How much does a virtual receptionist cost?

How much does a virtual receptionist cost? You need to know so you understand if it’s the right route for your business. The answer is… it depends. What do you want them to be doing? Let’s take a step back. The average receptionist salary in the UK is £19,700 a year (or £1,642 per month) before you even consider pension and benefits. In contrast, virtual receptionists can lead to considerable savings and a lot less hassle (think about the saved additional people management). In addition, rather than being reliant on one person you have a small team allocated to your business. This can help you build in greater resilience. No more days when a staff member is sick and you have no cover.

But back to the questions of cost and how you intend to use your virtual receptionists? You can use them in two broad ways: as an overflow/ backstop to your primary team; or as your customer care first responders.

Call Overflow / Backstop

Some businesses use them just for handling call overflow when all their other staff are busy. Sometimes it’s there as cover in case a staff member is unexpectedly off work. These businesses want to make sure that no call is missed, and no potential customer goes astray. For these businesses, the virtual receptionist is a backstop solution and not their primary response. We offer our Blue Package which is £20 a month (excluding VAT). This package is the lightest package and includes our team of receptionists handling up to 10 calls for you per month. During these calls our receptionists can also provide responses to any frequently asked questions your business typically get, including price inquiries. They can also transfer any calls based on the instructions you provide. This is included as part of the subscription.

Front-line call handling.

If you want to use Sentics virtual receptionists as your front-line response, taking messages, answering FAQs, making bookings, transferring calls, then our Bronze (£50 per month), Silver (£220 per month) and Gold packages (£630 per month) are suitable[1]. The major difference between the packages is the call handling volumes. So how much it costs depends on the volumes of calls you have coming in, and the complexity of what you want the receptionists to be doing (average call time). Taking a simple message is usually faster than booking appointments or dealing with more complex customer inquiries. Full pricing info on our packages is available here.

So how do you know whether it will be cost effective for your business? If the alternative is a full- time receptionist on your books we’re confident our services will be cost effective. We offer excellent value compared to other virtual receptionist companies. But to make it easy for you to get a more accurate picture we offer a 30-day free trial. During this time we can work out your call volumes and average call handling times from our receptionists. At the end of the period we provide you a recommendation on the most cost-effective package based on our real experience. If you’re interested in road-testing our service, please fill in our onboarding form for our 30 day free trial.

So, in conclusion, how much does a virtual receptionist cost? It can be as little as £20 per month for the peace of mind of backup. Or if using it as frontline call handling then it depends on how many calls you have coming in and what you want the virtual receptionists to handle for you. Any way you look at it, it will likely be considerably cheaper than hiring a full-time receptionist. It will be less hassle and can build in much greater resilience into your business.

[1] All prices exclude VAT

Help your Hair Salon get ahead with virtual receptionists

Key to any Hair Salon’s success is giving your clients the best possible experience, our virtual receptionists can help you to do just that. Your clients want to be pampered, treated well, and come out feeling beautiful. But in busy times there is a risk you overstretch your team. As a result, the experience for your client suffers. You risk losing potential return customers to salons with bigger teams.

You may become inundated with calls from clients desperate to book appointments. If you miss a call, you might not get that client back. Also, if you or your stylists have to answer calls whilst attending to clients it can be off-putting for the client who wants the undivided attention of the stylist who’s attending to them. But hiring permanent staff as your front of house adds to your costs and squeezes the profit you work hard for.

We want to help free up your time in affordable ways so you and your team can focus on what you do best. That’s why we set-up Sentics Customer Care. With our team of Lucy, Precious and Rose, we can act as virtual receptionists, fielding inbound calls for your business, taking messages, answering any frequently asked questions you get and booking appointments for your customers. You don’t have to worry about missing calls or being available all the time. You can let Lucy and our team of trained customer care professionals handle the calls for you. 

Even if you have someone front of house, we have packages for when you need backup. This can also be useful for those days you need cover or at busy times when you need backup. It can help build more resilience and flexibility into your business, giving you that extra peace of mind.

We are currently offering a 30 day free trial so you can road-test our service. If this is something that interests you please fill in our onboarding form. You can also give us a call on 03300011079 and we can talk you through our services.

We believe that all businesses, no matter the size, should be able to give their customers the very best service. Sentics Customer Care can help you do that in a professional and affordable way. This is how can take your hair salon to the next level with virtual receptionists.