Founded in 2000, Moneypenny began as a small team of receptionists and has grown into the UK’s leading telephone answering service provider. Today, we are the trusted partner for businesses looking for an affordable answering service that still delivers an exceptional, human experience on every call.
With more than 1,000 employees across the UK and US, we support thousands of businesses globally through a unique mix of extraordinary people and advanced technology. Whether you’re taking customer calls, sales calls, or sensitive enquiries from existing clients, we make sure every phone call is answered promptly and professionally.
As we’ve grown, our small business values remain at the heart of everything we do. Whether you’re a start up or a global enterprise, Moneypenny helps you deliver a professional, reliable and friendly customer experience without the cost of hiring in house teams.
In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about telephone answering services and broader frontline services for your company: how they work, why they matter, what they cost, and how to select the right partner for your business.
A telephone answering service is a modern, cost effective alternative to hiring a full time receptionist or running a traditional call centre. It’s an outsourced call handling service that ensures every call to your business is answered promptly and professionally by real people who sound and feel like an extension of your team.
Your calls are diverted to your provider whenever you’re busy, in a meeting, working from a virtual office or out of hours. You can stay in complete control of when the divert is active.
A trained receptionist answers the call in your business name, just as if they were sitting in your office. They understand your business, your priorities and handle callers with warmth and accuracy.
Calls are either transferred to you, to colleagues, or a detailed message is taken and sent instantly via text, email or integrated tools. This means you can respond at the right time without losing important customer calls or urgent enquiries.
You can decide whether the service is active all day, overflow only, or evenings and weekends. This setup gives you total flexibility and peace of mind that no matter the time or day, your callers are greeted by someone who understands your company and cares about their experience.
In today’s always-on world, missed calls mean missed opportunities. Studies show that around one in three customer touchpoints go unanswered, which means customer calls and sales calls are frequently lost before they even begin. For a potential new client, that often means moving straight on to a competitor who picks up first time.
Instead of relying on an answering machine or missing out altogether, you can have every phone call handled with care and accuracy, giving your business the professional presence it deserves.
Many businesses underestimate how much missed calls cost across a year. Each unanswered enquiry can mean a lost sale, a frustrated customer and wasted marketing spend that originally generated the enquiry. When a caller reaches voicemail, a significant number will simply hang up and try a competitor instead.
For growing companies, the impact can be huge. You might be investing in digital campaigns, paid search and social media to drive new enquiries, yet losing a percentage of those leads because nobody is free to answer the phone. It is not just lost revenue in the moment, it is also the long term customer relationships and referrals that never get the chance to form.
A professional, live call answering service removes this risk by making sure every call is picked up by real people who can capture details, qualify leads and keep the conversation moving. It is one of the simplest ways to improve marketing ROI without increasing budgets or adding extra fees.
Every organisation has its own reasons for outsourcing calls, but some of the most common include:
Partnering with an expert call answering company brings both flexibility and reassurance. You can scale your service up or down as your business changes, without the risk or expense of hiring permanent staff.
Your receptionist answers with warmth, accuracy and consistency, which helps callers feel valued straight away. This builds trust and sets the tone for the entire relationship.
Instead of juggling ringing phones with other tasks, your team gets space to focus. This leads to faster turnaround, better service delivery and happier staff who are not constantly interrupted by phone calls.
Even the smallest business can present itself with the polish of a larger operation. A dedicated receptionist gives callers confidence that they are dealing with an organised, established company that cares about excellent service.
Live call handling ensures you do not lose potential customers who will not leave voicemails or call back. Your receptionist can qualify enquiries, gather key details and pass warm leads straight to you or your sales team.
Whether you are dealing with holiday absences, seasonal surges or campaign spikes, the service scales instantly. You stay responsive without the cost or risk of hiring and training extra staff.
Many callers reach out in the evenings or at weekends. With live 24/7 coverage, you stay available whenever customers need you and never miss time sensitive enquiries.
You remove the expense of recruitment, salaries, training and sickness cover. You get premium customer service for a fraction of the cost of a full time receptionist or internal call centre.
Fewer interruptions mean more clarity and momentum. Calls are filtered, unwanted calls drop dramatically, and you stay in control of how and when calls reach you.
