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In need of a temporary answering service?

Our virtual receptionists can provide the short-term help your business needs, answering your calls 24/7 if needed. Whether you are facing a staffing issue, need holiday cover or expect higher call volumes than usual, you’ll find our services are reliable, flexible and cost-effective.


Affordable short-term receptionist support that ensures your inbound business calls continue to be answered

US receptionists

The majority of our receptionists are in the US, with bilingual answering options and overflow support available.

24/7 live call answering

We operate all day, every day, so we can seamlessly answer your calls around the clock if you want us to.

Custom call greetings

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

Instant emails or texts

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

Appointment Icon

Your tools are our tools

We can input leads, book appointments, raise support tickets and more using your preferred software.

No lock-in contract

No long-term contracts or cancellation fees gives you flexibility to use our services for the time period you need.

Help is at hand, whatever your situation

Illness & ad hoc coverage

Are staff absences making it hard to maintain productivity while ensuring the phone is answered? We can provide same-day service coverage!

  • Staff off sick
  • Staff on breaks
  • Staff in meetings
  • Staff in training
  • Staff at conferences
  • Staff working remotely

Periods of peak demand

Swamped with calls and don’t have the capacity to handle them effectively in-house? We can assist during unusually busy periods, whatever the cause.

  • Promotions or campaigns
  • Class actions for law firms
  • Tax time for accountants
  • Seasonality factors
  • Event registrations
  • Product recalls
  • Fundraisers

Vacation & leave coverage

Need someone to answer the phone while you’re out of town or your in-house receptionist is away? Enjoy peace of mind that we have it covered.

  • Vacations
  • Federal holidays
  • Other holidays
  • Personal leave
  • Medical leave
  • Funeral leave

Events and office closures

Is your office shutting for a period of time? Whether a planned or sudden unforeseen event, we can answer your calls remotely.

  • Staff functions
  • Renovations
  • Moving offices
  • Holiday shutdowns
  • Conferences or other events
  • Pandemic lockdowns
  • Natural disasters

How our call answering services work

Black Friday special

Limited-time offer: New customers save 30% on the standard call answering subscription pricing shown below for their first 3 months.

* Conditions apply.

Black Friday special

Limited-time offer: New customers save 30% on the standard call answering subscription pricing shown below for 3 months.

* Conditions apply.

Black Friday special

Limited-time offer: New customers save 30% on the standard call answering subscription pricing shown below for their first 3 months.

* Conditions apply.

Our virtual receptionist services

A temporary answering service is like having a casual receptionist who is available 24/7, whenever the need arises! Best of all, it’s risk-free as you only pay for what you use.

Whatever your industry, complexity of calls or call volumes, if you need a short-term phone answering service, we can provide the solution.

  MessageExpress ReceptionistPlus MyAssistant MyDiary
Compare our
live call
answering
services

Call answering and message taking for one individual or team.

See pricing

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

See pricing

Tailored scripting and virtual assistance for unlimited staff or departments.

See pricing

Appointment scheduling and diary management using your preferred software.

See pricing

Caller greeting Personalized Fully customized Fully customized Fully customized
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      
Calendar management      
  About MessageExpress Inquire now About ReceptionistPlusTry our 7-day free trial About MyAssistantInquire now About MyDiaryInquire now

* Plus relevant sales tax. Refer to Terms & Conditions.

MessageExpress

Call answering and message taking for one individual or team.

  • US-based receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Personalized greeting
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • One person or team listed as message recipient
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • Toll-free number upgrade option

ReceptionistPlus

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

  • US-based receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • toll-free number upgrade option
  • Fully customized 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.

  • US-based receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • toll-free number upgrade option
  • Fully customized 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 and diary management using your preferred software.

  • US-based receptionists
  • No lock-in contract
  • Instant email or SMS messages
  • Mobile app & portal
  • 24/7 service upgrade option
  • toll-free number upgrade option
  • Fully customized 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
  • Calendar management

A reliable solution to short-term problems

You can use ReceptionHQ’s service for an hour, a day, a week … whenever you need our assistance.

Many clients use our live call answering for short-term needs, such as when their own in-house receptionist is away, when staff are at events or to cope with seasonal demands. We offer temporary relief without the HR headache.

It’s even possible to switch our service on and off as needs dictate. Be sure to ask about our pause package!

FAQs

At ReceptionHQ we make it easy to connect you with your customers by answering your calls when you aren’t available.

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 prioritize 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.

Utilizing ReceptionHQ’s answering services means you have an experienced and personable receptionist with exceptional customer service skills interacting with your callers, all while costing significantly less than a full-time receptionist.

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. ReceptionHQ’s team of receptionists based in the United States predominantly answer calls for our US clients during standard office hours, with overflow support available from our international teams such as in Australia and the UK.  Calls are answered by our team in the US whenever possible, however calls overflow to our international teams 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, reducing the risk of call abandonment. We know Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is very important to our clients and one of our key differentiators is that we’re able to answer calls in under 10 seconds, on average.
Read more.

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 cell phone 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.

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.

You can get set up in a matter of minutes, using your preferred and distinct greeting.  For a MessageExpress or ReceptionistPlus service, you can start using the service almost instantly. Simply create and activate 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 set up, you can immediately direct or divert your calls to ReceptionHQ and we will answer your calls to your specific requirements.

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.

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 Your Business Calls to ReceptionHQ’s Reception Team, which outlines:


Let us manage your calls so you can manage your business

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).

Answering service add-ons

+ Phone numbers

Add multiple additional local numbers or toll-free numbers to the local number you receive for free with your live call answering package.

+ Voicemail to email

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

What our customers love

I highly recommend ReceptionHQ to any business looking to enhance their customer service and streamline their operations.
Radiant Day Spa
Knowing I would be out of the country for three weeks, I knew I needed a very professional answering service in my absence. I was very impressed.
Lissie Brooks
Saved me loads of time and freed me up to concentrate on my work.
Jane Kemp

Trusted by more than 25,000 businesses


Find out more

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Want to try our call answering services for free?

Put America’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 America’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?

The trial is based on our ReceptionistPlus service, with our team of virtual receptionists able to take messages and transfer calls based on your availability settings.

short-term

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