Answering Service and Virtual Receptionist for Small Business
You can't answer every call and run the business.
Frontly picks up 24/7, books the job, and captures the lead while you work.
The short answer
What is Frontly's small business answering service?
Frontly is an AI answering service and virtual receptionist for Australian small businesses. It answers every call 24/7, captures every job and enquiry, and on Pro runs outbound follow-up campaigns, landing everything in your Frontly dashboard so you never lose work to a missed call. Call answering live in about an hour, flat monthly rate, no commitment beyond the plan you pick.
THE PROBLEM
The Best Job You Lost Was the One You Didn't Answer
21x
better odds of qualifying an enquiry when you respond within 5 minutes rather than 30. The customer who reaches voicemail calls the next business.
Source: MIT / InsideSales Lead Response Study, 2007
On the tools.
Plumbers, electricians, travel agents, and trades businesses miss calls all day because they're doing the work they already have. Those callers don't leave voicemails. They call your competitor.
Instant
Frontly answers the moment the call comes in. Every job enquiry captured before the caller moves on.
HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF
Your AI Agent Is Ready to Talk
Call our AI agent right now. It'll handle a job enquiry, just like it would for your business. No signup required.
Test Call
Talk to the AI agent right now from your browser. Hear exactly how Frontly will sound for your business.
HOW IT WORKS
Live in About an Hour. Built Around Your Trade.
Connect Your Phone
Forward your existing business number or get a dedicated AI number. No hardware. Works on your existing mobile or landline.
We Help Set Up Your First Workflow
Our team helps set up your first workflow around your service types, job intake process, and how you like to handle new enquiries, whether you're a plumber, travel agent, or any local service business.
Go Live
Frontly answers every call, captures job details, takes bookings, and on Pro follows up while you stay focused on the work in front of you.
WHAT FRONTLY HANDLES
Every Customer Call, Handled
Frontly answers while you're busy on the job and, on Pro, calls quotes back before they go cold. Every job captured in your Frontly dashboard, and your existing software connected during onboarding.
New enquiries
Answers in your business name, captures who's calling and what they need, and logs the lead in your Frontly dashboard so nothing slips while you're working.
Job and appointment booking
Checks your availability and books the job or appointment during the call, ready for you the moment you come off the tools.
Quote follow-ups (outbound, on Pro)
Calls back the enquiries who asked for a quote but never booked, so the work already in your pipeline doesn't go cold.
Existing-customer calls
Handles rebookings, status questions, and callback requests without pulling you off the job you're already on.
After-hours and overflow
Answers nights, weekends, and the calls you can't when you're already busy, so every enquiry is captured instead of lost to voicemail.
Visual Workflow Builder
A Front Office Before You Can Justify Hiring One
Your First Workflow, Built With You
Our team maps the handful of calls that actually repeat in your business and sets up your first workflow with you so the AI finishes them. After launch, you manage changes in the visual builder.
Start With Two Call Types
You do not need to automate everything. Pick the two calls that interrupt you most and get those off your plate first.
Sound Like a Real Business
Answered in your business name, on the first ring, with consistent answers. That alone changes how a new customer sizes you up.
You Still Get the Important Ones
You decide which calls reach your mobile immediately and which wait for the end of the job.
Change It Yourself
Adjust hours, questions or what gets escalated as the business grows, without waiting on us.
Cross-Call Memory
Your AI Remembers Your Regulars
- Returning customers recognised the moment they call
- Previous jobs and orders recalled automatically
- No regular customer explaining who they are again
- Full history on every caller you have dealt with before
Frontly Dashboard
Everything That Came In While You Were Working
One Place, Not Five
Enquiries, bookings and questions land in your Frontly dashboard instead of being spread across voicemail, texts and a notepad in the van.
Full Transcript on Every Call
Exactly what the customer asked for, so you quote the right thing the first time.
Alerts for the Ones That Matter
Configure an SMS so a genuinely urgent or high-value call reaches you straight away.
Cross-call History at a Glance
Every previous call from that customer, in one place.
Check It Between Jobs
See the day at a glance without stopping what you are doing.
Outbound Campaign Manager
Chase the Work You Never Have Time to Chase
Follow Up Old Quotes
Call back the customers who asked for a price and went quiet. The work is already in your pipeline; nobody has had time to ring them.
Reminders and Repeat Business
Call past customers when it is time for the next service, rather than waiting for them to remember.
Same Builder, No New Tool
Script the campaign with the same drag-and-drop builder you used for inbound.
