of your company, and the chat keeps an AI badge.
Qualify
Asks the questions of your trade one at a time and never twice. What is still missing is shown on the lead, so the person who picks it up knows what to ask.
Quote from your list
Names prices only from the list you approved. A number outside it is stopped before sending and replaced with “I will check with the team”.
Record the booking
A visit, a table or a consultation is recorded as a request with the details, and a person confirms the time. It never says “you are booked” on its own.
Hand over
The word HUMAN, a complaint, an emergency, a legal, tax or medical question, or a customer ready to pay goes to a person with a summary in the cabinet and an email copy.
Who sends the reply
A new front desk starts as a Trainee. You raise the level at the weekly review; it drops on its own after three rule hits in seven days, a thumbs-down share of 30% or more once five replies are rated, a missed handover or a complaint.
Drafts every reply for your approval.
After 3 minutes without your answer the customer gets a holding line and the conversation is escalated.
Sends on its own, quotes from your price list and records booking requests.
Anything outside the price list, the hours or the service area still waits for you.
Adds ready-to-pay handovers and follow-ups inside the consent window, if you switch them on.
Payments, contracts and promises about dates stay with a person at every level.
Read the person column as the job that remains, and staff for that job rather than for the whole desk. Each venue page narrows these rows to its own trade.
| Task | AI front desk | Person |
|---|---|---|
| The first reply to a new enquiry | AI front deskAnswers at any hour on web chat or email, in the customer's language, and says it is an AI | PersonReads the conversation in the cabinet |
| Repeat questions — hours, services, area, parking | AI front deskAnswers from your approved knowledge folder; a missing fact gets “I will check with the team” | PersonKeeps the folder current |
| Qualification | AI front deskAsks your trade's questions one at a time; what is missing is shown on the lead | PersonDecides which leads jump the queue |
| A price | AI front deskOnly from the approved list; anything else is stopped before sending | PersonQuotes everything off the list |
| Booking | AI front deskRecords the request with the details; calendar connections are planned | PersonConfirms the time |
| Complaints, emergencies, legal, tax or medical questions | AI front deskHands over with a summary; the customer is told a person is taking over | PersonTakes the conversation |
| The week | AI front deskPuts three conversations in front of you: one rated down, one handed over, one at random | PersonPromotes, keeps, retrains or lets go |
A café and a salon run the same rules on different material. Five venues run on a ready job description today; dental practices, clinics and auto repair shops are set up on request for one business at a time. Each page carries the enquiry mix, the split with a person and the cost model for that desk.
The phone is on the bar and the inbox has no owner. Catering and hire enquiries arrive during the morning rush and get answered after close.
Bookings and colour questions arrive while every chair is full. The reply that wins the booking is the one that goes out first.
The desk is with a patient, the phone is ringing and the inbox holds the new-patient enquiries that fill next quarter's schedule.
The advisor is under a hood, the phone is on the counter, and every quote request needs seven facts before anyone can price it.
One person covers phones, check-in and scheduling. Requests that arrive during a consultation wait for a gap that never comes.
The no-heat message lands at 9 p.m. while the techs are on calls. The company that answers first books the diagnostic visit.
Table requests and event enquiries arrive during service. One answered after close may find the guest already booked elsewhere.
New enquiries arrive while the lawyers are in meetings or in court. Each one needs a few answers before a lawyer can tell whether the matter fits.
Two more ready job descriptions: listing enquiries with the showing offered first, and moves qualified before any rate.
See the real-estate setupA front desk is only as good as the channel it listens on. Web chat and email are Live and set up for every pilot; phone, SMS, messengers and calendars are planned.
If most of your enquiries already arrive in writing, a text-first desk covers them today. If the desk lives on the phone, keep calls with a person or an answering service and point repeat questions to the chat on your site.
Web chat on your site
LiveThe widget goes on your site with you or your webmaster during pilot setup. Replies come in the customer's language, and the chat keeps an AI badge.
Email to a dedicated address
LiveSet up for your pilot. Answered from the same knowledge folder, with the same price check and handover rules as the chat.
Handover alerts
LiveEach handover lands in the cabinet with a summary, and an email copy goes to the handover contact agreed for the pilot.
Leads as CSV
LiveLeads carry the qualification answers and what is still missing. If you stop, the leads and the knowledge folder stay with you.
Phone answering and SMS
PlannedPlanned as a separate desk. Until then, phone enquiries stay with a person or your answering service.
Calendar booking
PlannedUntil a calendar is connected, a booking is a request with the details written down, and a person confirms the time.
Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram
PlannedOn the roadmap. A link from your profile to the page that carries the web chat is the bridge until then.
Every connection with its status: integrations
A person at the desk, an AI receptionist plan priced by minutes or calls, or a pilot with a flat fee agreed after it. The figures below carry their sources; the table on the right is the site’s cost model at the ROI calculator’s defaults.
Model at the ROI calculator defaults; $35/h sits near the BLS median total compensation (March 2026)
C$3,870
In-house receptionist in Ottawa, per month, before benefits
Job Bank Canada, NOC 14101: median $20/h plus CPP, EI and vacation pay
$29–800
AI receptionist plans for small business, per month, most with minute or call caps
Dialzara, Rosie, Goodcall and Smith.ai price pages, USD, checked 2026-10-31
$0
The Unistaff pilot, 30 days
One AI inbound sales manager, web chat and email, no card
The front desk is hired like a person: interview, exam, probation. Every sitting of the demo employees is in the exam log.
The Unistaff team sets up the chat widget on your site with you or your webmaster, and the email address for the pilot.
Your website is read into a five-section draft. You approve it with the price list, hours, service area, contacts and “never” rules.
You talk to the candidate in a sandbox where nothing reaches a real customer, then approve the hire.
Twelve cases from your trade, each run three times. You see which passed; a release without a passed exam carries a badge saying so.
30 days as a Trainee whose replies you approve, then a weekly review with your decision on the level.
An AI employee that answers the enquiries a business receives in writing: it replies, asks the qualification questions, quotes from the approved price list, records booking requests and hands the rest to a person. At Unistaff it is the AI inbound sales manager on web chat and email.
Not at Unistaff today. It is text-first: web chat on your site and email to a dedicated address. Phone and SMS are planned as a separate desk; until then calls stay with a person or your answering service.
The first 30 days are a free pilot: one AI inbound sales manager for one company on web chat and email, no payment and no card, stop at any time. After it, one flat monthly fee per AI employee is agreed on the pilot review. Messages and minutes are unmetered, and no list price is published.
The ready job descriptions are HVAC, plumbing and electrical; moving; real estate; salons and barbershops; and restaurants and catering, which covers a café's catering and hire enquiries. Law firms and other consulting, legal and tax practices run on a sixth template used in the group's own firms. Dental practices, clinics and auto repair shops are set up on request for one company at a time.
It records the booking request with the details and tells the customer a person will confirm the time. Calendar connections are planned, so it never says “you are booked” on its own.
Yes. The first message says it is the AI assistant of your company, the chat keeps an AI badge, and it confirms when asked. Typing HUMAN hands the conversation to a person at once.
Yes. You can take over any conversation from the cabinet, pause the employee or press the company-wide stop button. If you stop the pilot, the leads (as CSV) and the knowledge folder stay with you.
A chatbot answers inside its window. An AI front desk is hired with an interview, sits an exam in your trade, starts as a Trainee whose replies you approve, and is reviewed every week on three real conversations.
The pilot is free, with no card. The Unistaff team sets up the chat on your site and the email address with you, and replies within one business day.
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A person reads it and answers within one business day: which job description fits, what the pilot covers on your web chat and email, and what we need from you.
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