The market is crowded and every vendor demos well. We weigh up the tools and suppliers for the job you actually have, score them on what matters to a small business, and tell you plainly which to buy, which to avoid and where the risks sit. We do not resell anything, so the answer is only ever the one that fits.
The features that sell a product are rarely the ones that decide whether it works in your business a year later. We look at the parts of the decision that the sales call skips.
Two tools that both call themselves an AI receptionist can behave completely differently on a Tuesday lunchtime with a nervous patient on the line. We test against your calls, your diary and your edge cases, not the vendor's script.
Per-seat fees, usage tiers, integration charges and the price of the plan you will actually need in month six. We put a three-year figure on each option so the comparison is honest.
Where the data goes, who trains on it, what happens if the supplier is acquired or folds, and how hard it is to leave. For clinics, law firms and advisers these are the questions a regulator will ask.
The same six questions, asked of every option on the shortlist, so the comparison is fair and the answer is defensible.
Tested against real examples from your business, with the failures written up as carefully as the successes.
Hosting region, retention, whether the supplier trains on your data, and what that means under GDPR and your sector's rules.
Phone system, diary, accounts, practice or job software. Native integration, a workable bridge, or a spreadsheet and a prayer.
Three years, all in, at the tier you will need. Set against the hours it saves so the payback is a number, not a feeling.
Contract terms, data export, how much of your process ends up locked inside the tool. Lock-in is a cost; we price it.
Funding, customer base, support quality, product direction. A brilliant tool from a company with nine months of runway is not a safe buy.
An hour with you to pin down what the tool must do, what it must never do, what it has to connect to and what you are willing to spend. This becomes the scorecard.
We take the market down to three or four credible options and put each through the same set of real scenarios from your business.
Data terms, contracts, pricing tiers, integration reality and the health of each supplier. This is where most shortlists change.
A written recommendation with the scoring, the risks and how to negotiate the deal, plus a 45-minute walkthrough. If the honest answer is to wait or build, we say so.
A week, and a recommendation you can act on with any supplier. We take no commission and resell nothing, so the advice is not for sale.
No. Sometimes the right answer is an off-the-shelf product, sometimes it is one of our agents, and sometimes it is to wait. The scorecard is the same whichever way it points, and we tell you when one of our own options is in the running so you can weigh that.
Yes. That is often the most useful version: is the thing you are paying for still the right one, what is it costing you in workarounds, and what would switching involve.
Most suppliers offer trials or sandbox access, and where they do not we work from documented behaviour, reference customers in your sector and our own experience with the product. The write-up says which is which.
For clinics, law firms, advisers and brokers we score against the relevant expectations (CQC, GDC, SRA, FCA) and GDPR, and we flag anything a compliance review would stop. This is not legal advice, but it is the list your adviser will want to see.
We will give you the notes: where the price has room, which terms to push on and what to ask for on data and exit. If you would like us in the room for that conversation we can be, as a small add-on.
A 45-minute call to hear what you are trying to solve and whether an independent assessment would save you money.
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