Short answer
No. You keep your existing business number and your existing carrier account. Setup is call forwarding from your current line to the agent, which you configure once and can switch off yourself at any time.
Your number is on your trucks, your invoices, your Google listing and every business card you have handed out for a decade. Nobody should be asked to give that up to try an answering service, and any provider that requires it is asking you to take the risk that belongs to them.
Forwarding is a setting on your existing line. You can forward everything, or only calls you do not answer within a set number of rings, or only outside your business hours. Most shops start with after-hours and overflow, then move to everything once they have listened to a few weeks of recordings.
Because the forwarding is yours, so is the off switch. Leaving does not require our cooperation or a support ticket. You turn forwarding off and the calls ring where they used to, the same minute.
Settle it in ninety seconds
Call the demo line and talk to the agent yourself. It is the same system that would answer your phone, running live, and it will tell you it is AI if you ask it.
Related questions
- What if I already have an answering service?
- How long does it take to set up an AI answering service?
- How do I cancel an AI answering service?