Talkify / AI Answering Service
Every call · No hold queue · No per-call charges

What a phone answering service actually costs.

Answering service rates in New Zealand are usually a small monthly retainer with a per-call or per-minute charge stacked on top, which is why the bill moves every month and nobody can quote you a figure. Talkify's AI answering service is $129 a month flat, with 200 minutes included and extra minutes from 10c. Every rate is on this page, and a busy week does not change any of them.

Hear it answer · 03 242 1262 → Get answered from $129/mo
Flat monthly
$129/mo · 200 min
Extra minutes
10c/min
Per-call fees
none
Setup fee
$0
Reception ● Personal Assistant Booking Service ● Sales Qualification Tradesman Dispatcher Real Estate Enquiry ● Beauty & Wellness Plumbing Dispatch ● Retail Professional Services ●

Not a badge on somebody else's platform.

Talkify is built and run in Ōtautahi Christchurch by D3V Services Limited. Here is the footprint behind the phone number, counted off the site itself rather than written down.

Answering NZ calls since 2024 Built in Christchurch, on our own local network.
Trades, town by town 480 20 trades across 24 centres, each written for that town. See the index.
Industries with their own page 23 The vocabulary, urgency rules and booking tools of each. Browse them.
Systems we plug into 19 Calendars, CRMs, job management and accounting, plus a REST API. The full wall.
In your pocket iOS & Android Every call summary pushed the moment the call ends.
Where the call is handled +64 · +61 New Zealand numbers in New Zealand data centres, Australian numbers in Australia.

2 New Zealand businesses have let us publish their call numbers → Named businesses, their own figures, signed off before we wrote a word.

Message taken vs job done.

The old answering service model stops at "I'll pass that on". Every call Talkify takes ends in one of four clean outcomes, and you can read every one of them in your dashboard.

Booked. The best outcome.

The agent reads live availability from Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Calendly, Zenoti, GymMaster and MechanicDesk and locks the slot in while the caller is on the line. Confirmation texted both ways.

Escalated. Within seconds.

Emergencies and VIPs are warm-transferred to your mobile or texted instantly with the caller's number and the gist. You define the rules, the agent applies them at 2am exactly as written.

Answered. No callback needed.

Opening hours, prices, availability, directions, stock questions: the agent answers from your knowledge base and the caller hangs up satisfied. Roughly half of business calls end here, with nobody interrupted.

Message taken. Properly.

When a message is the right outcome, it is a complete one: name, number, reason, urgency, sentiment and a suggested next step, texted and emailed to you with the full transcript attached. Not "John rang".

Answering service rates, line by line.

This is the whole price list for a business line. There is no setup fee, no minimum term, no after-hours rate and no per-call charge, so what you read here is what the invoice says.

The monthly.

$129/month at the founding rate for your first 3 months, then $199 per phone number, with up to three agents answering on it and 200 minutes of calls included.

Flat

The minutes.

10c a minute beyond the included allowance@if($rates['overage_discounted']), then 20c after your first 3 months@endif. Billed by the minute you actually use.

Overage

The texts.

50 texts a month included on a business number, then 9c each. That covers the summary sent to you and the confirmation sent to your caller.

SMS

The smallest way in.

Pay as you go: $10 a month for the number and $1 a minute, no plan at all. Full price list.

No plan

What a message answering service costs in New Zealand, for comparison: most publish a retainer between $19 and $50 a month and then bill per call or per minute, which lands typical businesses between $200 and $500 a month at 60 to 80 calls once the usage charges are counted, with after-hours cover priced as an extra on top. Those are ranges from published NZ rate cards rather than quotes, so price your own real call volume before you sign anything. Named providers and dated figures live on the comparison page; run your own numbers on the missed call calculator.

Why per-call billing works against you.

Traditional answering services charge a small retainer and then bill every call or minute. That model has a built-in problem: it taxes your growth.

Quiet month.

You pay the retainer for not much. The service is cheap exactly when you least need it.

Busy month.

Your ad campaign works, calls double, and so does the bill. The service costs most exactly when your margins are being made.

Flat $129/mo. Either way.

Talkify includes 200 minutes with overage from 10c a minute. A spike in enquiries is pure upside, which is how it should be. See full pricing.

Price your answering service.

Slide for the number of agents you would run on your number (the plan includes up to 3), pick the integrations you'd connect, and see live what your monthly looks like. Most businesses start with one. No sign-up needed.

How many agents 1 agents
Integrations 0 selected
Your plan
$199/mo Founding rate · 3 months
$129
/mo
Plan
Broadcast
Minutes
200/mo
At once
3 calls
Numbers
1

Broadcast fits most growing NZ businesses. One number carries up to 3 agents and three callers at once.

Includes 200 minutes a month, then 10c a minute (20c after your first 3 months). Each number includes 50 texts a month, then 9c each.

