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Phone answering services for retail & ecommerce

With strict adherence to data privacy requirements, ReceptionHQ is ready to take your retail business to the next level. With our scalable service being perfectly suited to coping with peak sales periods, our virtual receptionists can answer your calls, take orders, process payments and more.


We keep your store open for business even after you’ve closed up shop or logged off

UK receptionists

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

24/7 live call answering

Ecommerce never sleeps and neither do we. We answer calls after-hours, on weekends and public holidays.

Manage peak sales

Christmas, Black Friday, Click Frenzy … no lock-in contract means we can answer calls for as long as you need.

Order taking & payments

Our receptionists can take orders, process payments or provide tracking information for your callers.

Campaign phone numbers

Dedicated campaign phone numbers, answered in your preferred script. Don’t let incoming leads go to waste.

Optional freephone 0800 numbers

Give your retail or ecommerce business a professional, national presence by adding a 0800 number.

How our virtual reception service works


Your tools are our tools

We integrate seamlessly with your current tools.

Connect with more customers, whenever they wish to shop, with 24/7 retail call answering

We have virtual receptions solutions suited to national and international distributors, retailers with physical stores, ecommerce-only retailers and hybrid operations.

Complementary business solutions

Phone numbers

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

Automated messaging

Have voicemails instantly emailed to you to ensure no important communications are ever missed.

What our customers love

Taken all the worry out of missing calls and trying to cover phones at busy times when staff away on holiday. All this for a very affordable cost!
David Cheyette
Having used a few similar companies before we can thoroughly recommend ReceptionHQ … their phone answering service is professional and efficient.
andy chapman

Trusted by more than 200 retailers and ecommerce store owners

FAQs

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.

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.

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! 

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:

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.

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.
Read more.

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.

Yes, we are able to transfer calls to any staff member on any phone (landline or mobile).  With our innovative software, we can record availability preferences for each staff member and only transfer when requested.  Individual details can be updated at any time via our online client portal or mobile application.

We pride ourselves in offering ‘warm transfers’, that is, callers are always announced to you before the transfer takes place.  If you’re unavailable, or if you don’t answer the call, our receptionist will go back to your caller, let them know you’re unavailable, take a message then forward it to you.

We do not blind transfer calls (transfer unannounced) unless you request this.

Yes, messages can be sent to multiple email addresses and mobile numbers – it’s your choice.  We can also attempt to transfer calls to multiple people in sequential order.  How your calls are managed can be updated instantly via your ReceptionHQ online client portal or mobile application at any time.

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.  Each staff member and/or department can set their own availability status and decide whether to have their calls transferred or a message taken.  All settings can be updated individually and instantly via the ReceptionHQ client portal or mobile application.

Yes.  We are able to answer basic questions such as your location, directions to premises, fax number, website, pricing and other general questions. Depending on your plan, you can provide us with detailed call scripts or answers to FAQs to assist your callers.  Just let us know your needs and we’ll set up your account according to your preferred process.

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

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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.

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.

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.

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