Outfitter Learn · Front Desk · Overview
What is Front Desk, Outfitter’s AI receptionist?
Front Desk is Outfitter’s AI receptionist: it answers the calls you can’t take and says it’s an AI on every call. It takes the message the way you would and texts and emails it to you. Jobs are pre-scheduled for you to confirm, and calls cost 35¢ a minute from your tokens.
Who it’s for: Owner-operators and small crews in the residential trades who miss calls on a job, on the road or after hours.
What happens when you turn on Front Desk
You get a local number in your area code, or forward your own line only when you don’t pick up. Your phone rings first.
Front Desk calls you and interviews you about the business for about ten minutes, like a new hire on day one.
A caller hears that it’s your company’s AI assistant. Their questions get answered from what you taught it, and their message is read back before the call ends.
You get a text and an email: who called, what they want in their words, the callback number and whether it’s urgent.
If they want a visit, Front Desk pre-schedules a time and tells them you’ll confirm it. You make the final call.
Front Desk in plain terms
Think of Front Desk as the office person you never hired. It picks up when you’re on a roof, under a sink or at your kid’s game. It knows your services, what customers call them and what you never promise, because you told it on the setup call.
Your line isn’t only customers. Front Desk tells your drywall sub from the city inspector from a robocall, and handles each the way you said. It never pitches your spouse. Front Desk is one of the jobs Emma, your Outfitter AI agent, does for you.
Want to change something? Call your own line. It knows it’s you. Say “when the inspector calls, give him my cell.” It reads the change back, you say yes, and the next inspector gets your cell.
How it compares to voicemail and answering services
Voicemail loses jobs quietly. A 411 Locals study found 62% of calls to small businesses never reach a person. The caller who hits voicemail often dials the next name on the list.
A human answering service catches the call, but it doesn’t know your trade. Most trade-contractor answering services run $400–$800 a month for 60–90 minutes of answer time, with overage on top. With Front Desk, a busy month of 300 minutes is 10,500 tokens, or $105. There’s no plan to cancel: turn off auto-refill and nothing more is charged.
What it costs
Front Desk is part of Sales & Marketing, which is free to join. Calls use tokens: 35 tokens (35¢) for each minute it’s on the phone with your callers. $35 buys 3,500 tokens, about 100 minutes or 18 typical calls, and tokens never expire. Setting it up, changing it and calling it for your messages are always free.
What it won’t do
Says it’s an AI assistant in the greeting, every call. It never pretends to be you.
Never quotes a price you didn’t give it. Never promises a start date or a same-day visit unless you told it to.
Pre-schedules a time for you to confirm. It never states a time as confirmed on your behalf.
If it doesn’t know an answer, it says so and texts you the question with a callback number.
An example
A remodeler is framing a basement at 10:40 in the morning. A homeowner calls about finishing her own basement, maybe adding a bathroom. Front Desk takes her name, number and what she wants in her words. It notes she’s best after 3 and texts it over. He reads it at lunch and calls her back.
Common questions
See it for your business
Everything on this page is part of Outfitter. Free to join, no contracts, and you only pay for what runs.
Front Desk →Keep reading
Last updated October 11, 2026. Prices and features change; if something here is out of date, call or text (507) 628-0400 and we’ll fix it.