An affordable 24/7 small business answering service

Struggling to always answer the phone? Feeling burnt out? Wish you had a receptionist but hiring is cost-prohibitive? ReceptionHQ’s live answering services help thousands of NZ small businesses to thrive by preventing missed calls and lost opportunities, all for a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.

Customer using a small business answering service to assist with missed calls and opportunities

Save precious time, get more done and never miss a lead with a PAYG virtual reception from just $19 a month

24/7 availability

After-hours, weekends, public holidays … we can answer day or night, 365 days a year, so you never miss opportunities.

NZ receptionists

Calls are answered by professionals in NZ or Australia, with overflow support to ensure a fast speed of answer.

Custom call greetings

Calls are answered with your preferred greeting to ensure your callers enjoy a consistent experience.

Instant emails or texts

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

Screening & transfers

Call screening and transfer options for unlimited staff or departments, so you only take the most important calls.

Appointment Icon

Short-term flexibility

With no lock-in contract, you can use our services temporarily to cope with staff shortages or seasonal demand.

How a small business answering service works

Why small businesses across NZ
choose ReceptionHQ

Every call answered, every enquiry captured. Whatever’s keeping you from the phone, someone still answers it.

Monday 11:15 AM
New customer enquiry
Forwarded during business hours
  • Answered by Sarah
  • Enquiry type captured
  • Referral source noted
  • Best contact number taken
Action taken: Sent via email
Booking request
Forwarded while you were on a job
  • Answered by Michelle
  • Preferred date recorded
  • Service needed confirmed
  • Contact details taken
Action taken: Sent via SMS
Supplier callback
Forwarded during a busy period
  • Answered by Jenna
  • Supplier name recorded
  • Reason for call noted
  • Urgency assessed
Action taken: Sent via email
Existing customer, urgent
Forwarded after hours
  • Answered by Sarah
  • Customer name confirmed
  • Nature of issue recorded
  • Best callback time noted
Action taken: Transferred to on-call staff member
General enquiry, after hours
Forwarded overnight
  • Answered by Michelle
  • Caller's question noted
  • Business name recorded
  • Best time to call back confirmed
Action taken: Sent via email

From routine questions to time-sensitive requests, every call gets handled the same careful way.

However the call arrives, the details land with you in real time by SMS or email, so nothing sits waiting for you to check voicemail at the end of the day.

Why small businesses
choose ReceptionHQ

Every call answered, every enquiry captured. Whatever's keeping you from the phone, someone still answers it.

From routine questions to time-sensitive requests, every call gets handled the same careful way.

Monday 11:15 AM
New customer enquiry
Forwarded during business hours
  • Answered by Sarah
  • Enquiry type captured
  • Referral source noted
  • Best contact number taken
Action taken: Sent via email
Booking request
Forwarded while you were on a job
  • Answered by Michelle
  • Preferred date recorded
  • Service needed confirmed
  • Contact details taken
Action taken: Sent via SMS
Supplier callback
Forwarded during a busy period
  • Answered by Jenna
  • Supplier name recorded
  • Reason for call noted
  • Urgency assessed
Action taken: Sent via email
Existing customer, urgent
Forwarded after hours
  • Answered by Sarah
  • Customer name confirmed
  • Nature of issue recorded
  • Best callback time noted
Action taken: Transferred to on-call staff member
General enquiry, after hours
Forwarded overnight
  • Answered by Michelle
  • Caller's question noted
  • Business name recorded
  • Best time to call back confirmed
Action taken: Sent via email

However the call arrives, the details land with you in real time by SMS or email, so nothing sits waiting for you to check voicemail at the end of the day.

Stay in control of your reception

Stay in control of your reception

Access Anywhere

Manage your communications wherever work happens. The portal works seamlessly on your desktop, laptop or mobile so you stay connected in the office or on the move.

  • Desktop & mobile compatible
  • Accessible from multiple devices
  • Multi user access
  • Real-time updates

No extra setup or learning curve required.

Our call answering solutions

Caller greeting
List staff or departments
Collect information from callers
Warm call transfers
Advise business hours/location
Answer common questions
Scripted questions & responses
Quote fees & take payments
CRM input or submit online forms
Escalation management
Outbound calling
Appointment scheduling
Diary management
MessageExpress
From $19 per month*
Personalised
1 person or team
3 details
MyAssistant
From $49 per month*
Fully customised
Unlimited contacts
Unlimited
MyDiary
From $49 per month*
Fully customised
Unlimited contacts
Unlimited

Our call answering solutions

Compare Plans

Caller greeting
List staff or departments
Collect information from callers
Warm call transfers
Advise business hours/location
Answer common questions
Scripted questions & responses
Quote fees & take payments
CRM input or submit online forms
Outbound calling
Appointment scheduling
Diary management
MessageExpress
From $19 per month*
Inclusions
  • Personalised greeting
  • Single contact/department
  • 3 details collected
MyAssistant
From $49 per month*
Inclusions
  • Fully customised greeting
  • Unlimited contacts/departments
  • Unlimited details taken
  • Advise business hours and location
  • Answer common questions
  • Scripted questions and responses
  • Quote fees and take payments
  • CRM input or submit online forms
  • Outbound calling
MyDiary
From $49 per month*
Inclusions
  • Fully customised greeting
  • Unlimited contacts/departments
  • Unlimited details taken
  • Warm call transfers
  • Advise business hours and location
  • Answer common questions
  • Scripted questions and responses
  • Quote fees and take payments
  • CRM input or submit online forms
  • Outbound calling
  • Appointment scheduling
  • Diary management

Your tools are our tools

Complementary business solutions

Complementary business solutions

Phone numbers

Set up virtual inbound numbers for different locations or, if you require a national presence, a toll-free 0800 number.

