Price is the question small businesses most like to avoid on their websites and the one visitors most want answered. The result is a familiar standoff. The visitor asks what something costs, gets "prices vary, please contact us for a quote", and goes to find a business that will at least give them a ballpark.
How an AI receptionist handles pricing questions can make that standoff worse or end it. Left to its own devices with no price information, a poorly built one will either stonewall or, worse, invent a figure that sounds reasonable. Set up properly, it gives the visitor as much certainty as your pricing honestly allows and collects what you need for the rest.
How it should do that depends on what kind of pricing your business has. Most fall into one of three patterns, and a few mix them.
Why dodging the price question costs you
People who ask about price are rarely idle browsers. They have usually read enough to be interested and now want to know whether you are in their league. A vague reply at that moment does not make them contact you. It makes them assume you are expensive or awkward, and both assumptions send them elsewhere.
Owners dodge for understandable reasons: fear of underquoting, of being compared on price alone, of committing to something before seeing the job. Those are real risks. The answer is to control what the receptionist says, not to have it say nothing. Using AI to answer pricing questions that close deals makes the commercial case in more depth.
Match the approach to your pricing
| Your pricing | Examples | What the receptionist should do |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed, published | Salon treatments, MOTs, classes, set-fee consultations | Give the exact price, then any conditions such as length, extras or deposits |
| Ranges or starting prices | Cleaning, gardening, photography packages, small repairs | Give the range and an example job, explain what moves the price, offer a quote |
| Genuinely per job | Renovations, bespoke design, legal matters, commercial contracts | Explain how pricing works, give any typical figures you are happy to share, collect quote details |
Be honest with yourself about which row you are in. Many businesses that think they are in the bottom row could publish a range for their three most common jobs, and would win more enquiries for it.
Fixed prices: the number first
If the price is on a list, the receptionist should say it without preamble. Visitors find conditions before the number slightly suspicious.
Poor: "Our prices depend on a number of factors including hair length and the stylist, but a cut and blow-dry typically starts from around £45."
Better: "A cut and blow-dry is £45 with a stylist or £60 with a senior stylist. Longer hair may take extra time and cost a little more; the salon will confirm when you book."
The only way to get this right is to give the receptionist a current price list, ideally as an uploaded document or Q&A pairs you update the same day prices change. An out-of-date price quoted confidently is worse than no price.
Ranges: anchor on an example job
For range-priced work, a bare range ("£80 to £400") is technically honest and practically useless. An example job gives the visitor something to measure their own situation against.
Visitor: how much for a garden tidy up
Assistant: It depends mostly on the size of the garden and how overgrown it is. As a guide, a one-off tidy of a typical small back garden, with lawn, borders and waste taken away, is usually around £120 to £180. Larger or very overgrown gardens cost more. If you tell me roughly how big yours is and what needs doing, I can take your details so we can give you a proper price.
Visitor: medium sized, hedges need doing too
Assistant: Thanks, hedges are worth mentioning as they can add time. Could I take your name, postcode and the best way to reach you? A photo is helpful too, and the team can ask for one when they get in touch.
The visitor now knows roughly where they stand, and you have a lead with the details that matter. For photography and other package-based work, how photographers handle pricing enquiries shows the same idea in a different trade.
Per-job pricing: gather what a quote needs
When a figure genuinely cannot be given, the receptionist's job shifts to collecting a quote-ready enquiry. Work out in advance what you need:
- List the questions you always ask before quoting, such as location, size, materials, timing and access.
- Cut that list to the ones that change the price most. Four or five is usually plenty for a first conversation.
- Write one or two sentences explaining how your pricing works in general, for example day rates, fixed fees per stage, or free site visits.
- Add any typical figures you are comfortable with, like "most bathroom refits we do fall between £6,000 and £12,000".
- Tell the receptionist to explain why it is asking, then capture the answers as a lead.
For regulated services such as legal or financial work, the receptionist should also say it gives information about fees, not advice about the matter itself. AI assistants for service quotes goes further on quote intake.
Lines the receptionist must not cross
- Inventing a figure. If the content has no price, it says so and offers to get one. It never estimates on its own.
- Promising a final price. Ranges and examples are guides. The wording should make that clear every time.
- Offering discounts. Only if you have written down a specific discount and when it applies.
- Comparing itself with competitors on price. It does not know their prices, and speculation helps nobody.
A grounded receptionist that answers only from your content makes the first of these much less likely, but the others need to be written into its instructions.
Where to start with AI receptionist pricing questions
Open a blank document and write the prices for your ten most-requested services or jobs, using whichever row of the table fits each one. Where you would normally say "it depends", write what it depends on and the price of a common example. Add that as content, then ask your receptionist "how much does it cost" in five different ways. If you get a guess, a dodge or a stale price, fix the source. Then read turning pricing page visitors into enquiries for what to do with the traffic on that page.