Best Virtual Receptionist Services Guide

Last Updated on June 21, 2023 by Ewen Finser

Working remotely comes with some unique challenges.

What happens when a client tries to call you while you’re in a meeting, driving, or taking a lunch break?

Sure, clients can leave a message, but when tasks are stacking up, more voicemails to sort out is yet another job to add to your plate.

That’s where virtual receptionist services come in handy!

I believe that personal receptionists are a real game-changer: I’ve used them in the past, and it immediately takes the pressure off staff members from having to answer the phone wherever they are.

If you’re looking for the best virtual receptionist services, then my guide can point you in the right direction, no matter the size of your business.

If you’re in a rush, make sure to read the next couple of sections to see the TL;DR.

If you want to know more, keep reading this best virtual receptionist services guide for all the details!

The Bottom Line Up Front

I really like Alliance Virtual Offices. Their receptionists are super helpful, and they can transfer calls, take messages, and give useful information to callers.

I would also recommend Answer Connect if you need bilingual receptionists; it’s very easy to use, too, which is a bonus.

My Top Picks at a Glance

Here are the basic details you need to know at a glance:

• Alliance Virtual Offices– excellent customer service with helpful receptionists and appointment scheduling
• Answer Connect – super easy to use with bilingual receptionists and 24/7 call handling
• Opus Virtual Offices – flexible services including a call out feature, toll-free number, and call recording
• Answer Force – brilliant for capturing leads, integrates nicely with CRM/scheduling software
• Posh Virtual Receptionists – highly-trained receptionists to help small businesses deal with incoming and outgoing calls

What to Look for in Virtual Receptionist Services

There are a few key features to look for if you’re searching for a virtual receptionist service:

Business Hours

Some virtual receptionists offer 24/7 call answering service, which is particularly useful if you’re working globally, but may come at an extra cost.

If you’re only working with local clients, this may not matter as much, but it does mean that no caller will slip through the cracks!

Customer Service

Virtual receptionists need to be helpful, friendly, and efficient. They may be the first point of contact for your potential clients or customers, after all! Look for receptionists that are highly trained and friendly.

Specialist Support

Some virtual receptionist services will match receptionists to your business depending on their area of expertise. This is really helpful if you want to be able to offer specific advice for customers, and still could work out cheaper than hiring a full-time receptionist.

Bilingual Services

If you’re based in the US, having a bilingual receptionist and call answering service options can be a real bonus. Given that the US has the second-largest population of Spanish speakers, having the option of speaking in Spanish may make a real difference!

International Calls

If you need to take international calls, it’s worth checking whether this is included in the main price plan, or whether it comes at an extra cost. If you take a lot of international calls, the charges can quickly stack up.

Answerphone

Being able to take messages is useful if you haven’t gone for 24/7 call answering service; look for a service that transfers messages to you via an email or an app, so you can answer them at any time.

App and Call Data

You may be able to get an app for your chosen virtual receptionist service, which will allow you to listen to voicemails and recorded calls, and even track data to see when your busiest operating hours are.

Lead Capturing

Some virtual receptionists are better at capturing leads than others. If this is important, look for receptionists that can identify and prioritize new leads. Some services on this list (like Posh) can even chase up older leads on your behalf.

Pricing

Pricing can vary for virtual receptionist services, which makes it kind of difficult to compare them. You usually have to pay a flat rate per month, which gives you a certain amount of free minutes. Then, you’ll pay per minute for any extra minutes on top of that.

Some receptionist services (for example, Opus Virtual Offices) charge extra for certain services like call recording.

Top 5 Virtual Receptionist Services

Here are five of my favorite virtual receptionist services. They vary in terms of pricing and features, so hopefully, there’ll be one that suits your needs on this list.

I’ve looked at the virtual reception features and the tasks they can complete, extra features, availability, and pricing for each one.

Alliance Virtual Offices – Best Customer Service

Alliance Virtual Offices is a virtual office service with a ton of useful features. They provide you with a virtual address and phone number, and they have a huge number of coworking spaces and offices located across the globe, which you can easily book online wherever you are.

Receptionists can schedule call-backs, transfer important clients or customers straight to you, and can take messages if you’re not available. You can take calls using their virtual phone, which protects your private phone number but allows you to talk wherever you are.

Plus, you get unlimited extensions, so each team member can have their own business phone number to protect their privacy, too. You’ll get unlimited local and long distance minutes, voicemail (and email delivery of voicemail), custom recorded messages, and appointment scheduling.

I like their appointment scheduling app, too, which allows you to book in client or customer calls from your phone.