Automated messaging

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

What our customers love

What our
customers love

Such an excellent and cost effective service, especially for small businesses. Everything was so easy to set up and turn on or off. All messages were clear with correct notes.
Sonia Sutherland
Great service, easy to work with. They're always there to help if you have questions.
Go With The Flow
Highly recommend - looked after all incoming calls for both of my businesses and dealt with all enquiries promptly and professionally. 5 stars team!
Alexander Sharman

FAQs

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 prioritise 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.

ReceptionHQ is based in Auckland and is a subsidiary of OfficeHQ, a global virtual reception company headquartered in Australia.

Yes, our receptionist can answer calls you’d usually miss.  You may be on another call or simply unable to answer because you’re busy at the time. Our receptionists will take a detailed message and send to you instantly by email or SMS. Many clients who subscribe to our service are surprised when they learn how many calls they’d been missing prior to having their calls answered by ReceptionHQ.

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, including collated instructions for various telecommunications providers, check out our article Forwarding calls to ReceptionHQ’s virtual receptionists.

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.  Our receptionists are available 24/7 and you can opt-in to receive after hours live call answering on any ReceptionHQ subscription.

Without after-hours call answering turned on, our receptionists will answer your calls between 8:00am and 6:00pm on weekdays.  Outside of these standard business hours, calls will then go to voicemail and your voicemail message recordings will be emailed to you.

If you need after-hours call answering, please let us know when you sign up or contact us.

Yes – if you’re on a MyAssistant or MyDiary plan, all calls are answered within New Zealand or Australia. For MessageExpress and MyReceptionist plans, the majority of calls are answered within New Zealand or Australia, with overflow support available from our global offices, e.g. in the UK and the US, during unforeseen peaks in call volumes. This enables us to ensure your 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, you are able to use our service for an hour, a day, a week, whenever you need our assistance. Many clients use our live call answering for short-term needs, for example, when their own in-house receptionist is at lunch, sick or on annual leave.  Some clients use the service during their busy periods only, as call overflow or for campaigns.  Our live call answering service is like having a casual receptionist who is always available.  It’s reliable and risk-free, as you only pay for what you use.

If you prefer to use our service seasonally, you can take advantage of our pause package.

ReceptionHQ offers a month-to-month agreement, which can be cancelled by giving us at least three days’ notice prior to your monthly renewal date.

Find out more

Have questions? Please fill in your details and we'll be in touch.

Find out more

Have questions? Please fill in your details and we'll be in touch.

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Want to try our call answering services for free?

Put New Zealand'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 New Zealand'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?

Our free trial is based on our MyReceptionist service, with professional receptionists able to take messages and transfer calls based on your availability settings.

Running a small business often means wearing every hat at once, and the phone doesn't stop ringing just because you're mid-job or serving a customer. Kiwi small business owners tell us the same thing: a missed call rarely comes back around on its own. Which is exactly what small business call answering service is built to solve.

ReceptionHQ has been supporting Australian businesses since 2003 and New Zealand businesses since 2018. We answer as an extension of your front desk, follow your call script and send every detail to you as soon as the call ends.

  • New customer enquiries and quote requests
  • Booking and appointment requests
  • Existing customer callback requests
  • Supplier and account queries
  • After-hours and weekend enquiries

We capture what you actually need to act on: who called, what they need, and how urgent it is. No garbled voicemail to replay twice, no chasing a caller who didn't leave a callback number. That accuracy is what saves you the back-and-forth at the end of a long day.

  • Enquiry type (new customer, existing customer, supplier)
  • Preferred callback time
  • Job or reference details
  • Urgency level

We capture what you actually need to act on: who called, what they need, and how urgent it is. No garbled voicemail to replay twice, no chasing a caller who didn't leave a callback number. That accuracy is what saves you the back-and-forth at the end of a long day.

  • Enquiry type (new customer, existing customer, supplier)
  • Preferred callback time
  • Job or reference details
  • Urgency level
Answering Service Costs for ReceptionHQ NZ

Hiring a receptionist means a wage, training time, and cover for sick days and leave. We charge for what you use and nothing else, so you're not carrying a fixed cost through the quiet months. Scale up when things get busy, scale back when they don't, or pause altogether between jobs.

  • No lock-in contracts
  • Receptionists who sound like part of your team
  • Live answering 24/7, including holidays
  • Plans that flex with seasonal demand
  • 7-day free trial, no credit card required
  • Customisable solutions to suit your business

Start your 7-day call answering free trial

Start your 7-day call answering free trial

Fill out the form and have our team start answering your calls within minutes.

  • Instant Service Activation
  • No Credit Card Required
  • Professional Receptionists
  • 25,000+ Happy Customers
  • Plans From $19 Per Month Post-Trial
  • No Long-Term Contract

Your virtual reception free trial will be based on our MyReceptionist service, the most popular of our range of call answering solutions.

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Your virtual reception free trial will be based on our MyReceptionist service, the most popular of our range of call answering solutions.

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