- Years answering calls
- 30+
- Live agents, every call
- 24/7/365
- English & Spanish agents
- EN · ES
- Plans start at
- $33
Business answering service
A small business answering service that sounds like your own front desk
A small business answering service puts a trained, live person on your phone line whenever you can’t pick up. Southern Voices agents answer in your company’s name, follow the script you approve, take complete messages, book appointments, capture new leads and get urgent calls to whoever is on call. Your callers get a real conversation instead of voicemail, and you get the details the way you want them.
We have been a business answering service since 1995. Southern Voices is a full-service contact center headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and we answer for contractors, property managers, law firms, healthcare practices, one-person offices and large organizations with many locations, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in English and Spanish.
- Live people on every call. No phone trees, no AI voice bots.
- Your rules, followed exactly. You approve the greeting, the script and the escalation steps.
- Bilingual. Live English and Spanish, not “press 2.”
What we do
What an answering service for small business actually does
Think of it as a receptionist who never takes a day off. Here is what our agents handle for you.
Answer in your name
Every call is answered with your greeting, so callers hear your company, not ours.
Take complete messages
Name, number, reason for the call and anything else you ask for, written up clearly.
Capture new leads
Prospects are asked your qualifying questions and sent to you while they’re still interested.
Book appointments
Agents schedule, confirm and reschedule appointments by your rules.
Escalate urgent calls
Real emergencies go straight to your on-call person, following your escalation tree.
Answer common questions
Hours, directions, services and other routine questions answered from the information you give us.
Patch calls through
When a caller needs you right now, the agent can connect the call live.
Deliver messages your way
Secure text, email or the client portal, so nothing sits in a voicemail box.
Answering services
Choose the coverage your business needs
Start with one service or combine them. Each one is answered by the same trained, live agents.
After-hours & 24/7 answering
Nights, weekends and holidays, or every call around the clock, with urgent calls sent to your on-call staff.
Emergency line
Urgent calls screened, dispatched and escalated by your rules, plus backup answering when your office can’t answer.
Bilingual answering
Live English and Spanish from the first hello. No menus, no translation lines.
Outsourced switchboard
Your main line answered and callers put through to the right person or department.
Overflow answering
Calls roll to a live agent when your lines are busy or ring unanswered.
Virtual receptionist
A professional receptionist for greeting, transferring and booking, without the payroll.
Need a full team on your lines? See our call center services: dedicated agents, customer service, help desk and more. Need a line just for your employees? Our employee hotlines handle call-offs and absence reporting, HR and ethics concerns, and compliance reports.
When we answer
Business answering service for nights, lunch hours and busy days
Most small businesses don’t need us every minute. They need us at the moments nobody can get to the phone: after 5 p.m., over lunch, on weekends, and when three lines ring at once. Forward your calls only when you want coverage, or send us everything and let us be your front desk all day. That flexibility is what a live answering service for small business should give you.
Either way, the caller hears the same thing: a friendly, trained person who knows your business and follows your instructions. You stay in control of the schedule, and you can change it whenever you need to.
- Your office: 8 AM–5 PM
- Southern Voices: nights, weekends, holidays
- Southern Voices: lunch hour
- Overflow backup whenever your lines are busy
Example schedule. You choose exactly which hours we cover.
How calls are handled
What happens when someone calls your business
A live agent answers in your company’s name, works out what the caller needs, and handles it the way your playbook says.
- Urgent Your on-call contact, reached now Your escalation tree, step by step, with a live phone patch when you want one
- New lead Lead captured and sent to you Your qualifying questions asked and the lead sent to you right away
- Booking Appointment booked Booked, confirmed or rescheduled by your rules
- Question Question answered Hours, directions, services and other common questions
Industries
Answering services shaped around your industry
Every industry has its own urgent calls, its own vocabulary and its own rules. We build your script around yours.
Property management
Maintenance emergencies triaged and dispatched, leasing calls captured.
Law firms
New client intake and urgent calls handled with care and confidentiality.
HVAC
No-heat and no-cooling calls dispatched to your on-call tech.
Plumbing
Leaks and backups routed fast, routine jobs booked for the morning.
Contractors
Every job inquiry captured while your crew is on site.
Real estate
Showing requests and buyer leads answered around the clock.
Medical practices
After-hours patient calls, on-call routing and HIPAA-trained agents.
All industries
Dental, veterinary, funeral homes, small business and more.
Locations
Answering service across the US
We’re headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and answer for businesses across the country. Your calls are handled the same way wherever you are.
Don’t see your city? We answer for businesses across the country. See all answering service locations.
Why Southern Voices
30+ years of answering the calls that matter
We started as a physician’s answering service, where the person on the phone has to know which calls can’t wait. That standard still shapes how we answer for every business.
- Physician-founded, physician-owned. Answering calls since 1995.
- Live agents 24/7/365. Including holidays and bad-weather days.
- English and Spanish. Live bilingual agents, not a menu option.
- Custom scripts and escalation trees. Built around your rules.
- Confidential by design. HIPAA-trained agents, and we sign BAAs for healthcare clients.
- A US company. Headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with every call running through our US-hosted systems.
Getting started
How it works
- Tell us how you workYour hours, your greeting, the calls that matter most and who should hear about them.
- Approve your scriptWe build custom greetings and scripts around your rules, and agents are trained on your account before go-live.
- Forward your callsAfter hours only, overflow during the day, or every call. You choose, and you can change it later.
- Adjust any timeUpdate on-call schedules, contacts and instructions through the client portal or by calling us.
Pricing
What an answering service for small business costs
Pricing follows your call volume and how much each call involves. Plans start at $33, and larger organizations get volume discounts: the more calls we handle for you, the lower your rate.
See answering service pricing for what goes into a quote, or ask us for one.
Plans start at
$33
Your plan is built around your call volume, and larger organizations get volume discounts.
Questions
Small business answering service FAQs
Don’t see your question? Call and ask a live agent, any time.
What does a small business answering service do?
It answers your business calls when you can’t. Our live agents greet callers in your company’s name, take messages, capture leads, book appointments, answer common questions and send urgent calls to your on-call contact, all by the script you approve.
How is an answering service different from voicemail or a phone menu?
Voicemail and phone menus make callers do the work, and many hang up instead. With an answering service a real person picks up, finds out what the caller needs and acts on it, so an urgent call reaches you now and a new customer doesn’t call your competitor.
Do I have to send all of my calls to you?
No. Most small businesses forward calls only after hours, during lunch, or when their own lines are busy. Others send us every call. You can change your coverage as your business changes.
Will callers hear my company name?
Yes. Agents answer with the greeting you approve and follow your script, so callers hear your business name and get answers that match how you work.
Can your agents answer calls in Spanish?
Yes. We have live bilingual agents who handle calls in English and Spanish, from the first hello to the final message. See our bilingual answering service.
How much does an answering service for small business cost?
Plans start at $33 and scale with call volume and complexity. Larger organizations get volume discounts. See our pricing page or contact us for a quote.
Keep reading
Guides for business owners
The complete answering services guide
What an answering service does, what to look for and how to choose one.
Missed calls, missed business
Why unanswered calls cost more than most owners realize.
6 tips to get the most from your answering service
Simple ways to get better messages and happier callers.
Also worth reading: the value of a live answering service and does your answering service sound like you?