See What Landed
Track which calls turned into booked work, so you know what is worth repeating.
INTEGRATIONS
Works with the software small business already runs on
Connect your AI receptionist to the software your team already uses, so Frontly can check availability, manage bookings and capture caller details as part of your reception workflow.
Accounting
IT service desks and help desks
Team messaging
CRM, calendars and productivity
Google Calendar
Microsoft 365 / Outlook
HubSpot
Calendly
Square Appointments
Needs Square Appointments Plus or Premium
Zoho CRM
Pipedrive
Salesforce
Google Sheets
Integrations support Frontly's reception and caller follow-up workflows. Available actions depend on the connected software and your setup.
Integration allowances vary by plan. See Pricing for what's included.
Not on the list, or need a specific workflow? Tell us what you use and what you'd like Frontly to handle. We'll check what's possible.
ANSWERING SERVICE OR AI
Is an answering service or an AI receptionist better for a small business?
An answering service charges per call to take a message. An AI receptionist charges a flat monthly rate to finish the job. For a small business the second one matters most in the month you get busy, because a per-call bill climbs with every single call while a plan covers a month's worth of minutes for one price.
Where a staffed answering service still wins
A human voice on every single call. Some businesses trade on that, and for them the premium is worth it. A good operator also improvises around the odd request in a way a configured workflow will not.
Where Frontly wins
Most small business calls are the same handful of questions plus a request to book something. Frontly handles those at any hour, answers ten at once if ten come in at once, and puts the job in your dashboard rather than in a message you read later.
Most businesses end up running one or the other rather than both. If you are weighing it up properly, the full cost and capability breakdown is in Frontly against OfficeHQ.
Bigger organisation?
Growing businesses with several locations or brands
Enterprise is for when a standard plan is outgrown: your own systems connected during the call, own-cloud or on-premise deployment, SLA-backed uptime and a dedicated account manager, all scoped with us.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Frontly is built for owner-operators who can't answer every call while working. Whether you're a plumber, electrician, travel agent, or any local service business, Frontly captures job enquiries and books work while you're busy.
Frontly uses its own scheduling system inside the Frontly dashboard. You configure your job types and availability. The AI checks availability and books the job during the call. You see it the moment you come off the tools.
Frontly handles common scenarios and captures messages for anything outside its scope. You control what it answers directly and what gets escalated, with a full call transcript delivered to your inbox.
Yes, on the Pro plan. With the Outbound Campaign Manager, Frontly can make follow-up calls to enquiries who didn't convert, automatically and at scale.
Frontly uses flat monthly pricing sized by a monthly call-minute allowance, and every rate we meter beyond it is published on the pricing page rather than discovered on an invoice. Plans are month to month, with no commitment beyond the month, and the current rates and setup terms are on our pricing page.
About an hour for a standard setup. The workflows are templated, so most of the work is agreeing what your callers ask for, when you want a call put through, and who it should reach. Plans are month to month, with no commitment beyond your plan. Unusual requirements need scoping first, and we will tell you upfront if yours is one of them.
Yes, if affordable means a bill you can predict. Per-call answering services get expensive in exactly the month you get busy. Frontly is a flat monthly rate with an allowance of call minutes, answers every caller at once and books the job on the call, so you pay for work completed rather than messages taken. Current rates are on our pricing page.
Yes. Frontly is built and operated in Australia by DemoLabs, and your call records are stored here on Australian infrastructure. For a sole trader or a small team that also means support in your timezone, rather than a ticket queue that answers overnight.
Yes, for the calls you choose. Frontly puts them through to your mobile with a quick spoken briefing, so you know who is calling and why before you answer. It can try your mobile first and then a backup number. If you're busy, Frontly takes a message and sends it to you by email or SMS straight away.
KEEP EXPLORING
Keep exploring Frontly for Small Business
Go deeper on the capabilities, comparisons, and guides that matter most.
24/7 inbound answering
How Frontly answers every call, qualifies the caller, and books the job in your dashboard.
How inbound worksOutbound campaigns
Recalls, follow-ups, arrears, and lead reactivation dialled automatically at scale.
Run outboundAfter-hours answering
You cannot answer at night and neither can voicemail. See how after-hours calls are handled for you.
See after-hoursVirtual receptionist cost in 2026
What human and AI receptionists actually cost in Australia, and where each wins.
Read the guideReady to Stop Missing Jobs?
Set up your AI front desk in about an hour. No commitment beyond the plan you pick. Flat monthly rate.