Answered Call (Billing)

Answering services bill in one of three units: minutes, calls or a flat monthly plan. Per-answered-call billing charges for each real conversation the agent handled and ignores the noise that per-minute plans quietly bill for.

What counts as answered. A call the agent picked up where a caller engaged: a homeowner reporting a loss, an adjuster asking for an update, a customer booking a visit. What does not count. Spam and robocalls, hang-ups before the caller speaks, misdials, and repeat calls that are part of the same incident where the plan says so.

Why it suits emergency lines. Restoration and home-services lines get bursts of calls on storm nights, many of them short. Per-minute billing makes a bad night expensive; per-answered-call billing with a storm-event waiver keeps the bill predictable when the line is busiest.

Botcadence's Restoration Answer Desk. $399 a month includes 150 answered calls, then $2 per additional answered call. Spam and hang-ups are unbilled, and overage is waived when Botcadence declares a storm event. The $499 setup fee is waived on the founding offer. Self-serve voice plans use minutes instead: the Voice AI plan is $249 a month with 1,500 minutes and $25 per extra 200.

Comparing units. Convert everything to a cost per real conversation at your call length: a three-minute call on a $1.25-a-minute live service is $3.75; the same call on the Answer Desk within the allowance is about $2.66; on Voice AI inside the included minutes it is about $0.50. See the Restoration Answer Desk and the pricing guide. Botcadence voice agents meter this way on every plan.