Mixed reviews make sense — it usually comes down to the handoff, not the tool. What's held up for owners in a similar spot: keep a human on the phone during the hours most calls come in so first-time prospects talk to someone immediately, and only use an AI layer for the gaps (lunch, late afternoon, overflow when both lines are busy). Going AI-only on inbound tends to drop conversion on price-sensitive jobs.
A couple of practical things that protect conversion on the AI side: write a greeting that sets expectations ("you've reached X, we'll be right with you"), have the caller leave name, service needed, and best time to call back, and set a written rule that new-lead callbacks happen inside 15 minutes during business hours and within an hour after hours. Track missed calls by the hour for 30 days so you know exactly which windows to cover first — you'll usually find one or two heavy pockets. If you run Google Local Services Ads, also note that as of October 1, 2026 Google can charge for business-hours missed calls when the caller holds for over 20 seconds, so catching those quickly matters more than it did.
