Abby Connect Review: Pricing, Features & Alternatives for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on VoIP.
Abby Connect is a live answering service offering 24/7 virtual receptionists and live chat support. Monthly pricing starts at $299 for its live receptionist services, while live chat starts at $129. Based on Abby Connect reviews, it is best for businesses needing a dedicated receptionist team for fielding calls and those looking for both live receptionists and live chat options. It received perfect scores in general features, ease of use, and customer service.
Abby Connect Review: At a Glance
Overall Score:
3.98 / 5
What We Liked
- 14-day free trial
- Dedicated receptionist team
- Free outgoing calls
- No extra fee for 24/7 chat services
What's Missing
- High overage fees
- Limited receptionist services
- No custom scripts
- Standard answering service is unavailable on U.S. holidays
- Dedicated team of receptionists: Abby Connect assigns each client a personalized team of five to seven receptionists trained specifically for your business needs. This ensures all calls will be answered by operators who sound like the in-house staff of your company.
- Multichannel answering service: Abby Connect offers bundled plans for those needing a live chat option in addition to their receptionist plan. All plans include extra features for more control of your account.
- Spanish-speaking callers: Many of Abby Connect’s receptionists are fully bilingual in English and Spanish and can communicate in either language.
- Low-cost live answering service: Priced at just $47 per month, MAP Communications is an affordable alternative for businesses on a budget.
- Seasonal call volume: Ruby is a popular live receptionist service that offers greater flexibility for your answering needs, whether you need full-time, part-time, or backup support.
- Customer relationship management (CRM) integration: Answer Connect is a call answering service that integrates with popular business apps, such as Salesforce, Zoho, Zendesk, HubSpot, and QuickBooks.
Abby Connect Deciding Factors
Abby Connect is an excellent fit for small businesses needing assistance reinforcing stronger customer relationships in phone and live chat channels. It features scheduling assistance for organizations needing to streamline the appointment process. Plus, its Zapier integration offers an advantage for those wanting to integrate their third-party apps.
Best For | Businesses needing a dedicated team of receptionists to handle incoming calls and website chats. |
Standout Features |
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Pricing Plans |
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Annual or Volume Discounts Available | Not available |
Integrations |
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Customer Service | 24/7 support for phone, live chat, and email |
Abby Connect Alternatives
Abby Connect comes with potential drawbacks, such as expensive monthly plans, few integrations, and limited receptionist services. If these factors concern you, here are other best answering services to consider:
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Companies needing flexible pricing plans for live receptionist service | Teams needing instant activation from a live answering service | Small businesses looking for pay-as-you-go pricing |
Monthly Starting Price | $230 | $59 | $50 |
Learn More |
Looking for a cloud phone system instead?
Check out our guide about business phone systems and find out which provider offers a live receptionist option. While you’re at it, read our best small business voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services guide and discover which solution suits your business.
Abby Connect scored poorly in this category due to its relatively high rates for its answering service, overage minutes, and setup fees. Low-priced competitors like MAP Communications only charge $47 for its base plan, while Abby Connect has a starting fee of $299.
Abby Connect pricing includes an answering service with separate plans for its live receptionist and live chat. Bundled plans are offered at a discounted rate. The cost per additional minute and engaged chat will depend on the type of plan you’re subscribed to.
Receptionist Plans
Abby Connect receptionist services come in three tiers: 100 minutes, 200 minutes, and 500 minutes. Annual billing is not available, and users are only billed for engaged calls.
Abby Connect Pricing & Plans | 100 Receptionist Minutes | 200 Receptionist Minutes | 500 Receptionist Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Solopreneurs or small teams with low call volume | Small businesses with medium call volume | Small to midsize businesses with high call volume |
Monthly Pricing | $299 | $549 | $1,199 |
Cost per Additional Minute | $2.99 | $2.75 | $2.40 |
Number of Users | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Dedicated Receptionist Team | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Answering Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Live Chat Plans
There are three tiers of live chat support: 10 engaged chats, 30 engaged chats, and 50 engaged chats. Abby Connect uses visitor blocking, so it only uses your engaged chats to high-quality website visitors.
Abby Connect Plans | 10 Engaged Chats | 30 Engaged Chats | 50 Engaged Chats |
|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Solopreneurs or small teams receiving less than 10 chats per month | Small businesses receiving less than 30 chats per month | Small to midsize businesses with an average of 50 chats month |
Monthly Pricing | $129 | $299 | $469 |
Cost per Additional Chat | $12.90 | $9.96 | $9.38 |
Dedicated Success Manager | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Automated Greetings | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Abby Connect got a perfect rating for general features, as it has everything you need to manage your calls and live chats. Clients have access to a web portal that displays account details, such as contacts, call logs, message logs, call recordings, and invoices. Custom answering hours lets you set up rules on when your receptionists will be available to answer calls. Here are other features under the live receptionist package:
- Voicemail solutions
- Call announcement and transfer
- Appointment scheduling
- Custom transfer tunes
- Call blocking
- Dedicated success manager
- Call and text from app
- Bilingual receptionists
Abby Connect’s additional services are limited to live chat and appointment scheduling. Unlike other competitors, it doesn’t support order processing, lead capturing, or inbound sales. Integrations are limited to apps like HubSpot and Zapier. Still, Abby Connect stands out for its customized client intake feature, which lets you customize the information your receptionists collect to ensure you get everything you need.
