Never lose another job to voicemail
Forward your number, the AI answers from your knowledge base, and a summary lands in your pocket before the caller reaches the next business on Google.
What happens to the calls you don't answer
Industry research puts the number at just over half of calls to local service businesses actually reaching a live person. The rest hit voicemail — and roughly 80% of those callers hang up without leaving a message. They don't wait. They call the next plumber, salon, or vet on the search results page.
Picture a plumber under a sink with wet hands, or a stylist mid-color with a client in the chair. The phone rings. It goes to voicemail. Nobody hears it ring, nobody calls back, and the job goes to whoever answers first.
The usual fixes don't fix it. Voicemail is free and nobody leaves a message on it. A human answering service runs $150–300 a month to take a message — it can't tell a caller your prices or whether you handle their specific job, because it doesn't know your business. Hiring someone for the front desk costs $2,500+ a month and still goes home at 5.
What an AI receptionist actually does — RankLadder's version
You forward your business number with one star code. From then on, an AI answers every call in your business's voice, tells the caller up front it's an AI, and answers real questions from a knowledge base you write and approve — your hours, your prices, whether you do slab leaks or just water heaters. It can text the caller what they need, book a real slot on your calendar, or take a message and transfer to you when you've asked it to.
You control how far it goes with one switch: run it after-hours only while your phone still rings first during the day (Safety Net mode), or let it answer the first ring, every time (Front Desk mode). Every call — plus every text and website chat — lands in one inbox on your phone, with a transcript, a summary, and a 1–5 lead score, so you know which callback to make first.
Three places to see it in action:
24/7 AI Answering
The AI that picks up, in your voice, from your knowledge base.
Unified Inbox
Every call, text, and chat in one thread, with the transcript and lead score attached.
Google Reviews
The same conversation that answers the call also opens the door to a review request, with an AI-drafted reply you approve.
Every call becomes a transcript, a summary, and a lead score — not just a red notification badge.
What it costs, and what one saved job is worth
Starter is $79/mo — 120 AI minutes (about 40 calls) and 100 texts. Pro is $169/mo — 450 minutes (about 150 calls), website chat, and lead scoring. Scale is $299/mo — 1,000 minutes (about 330 calls) and priority support. Every tier includes 24/7 answering, the unified inbox, Google reviews, and 15+ languages — no upcharge. Pay annually and get two months free.
Try the whole thing for $4 over 14 days — 30 AI minutes and 25 texts, card required, no demo call to sit through.
One captured $300 plumbing or HVAC job covers about four months of Starter.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really an AI, or is a person listening in?+
It's AI — and it says so, out loud, at the start of every call. Callers hear a natural voice, not a phone tree, and it hands off to you the moment a call needs a real person.
Will it say something wrong about my business?+
It only answers from the knowledge base you write and approve. When it doesn't know something, it takes a message and shows you the question — you add the answer once, in one tap, and it answers from the updated knowledge base from then on.
What happens when I run out of minutes?+
You get a live usage meter in the app with alerts at 80% and 100% used. At the cap, you choose: pause AI answering or keep going at a per-minute overage rate. No surprise bills.
How is this different from a human answering service?+
Cost and knowledge. A human service metering $150–300/mo mostly takes messages, because it doesn't know your business. RankLadder answers real questions from your knowledge base, texts and books while the caller's still on the line, and grows your Google reviews — all included, starting at $79/mo.
How long does setup actually take?+
About five minutes. You forward your number with one star code, call yourself to hear it answer, and watch the transcript land in your inbox.
Does it work in Spanish?+
Yes — 15+ languages, caller picks one from a menu or the AI catches it mid-call, and you read every transcript in English. No extra charge.
Never lose another job to voicemail
Try the whole thing for $4 over 14 days — 30 AI minutes and 25 texts, card required, no demo call to sit through.