Answering service or text-back: what each costs you, and what each records in Florida

At Ruby and Smith.ai, two answering services where a person picks up, the smallest plans cost $250 and $300 a month. Jobber’s Receptionist, a program that answers calls inside Jobber, adds $29 a month to a Jobber plan.

A missed-call text, which comes with Quo’s $19 phone line, does not answer at all: it texts the caller to say when you will call back.

Ask what each one keeps, too. Some record every call, and in Florida, recording a call needs the consent of everyone on it (F.S. 934.03).

What each one costs, as of September 25, 2026

We read each price on the vendor’s own page that day. Prices change, so check again before you sign.

• Ruby, an answering service: $250 a month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200. Each call is rounded up to the next full minute, and the minutes include the time a receptionist spends finishing your message after the caller hangs up. The page does not print the rate for extra minutes. Answering in Spanish costs nothing extra.
• Smith.ai, an answering service: $300 a month for 30 calls, then $11.50 a call. $810 for 90 calls, then $10.50. Booking the job on your calendar adds $1.50 a call, and a Spanish line $1 a call.
• AnswerConnect, an answering service: no price on the site. Its plans page is a form that asks for your name, company email and phone number. Its minutes also count the work done after the call.
• Jobber’s Receptionist, a program sold inside Jobber: an add-on to some Jobber plans at $29 a month for 30 conversations, then $0.79 each. The Plus plan includes it. It answers on a Jobber phone number, and your own number can forward to it. The help page does not say which languages it answers in.
• A missed-call text: Quo sends one as an auto-reply on every plan. Starter is $19 a user a month, plus a one-time $19.50 fee to register the line for texting and $1.50 to $3 a month in carrier fees.

The math for a 2-truck shop

Take the illustrative numbers from our sample walk sheet, a 2-truck plumbing shop: 14 calls after hours a month, 11 of them never called back, a 24 percent booking rate and $151 profit a job.

That leak is 11 × 24% × $151 = $399 a month. How to count your own is in our article on what a missed call costs your business.

A tool pays for itself when it wins back enough jobs to cover its price. Divide its monthly cost by the profit on one job:

Monthly cost ÷ profit per job = lost jobs it must win back each month

• Quo Starter, $19 plus up to $3 in carrier fees: $22 ÷ $151 = 0.15. About two jobs a year.
• Jobber’s Receptionist, for a shop already on Jobber: $29 ÷ $151 = 0.19. About two jobs a year. The 14 calls fit in the 30 conversations.
• Ruby, 50 minutes: $250 ÷ $151 = 1.66. Close to two jobs a month. The 14 calls fit if they average 3.5 minutes or less, write-up included (14 × 3.5 = 49 minutes).
• Smith.ai, 30 calls: $300 ÷ $151 = 1.99. About two jobs a month.

Source: Quo, pricing; Jobber Help Center, “Receptionist”; Ruby, plans and pricing; Smith.ai, receptionist pricing. Vendor pages, read September 25, 2026. The $151 a job is from the Lumora sample walk sheet: illustrative numbers for a 2-truck plumbing shop.

An answered call is still not a booked job. In ServiceTitan’s data from more than 3,000 trade businesses, small shops booked 26 percent of calls at their best time of day and 9 percent after 6 p.m. (ServiceTitan, 2022, vendor data, US and Canada).

The study does not say why. If your night calls book near 9 percent, the same 11 calls are worth 11 × 9% × $151 = $149 a month, and a $300 service costs about twice that.

Source: ServiceTitan, call booking rates, October 2022. Vendor data, more than 3,000 trade businesses in the US and Canada.

A missed-call text does the least. It books nothing, and the wording we follow asks the caller no questions: it says when you will call back and invites a reply.

A caller who needs help tonight may still dial the next shop. A person or a program on the line can take the address, and some can put the job on your calendar.

What each one keeps

• Jobber’s Receptionist, which Jobber sells as powered by AI, keeps a summary, a recording and a transcript of each call it answers. Jobber encourages owners to tell callers that a program answers or that calls may be recorded, “but this isn’t required,” and asks them to “check any local or state regulations about recording phone calls.”
• Smith.ai records if you add the option, at $0.25 a call. The option reads: “We’ll automatically record and transcribe all calls.”
• Ruby offers word-for-word transcripts of every call it handles, and of voicemails, as an option on every plan. The pages we read do not say whether it keeps recordings.
• AnswerConnect says you can “listen back to calls yourself” in its app.
• A missed-call text keeps the text and nothing else. The phone service behind it may keep more: every Quo plan includes voicemail transcripts.

What Florida law says about recording

Florida allows a call to be intercepted when “all of the parties to the communication have given prior consent” (F.S. 934.03). Recording one without that consent can be a third-degree felony. The caller can also sue for at least $1,000, or $100 for each day of violation if that is more, and ask for punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

The suit has to start within 2 years of the day the caller first had a reasonable chance to find out (F.S. 934.10). It can name anyone who “procures” someone else to intercept a call, not only whoever runs the recorder.

