Affordable call answering services for small businesses

ReceptionHQ is a subsidiary of OfficeHQ, a global virtual reception company headquartered in Australia.

ReceptionHQ receptionists are on-shore and based in the UK, so important details such as language, accents and tone naturally complement your business. While the majority of calls during standard office hours are answered locally by these UK-based receptionists, our team in Australia answers after-hours calls to provide 24/7 coverage for businesses that need it and also assisting during periods of peak demand.

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.  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, 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.

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.

Yes.  We don’t have a minimum contract term and you may cancel your service at any time without penalty.  We simply ask for you to let us know three days prior to your billing renewal date.  If you want to keep your account available, but stop using it for a while, we also have a pause option.  Just speak to our friendly team for more information.

Yes, you have the flexibility to upgrade or downgrade at any time to a more suitable subscription that meets your requirements and budget.  For example, you can change the number of calls being answered by ReceptionHQ or you can change the type of package you have subscribed to.  There’s no cost to change plans.  We want you to feel comfortable you are on the right plan for your usage.

Our services are paid for in advance, with the preferred method of payment being direct debit via credit card (AMEX, Mastercard and Visa).  All invoices are sent to your nominated email address, as well as made available to be viewed or printed from your online client portal.

The live call answering free trial is based on the MyReceptionist service and is completely free.  We don’t require a credit card and it can be cancelled at any time.  When you sign up for a free trial, you’ll be allocated a local phone number to divert your calls to as well as gain instant access to a client portal and mobile application to manage your service.  At the end of the trial, you can simply add a credit card to continue, or stop using the service if you’d rather not continue with the service.  There is no obligation at all.