Upfirst

Upfirst is an AI answering service and virtual receptionist for small businesses that keeps the phone covered around the clock, so an owner does not miss a lead or leave a customer waiting. The agent answers calls and texts, collects information from leads, qualifies them, and sends the details to the business by email or text message. While a caller is still on the line it checks the calendar and books an open time, and it books directly into tools such as Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Square, and Clio Manage, as the vendor lists them on its own site. The receptionist is trained on the business itself. An owner adds hours, services, and answers to common questions, or imports them straight from the business website, then customizes the questions the agent asks and the greeting it uses. Setup can also be driven by talking to ChatGPT or Claude through the vendor plugin and connector, following the vendor setup guides in plain language. When a caller wants a person, Upfirst can make a warm transfer and tell the team member who is calling and what they need before the handoff, or explain that no one is available and arrange a callback. The vendor says the agent answers in English, Spanish, and more than 35 other languages in total and switches when a caller does, remembers repeat callers, and blocks spam calls, with robocalls and sales pitches caught and hung up on. Owners can review calls and transcripts, edit training at any time, text callers a link during a call, and connect a CRM through an API or connect thousands of apps through Zapier, with custom actions that let the agent look up or log information while it is on a call. The service is aimed at practices and trades such as law firms, real estate, property management, contractors, and home services, and a business with several locations can run more than one agent and share or separate their training. Pricing is qualitative in structure: plans are scaled by the number of calls handled each month rather than by talk time, every plan includes the full feature set, a custom option covers the highest call volumes, and annual billing is offered at a lower effective monthly cost than month to month billing. There is a free trial with no credit card required, no contract, and the freedom to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time, and the vendor states that spam calls never count toward a plan.