A receptionist that answers on the first ring, books the appointment on your calendar, and emails you the summary — nights, weekends, mid-job. You decide how much of your phone it takes: just the calls you miss, just after hours, or all of them.
Book a fake furnace tune-up. Invent a midnight emergency. Interrupt it mid-sentence and change your mind twice. If it sounds like a robot, hang up on us too.
Give us your business line. Tonight, after hours, a real person calls it once and hangs up at the voicemail. Tomorrow morning you get one email: the time, how many seconds it rang, and exactly what a customer heard. If your phone was covered, we'll tell you that too.
Every new account starts on Front Desk — $49 for the first 30 days, then $179 a month. Nights & weekends is the usual pick. After the pilot, stay on Front Desk or step down to Backup at $79. Switch modes any time with one call or email.
Your phone rings first, exactly like today. Only the calls you don't pick up — busy, hands full, ringing out — roll to Ringlatch.
For: owners who still want to answer their own calls.
You own business hours. At close, you flip your phone to Do Not Disturb — every call after that rings through to your receptionist instead of voicemail, until you switch it back in the morning. Same on weekends and holidays.
For: shops that already answer well during the day.
Every call goes to your receptionist first, all day, every day — and it hands you the ones that need you. Your phone stops ringing for tire-kickers and robocalls.
For: owners who are done being interrupted.
No hardware, no new phone number to advertise, no IT guy. Your existing number stays on the truck — Ringlatch only gets the calls you don't pick up.
Your trade, hours, what counts as an emergency, where summaries go. Fill it on your phone between jobs — that's the whole setup on your side.
We build your receptionist from your answers and walk you through connecting your Google or Outlook calendar on the phone (about five minutes). Then you call it yourself and try to trip it up before any customer ever talks to it.
One forwarding code sends only your unanswered calls to Ringlatch. Your 30-day pilot starts on the first call it catches. Keep it or don't — if it didn't earn the $49, we refund it.
Only as much as you want it to. Start on Backup and your line rings at your phone first, exactly like today — it only picks up what you'd have dropped. Move up to nights-and-weekends or full coverage whenever you're ready, or never.
And when a caller needs a human, it rings your cell and tells you who’s holding before you pick up. Emergencies ring you at any hour — on Front Desk, by rules you write in your own words. If you can’t answer, the full message is in your inbox within a minute.
Routine calls after hours don't wake you: on Front Desk it books them into your next open calendar slot; on any plan, if nothing fits it takes the full message — name, number, address, problem — and emails it to you within a minute. Either way you wake up to a plan, not a voicemail box.
Want it the other way — AI picks up everything so your phone stops ringing? We can set that instead. Your call.
It can't, once your calendar is connected. We hook it to your Google or Outlook calendar (through Cal.com) and give it your job windows — say Mon–Fri 8–5, two-hour slots, four jobs a day max. It can only offer times your calendar shows open. A slot fills the instant it's booked, so two callers can never take the same one.
That's the point of doing it this way: a customer calling at 2am walks away with a confirmed time instead of a promise that someone will call them back. The job is on your phone's calendar before you wake up.
Don't keep a digital calendar? Then it proposes times and emails you to confirm before anything is promised. Nothing gets booked behind your back either way.
Say it’s an AI and that the call is recorded, in the first sentence. Get the name, callback number and address — and read them back. Find out what the caller needs and how urgent it is. Book only into a slot your calendar shows open, or take the full message. Email you within a minute. Ring your cell for a real emergency, and for anyone who asks for a person.
Quote a price you didn’t give it. Give legal, medical or insurance advice. Ask for a Social Security number, date of birth, card or policy number. Pretend to be human. Call anyone — it is inbound only. Use voiceprints or biometrics. Sell or share a caller’s information.
Your own never-say list goes in at signup and is honored word for word.
Our voice platform (Retell AI: SOC 2 Type II, a contractual 99.5% uptime commitment, and a public status page) has had short outages, and we won’t pretend otherwise. In one, a forwarded call rings out exactly as it would have before Ringlatch — nothing about your line breaks — and that month is on us. We watch the status page so you don’t have to.
Two founders in Tinley Park read your calls. Ask for either of us on the demo line.
Nobody leaves a voicemail anymore. They just dial the next company on the list.
of calls to businesses are answered by a person. The rest ring out or hit voicemail.
of consumers say they'll call a competitor if you don't answer — and 78% have abandoned a business after an unanswered call.
of answered calls at trades businesses become booked jobs. Every ring you miss is money left on the table.
Front Desk is $2,148 a year. One saved furnace job — or one signed case — covers the whole year.
No setup fee. No per-minute meter. No annual contract. Cancel with one email or call.
Your phone rings first, exactly like today. We only pick up what you miss.
Everything in Backup, plus it works the hours you don’t.
For businesses with more than one line, or more than one location.
