AI vs.
Receptionist Calculator

It compares what you spend today on your front office setup against IBP’s flat tier 3 $13,164/year. Then it estimates the money your current setup leaks because of coverage gaps—missed after-hours calls, no-shows, cold leads, missed review requests, slow SMS response, and inconsistent social follow-up.

It’s an estimate, not a promise. We use conservative benchmarks based on common contractor realities and we keep the math simple so you can sanity-check it. If your shop runs tighter or looser than average, change the inputs and see how the output moves.

Put that cost in as part of your current setup and the calculator still works. Most answering services do “answer and take a message,” but they don’t consistently qualify, book, remind, and follow up. The gap usually shows up after the call—response time, booking rate, reminders, and multi-step follow-up.

Then your direct savings might be lower, and that’s fine—this isn’t built to force a big savings number. The calculator is also measuring coordination and coverage: who responds after hours, who texts back missed calls, who follows up when a lead goes cold, and who triggers review requests after jobs. If you already do some of that well, your capability gap should shrink.

It’s a flat $1,097/month for the system—AI receptionist, missed-call text-back, appointment reminders, lead follow-up, Google review automation, and AI-managed social posting. No per-call charges and no bolt-on fees to make the basics work. If you want advanced add-ons later, we’ll tell you up front.

No—we handle the call, but we also handle what happens after the call. That means text-back on missed calls, reminders to reduce no-shows, follow-up sequences for unbooked leads, and review requests after completed jobs. The goal is one connected front office, not another disconnected vendor.

We work best with home service contractors—HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, painting, decking, garage doors, and general contracting. If you sell scheduled work where one booked job matters, it tends to fit. If your business is mostly low-dollar retail with no scheduling, it may not.

Most contractors can be live in a 14-21 days once we have the basics—call routing, business info, service area, and how you want leads handled. Timeline mostly depends on how fast you can approve the intake details and connect your phone and calendar. We don’t drag it out.

We don’t cut anything over until we’ve tested it with you. We can run IBP alongside your current setup for a short overlap so you’re not risking missed calls. The goal is zero downtime—especially nights and weekends.

IBP was built by Austin Baughman—civil engineer, former project manager on $100K+ residential deck jobs, and faith-and-family driven. The calculator uses plain assumptions and conservative averages, with your inputs so the math stays grounded. If an assumption doesn’t match your shop, change the inputs and pressure-test it.