Affordable call answering services for small businesses

Struggling to always answer the phone? Feeling burnt out? Wish you had a receptionist but hiring is cost-prohibitive? ReceptionHQ’s live answering services help thousands of UK small businesses to thrive by preventing missed calls and lost opportunities, all for a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.

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Call answering free trial

Save precious time, get more done and never miss a lead with a PAYG virtual reception from just £10 a month

UK receptionists

Our local virtual reception teams answer your calls, with overflow support to ensure a fast speed of answer.

24/7 availability

After-hours, weekends, public holidays … we can answer day or night, 365 days a year, so you never miss opportunities.

Custom call greetings

Calls are answered with your preferred greeting to ensure your callers enjoy a consistent experience.

Instant emails or texts

Receive email or SMS messages after each call, containing caller details and their reason for calling.

Screening & transfers

Call screening and transfer options for unlimited staff or departments, so you only take the most important calls.

Short-term flexibility

With no lock-in contract, you can use our services temporarily to cope with staff shortages or seasonal demand.

How our virtual receptionist service works

1 Set up within minutes 2 Customer calls you 3 We answer for you 4 We deliver your messages

Set up within minutes

Tell us about your small business, your preferred greeting and how you’d like us to interact with your callers. Then simply confirm who should receive messages or, depending on your plan, call transfers when they’re available.

Customer calls you

By forwarding your small business phone to the unique number we provide, we’ll know when an incoming call is for you. You’ll have flexibility to send all calls to us or only unanswered calls.

We answer for you

Our small business virtual receptionists will answer your calls with your preferred greeting, 24/7 if you wish. Depending on your plan, we can take messages, transfer selected calls, answer FAQs, submit leads into your CRM, take orders, process payments, schedule your appointments and more.

We deliver your messages

After each call you’ll immediately receive a message by email, SMS or both (as chosen by you) including details such as the caller’s name, phone number and, of course, the reason for their call.

Your tools are our tools

Our MyAssistant and MyDiary call answering services include seamless integration with the software you already use, including CRMs and preferred tools to schedule appointments and manage calendars.

Reclaim the hours in your day

Small business owners have many hats to juggle, but trying to answer every call yourself can quickly result in burnout.

ReceptionHQ’s 24/7 virtual receptionists answer your calls as though they work for your business, leaving you free to focus on your business priorities or spend uninterrupted time with your family.

Best of all, with no lock-in contract, you can just as easily use our services long-term or short-term, to fill an urgent need.

No phone ringing at all hours
No pesky voicemail hangups
No stress over lost opportunities
No HR or training headaches
No massive wage cost
No-obligation free trial

Compare plans

Try free for 7 days

Complementary business solutions

Phone numbers

Set up virtual inbound numbers for different locations or, if you require a national presence, an 0800 number.

Find out more

Automated messaging

Have voicemails instantly emailed to you both for convenience and to ensure no important communications are ever missed.

Find out more

What our customers love

Used ReceptionHQ to cover my office calls whilst I was on annual leave for 1 week … all calls were answered, messages were emailed to me instantly. Very professional.

EHT Accounting

We don’t have to worry about missed calls or the impact of this on our day-to-day business.

Lainton Services

Having used a few similar companies before we can thoroughly recommend ReceptionHQ … their phone answering service is professional and efficient.

andy chapman

It’s extremely reassuring knowing we’ll never miss an important call or potential appointment, and at a very affordable price.

We Clean Any Home

Fab to work with and we always get the messages in a timely manner. Thanks HQ team.

Lisa Burgess

The service was super easy to set up and costs a fraction of what it would to hire a receptionist.

Karl Graf, DreamWalk Apps

Read all testimonials

Trusted by thousands of small businesses

FAQs

Why should I get a live call answering service?

Many callers hang up when their call goes to voicemail, so you can miss out on vital conversations or leads. Ensuring your calls are answered by a live person, increases customer satisfaction, builds loyalty and improves your opportunity to create a rapport and obtain caller details. Live call answering also allows you to screen calls, as you can advise your receptionist to transfer or take messages for only those call types you wish to receive. Once answered, you can see each message as it’s taken and prioritise who you will call back first. Live call answering increases revenue through better customer connections, reduces costs as you’re not paying for a full time receptionist and helps you to be more efficient with your time.

Where is ReceptionHQ based?

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

Can you prevent me from missing calls?

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.

Are you able to answer just some of our calls?

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!

How do I forward my calls to ReceptionHQ?

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

Decide whether you wish to forward calls immediately to ReceptionHQ (the best solution for most businesses) or have delayed call forwarding.
Identify the call forwarding codes for your telecommunications provider. Most providers publish these codes on their websites.
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.

Do you offer a 24/7 live call answering service?

Yes. Our receptionists are available 24/7 and you can opt-in to receive after hours live call answering on any ReceptionHQ subscription.

Without after-hours call answering turned on, our receptionists will answer your calls between 8:00am and 6:00pm on weekdays. Outside of these standard business hours, calls will then go to voicemail and your voicemail message recordings will be emailed to you.

If you need after-hours call answering, please let us know when you sign up or contact us.

Are calls answered within the United Kingdom?

Yes. ReceptionHQ’s team of receptionists based in the United Kingdom answer the majority of calls for our UK clients during standard office hours, with overflow support available from our teams in Australia and the US. Calls are always answered by our team in the UK whenever possible, however calls overflow to Australia or the US after hours and during unforeseen peaks in call volumes. This enables us to provide 24/7 coverage for businesses that need it and ensure calls are always answered as fast as possible.

Can I sign-up for short-term call answering, eg. a day, week or month?

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.

Is there a contract or lengthy agreement?

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.

Can I sign up for a live call answering service only?

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

When can I start using the call answering service and how long does it take to set up?

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.

Find out more

Have questions? Please fill in your details and we’ll be in touch.

Want to try our call answering services for free?

Put the United Kingdom’s leading virtual receptionist solution to the test! We’re ready to answer your phone FREE for 7 days.

Start your free trial

Want to try our call answering services for free?

Put the United Kingdom’s leading virtual receptionist solution to the test! We’re ready to answer your phone FREE for 7 days.

Start your free trial

What does the free trial include?

Our free trial is based on our MyReceptionist service, with remote receptionists able to take messages and transfer calls based on your availability settings.