You're paying to answer your phone whether you write a check for it or not. The only question is whether you pay in invoices or in lost jobs.
A real answering service cost comparison has to cover all four options: a live answering service, an in-house receptionist, an AI receptionist, and the default most garage door shops run — voicemail, with callbacks whenever you climb out from under a door. This guide puts honest planning numbers on each one so you can run the math for your own shop.
No vendor spin. Just what each option costs, what you actually get for the money, and where each one makes sense.
Before the numbers, get the options straight. Every garage door shop's phone is handled one of these four ways:
Each option carries two costs. The monthly cost is what shows up on your card statement. The coverage cost is what you pay in lost jobs for the hours and calls the option doesn't handle. Most shops only ever look at the first number, which is how they end up "saving" $300 a month and losing $8,000 in work.
Keep both numbers in view as we go.
Live answering services bill by the minute, by the call, or on a tiered monthly plan with a minute allowance. A reasonable planning figure is $0.75 to $1.50 per minute for a U.S.-based service, with per-call plans commonly running $1.50 to $3.00 per call before add-ons. Contractors often report monthly bills between $250 and $800 at moderate call volume — and noticeably higher in a busy month.
The sticker price isn't the problem. The line items are:
Coverage-wise, a live service answers around the clock if you pay for the 24/7 tier — plenty of plans are business-hours-only, so read that line carefully. But even at full coverage, the operator usually works from a generic script, doesn't know a torsion spring from an extension spring, and can't see your schedule to book a window. You get a message, not a booked job, and the clock is ticking while the homeowner calls the next listing.
For a deeper breakdown of monthly ranges, see what a live answering service costs per month.
This is the number most shops get wrong, because they only count the paycheck.
Say you hire a CSR at $17 an hour. That's roughly $2,950 a month in wages at full-time hours. Now add the rest:
A reasonable planning figure for a fully loaded receptionist is $3,500 to $4,500 per month. For that, you get about 40 hours a week of coverage — less than a quarter of the 168 hours in a week. Evenings, weekends, holidays, lunch breaks, sick days: uncovered, unless you're paying a second person or an answering service to fill the gaps. Plenty of shops end up paying for both.
That doesn't make hiring a CSR a bad move. A good office person does far more than answer the phone. But as a pure phone-answering fix, it's the most expensive option on the table, and it still leaves three-quarters of the week dark.
If you want the full breakdown, we ran the numbers in receptionist salary vs an answering service, and the true cost of an office receptionist goes line by line through salary, taxes, benefits, and turnover.
AI answering is the flat-fee model. Ava, the AI receptionist from Best Choice Garage Doors, is $97 for your first month, then $297 a month flat. Unlimited calls. No contract. Cancel anytime.
For that you get:
Setup is done for you and live in under 24 hours, and the service carries a 30-day "First 10 Leads On Us" money-back guarantee.
The coverage difference is the whole point: a $297 month buys all 168 hours of the week, every week, at the same price whether you get 80 calls or 800. It's the only option where the cost stays flat while the coverage goes to 100%.
Here's a worked example. These are example numbers, not your shop's — swap in your own and the structure still holds.
Say your shop gets 160 inbound calls a month — about 40 a week. Your average ticket is $350, and about 6 out of 10 callers you actually talk to turn into booked jobs.
| Option | Monthly cost (planning figure) | Coverage | What a call produces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | $0 | Only callers willing to leave a message — often a minority | A message to chase, if you're lucky |
| Live answering service | $250–$800+, swings with minutes | 24/7 only at the higher tiers | Mostly messages, some bookings |
| In-house CSR | $3,500–$4,500 | Business hours — about 25% of the week | Booked jobs, but limited hours |
| AI receptionist (Ava) | $297 flat | Every call, 24/7/365 | Booked windows plus instant summaries |
Now run the revenue side of the example. Say that between jobs, lunch, and after-hours, you miss 40% of your calls — 64 a month. With voicemail, maybe 1 in 4 of those callers leaves a message. The other 48 hang up and dial the next company. At a 60% booking rate and a $350 ticket, that's about 29 jobs and roughly $10,000 in work walking out the door every month.
Against that backdrop, the cost difference between the three paid options is close to rounding error. The most expensive answering option is the one that doesn't answer.
Voicemail deserves its own math, and we gave it a full article: what it really costs to use voicemail for business.
Skip my example numbers and pull your own. It takes about 20 minutes:
When you line up the cost of answering services compared this way, the question stops being "what does it cost per month" and becomes "what does a booked call cost me under each option." That's the comparison that actually pays the bills, and cost per booked call walks through it in detail.
One more tip: run the comparison for your worst month, not your average one. Storm weeks and the spring rush are when per-minute bills spike and missed calls multiply. Any answering service price comparison that only looks at a quiet month will flatter the wrong option.
Every shop's numbers are different, but the pattern contractors often report looks like this:
Shops in crowded markets feel this first. A Detroit garage door company competing with dozens of listings can't afford to hand callers to the next shop on the list and hope they wait.
Any honest answering service cost comparison lands in the same place:
If you're not sure where your shop lands, run the five steps above with last month's numbers. The math will tell you which option fits — and for most shops between one and ten trucks, it isn't close.
Call the live demo and have Ava call you now — hear exactly what your customers will hear when they call your shop.