An AI receptionist demo usually sounds good for the first two minutes. The differences show up later: in the bill, in what the agent says when it doesn't know something, and in what your staff hears when a call is transferred to them.
Below are the questions worth asking any vendor before you sign. Where we can, we give ModPhone's answer, taken from our own help docs, so you have something concrete to compare against. Most sections also include a way to check the answer yourself during a trial.
Pricing: per minute, per call or a flat plan
You'll see three pricing models.
Per minute of receptionist time is how live answering services usually charge. Ruby's plans, for example, start at 50 minutes for $250 a month and go to 500 minutes for $1,725 (Ruby pricing, checked September 2026). You're paying for people, which buys judgment an AI doesn't have, and it adds up fast on a busy line.
Per call or per conversation is common with answering services and some AI tools. Ask whether a two-second hang-up, a wrong number or a robocall counts as a call.
A flat monthly plan with included minutes, plus a per-minute rate beyond that, is the third. ModPhone works this way: Starter is $49 a month with 200 minutes, Growth is $99 with 500, and Business is $299 with 1,500. Past the allowance, the agent keeps answering and the extra minutes are billed after the period closes, at $0.15, $0.12 or $0.10 a minute depending on the plan. A single call is billed for at most 120 minutes, so a line left open by a fault can't run up a surprise.
The follow-up question matters more than the rate: when the minutes run out, does it keep answering or stop? On ModPhone's free trial it stops. After the 100 trial minutes, callers hear a short, neutral "we can't take your call right now" and the account owner gets an email. On a paid plan it keeps answering. Other vendors handle this differently, so get the answer in writing.
To size a plan, pull last month's inbound call count and average call length from your phone system's call log, multiply them, and add room for your busy season.
What it knows, and whether you can change it
An AI receptionist answers from whatever it was given. Ask to see that material, in the form the agent uses, before you trust it with callers.
In ModPhone, what the agent learns from your website appears as a list of facts, one per line, each linked to the page it came from. You can edit any fact, delete it or add your own. When you re-scan the site later, your edits and additions are kept. You can also upload PDFs and Word documents, or sync a Google Drive or OneDrive folder, and there's a Supplemental Company Information box for short notes that override everything else ("Closed today for the storm").
Then ask what happens when the answer isn't there. ModPhone's agent looks things up only on the websites you've added, and if it still can't find the answer it tells the caller it doesn't have that information rather than guessing. Test it by asking something that isn't on your site.
One caution applies to every product: anything the agent knows, it may say to a caller. Keep private information out of its knowledge.
Transfers, from both ends of the line
Ask three things: what the caller hears, what your staff member hears when they pick up, and what happens if nobody does.
On ModPhone, the caller hears "I'm connecting you now. Please hold," then hold music. If you turn on waterfall routing (ring a list of people in order) or the callback option, whoever picks up hears "You have a caller on your business line. Press 1 to accept." That prompt is what keeps a cell phone's voicemail from swallowing the call: voicemail can't press 1, so it counts as no answer and the next person on the list rings. If nobody accepts, the caller can press 1 to request a callback, and you get an email with their number and the call summary.
Two details to know going in. The transferred call shows your ModPhone number as the caller ID, not the caller's number, so save it in your team's phones. And the agent leaves the line once the transfer starts rather than introducing the caller; the context reaches your team as the call summary in the alert email and call history. If your office needs a spoken handoff on every transfer, ask each vendor about that specifically.
Languages and switching mid-call
"Supports 30 languages" can mean a separate number per language, a "press 2 for Spanish" menu, or a setting you choose per line. Ask how the language gets picked.
ModPhone's agent detects the language the caller is speaking and answers in it, and switches mid-call if the caller does. It covers more than 30 languages, and there's no language setting to manage. If most of your callers speak Spanish, French, German or Portuguese, there are voices that are native speakers of those languages. To test it, start a question in English and finish it in Spanish.
Recordings, transcripts and who tells the caller
The questions here: is recording on by default, do callers hear a notice, and can you download and delete recordings?
On ModPhone, audio recording is off by default and is turned on per number. A transcript and an AI summary are saved for every call either way, with the caller's sentiment, the topics and any action items. When recording is on, you can play and download the audio from the call's details. ModPhone does not play an automatic "this call may be recorded" announcement, so if the rules where you or your callers are require notice or consent, add that sentence to your greeting. Deleting a call record is done by emailing support; there's no delete button in the app.
Where the data goes, and whether it trains a model
Ask whether your calls are used to train models, what the product writes into your other systems, and what happens to your data when you cancel.
ModPhone's privacy policy states that it does not sell your data and does not use your conversations or knowledge base to train shared AI models. The integrations are specific about what they write: a connected Google or Outlook calendar gets new appointment events and nothing you created is edited or deleted; Google Drive and OneDrive connections are read-only; Google Sheets only appends rows. When you cancel, the confirmation screen says your data is kept for 30 days.
School districts and government offices should ask for the privacy policy and terms before the trial starts. Procurement will want them anyway.
Contract terms and your phone number
Get these in writing: contract length, automatic renewal, setup fees, notice periods, and who controls the phone number.
ModPhone is month to month with no setup fees, and you can cancel from the Billing page at any time. Cancellation takes effect right away, so the agent stops answering when you confirm. Paid plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The phone number question matters more than the contract. If you forward your existing business line to the agent instead of publishing a new number, your customers only ever know your number. Leaving any vendor is then a matter of dialing your carrier's undo code.
Testing before callers hear it
A vendor that won't let you hear the agent answer questions about your own business before you pay is asking you to trust a scripted demo.
With ModPhone you can paste your website into the live demo and talk to an agent built from it in about 30 seconds, or call the demo line at +1 (234) 231-6622. The free trial runs 30 days with no charge unless you choose a plan, and includes one phone number, 100 voice minutes and 100 texts, and you can be live on a real number in about 10 minutes.
Whichever product you trial, run the same script:
- Ask the five questions your front desk gets most.
- Ask something that isn't in its knowledge. It should say it doesn't know.
- Ask for a person, then ask for a specific department by name.
- Book an appointment. On ModPhone, reply Y to the confirmation text and check that the event lands on your calendar.
- Ask it to text you a link.
- Switch languages partway through a question.
- Hang up and read the summary email and the transcript.
Then forward only the calls you miss (conditional forwarding, which your carrier sets with a short dial code) and read every transcript for the first week.
Common questions
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
ModPhone plans cost $49, $99 or $299 a month with 200, 500 or 1,500 call minutes, and extra minutes are billed at $0.10 to $0.15 each depending on the plan. Live answering services usually charge by the minute or by the call at a much higher rate, because a person is answering. Compare on your real call volume, not the headline price.
Is my call data used to train AI models?
Not by ModPhone. Its privacy policy states that customer conversations and knowledge base content are not used to train shared AI models. Ask every vendor the same question, and look for the answer in their privacy policy or terms rather than on the sales page.
Can I keep my current phone number?
Yes. Forward your existing line to your ModPhone number and the agent answers there. Conditional forwarding sends only the calls you don't pick up, and dialing the undo code turns it off.
What should an AI receptionist do when it doesn't know the answer?
Say so, then offer a next step: a transfer, a message or a callback. ModPhone's agent tells the caller it doesn't have that information instead of guessing, and calls with unanswered questions are flagged on a follow-up list so someone can close the loop. Then add the missing fact so the next caller gets an answer.
Before your first demo
This week, write down your five most common questions and one question the agent should refuse. Run them through any product you're considering, starting with our live demo.