The customer support at Alliance Virtual Offices is excellent. If you need support, they’re really helpful, and the receptionists are an excellent first contact for your clients.

They take calls from Monday-Saturday, so while they’re not available 24/7, they have long enough hours to allow customers or clients to contact you.

Pricing

Pricing for the virtual receptionist services depends on how many telephone answering service minutes you want:

• Live Receptionist 50 – this gives you 50 live answering minutes at $95 per month
• Live Receptionist 100 – this gives you 100 live answering minutes at $145 per month
• Live Receptionist 200 – this gives you 200 live answering minutes at $225 per month

You can find out more on their pricing page.

Pros

• Great customer support
• Voicemail and scheduling available
• Tons of extra features like a business fax number and custom recorded messages
• Receptionists can transfer important leads directly to you

Cons

• Not available 24/7

Pricing may vary depending on where you are in the world, and it’s worth noting that you can’t get a full price breakdown without entering your contact details. You can find out more on their website.

Answer Connect – Best for Ease of Use

Answer Connect is a dedicated virtual receptionist service.

With an emphasis on using humans instead of bots, they’re perfect if you want a warm, welcoming first point of contact for your customers or clients.

They offer 24/7 call handling, so no matter what time customers call, someone will be there to answer. This is super useful if you’re working globally, as the time difference won’t be a problem.

The receptionist can take messages and arrange a callback for a time that works for both parties.

I like Answer Connect because it provides bilingual call handling and answering services; Spanish-English speakers are available, which is useful if you’re based in the US due to the significant number of Spanish speakers there. This means no misunderstandings or loss of potential clients due to a language barrier.

Helpfully, they offer lead-capturing services, including:

• Sub-accounts for regular customers: this means your regular customers will have a unique, toll-free number each, which allows you to track call data for each person
• Lead qualification: this means the receptionist will track inbound leads, allowing you to see how your marketing campaigns are doing
• Direct response: if you want, you can have specific customers put through directly to you every time
• Real-time updates: their app allows you to see reports, listen to recorded calls and messages, view transactions, and manage scripts for your virtual receptionists to follow

I really like how easy it is to use Answer Connect; you don’t need to spend hours setting it up, and if you want to tweak the script for your call handlers to use, you can easily and quickly do it using the app.

As a nice bonus, they pledge to plant one tree per customer every month, and they appear to be deeply passionate about environmental issues, which I personally appreciate.

They don’t offer call-out services though: this is purely for answering calls.

Pricing

There are several pricing plans for Answer Force, so we’ll go through them quickly here. Each price plan has a different charge for minutes beyond included minutes, and some of the price plans have a $99 setup fee on top.

• Intro – $259 per month for 200 minutes and 50 chats
• Best Value – $359 per month for 300 minutes and 100 chats
• Basic – $349 per month for 250 minutes and 70 chats
• Standard – $649 per month for 500 minutes and 150 chats
• Premium – $959 per month for 800 minutes and 250 chats
• Enterprise – $1179 per month for 1000 minutes and 300 chats

You can find out more details on their website.

Pros

• Easy to manage using an app
• Friendly, helpful receptionists
• Bilingual English/Spanish speakers available
• You can view real-time updates wherever you are, at any time
• 24/7 call handling
• Environmentally conscious

Cons

• They don’t offer call-out services
• You can’t get a full price breakdown without entering your contact details

There is a $49.99 setup fee, and then all interactions are rounded up to the nearest minute. So it comes in at $1.65 per minute, but they include 30 interactions under 30 seconds for free each billing cycle.

Opus Virtual Offices – Best for Flexibility

Opus Virtual Offices is a virtual office service. It offers many tools for running a business remotely, including a mailing address, a phone/fax number, and business credit building. It has office spaces in 650 US, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

I like Opus Virtual Offices because their receptionist services come with a ton of extras you can opt into. For example, you can choose from the following:

• Call Out Feature – this allows you to make calls from your smartphone or computer, and it will display your company phone number as the caller ID, saving your privacy
• Texting – this allows you to send and receive texts using your smartphone or computer, showing your work phone number, and allowing people to text you back without sacrificing your privacy
• Toll-Free Number – For an extra cost, you can offer a toll-free number for your customers or clients.
• Audio Conferencing Bridge – This allows you to initiate group calls for meetings, connecting team members and clients..
• Additional Extensions/Voice Boxes – This allows your colleagues to have their own extension and voicemail answering service settings.
• International Call Transfer – This allows Opus to transfer incoming calls to your international number.
• Call Recording – This enables unlimited call recording.
• Incoming Call Log – This records data about your incoming calls.