Not a refund you fight for — a credit on your next invoice (a refund if you've already cancelled), because you told us within seven days that it mishandled someone. You don't have to prove anything; we read the transcript ourselves. We'd rather eat a month than have you tell another owner it dropped the ball.
Answering services guarantee the subscription. We stand behind the calls, because we're small enough to actually read yours.
Solo operator or 10 trucks — if you can't answer from a ladder, a crawlspace, or a courtroom, Ringlatch can.
Answer seven questions. We build your receptionist, you test-drive it by phone, then one dial code puts it on your missed calls.
Want a preview while you wait? Call the demo line: (708) 719-6505
What we collect. Your business details from the signup form. From your callers: name, number, address, and what they need — plus a recording and transcript of each call, which is announced at the start of every call.
What it's for. Running your receptionist, sending you summaries, and tuning your setup. Nothing else. We never sell data or share it for marketing — not yours, not your callers'. Ever.
Who touches it. The AI voice, telephony, email, calendar and database providers that power the service, under their service agreements; any Zapier or Make hook you connect yourself; and the two founders, who read calls to tune your setup.
How long we keep it. Call recordings and transcripts up to 90 days, then deleted. Your business info for as long as you're a client. Want something gone sooner? One email.
Illinois-first. Every call opens with an AI disclosure and a recording notice (Illinois all-party consent). We don't use voiceprints or biometric identification. Receptionists are inbound-only — they never cold-call anyone.
Questions or deletion requests. Call (708) 719-6505, email ringlatch@gmail.com, or tell your Ringlatch rep.
Plain-English version, last updated Sept 3, 2026. A formal policy ships with our attorney review; this page governs until then.
These are the terms you accept at checkout. Plain-English version, last updated Sept 10, 2026. Want the full service agreement? One email and it's in your inbox the same day.
The service. An AI phone receptionist that answers calls forwarded from your line in the coverage mode you pick — missed calls only, after hours, or all calls — changeable any time at no charge. It takes each caller's name, number and reason, books appointments into your connected calendar (Front Desk and above) or proposes times for you to confirm, routes emergencies by your rules, transfers callers who ask for a person, and emails you a summary of every call. Every call opens with an AI disclosure and a recording notice. Inbound only — it never places a call.
The price. Front Desk $179 a month. Backup $79 a month. Full Coverage+ $349 a month. Month to month, billed in advance by card through Stripe — we never see or store your card number. The pilot: your first 30 days of Front Desk are $49 — checkout charges $49 today, and from day 31 it's $179 a month, billed monthly until you cancel. No contract, no setup fee, no per-minute charges. Fair use: 1,000 minutes a month on Front Desk (about 400 on Backup); if your volume runs well past that month after month, we propose a bigger plan in writing before anything changes. No surprise bills, ever.
Founding five. The first five businesses that stay past the pilot get Front Desk at $99 a month for as long as they stay continuously subscribed, in exchange for a written testimonial by day 60 and two introductions to other business owners. The rate doesn't survive cancellation, a change of ownership, or a move to Full Coverage+ (which those five get at $80 off list).
Cancel any time. By email, by phone, or with the "manage subscription" link in every invoice — it ends at the close of the paid month. No cancellation fee, no questions. Cancelling is as easy as signing up. You can also stop forwarding yourself with one dial code, any time.
Money-back and the make-good. 30-day money-back: if Ringlatch didn't earn the $49, email us by day 30 and we refund it in full. You keep every call summary. One per business. And if the receptionist ever mishandles a call, tell us within 7 days: that month's fee is credited on your next invoice (refunded if you've already cancelled). No proof needed beyond your report — we read the transcript.
Your 30 days. The pilot clock starts on your first forwarded call, not on the day you pay.
What we don't promise. Ringlatch is answering and scheduling help. We make no promises about booking numbers or revenue. Carrier forwarding and telephony outages are outside our control, so we can't promise every single call reaches us — if the service is ever down, your line simply rings the way it did before Ringlatch. Not an emergency service: callers describing danger are directed to 911.
Your side of it. Keep your business details current, manage your own carrier forwarding, and keep your connected calendar accurate if you use instant booking. Your calendar account is yours — you can revoke its access key any time.
Data. Handled exactly as the privacy section above says. Recordings and transcripts are kept up to 90 days, then deleted; sooner on request.
If something goes wrong. Our responsibility is capped at the fees you paid in the month before the claim, and neither side owes the other indirect or consequential damages. Illinois law governs, and we talk in good faith first.
Referrals. Refer a business; when it finishes its first paid month, you get $50 off your next invoice and they get $50 off that first month. Credits stack, are never cash, and have no value after cancellation.
Who you're dealing with. Ringlatch is a two-person founder-run company in Tinley Park, Illinois. Once Ringlatch LLC is formed, it becomes the party to this agreement on the same terms. Questions: (708) 719-6505 or ringlatch@gmail.com.
Checking the terms box at checkout means you agree to this page. A formal agreement ships with our attorney review; this page governs until then.