Local services
The AI receptionist for local service businesses.
Cleaners, garages, removals, pest control, gardeners. Doing the job is what stops you answering the phone about the next one. ORLA answers it for you.
Hear it before you read another word. Ring 020 4538 1650, describe your problem the way one of your customers would, and try to catch it out. That is a working line answered by the same system a client’s callers reach.
The call local service businesses lose
Whichever one arrives while you are working. A car owner ringing three garages about a noise. A tenant who has just found mice at seven in the evening. Somebody who needs a move quoting and is ringing four firms this afternoon.
What it costs when it goes
In local services the buyer is comparing, in real time, on the phone, right now. Being second to answer is usually the same as not answering. And because these jobs repeat — the monthly clean, the annual service, the recurring treatment — a lost first call is a lost run of work, not a lost job.
What ORLA does with it instead
Answers in your business name, discloses it is an AI receptionist, then takes what they want done, where, and when they need it. It applies your rules on area, service and hours, books what fits and takes a callback for what does not, and leaves you a list to work through instead of a voicemail box to dread.
What ORLA asks on the call
These are the questions ORLA is set up to ask local service businesses. They are yours to change — this is the starting point, not the ceiling.
- What service they want, matched to the list you actually offer.
- The address or postcode, checked against the area you cover.
- How often — one-off, weekly, monthly — because recurring work is worth answering the phone for.
- When they need it done and how flexible that really is.
- A number and the best time to reach them.
When the calls actually arrive
Local service calls follow the customer's day, not yours: before nine, at lunchtime, and after six. Those are precisely the hours a small operator is driving, working or eating, which is why the divert usually pays for itself in the first fortnight it is switched on.
What ORLA will not do for local service businesses
This part matters more than the list above. A receptionist you cannot predict is worse than a voicemail, so here are the refusals that bite hardest in your trade. The full list is on its own page.
It will not invent a quote
Removals, treatments and services price on detail nobody can gather in ninety seconds. ORLA quotes only from your price list and otherwise says a person will confirm.
It will not book outside your area or your list
It declines politely on the call and takes a message. The alternative is you cancelling jobs, which costs you the goodwill of a customer you never wanted.
It will not pretend to be you
It says it is an AI receptionist at the start of every call and again whenever anyone asks. There is no setting that turns that off, and we would not build one.
What it costs
Starter, £69 a month — 150 answered minutes included. Pro, £129 a month — 400 minutes. Front Desk, £349 a month — 1,500 minutes, managed for you, with a £299 setup fee that applies to that plan only. No VAT is added to any of them, so the number you see is the number you pay. No minimum contract. A 7-day free trial runs before anything is charged.
The full breakdown, including what happens if you go over your minutes, is on the pricing page, and the market context — what everyone else charges, and what a human receptionist really costs — is in our guide to what an AI receptionist costs in the UK.
Questions local service businesses ask
My work is seasonal. Can I turn it off?
There is no minimum contract, so you can stop and start. Most people leave it on and simply widen or narrow the divert by season, because the enquiry that arrives out of season is the one that books the next one.
Can it handle recurring bookings?
It can capture that the caller wants a weekly or monthly arrangement and get that to you, and inside the rules you set it can book the first visit. The ongoing schedule stays yours to confirm — that is a commercial decision, not a phone-call decision.
Do my customers know it is not a person?
Yes, immediately and always. ORLA opens by saying it is an AI receptionist. In practice callers mind far less than owners expect, provided the thing actually listens — which is why we would rather you rang 020 4538 1650 and judged it than took our word for it.
What is the real cost?
£69 a month on Starter for 150 answered minutes, £129 on Pro for 400. No VAT added, no setup fee on either, no minimum contract, and a 7-day free trial before anything is charged.