• $1,000the least a caller can sue for, or $100 for each day of violation if that is more

  Source: Florida Statutes (2026), section 934.10, on a caller’s right to sue: (1) damages and who can be sued, (3) the 2 years.

• 2 yearsto start the suit, from the day the caller first had a reasonable chance to find out

  Source: Florida Statutes (2026), section 934.10, on a caller’s right to sue: (1) damages and who can be sued, (3) the 2 years.

Two questions are not settled: whether a greeting that says “this call may be recorded” counts as every caller’s consent, and whether a transcript counts the same as a recording. Until they are settled, the fixes we build keep no recording or transcript of a call or voicemail unless the owner asks for one, and then only when the caller says yes before the recording starts.

When a fix answers calls with an automated assistant, it says so before anything else, transcribes only to handle the call, and keeps no audio unless the owner asked for it and the caller said yes.

Before you sign

Where recording is an add-on, leave it off until you have asked a Florida attorney. Where it comes built in, as on Jobber’s Receptionist, ask before you switch the product on.

If you choose a missed-call text, our article on texting your customers in Florida has the exact wording and the rules for it. On a client’s line, the owner approves its exact words in writing before we turn it on.

Where to start

Count before you buy. Pull the past 30 days of call history from your phone company and mark the real calls nobody returned. Our loss calculator asks for weekly numbers, so divide each 30-day count by 4.3.

It runs on your phone or computer and sends us nothing. Set the monthly figure it gives against the prices above. If that figure is small, the lowest-priced tool may be enough, or none at all. If it is big, the walk counts it from your own records.

Prices checked September 25, 2026.

Sources, in plain words

• Jobber Help Center, “Receptionist”, updated July 9, 2026. Vendor documentation: the $29 add-on, 30 conversations, $0.79 after, the Plus plan, the Jobber phone number and forwarding, what it keeps and its note on recording. https://help.getjobber.com/en/articles/receptionistpowered-by-jobber-ai/
• Ruby, plans and pricing: the plan prices and transcripts as an option on every plan, read September 25, 2026. Vendor page. https://www.ruby.com/plans-and-pricing/
• Ruby, FAQs: receptionist minutes, extra minutes and Spanish, read September 25, 2026. Vendor page. https://www.ruby.com/faqs/
• Ruby, its page on transcripts, read September 25, 2026. Vendor page. https://www.ruby.com/ai/
• Smith.ai, receptionist pricing: plans answered by people and per-call options, read September 25, 2026. Vendor page. https://smith.ai/pricing/receptionists
• AnswerConnect, home page (how minutes are counted) and plans page (a form, no prices), read September 25, 2026. Vendor pages. https://www.answerconnect.com/ and https://www.answerconnect.com/view-pricing
• AnswerConnect, how it works (listening back to calls), read September 25, 2026. Vendor page. https://www.answerconnect.com/how-it-works
• Quo, pricing and the auto-replies help page, read September 25, 2026. Vendor pages. https://www.quo.com/pricing and https://support.quo.com/core-concepts/ai-automations/auto-replies
• ServiceTitan, call booking rates, October 2022. Vendor data, more than 3,000 trade businesses in the US and Canada. https://www.servicetitan.com/blog/data-call-booking-rates
• Florida Statutes (2026), section 934.03, on intercepting and recording calls: (2)(d) consent and (4)(a) the penalty. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0900-0999/0934/Sections/0934.03.html
• Florida Statutes (2026), section 934.10, on a caller’s right to sue: (1) damages and who can be sued, (3) the 2 years. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0900-0999/0934/Sections/0934.10.html
• Lumora sample walk sheet: illustrative numbers for a 2-truck plumbing shop.

Questions and answers

How much does an answering service cost per month?

On the vendors’ own pages on September 25, 2026, Ruby’s smallest plan was $250 a month for 50 minutes and Smith.ai’s was $300 a month for 30 calls. AnswerConnect’s plans page asks for a name, email and phone number and shows no price.

What does Jobber’s Receptionist cost, and what does it keep?

It is an add-on to some Jobber plans at $29 a month for 30 conversations, then $0.79 each, and the Plus plan includes it (Jobber Help Center, updated July 9, 2026). It keeps a summary, a recording and a transcript of each call it answers.

Is it legal to record customer calls in Florida?

Florida allows it when “all of the parties to the communication have given prior consent” (F.S. 934.03). Without that consent, recording can be a third-degree felony, and the caller can sue for at least $1,000 (F.S. 934.10).

Is an answering service worth it for a small trade shop?

Divide its monthly cost by your profit on one job. At $151 a job, our sample sheet’s figure, a $300 service must win back about two lost jobs a month, and a $29 one about two a year. Count the calls nobody returned before you buy.

Does a missed-call text record the call?

No. It keeps the text, not the call. Your phone service may still transcribe voicemails: every Quo plan includes voicemail transcripts.

Read next

• How to count what a missed call costs your businessA plain formula, what to pull from your phone company and why the big numbers in ads do not fit your shop.
• Texting your customers in Florida: five rules in plain wordsWhat a missed-call text may say, when you need written consent and how to handle STOP.