Choosing an answering service is easy to get wrong, because every vendor's sales page sounds the same. This worksheet cuts through it. Print it, ask every vendor the same 18 questions, and write their answers side by side. The one that answers straight — and doesn't dodge the money or the fine print — is usually the one to sign with.
Score each answer as green (good), yellow (dig deeper), or red (walk away). The red-flag answers are listed so you know a dodge when you hear one.
Before you call anyone: know your own numbers
You can't judge a service you can't measure against. Spend ten minutes first:
How many calls do you get in a typical week, and roughly how many do you miss?
When do the misses happen — after 5 PM, weekends, during peak?
What's your average ticket, so you can weigh cost against a single booked job?
If you don't have these, run a quick voicemail vs. AI receptionist worksheet first — it forces the baseline you'll shop against. Without it, you're comparing prices with no idea what you're buying.
Coverage and answering (questions 1–5)
This is what you're actually paying for. If they fumble here, nothing else matters.
Do you answer 24/7/365, including holidays?Red flag: "business hours" or "after-hours costs extra per call."
What's your average time-to-answer?Red flag: no number, or "we aim to."
Do calls ever hit a queue or hold music?Red flag: "during busy times." Your emergency caller won't wait.
Can you handle a storm-night surge — 40+ calls in a few hours?Red flag: "we'd do our best." A live service with a fixed headcount can't scale on demand.
Do you work with my existing phone number, or do I need a new one?Red flag: requiring a new number that breaks your ads, trucks, and signage. Call forwarding to your existing line is the standard to expect.
Capture and handoff (questions 6–10)
Answering the phone is worthless if the details don't reach you.
What exactly do you capture on every call? You want name, phone, address, and the issue — every time.
How and when do I get the message?Red flag: "we email a batch in the morning." You want the summary instantly, by SMS and email.
Do you know garage-door work — springs, openers, off-track doors?Red flag: a generic call center reading a script it doesn't understand.
Can you do emergency triage — tell a car-trapped emergency from a next-morning repair?Red flag: "we take a message and you decide." That defeats the point of after-hours coverage.
Can you book into my schedule, or only take messages?Red flag: message-only, which leaves the actual booking to you.
Cost and contract (questions 11–14)
Where the sticker price and the real price part ways.
What's the flat monthly cost, all in?Red flag: a low base with per-minute or per-call charges stacked on top.
Is it truly unlimited, or is there a call cap?Red flag: overage fees that punish you exactly when a storm sends business your way.
Is there a contract or an early-termination fee?Red flag: a 12-month lock-in. You should be able to cancel if it doesn't perform.
What does setup cost and how long does it take?Red flag: weeks of onboarding or a big setup fee. Done-for-you setup in under 24 hours is achievable.
To sanity-check whatever numbers you collect, run them through the answering service cost comparison so a "cheap" per-call quote doesn't cost more than a flat rate once the volume's real.
Proof and fit (questions 15–18)
The questions that separate a real tool from a demo.
Can I test it right now?Red flag: "we'll set up a demo next week." You should be able to hear it live before you pay.
Can I hear or read a real captured-call summary?Red flag: vague hand-waving about "detailed notes."
What happens if I want to change my greeting, hours, or emergency rules?Red flag: change requests that take days or cost extra.
What are your references or reviews from other trades?Red flag: no proof, invented client counts, or awards you can't verify.
Scoring and the decision
Tally the greens. A service worth signing answers every coverage question with a number, captures full details instantly, quotes one flat all-in price with no contract, and lets you test it before you spend a dollar. A service to skip hides behind "it depends," stacks per-call fees, and won't show you a live demo.
Two categories tend to fail this worksheet fast. Live answering services and call centers usually stumble on the surge question (fixed headcount), the trade-knowledge question (generic scripts), and the cost question (per-minute billing). To see why the whole category struggles, the breakdown of AI receptionist vs. voicemail is worth reading before you sign anything.
Once you've picked a direction, don't wing the launch — walk the setup with an AI receptionist configuration checklist so your hours, triage rules, and emergency contacts are dialed in on day one.
Ava is built to pass this worksheet: 24/7 answering on your existing number via call forwarding, name/phone/address/issue captured on every call, emergency triage, instant SMS and email summaries, a flat $297/month with no contract, and a live demo you can hear right now. Print the worksheet, ask every vendor the same 18 questions, and let the straight answers pick your service for you.
Hear Ava Work Before You Pay a Dime
Call the live demo and have Ava call you now — hear exactly what your customers will hear when they call your shop.
$97 first month, then $297/month flat. Unlimited calls. No contract. Cancel anytime.
30-day "First 10 Leads On Us" guarantee. If Ava doesn't capture your first 10 leads, you get your money back.