AI receptionist in Chicago
In Chicago the first question on a snowy morning is: are you open?
Belline answers your website, a WhatsApp number of its own and the phone you already have, from your own hours, prices and rules, and takes requests for your team to confirm. Pick your trade below - each page is about that trade specifically.
Answers in English.
Chicago
What a phone line here is like.
Chicago is a city of neighbourhood businesses and a downtown that empties at five. Its calendar is bent more by weather than by anything else: a snowy morning brings calls from people asking whether you are open, and then from people moving an appointment they were going to keep. A business that can answer both, from the hours it changed at seven, keeps the customers whose trip it would otherwise have wasted.
Languages on the line
English, with Spanish the most common second language, and Polish, Chinese and Tagalog heard in the neighbourhoods that speak them. Belline answers in English.
The working week
Monday to Friday for the Loop's offices and a full Saturday for neighbourhood businesses. Chicago runs on Central Time, an hour behind New York, and winter weather is the one thing that regularly reshuffles a week at short notice.
When it rings
Before the Loop's offices open, the lunch hour, and the early evening. On a snowy morning the phone changes shape: people ring to ask whether you are open, and then to move the appointment they had.
How people get in touch
Chicagoans ring to ask whether a business is open before they commit to the trip, particularly in winter. A line that cannot answer that one question without fetching somebody turns a good customer into a cancelled one.
By trade
Written up for Chicago.
Hair & beauty salons
Nobody has a free hand.
Dental clinics
Surgery time is not phone time.
Practicalities
Your number, your clock.
Keep the Chicago number you already have - on your door, your listings and your receipts - and forward to Belline only the calls nobody picks up. New accounts here start on America/Chicago time, and the clocks move twice a year, so a forwarding rule set on the clock keeps doing the right thing through both halves of the year.
Wherever in Chicago you are, the setup is the same: one setting on the line you already have, and nothing printed on your door changes.
Pricing
Per location, per month.
The same prices as everywhere else in the United States. No setup fee, no per-call charge.
- No per-user fees
- No per-message fees
- No AI surcharge
Every plan includes
- One location
- Books appointments, or takes the request for your team
- Your team can take over any chat from the inbox
Starter
For a small business that wants every enquiry answered.
- 100 voice minutes a month, shared across your phone line and your website's voice button
- Video receptionist · 40 video minutes (each uses 2.5 voice minutes)
- 250 text conversations a month, shared across your website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram
- Up to 2 users on your dashboard
- Keep your number - forward it to Belline
- Answers questions from your own hours, prices and policies
- Summary and full transcript of every call and chat
- Your own words and colours on the website buttons
Growth
For a team that wants urgent calls put through live, and its own rules for what Belline may decide.
- 250 voice minutes a month, shared across your phone line and your website's voice button
- Video receptionist · 100 video minutes (each uses 2.5 voice minutes)
- 600 text conversations a month, shared across your website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- Up to 5 users on your dashboard
- Puts urgent calls through to your team, live
- Your own rules about what it may and may not decide
- Restore earlier settings any time
Scale
For higher-volume teams with more complex reception rules.
- 500 voice minutes a month, shared across your phone line and your website's voice button
- Video receptionist · 200 video minutes (each uses 2.5 voice minutes)
- 1,500 text conversations a month, shared across your website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram
- Everything in Growth, plus:
- Up to 15 users on your dashboard
- Priority support
Only need website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram?
WhatsApp Receptionist
$39 per location, per month Billed monthly. Cancel anytime.
For a business that wants every WhatsApp and Instagram message and website chat answered. 250 text conversations a month, shared across your website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram. No phone line and no voice button - add those any time with Starter.
- Answers WhatsApp, Instagram and your website chat from your own hours, prices and policies
- Text only: WhatsApp, Instagram and website chat, with no phone line and no voice button
- Answers on a second WhatsApp number you register yourself
Compare the plans
| Starter | Growth | Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price a month, per location | $69 | $139 | $279 |
| Voice minutes a month | 100 | 250 | 500 |
| Text conversations a month | 250 | 600 | 1,500 |
| Users on your dashboard | 2 | 5 | 15 |
| Keep your number - forward it to Belline | Included | Included | Included |
| Answers questions from your own hours, prices and policies | Included | Included | Included |
| Summary and full transcript of every call and chat | Included | Included | Included |
| Your own words and colours on the website buttons | Included | Included | Included |
| Puts urgent calls through to your team, live | Not included | Included | Included |
| Your own rules about what it may and may not decide | Not included | Included | Included |
| Restore earlier settings any time | Not included | Included | Included |
| Priority support | Not included | Not included | Included |
An answering service takes a message. Belline answers the question, takes the details and tells your team what to do next.
What counts as a minute
A minute is time Belline spends on a live call with your caller - on your phone line or through the voice button on your website - from the moment it answers to the moment the call ends, rounded up to the next whole minute. Calls you make from your own test console do not count, and neither do calls cut short by a fault on our side.
What counts as a conversation
A conversation is one customer's thread in your website chat, on WhatsApp or on Instagram in which Belline replies at least once. Everything that customer says in the 24 hours after Belline's first reply is the same conversation. Threads your team answers without Belline do not count.
When an allowance runs out
When an allowance runs out, you choose what happens: move up to the next plan, or stop at the allowance. We tell you at 70%, 90% and 100%. Nothing is ever added to your bill without you choosing it.
7 days free
7 days free: 30 voice or 12 video minutes and 50 text conversations, with your website chat, the voice button on the same page, WhatsApp and Instagram all switched on, plus your phone line where Belline has a line in your country. No card: nothing is charged unless you choose a plan, and on day 8 without one Belline pauses until you do. Standard onboarding is free.
