Your Receptionist Costs $4,200/Month. Ours Costs a Fraction. Here’s the Honest Breakdown.

Let’s talk about the person sitting at your front desk.

You like them. They’re friendly. Clients like them. They remember names, offer coffee, make small talk about the weather. They’re the first voice people hear when they call your firm.

They’re also your most expensive employee per hour of actual phone coverage.

Here’s the math nobody does but everybody should.

What Your Receptionist Actually Costs

The average law firm receptionist in the US earns between $35,000 and $45,000 per year in salary. Let’s use $40,000 as a middle number. That’s $3,333 per month in base pay.

But salary isn’t the full picture. Add employer taxes (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment), and you’re adding roughly 8% on top. That’s another $267 per month.

Health insurance: If you offer it, you’re contributing $300 to $600 per month per employee.

Paid time off: Two weeks of PTO means you’re paying for 10 days of zero productivity. That’s about $1,540 per year, or $128 per month.

Training and onboarding: The average cost to train a new receptionist is $2,000 to $4,000. If you have turnover every 18 months (which is common in reception roles), that’s another $150 to $220 per month amortized.

Office space and equipment: Desk, computer, phone system, headset. Another $100 to $200 per month when you factor in the square footage.

Add it all up. Your $40,000-per-year receptionist actually costs you $4,000 to $4,800 per month. Call it $4,200 as a reasonable middle.

What You Get for $4,200/Month

Your receptionist works roughly 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. That’s 40 hours of phone coverage out of 168 hours in a week.

During those 40 hours, they’re not just answering phones. They’re greeting walk-ins, sorting mail, handling deliveries, transferring calls, dealing with vendors, and doing whatever other tasks you’ve piled onto the role.

Actual phone answering? Maybe 4 to 5 hours per day of focused phone coverage. The rest is everything else.

During lunch, the phones go to voicemail. During bathroom breaks, the phones go to voicemail. When they’re on another call, new callers go to voicemail.

Then at 5 PM (or whenever they clock out), everything goes to voicemail until 9 AM the next day. All weekend. All holidays.

You’re paying $4,200 per month for roughly 24% phone coverage with frequent gaps during business hours.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Calculates

Beyond the direct costs, there’s the stuff that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet.

Sick days. The average US employee takes 5 sick days per year. Five days where your phones go unanswered during business hours (unless you scramble to cover with a paralegal who has their own work to do).

Vacation. Two weeks off means two weeks of either voicemail or expensive temp coverage (temps cost $18 to $25 per hour and they won’t know your systems).

They call in sick with no notice. They have personal emergencies. They’re human. That’s not a criticism. It’s reality.

They quit. The average notice period is two weeks, if you’re lucky. Some give none. Then you’re scrambling to hire, which takes 3 to 6 weeks. During that gap, you’re either answering phones yourself or nobody is.

Add it up. Your receptionist is unavailable roughly 30 to 40 days per year. That’s 6 to 8 weeks of gaps in your phone coverage annually.

The AI Receptionist Alternative

An AI receptionist covers your phones 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. No lunch. No PTO. No sick days. No notice period. No turnover.

It answers in under 3 seconds. It qualifies leads based on your practice areas. It books consultations into your calendar. It sends SMS confirmations and reminders. It follows up with leads who don’t book right away.

It works at 2 AM on a Sunday the same way it works at 10 AM on a Tuesday. No performance dips. No bad days.

The cost? A fraction of what you’re paying your receptionist. We’re talking hundreds per month, not thousands.

This Isn’t About Replacing Your Receptionist

Let me be honest about something. For most firms, the smart move isn’t to fire your receptionist and replace them with AI.

Your receptionist handles walk-ins, manages the lobby, coordinates with attorneys, and does a hundred small things that make your office run. Those tasks aren’t going away.

The smart move is to take the phone burden off their plate. Let the AI handle inbound calls, after-hours coverage, and follow-up. Let your receptionist focus on the in-office experience.

This way you get full 24/7 phone coverage AND a better in-office experience. Your receptionist isn’t constantly interrupted by calls. Your clients get better attention when they visit. And your leads get answered at 9 PM on a Saturday.

Some firms will choose to use AI to supplement. Others might decide they can reallocate that receptionist role entirely. That’s a decision you make based on your firm’s specific situation. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

The Math That Matters

Here’s the real comparison.

Your receptionist gives you roughly 40 hours of phone coverage per week at a fully loaded cost of $4,200 per month. During those 40 hours, calls still go to voicemail during lunch, breaks, and when the line is busy.

AI gives you 168 hours of phone coverage per week at a fraction of the cost. Zero missed calls. Zero hold times. Zero sick days.

If we’re talking pure phone answering ROI, AI wins by a factor of 4x to 10x depending on your firm’s call volume and case values.

But here’s the number that matters most: how many leads are you losing right now to voicemail, slow callbacks, and after-hours gaps? Because that’s the real cost. Not the $4,200. The $20,000 to $50,000 per month in cases that went to your competitor because nobody picked up.

See How It Works

This is what we built at 2bizy. An AI receptionist designed specifically for law firms. It handles phone calls, webchat, and SMS. It qualifies leads based on your practice areas. It books directly into your calendar.

We’re offering a 30-day free trial. No setup fees. No contracts. We configure everything for your firm based on a 15-minute call with our team.

You only pay after the system has generated 10 or more bookings. If it doesn’t work, you’ve spent nothing. If it does, you’ve found a system that pays for itself many times over.

Call (213) 771-9777 and talk to Morgan, our AI. She’ll give you a firsthand look at what your callers will experience.

Or visit 2bizy.com and start your free trial today.

You built a practice. You took the risk of going out on your own or growing a firm. The last thing you should be worrying about is whether someone picks up the phone.