A virtual receptionist company is an agency that supplies a remote team of customer service professionals. Although it is an outsourced service, virtual receptionists integrate themselves into an organization, giving customers the impression that they are part of an in-house team. As a result, businesses can provide professional customer support to meet the ever-growing demands of their customer base.  

Here are some common client challenges that outsourced receptionist services help overcome: 

• Limited resources: While businesses can hire talent, the cost of onboarding, training, paying regular employee benefits, facilities and equipment, and software can impact the bottom line. Virtual receptionist agencies are known to be a more cost-effective alternative as businesses merely need to pay for the service. 
• Seasonal fluctuations: Some industries experience high customer volume during select months, often resulting in a staff shortage to meet the volume. In that regard, a virtual receptionist company can flexibly scale this capacity without incurring high costs. 
• 24/7 assistance: Modern customers expect businesses to be available round-the-clock on every channel and in their preferred language. Virtual receptionist agencies can supplement a business’s team by providing after-hours coverage, multilingual services, and multichannel support. 

The global virtual receptionist market is anticipated to reach $25 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.9% from 2021 to 2029. Due to the presence of major industry players in North America, the region has dominated the global market in providing outsourced receptionist services.   

NEXA’s service exemplifies the high-quality results of hiring a virtual receptionist. 

A plumbing company reached out to NEXA as it experienced large call volumes with long wait times, translating into many missed calls and rendering the client unable to respond quickly to emergencies. They also sought to assist Spanish-speaking prospects. Having handled a 150 monthly average call volume for other plumbing companies, NEXA assembled a team to provide multilingual support and handle overflows, nights and weekends, and holiday coverage, answering calls within three minutes. Additionally, the agency conducted a series of outbound calls to increase sales, performed triages, and de-escalated emergencies.  

As a result, the client identified 50% of calls as high-quality leads, attended 85% of after-hours calls, and increased its conversion rate by 25%. More importantly, its revenue grew by $20,000-$50,000 per sales agent, leading to a five to tenfold revenue increase. 

Virtual receptionist companies assist with various customer service-related tasks, helping businesses elevate customer experience, brand reputation, and sales. These can range from providing multilingual support to call answering services, chat and email support, and social media community management. In other words, they provide the same services as a physical receptionist, except that they work remotely. 

Some of the services virtual receptionist provide include: 

• Call answering: Handling incoming calls, providing after-hours services, answering basic inquiries, and transferring the caller to the appropriate department when needed 
• Outbound calls: Calling or messaging customers for follow-ups, confirmations, appointment reminders, and surveys to nurture the business’s relationship with them 
• Calendar and appointment scheduling: Setting appointments with customers and coordinating the business’s calendar to accommodate the appointment 
• Respond to general inquiries: Answering inquiries, providing product information, and basic troubleshooting via multiple customer channels, including calls, texts, website chats, social media, and email  
• Take and relay messages: Forwarding more complicated customer inquiries and concerns to the client’s in-house team for their more detailed attention  
• Lead qualification: Screening traffic from customer channels to verify if the individual is a potential lead, including filtering channels for possible spam calls and messages 

A case study showcasing the impact of outsourced receptionist services includes the collaboration between VoiceNation and Soapy Joe. 

Car wash chain Soapy Joe was experiencing an overflow of calls. Unable to handle the workload and answer customer inquiries, it enlisted VoiceNation’s services. Beyond tending to calls and messages, the agency created a customized script for client inquiries, scheduled appointments, forwarded calls, and answered frequently asked questions.  

VoiceNation’s efforts improved customer service and elevated customer retention for Soapy Joe. By handling voicemails and return calls, the agency also saved the client valuable hours of menial work. 

The difference between a virtual assistant and a virtual receptionist company lies in the scope of services offered. Namely, virtual assistants provide a broader range of assistance, while virtual receptionists predominantly focus on customer support.  

Here are more differences between virtual assistants and virtual receptionist companies:

You should hire an outsourced receptionist service because it provides round-the-clock multilingual customer service that can be scaled proportionally to your needs, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. 

Main benefits in enlisting an outsourced receptionist service include: 

• Focus on core competencies: Considering the average duration of customer calls is four minutes, handling a high daily call volume can quickly consume a significant portion of your workday. By delegating this work to virtual receptionist agencies, you gain time to focus on more important tasks, like finding business opportunities and fine-tuning your product.  
• Reduce costs: Virtual receptionists are considered a more cost-efficient option than traditional in-house receptionists, as you only pay for the service, eliminating expenses like office space, equipment, training, and employee benefits.  
• Provide high-quality customer service: Customer satisfaction hinges on phone interactions — namely, 19% of customers stop doing business with a company due to poor call experience. Virtual receptionists can help in that regard, considering they answer calls within 20 seconds, personalize each conversation, and try to resolve the customer’s concerns within the first contact.  
• Give a human touch: 43% of customers prefer talking to a person to resolve an issue. While AI and chatbots make the customer experience more efficient, virtual receptionist companies can offer more personalized interactions when needed. They are trained to be empathetic listeners, helping customers feel valued and heard and improving their overall experience.   
• Increase availability: Many virtual receptionist firms offer around-the-clock assistance, allowing customers to receive care and attention at any time.  
• Offer multilingual service: With global customers speaking different languages, outsourced receptionist services can give your brand a competitive advantage by supporting customers in their chosen language.  
• Scale your team: When outsourcing your customer service, you can adapt your team size to fluctuating call volume, ensuring efficient call handling during peak periods without disrupting your core operations. 

A notable case study illustrating the benefits of hiring outsourced receptionist services encompasses the partnership between  TravelWifi and IdeasUnlimited. 

