We built a free ROI calculator that runs the actual math on whether an AI receptionist beats your current setup. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough using a real 4-location dental group as the example.
The first question on every voice-agent discovery call is "what's this going to cost me?" and the honest second question is "is it actually going to pay back?" To answer both at the same time, we built a free Cost Estimator on the site. No email gate to see the result, no marketing copy in the way. Plug in your numbers, get the 12-month TCO for in-house, outsourced, and AI-agent configurations side by side. Below is a step-by-step walkthrough using a real customer scenario — a four-location dental group in the Mountain West with 1,800 inbound calls/month — so you can see exactly how the calculator works and what assumptions it's making. The customer in the walkthrough I'm using a real composite of three dental customers we've worked with.
The numbers are slightly rounded but the proportions are accurate. Business: 4-location general dentistry group, Mountain West region Monthly inbound calls: 1,800 (averaged across locations) Average call duration: 3.5 minutes Current setup: 3 part-time receptionists, $19/hr loaded, 25 hrs/week each Current booking rate from inbound calls: 42% Average value of a new appointment: $340 (mix of cleanings, fillings, and intake) Current after-hours coverage: voicemail; missed-call callback rate ~18% Step 1: enter the inputs Open the Cost Estimator and fill in: Monthly call volume: 1800 Average call duration (minutes): 3.5 Current cost of receptionist labor (monthly): 6,170 (3 reps × 25 hrs × $19/hr × 4.33 weeks) Current booking rate: 42% Average value per booked appointment: 340 After-hours volume share: 25% The calculator immediately produces three scenarios. Step 2: read the in-house scenario Cost line items: Loaded labor: $6,170/mo Phone system and software (your existing PBX, EHR phone integration): $180/mo Effective cost per call: $3.53 Annual cost: $76,200 Revenue line items: Calls answered (business hours only): 1,575 (87.5% of monthly volume) Calls converted to booked appointments: 661 (42% × 1,575) Calls missed: 225 (all after-hours) Of missed calls, recovered via callback: 41 (18% recovery) Total booked appointments: 702 Total revenue from booked appointments: $238,680/yr The calculator's verdict on in-house: a positive but leaky operation. Real revenue happens, but 225 calls/month vanish into voicemail and only 18% come back. Step 3: read the outsourced answering-service scenario The calculator assumes a competitive blended answering service like Ruby or AnswerConnect at scale: Cost line items: Base plan covering ~600 minutes: $469/mo Overage at $1.39/min on excess 5,700 minutes: $7,923/mo (!!) Annual cost: $100,704 The calculator surfaces a yellow warning here: at 1,800 calls × 3.5 min, the outsourced model is dramatically more expensive than in-house because the overage rate destroys the unit economics.
We built a free ROI calculator that runs the actual math on whether an AI receptionist beats your current setup. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough using a real 4-location dental group as the example. It is filed under AI Voice because that is where operators looking for this problem actually start, and it is written from production work rather than from a content calendar.