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Cost-effective 24/7 and after-hours call answering

Even if you have an in-house reception team, you likely miss calls from customers who phone in the evening, on the weekend or before they start their work day. Having virtual receptionists answer calls after-hours is the solution.


Ensure your phone is answered at the times when it’s most convenient for customers to call

UK receptionists

Calls are answered by professionals in the UK, with overflow support 24/7 to ensure a fast speed of answer.

Choose when we answer

You can simply turn on call forwarding at the end of each business day if you only want us to answer after-hours calls.

Custom call greetings

We answer your calls with your custom greeting to ensure your callers enjoy a seamless experience.

After-hours emergencies

We can utilise call scripting to determine when an emergency response is needed and transfer such calls to on-call staff.

Appointment Icon

Appointment bookings

Whatever time someone calls to make an appointment or reservation, we can schedule it using your software.

Instant emails or texts

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

How after-hours call answering works

Our virtual receptionist services

Bombarded by calls in the evening, on the weekend or on public holidays and wish someone else could handle them for you? Or worried that missed calls out-of-hours are costing you opportunities? Whatever your industry, complexity of calls or call volumes, if you need an after-hours phone answering service, we have a solution to suit with no lock-in contracts.

  MessageExpress MyReceptionist MyAssistant MyDiary
Compare our
live call
answering
services

Call answering and message taking for one individual or team.

from
£15*
per month
See pricing

Messages, support and call transfers for multiple staff or departments.

from
£15*
per month
See pricing

Tailored scripting and virtual assistance for unlimited staff or departments.

from
£30*
per month
See pricing

Appointment booking, using your preferred software, for unlimited staff or departments.

from
£30*
per month
See pricing

Caller greeting Personalised Fully customised Fully customised Fully customised
List staff or departments One person or team Unlimited contacts Unlimited contacts Unlimited contacts
Collect information from callers 3 details 5 details Up to 11 details Up to 11 details
Warm call transfers  
Advise business hours/location  
Answer common questions  
Scripted questions & responses    
Quote fees & take payments    
CRM input or submit online forms    
Appointment scheduling      
Diary management      
  About MessageExpress Enquire now About MyReceptionistTry our 7-day free trial About MyAssistantEnquire now About MyDiaryEnquire now

* Plus after hours calls surcharge. Refer to Terms & Conditions.

MessageExpress

Call answering and message taking for one individual or team.

from £15*
  • UK receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Personalised greeting
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • One person or team listed as message recipient
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • an 0800 number upgrade option

MyReceptionist

Messages, support and call transfers for multiple staff or departments.

from £15*
  • UK receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • 0800 number upgrade option
  • Fully customised greeting
  • Warm call transfers
  • Multiple staff or departments listed as message or transfer contacts
  • Collect 5 pieces of info
  • Advise business hours/location

MyAssistant

Tailored scripting and virtual assistance for unlimited staff or departments.

from £30*
  • UK receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • 0800 number upgrade option
  • Fully customised greeting
  • Warm call transfers
  • Multiple staff or departments listed as message or transfer contacts
  • Advise business hours/location
  • Collect 11 pieces of info
  • Custom scripting or FAQs
  • CRM input or online form submissions
  • Quote fees & take payments

MyDiary

Appointment booking, using your preferred software, for unlimited staff or departments.

from £30*
  • UK receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • 0800 number upgrade option
  • Fully customised greeting
  • Warm call transfers
  • Multiple staff or departments listed as message or transfer contacts
  • Advise business hours/location
  • Collect 11 pieces of info
  • Custom scripting or FAQs
  • CRM input or online forms
  • Quote fees & take payments
  • Appointment scheduling
  • Diary management

* Plus after hours calls surcharge. Refer to Terms & Conditions.

Switch off at the end of the business day, yet remain awake to opportunities

Are missed business calls and voicemail hangups after-hours proving costly? Diverting your number to ReceptionHQ outside standard business hours means no missed calls and no lost opportunities!

Bombarded by calls at all hours? Getting burnt out? Start enjoying more quality time with your family or much-needed R&R!

Need to ensure emergency calls are handled at any hour? We can manage these as per your requirements for different scenarios.

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 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.

The MessageExpress service works best for those clients who just need messages taken for one person or team.  The receptionist will answer with a greeting such as “Good morning,  [your business name].  May I take your message please?” Messages can be instantly sent by email or SMS, however call transfers are not available on this service.  On the MessageExpress service, receptionists are focused primarily on message taking, so are unable to provide general business information to callers.

The MyReceptionist service offers more flexibility and customisation so we can give the impression we are part of your business.  It’s designed for those clients who would like to provide a more personal touch.  When subscribing to the MyReceptionist service, you’ll receive a fully customised greeting, the ability to take different messages or make transfer calls to different people or departments in your organisation, plus receptionists can answer basic questions about your business, such as the location, your website URL, what your business does and when calls might be returned.

If you’re not sure, please speak to our friendly consultants or sign up for a free trial of our MyReceptionist service so you can test it out.  Once you subscribe, you change between package types whenever it suits your business. No penalties apply.

Yes, we have a dedicated team of highly experienced receptionists who can book appointments for you. The MyDiary service is ideal for professionals who depend on appointments being made and managed while they are focused on their clients.  Our receptionists can schedule and reschedule appointments, manage cancellations and even take payments in your preferred software.  We support a large number of third-party appointment booking tools and CRMs.  Please contact us for more information.

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.


We make managing your virtual reception service simple

You can easily manage the receptionist’s greeting, call transfer availability and message preferences in real-time, plus add additional staff of departments as contacts for transfers or messages, using our online client portal or mobile app (iPhone and Android).

After-hours answering service add-ons

+ Voicemail to email

Have voicemails instantly emailed to you, on numbers not live answered, to ensure no important communications are ever missed.

+ Phone numbers

Add multiple additional local numbers or an 0800 freephone number to the free local number you receive with your live call answering package.

What our customers love

You can be anywhere (in vacation, at the office, at home with your children); customers … won’t notice anything with this very professional receptionist service.
REN BAK
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

Trusted by more than 25,000 businesses


Find out more

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Want to try our telephone 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.

after-hours

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