AI receptionist for small business The front desk that never goes home.

You can give it your business name, draft a profile and test an answer in a few minutes. Connecting WhatsApp takes a few more. A new phone line needs carrier registration — 10DLC for local numbers, verification for toll-free — which usually takes a few days. Phone and SMS setup needs public privacy-policy and terms pages. Local (10DLC) numbers require a US business — EIN for registered entities, a texted code for sole proprietors — while toll-free numbers are open to businesses outside the US as well.

Signing up is free and no card is required — email drafts and website chat start there. Responder is $19/mo and adds WhatsApp and Instagram. Front Desk is $49/mo and adds the phone and SMS line. Cancel any time.

It does both jobs. Like an answering service, it picks up the calls you miss, 24/7. Like a virtual receptionist, it knows your business, so it answers questions, qualifies buyers and captures the details your team needs instead of only taking a message. Front Desk includes up to 100 total minutes across inbound and outbound InboxTender calls each month. New calls pause when that allowance is used.

Yes. When a lead goes quiet, the assistant follows up in the same thread — a nudge about the truck they asked about, a reminder of the visit they floated — and the moment they reply, the conversation is back in your inbox. You can also reach out first: text or call any contact from the inbox, or send a broadcast to contacts who agreed to hear from you. Every text honors STOP and quiet hours.

Yes. Set your opening hours and what can be booked — a showroom visit, a test drive, a consultation — and the assistant offers times that are genuinely free, holds the one the customer picks and drafts the confirmation for you to approve. You can add visits yourself, and customers can book from your own booking link. Everything lands on one calendar inside InboxTender, with a reminder drafted the day before. There is no Google or Outlook account to connect.

No. Front Desk includes a separate AI line — a local number in your area code, or a toll-free 8xx. You can publish that number, or ask your carrier to conditionally forward busy and unanswered calls from the number customers already know. Forwarding codes and availability vary by carrier, so test the setup before relying on it; your existing number remains on your carrier and in your name.

Yes. Front Desk includes a dedicated business line — a local number in your area code, or a toll-free 8xx. We prepare and file the carrier registration for you: 10DLC for local numbers, verification for toll-free. That registration is what keeps your texts delivering instead of being filtered as spam.

You stay in control. Answer your phone exactly the way you do today — the assistant takes calls you don't pick up. On a line InboxTender provides, you can also flip it to ring your cell first: it rings for 15 seconds, you press 1 to take the call, and the AI answers if you don't. Set business hours when you want the assistant available outside your day.

Yes. Every conversation has a Call button, and the inbox has a dialer for any number. InboxTender rings your own cell first and then connects the customer. The customer sees your business number, your personal cell stays private, and the call files itself into the conversation.

Yes. When the assistant captures a lead — name, number, email, what they want — it can deliver it straight to your CRM: a webhook covers Zapier, Make, GoHighLevel and HubSpot, and it can email leads to your CRM's lead inbox in the format yours parses — ADF for automotive CRMs like VinSolutions and DealerCenter, RELS for real-estate CRMs like Follow Up Boss and kvCORE. Set it up once on the Assistant page; every lead after that files itself.

It says so. The assistant is instructed to use the prices, specs, stock numbers and policies you provide. If the answer isn't in your brief, it tells the buyer your team needs to confirm it and puts a draft in the shared inbox as Needs you.

Any time, from anywhere. Reply from InboxTender or from your own WhatsApp, and the assistant pauses on that conversation immediately — no toggle to remember, no risk of the two of you answering at once. It picks back up only when you hand it back.

Yes — the Free plan is the trial. Sign up without a card, brief the assistant on your business, and watch it draft email replies and answer your own website chat. Upgrade only when you want more channels answered.

WhatsApp, Instagram and phone replies use the business identity connected to that channel. Every email reply waits for human approval; once approved, it comes from your connected Gmail or Workspace mailbox when you add one, or your managed @inboxtender.com address. Calls identify the assistant as AI, and the website-chat widget includes a small Powered by InboxTender label.

Any business that loses money when a message sits unanswered. Home services, repair shops, clinics and dentists, salons, real estate, auto dealers — the setup is the same everywhere: you brief it once on what you sell, and it answers in your trade's language, whether that's trade-in values, turnaround times or next-week openings.