A virtual receptionist for small business, run by AI
Masheev answers your calls, texts and web chat, handles the routine ones with your own information, and passes the rest to your team with a written summary. It is software, not a staffed service, and this page is plain about what that means.
- Guided setup
- Unlimited seats
- From $18/mo
A still of the Masheev console: a full inbox of conversations, one of them an AI-drafted WhatsApp reply awaiting a person's approval.
Demo board. Synthetic conversations, real product interface.
What is a virtual receptionist?
A virtual receptionist answers a business's phone without sitting at its front desk. The term covers two different things. A human virtual receptionist service employs remote receptionists who answer in your business's name, take messages and transfer calls. An AI virtual receptionist is software that answers the phone itself, uses your business information to respond, and passes conversations to your team when needed.
Masheev is the second kind, and it is AI first: the AI answers, your own team takes over any conversation from the shared inbox, and Masheev learns from how they resolve it. It does not supply receptionists of its own. It answers phone calls, SMS and web chat in one shared inbox during the hours you configure, answers from your hours, services, prices and policies, books through a connected calendar or supported booking tool, and hands off to your team with full context when your rules call for it. It is a good fit for routine, repeatable calls. A human service is the better choice when most of your calls need empathy, persuasion or judgment from the first second.
Where this helps
The situations this is set up for. Anything outside them goes to your team.
- The owner is the receptionist, and every call interrupts the work customers are actually paying for.
- A full-time front-desk hire is more than the call volume justifies, but voicemail is not good enough either.
- Calls, texts and website messages arrive in three different places, and each one is checked whenever someone remembers.
- The same five questions, about hours, prices, location, availability and booking, take up most of the phone time.
What Masheev does
Configured around your hours, services and rules.
Answers in your business's name
You write the greeting, which tells callers they are speaking with an AI assistant, and it confirms it whenever asked. Callers who ask for a person are handed to your team.
Knows your business
It answers from the knowledge base you provide: hours, services, prices and policies. When the answer is not there, it says so and takes a message.
Books, reschedules and cancels
Scheduling runs through a connected calendar or supported booking tool. With nothing connected, it takes down the request for your team.
Hands off with context
Your routing rules decide which conversations go to which team. Each handoff carries a written summary, and urgent calls can be transferred live.
One inbox for phone, SMS and web chat
All three launch channels arrive in a shared inbox with transcripts, summaries and call recordings, visible to your whole team.
Priced for a small team
Starter is $18/month with $7 of usage and one phone number. Seats are unlimited, so adding a colleague to the inbox does not change the bill.
A three-person accounting practice forwards its main line to Masheev. At 10:05am on a Monday a caller asks whether the firm prepares returns for rental property owners and what the fee is; Masheev answers from the knowledge base and books an introductory call for Wednesday at 3pm through the connected calendar. At 10:40am an existing client calls, upset about a notice from the tax authority, and asks for their accountant by name. Masheev does not try to resolve it: it takes the details and hands off with a summary, and the accountant calls back at 11:15am already knowing what the notice says.
How to set it up
Setup time depends on your phone provider and configuration. Test before anything goes live.
Forward your number or add a new one
Keep your existing business number and forward it: always, when busy or when unanswered, depending on your carrier. Or add a new number.
Teach it your business
Enter your hours, services, prices and policies. Start with the questions you answer most often on the phone.
Write the greeting and the handoff rules
Decide how it introduces itself, what it may book, which calls transfer to a person and who on your team receives which handoffs.
Test, then switch it on
Call it yourself with your most common questions and one awkward one. Adjust the knowledge and rules, then go live for the hours you choose.
AI virtual receptionist vs a human virtual receptionist service
| Capability | Masheev | Human virtual receptionist service |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | AI first, your own team takes over | Trained human receptionists |
| Empathy and judgment on difficult calls | Limited, hands off to your team | A real strength |
| Answers detailed questions about your business | From your knowledge base | Varies with the script they hold |
| Books into your calendar | With a connected calendar or booking tool | Varies by service |
| SMS and web chat in the same inbox | Usually phone only | |
| Pricing | From $18/mo plus metered usage | Usually monthly minute or call bundles |
| Coverage hours | Hours you configure, same rate at any hour | Varies, after hours often costs extra |
What it does not do
The limits, stated plainly, so you can decide what stays with a person.
- Masheev does not supply receptionists. The AI answers first, and a person is involved when your team takes over or it hands off to your own team.
- If your callers are often distressed, elderly and uncomfortable with automation, or expecting a relationship from the first hello, a human service will serve them better.
- It does not make outbound calls, collect payments, or greet visitors at a physical front desk.
- It knows only what you tell it. An out-of-date price or policy in the knowledge base will be repeated to callers until you fix it.
Frequently asked questions
Explore more
Take the routine calls off your plate
Routine calls and messages handled on supported channels in the hours you set, with a person whenever your rules call for one. From $18/mo.