Telephone Answering Service: A UK Guide to Costs and Options

What a telephone answering service is

A telephone answering service answers your business calls when you cannot, in your company name, and passes on what the caller needed: a message by email or text, a call put through to you, or an appointment booked. Your number stays the same; calls are diverted to the service when you are busy, out, or closed. In the UK the same thing is sold as a call answering service, a call handling service or a virtual receptionist.

There are three forms on the UK market. Human services, where a receptionist at a call centre answers from your script and is billed per call. AI services, where a voice agent answers instantly and writes up every call, usually for a flat monthly fee. And voicemail or a divert to your mobile, which costs nothing and catches the calls you would have missed anyway, minus the ones who hang up.

How UK answering services charge

Where US services mostly sell minutes, UK human services mostly sell calls: a monthly plan with a number of calls included, a price per call above it, and often a pay-as-you-go option with no monthly fee and a higher rate per call. That makes the bill predictable for a given volume. It also means that the definition of "a call" matters more than the price on the plan.

• Spam, sales and wrong-number calls: some providers bill them as normal calls, some do not, and some only refund them if you flag them. Ask which.
• Short calls: check whether a caller who hangs up during the greeting is counted.
• Call transfers: putting a caller through to you may be billed as an extra charge on top of the call.
• Out-of-hours: evening, weekend and bank-holiday answering is often a separate tier or a surcharge.
• VAT: business prices in the UK are usually quoted excluding VAT. If you are not VAT-registered, add 20% to every figure before comparing.

Here is an illustration of why this matters. A month of 120 calls on a plan that includes 100, where 25 of the 120 were sales calls and wrong numbers. If the provider bills everything, you pay for 20 calls of overage, and a fifth of your bill went on calls you never wanted. If it filters spam, you are inside your plan. Same month, same headline price, a different bill.

Human, AI, or a divert to your mobile

The cheapest option that works is the right one. A sole trader taking a handful of calls a day may be well served by a divert to their mobile and a good voicemail greeting. A trade business whose customers ring with a problem, or a practice that books appointments all day, loses more in missed calls than any of the paid options cost.

Diverting your number and keeping it

You do not need a new number. Your provider or your phone system diverts calls to the answering service, and you choose when.

• Divert on no answer, after a set number of rings: the service only takes calls you miss. Around four rings keeps callers on the line.
• Divert when busy: the service takes the second call while you are on the first.
• Divert all calls: every caller reaches the service first and is put through if you are available. Right when you want every call screened.
• Timed divert: the service takes over outside opening hours. Make sure bank holidays are in the schedule.

Your number type matters for callers, not for the service. A local 01 or 02 number or a national 03 number costs callers the same as a normal landline call and is included in most mobile allowances. An 0800 number is free to call. Whichever you have, keep it: it is printed on your van, your website and your invoices.

One more thing UK businesses have to check: call recordings, transcripts and messages are personal data under UK GDPR. Ask the provider where they are stored, for how long, and for a data processing agreement. A reputable provider will have one ready.

When a telephone answering service pays for itself

Do this sum before you look at a single provider. From your phone bill or your phone system, take the number of calls that went unanswered or to voicemail in a normal month. Estimate how many of those were new enquiries, what share of enquiries usually become work, and what a typical job is worth to you.

Missed enquiries × conversion rate × average job value is the money currently going to voicemail. If that figure is comfortably above the monthly cost of the service, VAT included, it pays. As an illustration: 15 missed enquiries a month, a third of which would have converted, at £300 a job, is £1,500 a month at stake. Against that, most plans pay. Three missed calls a month on a £60 job is not a business case. It is a voicemail greeting that promises a callback time.

Count missed calls from your phone records, not from memory. Owners underestimate them, because a missed call leaves no trace unless you look for it.

What to check before you sign

1. 1.Ring the service as a customer, at an awkward time, before you sign.
2. 2.Get the definition of a billable call in writing: spam, short calls, transfers.
3. 3.Check the notice period and any minimum term. Monthly rolling contracts are common; make sure yours is one.
4. 4.Confirm whether prices include VAT, and what out-of-hours and bank-holiday answering costs.
5. 5.Ask what you receive after each call: a message, a transcript, a summary, or a task assigned to someone.
6. 6.Ask for the data processing agreement, and confirm you keep your number and your call records if you leave.

Dialqo runs the line, the greeting, transcription, written summaries and follow-up tasks today. The voice agent that speaks to callers is labelled "soon" on every page; we say it here rather than in the small print.