Why not a human receptionist service like Smith.ai?

Those services do genuinely good work answering, but the bill follows: typically $300 to $700 a month, with minutes billed at $1.49 to $2.99 beyond the plan (public 2026 sources). Signal never sleeps, never takes a break, and sends the first text in under 10 seconds — a human receptionist takes minutes to call back, when she calls back at all. To be honest in the other direction: a high-end human reception keeps its legitimacy for certain practices — it's a budget and image question, not absolute superiority.