The receptionist that never
gives an engaged tone.
Up a ladder, mid-treatment, in court, on a viewing: your phone rings exactly when you can’t answer it. fonea picks up in seconds — evenings, weekends, bank holidays included — answers questions, books appointments into your calendar, and puts urgent callers through. Works with your existing UK number via standard call divert.
What is an AI receptionist for UK businesses?
An AI receptionist answers your UK business line with a natural voice: it greets callers, answers questions, books appointments into your calendar, and puts urgent calls through — 24/7, including evenings, weekends, and bank holidays, from £90 a month.
The UK phone problem
Engaged tones and voicemail are costing you jobs
You’re the receptionist — and you’re on the tools
For a plumber on a loft job, a dentist mid-surgery, or a stylist with a client in the chair, answering the phone means stopping the work that pays. So the call rings out, the caller hears an engaged tone or voicemail, and they ring the next listing. The job goes to whoever picked up.
The first business to answer usually wins the work
UK customers ring after work — you’ve gone home
The boiler quote gets chased at 7 pm, the dental appointment is booked from the sofa, the viewing is requested on Sunday morning. A line that only works 9 to 5, Monday to Friday — and goes dark on bank holiday weekends — quietly filters out the callers with money to spend.
Out-of-hours enquiries go to whoever answers
A full-time receptionist doesn’t add up for most SMBs
Covering one phone line across opening hours, lunch, holidays, and sickness takes more than one salary — far more than most UK trades, practices, and agencies can justify. So the phone is covered by whoever is least busy, which on a good day is nobody.
One phone line needs more than one person to cover it
What changes
What fonea does for your UK business
Every call answered in seconds
No engaged tone, no voicemail, no ringing out. Callers are greeted with your business name within seconds — during surgery hours, on site, and on Boxing Day alike.
Appointments booked while they’re on the line
Connected to Google Calendar or Microsoft 365, fonea sees real-time availability and books the check-up, the quote visit, or the viewing on the spot. No call-back tennis.
Urgent calls put through, the rest summarised
You define what’s urgent — a burst pipe, severe pain, a completion-day problem. Those calls are transferred to your mobile immediately; everything else arrives as a structured summary by email or text.
Five languages, detected automatically
fonea answers naturally in English, German, French, Italian, or Spanish — useful for practices and agencies serving international customers across the UK.
Live in hours
How it works with your UK number
Keep your existing UK number
Landline, VoIP, or mobile — fonea works with any UK provider through standard call divert. No porting, no new number, no contract changes.
Set up the divert
Forward calls always, when busy, or when unanswered — most UK lines set this with a short code or a setting in minutes. Reversible whenever you like.
fonea answers, books, transfers
The assistant greets callers with your business name, answers your most common questions, books appointments, and puts urgent calls through to you.
You get the summary
After every call: who rang, what they wanted, what was booked or promised — by email or text. Nothing rings out unnoticed again.
Typical UK call scenarios
How fonea handles real UK calls
Trades — boiler breakdown while you’re on a job
The job lands in your diary with the address captured — instead of going to the next plumber on the search results.
Dental practice — booking from the sofa at 8 pm
An out-of-hours caller becomes two booked appointments — no morning voicemail backlog for reception.
Estate agent — viewing request on a Sunday
A weekend enquiry is qualified and booked before Monday — while competing listings are still on voicemail.
UK GDPR and data protection
Built for UK data protection expectations
UK GDPR compliant
Calls are processed lawfully under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, with a data processing agreement, encryption in transit and at rest, and configurable retention periods — in line with what the ICO expects of a processor.
European infrastructure
AI processing runs on European infrastructure; persistent data is stored in Switzerland, a jurisdiction the UK recognises as adequate for data transfers. No data detours through opaque third countries.
Transparent AI disclosure
Every caller is told at the start of the call that they are speaking with a digital assistant. The disclosure cannot be switched off — transparency is built in.
No voice profiles, no biometrics
fonea does not build voiceprints. Calls are transcribed in real time and the audio discarded; transcripts are encrypted and deleted on your schedule.
Pricing
Transparent pricing
Included
- 120 minutes AI talk time included
- EN, ES, FR, DE, IT
- Calendar integration & appointment booking
- AI answering machine 24/7
- Interactive AI for customer service
- Email & SMS notifications
- Cancel monthly, no commitment
Included
- 500 minutes AI talk time
- 3 concurrent calls
- 3 phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Basic
- Outbound calls
Included
- From 2,000 minutes
- Custom concurrent calls
- Custom phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Professional
- Custom voice
- Custom SLA
Frequently asked
AI receptionist in the UK — your questions answered
How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK?
fonea starts at £90 per month and includes 120 minutes of call time, with no per-call fees, no setup fee, and no minimum term — cancel monthly. For comparison, even a part-time human receptionist typically costs well over £1,000 a month in wages alone, and out-of-hours cover from a traditional answering service is billed on top. Every plan includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Does fonea work with my UK phone provider and number?
Yes. fonea works through standard call divert, which every UK provider supports on landlines, VoIP lines, and mobiles. You keep your existing number — there is no porting and no new contract — and you choose whether calls divert always, when busy, or when unanswered. Switching the divert off again takes seconds.
Is it UK GDPR compliant?
Yes. fonea processes calls under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 with a data processing agreement, encryption in transit and at rest, and configurable retention windows — the controls the ICO expects you to have in place with any processor. Callers are informed at the start of every call that they are speaking with a digital assistant, and no voice profiles are created.
Does it cover evenings, weekends, and bank holidays?
Yes, at no extra charge. fonea answers around the clock, every day of the year — including the bank holiday weekends when emergencies happen and human cover is hardest to arrange. Many UK businesses answer daytime calls themselves and divert to fonea out of hours; others divert everything.
Which UK businesses is it for?
Any business that loses calls because the people who could answer are busy doing the work: trades and home services, dental and other private practices, law firms, estate and letting agents, salons and clinics. fonea is configured with your services, prices, and frequent questions, so it answers like your front desk — not like a generic call centre.
What happens with urgent calls?
You define what counts as urgent for your business — a water leak, severe dental pain, a completion-day issue. When a caller describes one, fonea puts them through to your mobile immediately; if you don’t pick up, it captures the details and flags the message for a priority call-back. Routine calls are booked or summarised instead, so your phone only interrupts you when it should.
Further reading
Is an AI Receptionist Legal in the UK? GDPR, ICO & PECR Explained
Whether an AI receptionist is legal and compliant in the UK: lawful basis, transparency, recording, PECR, DPAs and deletion — in plain English.
How Much Do Missed Calls Cost Your Business? (With Calculator)
What every missed call really costs you. The maths, step by step, with a worked example and a simple calculator for your own business.
Best AI Receptionist UK 2026: An Honest Comparison
Moneypenny, RingCentral, IONOS, Synthflow and fonea compared honestly — published pricing, strengths, limitations, and which AI receptionist fits which UK business.
AI Receptionist for Trades: Never Miss a Job While on the Tools
How an AI receptionist answers every call while you’re on a job, books the work and flags emergencies — so a ringing phone stops costing you jobs.
Stop losing UK calls. Start today.
Live in hours, keep your UK number, cancel monthly. 30-day money-back guarantee.
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