What happens when a lead calls your business at 7pm and no one answers? For Miller Pest Solutions, that was a real problem — one they tried to fix with a human answering service, then a third-party bot, before finally landing on a 24/7 voice AI receptionist built right inside their own CRM. Emily Curtis sat down with me to share exactly how it went.

Kim: What made you start looking at a voice AI receptionist?

Emily: When I started with this company, we were using an external human service for after-hour calls. The struggle we were having was inconsistencies — they serviced quite a few customers, so even though we gave them all the information they needed, we were consistently seeing issues with incorrect information being given. So we started looking at an AI bot. We tried another company for about three months total and were again seeing quite a few inconsistencies — things not getting fully fixed. That's what made us look for other options. We saw we had an option within our own CRM, and that's what led us to you.

Kim: One of the first things I asked was — did you know we could do it right inside the CRM where your sales pipeline already was? What was one of the big positives about moving it in-house?

Emily: The ability to control it. With the previous bot, I was constantly giving feedback, hearing that it was fixed, but having no transparency to actually see that it was fixed — and then watching the same issues pop up again and again. Being able to get into the prompts, see exactly what the bot is saying, and verify a fix actually worked — that transparency was huge. Plus, having our leads come straight into our CRM means our salespeople are already in there looking at those leads. And we were able to set up workflows so a first email goes out automatically right after the call ends. It was a win-win.

Kim: Can you walk us through how the bot actually handles a call?

Emily: Sure — high level. When someone calls in, one of the first things the bot asks is whether they're an existing customer or calling for the first time. If they're an existing customer, it routes them: billing question or schedule change? For a schedule change, it gives them available four-hour time blocks and books it right there on the phone — which reduces a lot of work for our customer service reps. If it's a billing question or anything else, it takes a message and lets the customer know a team member will be reaching out. At least they feel heard instead of just hitting voicemail.

For new customers, the bot walks through a full quoting workflow — collects name, address, email, home size, any specifics needed for the quote — then quotes them and schedules an appointment. The goal is that by the end of the call, the customer feels like the sale is basically done. Then a salesperson follows up to confirm payment and finalize the appointment. It's more like a confirmation call at that point.

Kim: What has customer feedback actually looked like?

Emily: Typically the only feedback you hear is negative — that's just how it works. But when you look at the total numbers, the data tells a different story. Our CRM measures sentiment, and over 90% of interactions are showing as positive. That's a pretty good number. The people who are unhappy are the ones who speak up. The happy ones just go on with their day.

Kim: What about your sales staff?

Emily: There are always complaints — that's just what happens with any new software. But the complaints now compared to when we were using a human service have drastically decreased. With the human service and the previous bot, we were having consistent issues — things scheduled incorrectly, wrong information given. Now I'm getting a handful of small things a week, and they're usually resolved quickly. With the previous services, I was getting multiple issues daily and it was a trial to get any of them resolved. Even if the team doesn't come out and say they're happier — they are. And I definitely am.

Kim: Can you give us a sense of the cost difference?

Emily: Going from the original human service down to the first bot we tried, we cut our cost roughly in half. Moving to the bot inside our own CRM — we've almost cut the extra cost completely. And the bot can take as many calls as needed simultaneously. There's no cap. That alone is a huge benefit.

If you're missing calls after hours — or your current answering service isn't handling them the way you need — this is worth exploring for your business. Book a free demo call and we'll show you exactly how a 24/7 voice AI receptionist could work for you.

Business growth doesn't mean more complexity or longer hours. The right automation works for you — so you don't have to be on call 24/7.