Portable Wi-Fi provider TravelWifi was quickly expanding worldwide. With the launch of their new product line, they sought the help of IdeasUnlimited to ensure reliable customer assistance to the growing base of prospects. In response to the request, IdeasUnlimited provided 24/7 customer support, supplementing TravelWifi’s internal team with tier-one technical support, backend support, order processing, chat and email support, logistics support, and admin support, among other things. The agency quickly adapted its services to meet market feedback and TravelWifi’s developing needs, extending the service to multilingual support in English, Arabic, and French. 

Through the partnership with IdeasUnlimited, TravelWifi scaled up its customer support capabilities to meet the demand, with the call volume growing from 100 monthly calls in 2012 to 4,600 in 2019. Due to the excellent customer service, TravelWifi received continuous high praise, allowing the client to grow its global market presence exponentially. 

You can choose the best virtual receptionist company for your business by following these steps: 

1. Outline your needs: Identify the tasks you want to delegate, the number of receptionists you need, and the languages to which you wish to extend the service. Determine if you need receptionists for year-round coverage or only during peak seasons.  
2. Choose between onshore, nearshore, or offshore: Weigh the pros and cons of the different types of outsourcing and select one that best meets your business objectives.  
3. Set your budget: In addition to the cost of service, consider the price of the technology needed to integrate and monitor your customer service channels.   
4. Research and gather references: Look at directories like DesignRush, listings, marketplaces, and community forums to find potential virtual receptionist companies. Contact business partners and colleagues for agencies that they highly recommend.  
5. Check their scope of service: Read through the agencies’ offerings list and prioritize those that provide the services you need. Check for possible certifications, recognitions, and awards associated with the service.  
6. Review their expertise: Confirm that the agency has experience in your industry, tech stack, and language. Virtual receptionist companies with expertise in your industry can better understand your business and customers, allowing them to provide more effective services.  
7. Do your due diligence: Search for client testimonials, reviews, awards, and case studies to ascertain the agency's credibility.  
8. Look for employee satisfaction: High employee satisfaction indicators can give insight into the service quality and long-term stay of your potential receptionist team.  
9. Create your request for proposal (RFP): Write a brief business background, project scope, and other project details in your proposal. Compare the agency proposals and determine which ones provide the best value for money.  
10. Interview the shortlisted candidates: Schedule an interview with your selected candidates to assess whether they can accommodate your request and scale of service. Choose receptionists that align with your values, culture, and team dynamics.  
11. Evaluate listening and communication skills: Throughout your interactions with the agency, assess its attentiveness, responsiveness, and availability, as these are qualities you want in your virtual receptionist.  
12. Perform a trial service: Some agencies provide a trial period, so you have a more accurate idea of what it will be like working with the company. Based on that, decide whether to extend the contract or move to another service partner. 

Need help choosing virtual receptionist companies? Contact us with project details, and we’ll select five agencies that best match your criteria list — free of charge. Visit DesignRush’s Marketplace for more details. 

You can find the best virtual receptionist company on DesignRush that fits your budget by using our filter options. Refine your search according to hourly rates, minimum budgets, agency region, company size, and client type. 

Here are five virtual receptionist companies on DesignRush with the most affordable hourly rates: 

• OBI Services: $3/hour 
• The Digital Edge: $7/hour 
• 20four7A: $7/hour 
• Hamedia: $7/hour 
• Hit Rate Solutions: $7/hour 

The key success metrics in outsourced receptionist services vary per industry and type of service, with the most common indexes pertaining to: 

Quality and quantity of work 

• Volume by channel: Average amount of texts, messages, calls, and support tickets a business receives  
• First response time: Amount of time a virtual receptionist takes to answer a support ticket, call, or message 
• First contact resolution: Number of tickets, calls, or messages that an agent resolves within the first interaction 
• Average handle time: Average amount of time it takes to handle a call or transaction 
• Output per hour: Number of tickets, calls, or messages an agent responds to within the hour 
• Average resolution time: Amount of time an agent takes to solve a support ticket or answer a customer concern 
• Occupancy: Percentage of time a team spends on actively handling customer calls, messages, and tickets 
• Agent utilization rate: Percentage of time an agent spends actively handling customer calls, messages, and tickets 
• Cost per resolution: Divides the total cost of providing customer service over the number of tickets, calls, messages, and texts 

Customer satisfaction 

• Customer satisfaction score: Measures the overall experience that a customer received 
• Customer effort score: Indicates the effort a customer goes through to resolve their issue or fulfill a request by analyzing repeat calls, handle times, and channel switches 
• Net Promoter Score: Measures customer loyalty by assessing how likely a customer will recommend the business 
• Abandon rate: Number of customers hanging up the call while on hold 
• Churn rate: Percentage of customers leaving your brand  

You should ask the following questions before hiring a virtual receptionist company: 

Its Relevant Background 

1. How familiar is your team with my industry? How long have you outsourced in this industry?  
2. Do you have experience in my required service?  
3. Do you provide multilingual customer service? Which languages do you extend the service to? 

Its Services and Processes 

1. Do you provide around-the-clock service? If not, what are your regular working hours?  
2. Can you walk me through how your team prioritizes tasks? For instance, how do you select the emails to respond to first out of 50 messages?  
3. How do you handle customers who have difficulty articulating their needs or have a different communication style from yours?  
4. What measures do you take to handle difficult or upset customers? How would you diffuse the situation?  
5. What are your data security and privacy measurements?   
6. What is your contingency plan for internet or power failures? 

Concerning Your Project 

1. Who will be my point of contact?  
2. What is my level of involvement in the hiring process?  
3. How do you measure employee productivity, performance, and satisfaction?  
4. What kind of call and messaging analytics do you provide? How can I monitor the results?  
5. How do you handle cases when an employee fails to align with the team dynamic? 
6. What ROI can I expect when hiring your services? 

The best virtual receptionist companies in the US are the following: