Providing the best Call Answering Service in the UK
Packages starting from just £14.99 per month and a 30 day free trial.
Telephone Answering
Free up your time to focus on what you do best from as little as £14.99 a month for our classic call answering service.
- Live message taking
- Call transfers
- Business continuity
Let our professional, UK based, call handling operators become part of your business.
Virtual Receptionist
Our team of friendly, professional receptionists can answer your calls just as if they were in your office.
- Call overflow
- Outsourced switchboard
- Diary management
Whatever your business, large or small, Connect has the complete telephone answering service.
Customer Service
Make the right impression every time with our range of inbound call handling services.
- Outsourced reception
- CRM integration
- Order/payment processing
Full contact centre capability for all your inbound calls or on-demand to support your existing team.
31,483
calls answered by Connect in November 2023
Clear and transparent pricing
As well as our first-class customer service, what sets us apart is our clear and transparent pricing with tariffs for our classic telephone answering service starting from just £14.99 per month.
While other services charge for every call or for every second that a call lasts, our unique approach means that you don’t pay for wrong numbers, sales calls or the many other nuisance calls that plague many businesses.
Inbound call handling for every size of business
We provide everything from simple telephone answering, to call overflow, to online diary management, to full virtual reception outsourcing from our UK based inbound call centre.
Phone us on 0330 3333 777 to find out more or click here to set-up a free trial of any of our telephone answering services.
How does a virtual answering service work?
Virtual phone answering services involve a team of trained operators answering calls on behalf of your business. These operators can either take messages, transfer calls or even act as a receptionist.
Virtual receptionists are expert call handlers, meaning your business calls will be answered by a professional and friendly operator from our virtual receptionist service team, who will greet you callers with your company name or other preferred greeting.
A professional telephone answering service removes missed calls, which can often lead to missed opportunities, diverts calls when lines are busy, and ensures that you never miss any crucial messages.
The whole process is seamless so your callers will be unaware that you use a call answering service rather than your own in-house team.
Your friendly and professional virtual receptionist can:
- answer your calls using your company name or however you wish
- take a message then email or SMS text the contact details you require immediately
- act as an outsourced reception and transfer calls through to the relevant person or department
- look after your diary management and access your diary to make/amend or cancel appointments
- become your sales line, take payment and process orders for your business
Why do businesses outsource to Connect?
First impressions have always counted and no more so than today, as technology places your clients and prospects a mere click away from the competition.
Just take look at www.fsb.org.uk to see how many start-ups and established organisations invest in significant resources to get their message across to potential new users, so it’s reassuring that Connect offers a reliable and proven call handling service that ensures all your enquiries and inbound calls are answered professionally and quickly.
a professional telephone presence that costs a fraction of an in-house resource
a UK-based, friendly and expert team to answer your calls
a flexible live call answering service that’s tailor-made to meet your needs
Recent news from the Connect office
Preparing for Storm Ciarán
1st November 2023 – With the arrival of Storm Ciarán tomorrow, we want to ensure the safety and continuity of your business operations.
Reports indicate that Storm Ciarán might be one of the most severe weather events we’ve seen in recent years, especially after the devastation caused by Storm Babet. Roads are being closed, flood warnings are in place, and businesses are being advised to operate remotely where possible.
How Will This Impact Your Communication With Clients
If the storm is likely to temporarily close your business or stop staff getting to work, it’s important to be able to maintain communication with your clients. As always, Connect’s telephone answering service and operators are here to support you through such periods.
If you foresee an increased reliance on our call answering services, or a shift in how you’d like us to handle your calls during the storm’s impact, please let us know as soon as possible as alerting us early will help us serve you better and ensure that no call goes unanswered.
How much does a business telephone answering service cost?
12th June 2023 – If your business is looking at outsourcing their call handling, then one of the main questions will be how much does your phone answering service cost?
We offer a 30 day free trial which gives a great estimate of cost but, if you’re looking for an immediate answer, then our new cost calculator will ask you a few quick questions to work out the most cost effective tariff for you:
- How many telephone calls do you miss or expect to send through to us in a month?
- Do you require a simple call handling service or something more complex like diary management?
Our calculator will then provide you with our best tariffs available and the option to set up a trial. Click here to try out our new cost calculator.
Recent new telephone answering service clients
Nail and Beauty Academy (August 2023)
Our new client in Newcastle offers everything from nail art courses to waxing training and attracts students from all over the North East. With their VTCT level 2 to 4 qualifications, they provide both part-time and full-time courses. But they recently faced a challenge: their telephone support wasn’t as good as their training sessions.
So, when the Beauty Academy took a free trial of our telephone answering service, we came up with a special plan. Connect’s call answering operators were trained with a specific guide, helping them answer most questions and book classes all in one call. If there’s a question they can’t answer, they send a quick text to the right trainer. That way, the caller gets a call back within an hour.
Click here to read the full case study for our Nail and Beauty Academy client.
Digital Marketing and PR Firm (July 2023)
Located in the heart of London and catering to both UK and international clients, this digital marketing and PR agency opted to remain compact in its in-house team. The firm regularly delegated tasks to a dependable network of writers, designers, and digital media consultants. Therefore, the idea of entrusting their call handling to Connect was a natural progression for them.