Click on each item below to discover other Abby Connect features:
Abby Connect offers a group of dedicated live receptionists to answer your calls. A team includes five to seven receptionists, and the number of teams you have depends on how long you need them to be available. For example, two teams are assigned for extended business hours, while you get three teams for 24/7 support.
Abby Connect’s virtual receptionists will flawlessly handle your calls in English and Spanish. (Source: Abby Connect)
Abby Connect offers live chat services by assigning real humans to answer website chats. For every engaged chat, Abby Connect will label it as “lead,” “actionable support,” or “non-actionable support,” so you understand the nature of every chat message. Through interface customization, your company’s brand color is added to your website chat to capture visitors’ attention.
Here are the included features under Abby Connect’s live chat service:
- Chat to call
- Automated greetings
- Pre-chat form
- Post-chat survey
- Scheduling assistance
- Email transcripts
- SMS integration
- Multiple language support
The Abby Connect live chat service creates more opportunities to impress website visitors instead of relying on chatbots with canned responses. (Source: Abby Connect)
AbbyGO is Abby Connect’s mobile app packed with several features, giving you more control over cost, time, and service delivery. Make free outgoing calls and send and receive text messages from your business phone number. You can also update your receptionists about your call availability and view all calls, chats, and SMS in one activity screen.
Here are other things you can do with the AbbyGO app:
- Call and text from your business phone number
- Submit receptionist feedback
- Set call availability
- Use a global search functionality
- Track minute usage and call trends
- Update payment method
- Receive usage notifications
The AbbyGO app delivers more flexibility in managing your business communications. (Source: Abby Connect)
We awarded Abby Connect another perfect score for customer service as it provides 24/7 availability for all support channels, including phone, live chat, and email help desk. For additional resources, Abby Connect regularly updates its website blog and YouTube channel with helpful information about providing better customer service and utilizing live receptionist services.
Abby Connect received a full score for ease of use due to its excellent usability and user experience. In its recent update, Abby Connect redesigned its web portal and mobile app to give you more control over its services. It is rebuilt for more pricing transparency and predictability to ensure the user is always updated about their current minute usage. The dashboard displays activity trends, such as minute usage, chat usage, call volume, and SMS volume.
The Abby Connect web dashboard gives total visibility into your business’ call and message activities. (Source: Abby Connect)
Abby Connect provides the best value for money for businesses needing a professional answering service to field calls and messages. Its intuitive web interface and additional call features enable customers to customize call handling rules easily. However, due to its expensive monthly plans, Abby Connect is not appealing enough for startups and small businesses on a tight budget.
Here are the most recent ratings earned by Abby Connect on popular review sites:
- ConsumerAffairs: 4.8 out of 5 based on 30 ratings
- Clutch: 4.8 out of 5 based on 79 reviews
- G2: 5 out of 5 based on 1 review
How We Evaluated Abby Connect
We tested Abby Connect and checked the feedback from verified users on popular review websites. As the basis for our evaluation, we compared it with other leading answering services in the market. From there, we created a scoring system divided into a set of criteria: pricing, general features, niche features, customer service, ease of use, and expert score.
Learn how we evaluated Abby Connect by clicking on the tabs below:
15%
Pricing
25%
General Features
20%
Niche Features
10%
Customer Service
10%
Ease of Use
20%
Expert Score
15% of Overall Score
We checked Abby Connect’s subscription fees, including the availability of a free trial or cheaper monthly pricing. We also considered if it has lower overage rates and a waived setup fee.
25% of Overall Score
In this Abby Connect review, we looked at capabilities essential to a live answering service, such as bilingual receptionists, voicemail, and mobile app. We also considered the types of custom answering hours it offers. Abby Connect gets an additional point for the availability of any of these features.
20% of Overall Score
We checked the niche features of Abby Connect to see the additional value users get by subscribing. In evaluating live receptionist services, we check if they offer live chat, order processing, and appointment scheduling. We also give additional points if it has robust integrations.
10% of Overall Score
We assess the quality of customer service by checking the number of hours and days the customer support team is reachable. Higher points are given if it operates 24/7. We also looked at the availability of customer support channels, including email, phone, and live chat.
10% of Overall Score
We evaluated Abby Connect’s user interface based on its usability and the technical skill required to set up and operate its entire platform. We explored its client portal and mobile app and considered the firsthand experience of its users.
20% of Overall Score
We came up with our expert score by comparing Abby Connect against other leading answering services. We also consulted Abby Connect reviews to see what others say about its features, ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and popularity.
*Percentages of overall score
Bottom Line
Abby Connect offers a premium solution to businesses wanting professional and reliable live receptionists for phone calls and live chat. Subscribing to any plan includes robust features, such as a dedicated receptionist team, appointment scheduling, and a mobile app. Sign up for a 14-day trial to see if it fits your business needs.
