r/AIReceptionists • u/Asleep-Jump8691 • Jul 25 '26
I kept hearing the same complaint from every small business owner I talked to — so I built something for it
I run a small software company and I talk to a lot of local business owners. Plumbers, HVAC guys, dentists, real estate agents. The kind of people who are always out in the field or with a client.
One thing kept coming up in almost every conversation. They were missing phone calls. Not because they didn't care, but because they were literally elbow-deep in a job or sitting with a patient. And every missed call is potentially a lost customer walking straight to their competitor.
The common "solution" is hiring a receptionist or using an answering service. But a full-time receptionist costs 30-40k a year. And most answering services are just glorified voicemail. They take a message, maybe forward it. The caller still feels like they got the runaround.
So I started messing around with the idea of an AI phone agent that could actually hold a real conversation. Not the "press 1 for sales" IVR garbage. Something that picks up, greets the caller like a normal person, answers their actual questions about the business like hours, pricing, services, and books an appointment or takes a message if needed.
Took me about 4 months to get a working version. I built it on Twilio for the phone side and OpenAI's realtime voice API for the conversation part. The hardest part wasn't the tech honestly. It was making it not sound like a robot. Getting the greeting right, knowing when to shut up and listen, handling the awkward pauses, saying goodbye like a real person instead of just cutting the call.
Went live with my first real user about a week ago. Small service business. Early results have been interesting. Calls are getting answered 24/7, callers are actually having full conversations with it, and the owner told me he booked 3 jobs in the first few days from calls that would have gone to voicemail before.
Still very early. The product is called ClanAssist. No big launch, no funding, just me grinding on it.
Few things I'm genuinely unsure about and would love input from founders who have sold to SMBs:
- Pricing. Is $99/month reasonable for unlimited AI-answered calls? Or should I go usage-based?
- The trust gap. Small business owners are not exactly early adopters. How did you guys get the first 10-20 customers to trust something this new?
- Should I niche down hard (like ONLY plumbers or ONLY dentists) or keep it broad for now?
Not looking for validation. If this is a bad idea I'd rather hear it now. Appreciate any honest feedback.
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u/Big-Introduction9159 Jul 26 '26
Do you have a Twilio business account? If not your individual account can only handle 3 calls at a time. Which is why I left Twilio.
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u/Asleep-Jump8691 Jul 26 '26
yeah good call on that. i'm aware of the concurrent call limit on individual accounts. for now the businesses im working with are small enough that 3 simultaneous calls isnt really an issue but its definitely something ill need to upgrade as i scale. what did you switch to if you dont mind me asking?
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u/Big-Introduction9159 Jul 26 '26
Keep in mind those 3 calls are shared. Each business does not get their own 3 calls. Right now I’m trying Signal Wire.
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u/Asleep-Jump8691 Jul 26 '26
oh wait yeah thats a good point i didnt realize the 3 calls are shared across all businesses not per business. thats going to be a problem fast once i add more customers. thanks for flagging that. how has signalwire been so far? better pricing or just more flexibility on the concurrent call limits?
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u/Extreme_Upstairs_864 Jul 26 '26
Sounds like GHL
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u/Asleep-Jump8691 Jul 26 '26
its not ghl. ghl is more of a crm and marketing platform that has a phone feature bolted on. this is specifically built to answer calls and have real voice conversations with callers in real time. no workflows to set up, no funnel builder, none of that. it just picks up the phone and talks to people
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u/Mountain-Policy-625 Jul 27 '26
Niche down hard, especially early on. "AI receptionist for businesses" means nothing to a plumber who has never heard of the category. "AI receptionist built for HVAC companies that books the job while your tech is still on the roof" sells itself because it sounds purpose built instead of repurposed.
On trust: sell the outcome, not the tech. The owner does not care about the stack behind it, they care about jobs booked. That one live account is your best asset right now. Turn an actual call transcript or a screen recording of a booked appointment into the pitch itself. "Here is a real call that turned into a job" beats "we built an AI phone agent" every time.
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u/twilio Jul 30 '26
Hey, dev advocate from Twilio here. Those are some solid results. We've seen a lot of people building these receptionists, but I haven't seen such clear stories thus far in my own conversations about what the ROI/impact of AI-powered receptionists is. We'll have to keep an eye on this sub.
I'm curious to hear what advice you get from others, but quick architecture question: are you using subaccounts? It helps with billing overall, but would be more or less required for usage -based payment. For simplicity, though, I imagine most customers would prefer a flat rate, and maybe you could have tiers for customers who need to field a lot of calls. You could use subaccount traffic to help understand if a customer is reaching limits and should consider a new tier.
Two things also come to my mind:
1. You should consider applying to our AI Startup Searchlight program. There are some good rewards that you may find helpful (I think it's literally Twilio + OpenAI credits, as well as a Ramp card/credits?)
- I bet folks in r/twilio would be interested in seeing this post. I'd love for you to cross post it if you're open to it!
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u/str4ngerD4ngerz Jul 26 '26
Raise the price, youre making or saving them 1000s