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AI texting agent: an SMS chatbot for your business number

Your customers text while you’re on a job or closed for the day. Sarah, your AI receptionist, texts back from your business number, answers from your website and books the appointment in the thread. You get the summary by email, and the customer is saved in your CRM.

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How the AI texting agent handles your customers’ texts

Your business number is the local number you pick in Small Business Chatbot, the same number your AI receptionist answers your calls on. A customer texts it, and she replies in that thread.

  1. From your website pages and your Q&A.

    Sarah, your AI receptionist, replies in the thread the customer started, in a sentence or two.

  2. In the thread, on your calendar.

    With your calendar connected, Sarah texts your open times, and the customer books by texting back the one they want. If the time they ask for is taken, she offers the next open ones. If your calendar asks for an email, she takes it for the invite.

  3. She knows the appointments booked with that number.

    When a customer with an upcoming appointment texts about it, Sarah names the appointment and texts its reschedule or cancel link. The customer picks the new time, and your calendar updates.

  4. Earlier texts with the same number stay in view.

    A text thread keeps its history. When the same number texts again next week, Sarah has the earlier texts in front of her, including any your workflows sent.

What is an SMS chatbot?

  1. An SMS chatbot, also called an AI texting agent, is software that reads the texts customers send to a business’s phone number and replies for the business in a two-way conversation.

  2. Sarah is the SMS chatbot from Small Business Chatbot. She answers from your website pages and Q&A, books appointments and saves each conversation to your CRM.

Also called AI texting agent, AI SMS agent, text message chatbot, AI SMS chatbot. Not the same as an auto-reply, which sends one fixed message to every text, or a bulk texting platform, which sends one message to a whole list.

See also AI lead follow-up Missed call text back

How an AI texting agent works: your pages, your Q&A, your steps

Each text runs a search over your website pages and the Q&A you wrote, and Sarah, your AI receptionist, answers from what it finds. She follows the Goals, Principles and Ideal Steps you write in plain words.

The questions she asks, and their order, are yours. You also decide what she leaves to your team: write a principle such as “leave the diagnosis and the arrival time to the technician”, and she follows it in every thread.

What you see after each text conversation

A text conversation ends when the customer says bye or five minutes pass with no new text. Then it reaches you in five places.

  • Summary email.

    The action item for you, the texter’s details and every text in the thread, emailed to you and to any extra addresses you add.

  • Conversations.

    The text sits in the same list as your calls and website chats, with its summary and, when lead grading is on, a lead score from A to D.

  • Contact.

    The texter is saved to your AI CRM for small business with the first name, number and email they gave.

  • Timeline.

    The conversation is logged on the contact, and so is every text your workflows send afterwards.

  • Calendar.

    A booking lands on your calendar and starts your booking workflow, which emails the customer the confirmation. More on AI appointment booking.

Connect the SMS chatbot to your workflows, Zapier and Google Analytics

  1. When a text conversation ends, your workflow starts.

    The start event is “Inbound text conversation ended” in the AI workflow builder. From it you build what happens next: a CRM task for a callback, a tag on the contact, a wait and then a text from your number. An HTTP Request step sends the conversation’s details to any tool with a public API.

  2. The Zap gets the transcript, the summary and both numbers.

    The trigger is “Text Conversation Ended” in the Small Business Chatbot app on Zapier.

  3. An event in your own GA4 property.

    Each finished text conversation sends the event sbc_text_ended to your Google Analytics, with no name, number or message text.

One AI assistant for your texts, calls and website chat

Texts, calls and website chats run through one account. One business number takes your calls and your texts, and the texting agent and the website chat share their goals, steps and knowledge.

How to set up an AI texting agent for your business

Three steps in the app, and nothing to build.

  1. 1

    Paste your website.

    Your AI receptionist reads your pages and answers texts from them: your services, your hours, the areas you cover.

  2. 2

    Pick your business number.

    Choose a local number in the app. It is the number you give customers to call and text.

  3. 3

    Switch on text replies and connect your calendar.

    Turn on “Allow texting agent to reply to inbound texts”. From then on your AI receptionist answers each text that arrives, and offers your open times.

AI texting agent pricing

Self Serve

Every tool. You set it up. Try the chat free for 7 days.

$99/ month

Billed monthly. Cancel any time.

Each month100 follow-ups100 conversations100 answered calls

  • Texting and follow-ups by text, email and AI voice call
  • CRM and workflows, with every conversation in one place
  • Website chat that answers from your site and books into your calendar
  • AI phone receptionist that answers, books appointments, takes messages, transfers calls and sends you a summary
  • Trained on up to 100 pages of your website
Start free trial

Managed

Done for you. Our team sets it up, meets with you and keeps tuning it.

$249/ month

Billed monthly. Cancel any time.

Each month500 follow-ups300 conversations500 answered calls

Everything in Self Serve, plus:

  • A 1:1 implementation call to set Sarah up with you
  • Set up for you: the chat installed, your calls forwarded, her answers and booking configured
  • Weekly meetings with your dedicated account manager
  • Ongoing tuning from your real conversations
  • Follow-up workflows built and published for you
  • Changes within 24 hours and priority support
  • Trained on up to 3,000 pages of your website
Book implementation call

See full pricing breakdown

How an AI texting agent differs from an auto-reply

An auto-reply is enough when customers only need to know you saw the message. Sarah, your AI receptionist, is for a service business whose customers ask questions and want a time while you’re working.

Candidate

An auto-reply on your number

What it sends
One message you wrote, to every text
“Do you clean gutters?” at 9:47 PM
“Thanks for your message. We’ll get back to you.”
“Any openings Saturday?”
Waits for your callback
The same customer texts next week
The same message again
After the conversation
A thread on your phone
Candidate

Sarah, your AI texting agent

What it sends
A reply to what this customer asked
“Do you clean gutters?” at 9:47 PM
Answered from your services page
“Any openings Saturday?”
Your open times offered, the one they pick booked
The same customer texts next week
Answered with the earlier texts in view
After the conversation
A summary email, a contact in your CRM, your workflow started

Questions about AI texting agents and SMS chatbots

Does the AI texting agent honor STOP?

Yes. A customer who texts STOP is marked “Do not text” in your CRM, and none of your workflow texts go to that number; START turns texts back on. Small Business Chatbot’s texting agent replies to customers who text your business number first. A text your business sends first comes from a workflow, and it goes out only after you publish that workflow and switch outbound texts on. The help page covers opt-outs and STOP.

Will my customers know they are texting an AI?

That is yours to decide. You choose the assistant’s name in Small Business Chatbot, and if you want each conversation to open with a line saying she is your AI assistant, write that as a principle.

How much does an AI texting agent cost?

Small Business Chatbot is $99 a month, or $79 a month billed annually. With setup done for you on a 1:1 implementation call it is $249 a month, or $200 a month billed annually. Texting is part of both.

Does the AI texting agent reply after hours?

Yes. Your AI receptionist replies whenever a text reaches your business number, at night and on weekends as well as in the middle of a job.

Do customers need an app to text an SMS chatbot?

They text your business number from the messages app already on their phone, and the replies arrive in that thread. There is nothing to download.

Let your AI receptionist answer the next text.

Try her on your website today, or book a demo and watch her answer a text.

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