Like all new clients, they trialed our telephone answering service for free to see if it worked for them or not. What began as an experiment soon transformed into a revelation. They discovered that Connect’s operators offered far more value than just being a “glorified human voicemail system”. This led to a shift from merely receiving messages via email to actively transferring calls to specific designers and account managers.
The transition to Connect’s telephone answering service proved invaluable. To quote their director, they effectively “secured a skilled receptionist team for less than a hundred pounds a month”.
Conveyancing Solicitors (June 2023)
A well established conveyancing law firm in Liverpool contacted Connect with a specific request. They needed our assistance in implementing a custom script to fill out online forms for incoming call, particularly new clients.
Our new call answering service client, a distinguished legal practice, focuses primarily on conveyancing and property law. Their clientele spreads across Liverpool and surrounding regions, including Manchester, West Derby, and Warrington. They realised the need for distinguishing new enquiries from existing clients due to the distinct handling procedures by separate office departments.
Connect now manages all incoming calls for our client. Existing clients are transferred to their assigned case officer, or a message is taken and emailed to the appropriate person. For new enquiries, our operators access a secured online form to gather detailed information. This procedure allows the best suited solicitor to promptly contact the prospective client. Click here to read the full case study.
Newcastle-Based Piano Teacher and Tuner (May 2023)
Our new client, James, teaches piano while also offering professional tuning services, although not at the same time! As his teaching responsibilities take up most of his time, attending to incoming calls from potential clients was becoming a daunting challenge.
To address this, we first equipped James with a dedicated 0191 Newcastle telephone number as up until now he had been using just his mobile number.
In addition to providing the local number, our trained operators now professionally handle all incoming calls, managing both new and existing enquiries. This ensures a seamless process for James’s clients, whether they are booking a tuning appointment or arranging a piano lesson.
Read the full case study here to discover how Connect’s telephone answering service not only helped James manage his calls but also allowed him to focus on his passion for music without worrying about missed business opportunities.
Adventure and Events Company (April 2023)
From heart-pounding white water rafting adventures in Aberfeldy to lively weekends of celebration in Amsterdam, our new client offers a diverse range of experiences that cater to callers across England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Discover how our telephone answering service now helps an adventure and events company, based in Newcastle, ensure that every stag and hen party becomes an occasion to remember.
Read the full case study here to learn how our operators manage the high volume of incoming calls and capture essential details to create the personalised event experiences our client’s callers expect.
I’d like to congratulate your company on being 100% responsive from the first call to the set up and then the call logging provision. Just brilliant. No one else, and there were a few, local to us and national came close on efficiency, responsiveness, friendliness or convincing us they were competent to deal with their own enquiries let alone ours.
We appreciated the low cost flexibility you offered for a short period (no one else wanted to know!). I would not hesitate to endorse your highly efficient operators and professional service. Well done to Connect! Thank you for your help.
Click here to view more case studies and recent clients
Frequently Asked Questions
How do your operators know what calls are for which client?
How do I divert my calls to you?
For most it will mean simply typing in a short code into the handset to turn the call divert function on. We’ve written a small article on how to divert calls that provides codes for the UK’s most popular telephony providers.
I only want you to answer some calls when I’m busy, not all calls?
By using the call divert method it means that you are always in control of when calls are coming through to us, whether that’s when you’re on your lunch, when your line is engaged or maybe when you just want some guaranteed peace and quiet to get on with your work.
How quickly can I set the service up in an emergency?
Connect will provide you with an unique phone number for your business with which you can then either divert your current line at or use it for your marketing or website. The number that we provide to you can be either local to your business area (0208, 0131, 0161 for example) or a national “local number” (0845 or 0333).
*Please note that during busy periods of uptake, such as the recent coronavirus pandemic, new enquiries for our telephone answering service can take longer to set-up as existing client updates take priority.
Can I advertise the telephone number you give me?
Absolutely but you might want to think about using one of our smart numbers which, when using our advanced telephony platform, can be programmed in a huge variety of ways.
For example, your number could go through to your office on certain days and be answered by us on other days, ring on 5 of your numbers simultaneously for 20 seconds then, if still not answered, come through to your Connect virtual receptionist service.
We can even set up a menu selection so that a caller dials “1” for sales, “2” for accounts and so on when prompted.
Can I use a smart number without using your telephone answering service?
Our smart numbers are a great way of organising your call routing and can be used as a stand alone product if you do not require our answering service. UK numbers including 0800, 0808, 033 and all local area codes (for example 0208, 0131, 0141 etc) are available.
What's the difference between telephone answering and virtual receptionist services?
Different telephone answering service providers often use varied terminology to describe their offerings. At Connect, the distinction primarily revolves around the level of service our operators provide.
Our basic call answering service suits the needs of most clients. It encompasses calls being answered in your company’s name, transcribing contact and message details, and the option to transfer the call.
Our Pro and Diary services, on the other hand, are sometimes referred to by our clients as “Virtual Receptionist” services, given that the call instructions tend to be more detailed and intricate.
Click here to see which level of service suits you best
Page Last Updated: November 1st, 2023