I like that you can pick and choose which services you want; this saves you from wasting money on tools you might not use (for example, not everyone will need a toll-free number, texting, or international call services).

Their receptionists are friendly and helpful and will offer a friendly person for your customers or clients to talk to.

They don’t have as much of a focus on lead capturing as some of the others on this list, which may be a downside, depending on what you’re looking for.

Plus, they charge one flat rate per month for their virtual offices, which you have to sign up for before you can grab any of the extra call-handling features.

Pricing

Opus Virtual Offices costs $99 per month. This includes:

• Live receptionist answering calls
• Company phone and fax number
• Corporate email address
• Premium call transferring
• Fax converted to email
• Voicemail converted to email
• Business credit building

You can read more on their pricing page.

Pros

• Flexible tools
• Tons of locations across the globe
• Friendly, helpful receptionists
• Voicemails and faxes can be converted to email
• Provides a corporate phone and fax number

Cons

• Not as much focus on lead capturing
• Have to pay one flat rate for virtual office services

Answer Force – Best for Capturing Leads

Answer Force is a 24/7 call handling service for businesses, allowing you to take calls around-the-clock with a professional business number and live answering service.

The receptionists are super helpful, and I like the focus on capturing leads: the virtual receptionists are chosen based on how they’ll fit into your team, and your receptionists will be trained to take detailed messages, which will be relayed to you via an app.

You can check through your app at any time, and any high-value leads can be flagged by receptionists. They’ll also chase up older leads for you, which is really useful! They can book appointments, give estimates, and schedule callbacks, and they have bilingual English/Spanish speakers, too.

I like that AnswerForce’s service integrates nicely with CRM software and scheduling apps, which makes it much easier from your perspective. You can view all data on the app at any time, which is helpful for determining your busiest call times.

Plus, they have a web chat service, too. This may be something to consider as your business grows if you want to offer this service to customers.

In terms of the plans, I like the flexibility, too. You can sign up for the services you need, but the downside is the pricing is a little steep.

Pricing

There are several pricing plans for Answer Force, so we’ll go through them quickly here.

Each price plan has a different charge for minutes beyond included minutes, and some of the price plans have a $99 live answering service setup fee on top.

• Intro – $259 per month for 200 minutes and 50 chats
• Best Value – $359 per month for 300 minutes and 100 chats
• Basic – $349 per month for 250 minutes and 70 chats
• Standard – $649 per month for 500 minutes and 150 chats
• Premium – $959 per month for 800 minutes and 250 chats
• Enterprise – $1179 per month for 1000 minutes and 300 chats

You can find out more details on their website.

Pros

• Super professional service
• Bilingual receptionists available
• Receptionists are trained to capture new leads and chase up old leads
• 24/7 call handling
• Useful app allows you to track data at any time

Cons

• Pricing is steep

Posh Virtual Receptionists – Best for Small Businesses

Posh Virtual Receptionists is a great option for small businesses. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of calls you need to take but you only have a small team, it’s a great option.

They offer 24/7 call handling, so customers and clients can contact a real person at any time, and you can customize the call handling so that receptionists know what to say depending on who they’re talking to. This is easily done using their app, which you can update at any time.

Posh is focused on three industries primarily: legal, finance, and real estate. However, they offer services for all types of small businesses, and the receptionists will be matched to you depending on their areas of expertise.

The live answering service receptionists can transfer calls, schedule appointments, and take messages. You’ll get a private business number to protect your own phone number, and you can use the app to call and text, using the Posh number as your caller ID.

I like the fact that Posh receptionists can make outbound calls on your behalf: this saves you time, as your receptionists can gather basic information for you without your involvement.

The downside is that they don’t have many extra features like a chat bot.

Pricing

You need to register your interest with Posh to receive a quote. Pricing starts at $54 per month, with additional costs per minute depending on how many minutes you sign up for in your plan.

You can find out more on their website.

Pros

• Professional, highly-trained receptionists
• Special interest in certain industries
• Receptionists can make calls to find out information for you
• Easy to manage appointments and call data using their app
• 24/7 call handling

Cons

• No extra features
• Hard to tell pricing without signing up first

FAQs

Best Virtual Receptionist Services Guide: Final Thoughts

I really think that it’s worth checking out Alliance Virtual Offices. Their receptionists are friendly and helpful, and a brilliant first point of contact for your clients or customers. They can transfer important calls straight to you, which is useful.

I also think that Answer Connect is great. It’s super easy to use and perfect if you want bilingual receptionists.

Related Reading:

• Guide to the Best Virtual Office Companies
• Guide to the Best Virtual Address Services for LLCs
• Guide to the Best Registered Agent Services