Want more than 3 agents on one number? Extra agents are $39 a month each.

Start with this plan →

Answering is half the job.

An answering service takes the calls that come in. It does nothing about the calls your business needs to make: the reminders, the win-backs, the follow-ups, the invoices going quietly overdue. Here is what each provider publishes.

  Talkify Easy AI Agents reception.ai KiwiAgent Waboom
Answers inbound calls ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Outbound calling campaigns ✓ Win-backs, reminders, follow-ups – – – ✓
Phone surveys with reporting ✓ Question sets, live results – – – –
Chases overdue invoices ✓ Driven from your own Xero – – – –
Website chat on the same brain ✓ $49/mo, voice + text – • Separate web chat minutes – –
Multi-line call centre ✓ 5, 10 or 15 lines • Up to 10 at once • 1 call at once on entry plan ✓ Unlimited concurrent ✓ Unlimited
Personal assistant for one mobile ✓ Shortwave, from $89/mo – – – –
iOS and Android apps ✓ Both, every plan – – – –

A dash means the provider does not publish that service on their own website, not that they refuse to do it. Taken from each provider's public pages in August 2026. Waboom, CallKyzen, Automate AI and EnvokeAI all publish outbound calling; AI for Trades states it is inbound only. Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.

Frequently asked.

The questions we hear most. If yours isn't here, ring our live demo agent on 03 242 1262, it'll either answer or queue a callback from a human.

What is an AI answering service?
An AI answering service answers your business calls with conversational AI instead of a call centre operator. Talkify picks up from 0.4 seconds in a real NZ voice, answers questions about your business, books appointments into your calendar, takes detailed messages and texts urgent calls to your mobile. It replaces voicemail entirely and runs 24/7 for a flat monthly price.
How is it different from a traditional phone answering service?
Three ways. Hours: traditional NZ answering services mostly cover business hours, with after-hours as a paid extra; AI answers around the clock. Billing: traditional services charge a retainer plus per-call or per-minute fees, so busy weeks cost more; Talkify is a flat $129/month with 200 minutes included. Outcome: most services take a message for you to chase; Talkify completes the call, books the job and texts the caller confirmation.
How much does an answering service cost in NZ?
Traditional NZ answering services typically land between $200 and $500 a month at 60 to 80 calls once per-call charges are counted, more in busy months. Talkify is $129/month at the founding rate for your first 3 months, then $199, with extra minutes from 10c. No setup fee, no lock-in, and the price does not move when your phone gets busy.
Can it really answer every call at once?
Yes. Software does not have a roster. If twelve people ring at 8:01am on a Monday, all twelve are answered at 8:01am in the same voice with the same accuracy. An engaged tone or a hold queue is impossible.
What happens with emergencies and urgent calls?
You define what urgent means for your business: a burst pipe, a power cut, a VIP client, a word the caller uses. The agent recognises it, texts your mobile within seconds with the caller's number and the gist, or warm-transfers the call straight to you with context attached.
Do I need to change my phone number or hardware?
No. Talkify works through call forwarding from your existing mobile, landline or 0800 number, exactly like a traditional answering service. Forward when busy, after hours, or always. You can be live the same day and switch it off any time from your phone.
Will it work for my industry?
Talkify ships pre-tuned recipes for trades, clinics and salons, real estate, retail, automotive, landscaping and professional services, with the vocabulary, urgency rules and booking tools of each. If your business answers phones, there is almost certainly a recipe close to it, and everything is editable.

Related reading.

AI Receptionist NZ →

The full front-desk picture: greeting, booking, transfers and message-taking, 24/7.

After-hours answering →

What happens to the calls that come in after five, and what they are worth.

Human vs AI compared →

The honest comparison with traditional virtual receptionist services, both ways.

Now shipping · iOS & Android

Carry your control deck in your pocket.

The Talkify mobile app puts the dashboard, transcripts and live coaching in your hand. Listen back to any call, edit your agent's prompt mid-shift, get push-notified the moment a hot lead lands.

Download Talkify Mobile on the App Store Get Talkify Mobile on Google Play
9:415G ● ●
Today
128 calls.
Latest · 11:20am Booked · Sarah H. ● Reception · 00:42
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AI ANSWERING SERVICE · NZ · 24/7

Stop taking messages.
Start taking bookings.

Hear it yourself · our AI agent, 24/7 · ask it anything 03 242 1262 Sign up, sales & support · we'll set you up 0800 002 967
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Talkify is currently available to businesses in New Zealand & Australia only.

Personal Assistant
Single mobile or landline. Built for one person, not a business.
$89/mo
Shortwave plan

Founding rate On a monthly plan your price is locked in at the founding rate for your first 3 months, then the standard rate applies. Pay as you go has no founding step: the rate is just the rate. Plans include 50 to 200 minutes a month, then 10c a minute. The first 20 texts each month are free, then 9c each.

● Your data stays in NZ.