Trades & construction answering service

ReceptionHQ is based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, and is a subsidiary of OfficeHQ, a global virtual reception company headquartered in Australia.

Yes, our receptionist can answer calls you’d usually miss.  You may be on another call or simply unable to answer because you’re busy at the time. Our receptionists will take a detailed message and send to you instantly by email or SMS. Many clients who subscribe to our service are surprised when they learn how many calls they’d been missing prior to having their calls answered by ReceptionHQ.

Forwarding your business phone calls to ReceptionHQ is easy. To have our team of virtual receptionists answer your calls, simply:

1. Decide whether you wish to forward calls immediately to ReceptionHQ (the best solution for most businesses) or have delayed call forwarding.
2. Identify the call forwarding codes for your telecommunications provider. Most providers publish these codes on their websites.
3. Use the codes to enable call forwarding to the local or toll-free number you choose to have allocated to you (aka your Assigned DID).

For more information, check out our article Forwarding Inbound Calls to Our Team of Receptionists, which outlines:

• Immediate and delayed call forwarding options
• Specific instructions for forwarding from providers such as BT, EE, Virgin Media, Vodafone and others.

Yes. This is referred to as “call overflow”.

A lot of companies require their phone calls to be answered only when they are unable to take the call themselves. For example, if you step out of the office for an hour or your in-house receptionist goes to lunch, is on leave or is busy on another call and you have multiple calls coming in at the one time.

You can set your business phone number to divert (to the unique local phone number we allocate your business during the Free Trial setup process) only when the phone rings for more than a specified period (such as after 5 rings) or if your line is busy/engaged.

In such instances our receptionists will then answer the phone as if we were in your office. You’re always in control and can relax knowing you will never miss another important call again! 

Yes.  We have receptionists available around-the-clock and 24/7 coverage is included as standard on any ReceptionHQ live call answering plan subscription, without any after-hours surcharges.

Whether your calls come in during UK business hours (9:00am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday) or out-of-hours, there is no extra cost.

If you opt out of after-hours call answering, our receptionists will answer your calls only between 9:00am and 5:30pm on weekdays.  Outside of these standard business hours, including weekends and bank holidays, calls will then go to voicemail and your voicemail message recordings will be emailed to you free of charge.

Yes, you are able to use our service for an hour, a day, a week, whenever you need our assistance. Many clients use our live call answering for short-term needs, for example, when their own in-house receptionist is at lunch, sick or on annual leave.  Some clients use the service during their busy periods only, as call overflow or for campaigns.  Our live call answering service is like having a casual receptionist who is always available.  It’s reliable and risk-free, as you only pay for what you use.

If you prefer to use our service seasonally, you can take advantage of our pause package.

ReceptionHQ offers a month-to-month agreement, which can be cancelled by giving us at least three days’ notice prior to your monthly renewal date.

Yes.  You can subscribe just to live call answering plan or you can bundle with a phone number, voicemail-to-email or IVR service.

Set up can take as little as a few minutes.  For a MessageExpress or MyReceptionist service, you can start using the service almost instantly. Simply set up an account yourself, using the free trial webform or have our customer service team do this for you.  Either way, it only takes a few minutes to get started.  Once your account is set up, you simply need to forward your phone line to us and we’ll start answering your calls.

If you’re interested in a MyAssistant or MyDiary plan, a short setup may be required, depending on complexity, to train our receptionists on your preferred software, business information or webforms.  Please contact us to find out more.

Yes. You will be allocated an exclusive, dedicated local number based on the location of your company. You can either advertise this number directly, or forward calls to it from your existing business number. When calls are received to your dedicated number, our professional receptionists will be prompted to answer in your business name.

If your business would benefit from multiple numbers or an 0800 freephone number, you can add these for an additional cost. Please note, if you wish to port out your number at any stage in the future, this can only be done with freephone numbers.

If you start with the virtual reception free trial, it gives you an opportunity to understand what call volume or duration you should select ongoing.  Once you’ve selected your plan, you can upgrade or downgrade at any time without penalty.  To help give you confidence you are on the correct plan, you will be provided with an online client portal and mobile application, which allows you to track your usage in real time. You’ll be able to see every incoming call by day and time, the messages received, where they were sent and whether any calls were transferred.