With call data, message logs and reporting tools, you can spot trends, understand your audience and make smarter decisions about staffing, marketing and customer engagement.
Need overflow support only, full coverage or temporary help during a busy project? Your configuration can change at any time, so the service always fits your workflow.
A telephone answering service becomes a reliable service partner that helps you deliver great customer experiences, protect your reputation and keep your business running smoothly even when things get hectic. It is a simple way to create more time, more opportunities and more confidence in how you communicate.
The short answer almost all of them. From sole traders to global corporations, businesses across every sector rely on professional call answering. Some of our typical clients include:
Whatever your size or industry, a flexible call handling service helps manage your time better and ensures your callers always reach a friendly, knowledgeable voice.
Do not just take our word for it. Read our case studies to find out more about the different types of businesses we support here at Moneypenny.
Understandably, there are many online searches each week for “affordable answering service” and for “how much does an answering service cost?”. When it comes to price, there is no single answer and the cost of call answering services varies depending on how much support you need.
Generally, there are two ways a provider will charge for their service either by the number of calls you receive, or the duration of those calls in minutes. Each provider will have a different price per call or per minute.
Typically, you will select a package based on the number of calls or minutes you expect to need on a monthly basis. This can be tough to figure out if you have never thought about it, which is why at Moneypenny we offer all prospective clients a free 7 day trial, so they can experience our full service and see exactly where and when they need support.
This depends on the type of service you sign up to. Our call answering service is charged for on a per minute basis, offering a range of schemes based on the amount of minutes you use. Get your quote now to find out what plan package is right for you.
No. All of our smaller schemes inclusive of 150 minutes and below have a minimum contract length of three months. Thereafter, we require one month’s notice to close your account from the date of your next invoice. For our larger schemes, we require either a six or twelve month commitment depending on the volume of inclusive minutes with three months’ notice to terminate your account. This may not be the case with other service providers, so make sure to check their terms and any extra fees before you make your decision.
The two terms are often used interchangeably. Both involve real people responding to your calls and representing your business, but a virtual receptionist or virtual reception team may provide extra features such as:
Essentially, a telephone answering service focuses on managing calls efficiently, while a virtual receptionist can take on broader administrative or client care duties. The right choice depends on how much support you want, how complex your calls are and whether you want a full virtual office feel for callers.
Choosing the right partner is essential because the people responding to your calls are often the first impression of your brand. A great provider does far more than pick up the phone. They help you protect leads, support customers, and keep things running smoothly when you are busy.
Here is how to make the right choice.
Need help finding the right service for you? Why not check out our top tips for engaging a phone answering company blog for more information.
There are a number of ways you can work with a telephone answering provider, depending on how many calls you receive and how your team is structured.
The important thing is that they are flexible enough to satisfy the unique requirements of your business. You do not want to be tied into long term contracts and receive invoices that mean spending thousands of pounds a month if you only want them to answer calls when you are unavailable.
This can vary depending on your provider and the service they offer. At Moneypenny, we offer a 24 hour answering service, where we answer calls on your behalf every day of the year, even during the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
As standard, your calls will normally be diverted to a professionally recorded voicemail system outside of your usual business hours. Moneypenny, however, has the capacity to answer your calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with our dedicated 24/7 team.
Not sure you need support out of hours? We have put together a blog post to help you out Do I need a 24/7 call answering service?
When you sign up, you are given a unique forwarding number. Any calls made to that number instantly appear on the receptionist’s system, along with your company profile. The Moneypenny receptionist can then greet the caller in your business name and handle the conversation according to your instructions.
It is seamless for your callers. They will never know the call was not answered in your office.
It all begins with onboarding. Moneypenny take the time to learn about your company, preferred greeting, tone of voice and any key details you want shared.
For example our Moneypenny receptionist team will:
Each Moneypenny receptionist is trained to sound warm, capable and knowledgeable, providing callers with a great impression every time.
Modern telephone answering services provide intuitive tools so you are always in control. With the Moneypenny app and online portal, you can manage your virtual office setup wherever you are.
This transparency gives you the confidence that your customer communications are running smoothly, even when you are not at your desk.
For many companies, teams are now spread across multiple locations and work patterns. A cloud based answering service and portal ensures calls reach the right person, whether they are in the office, at home or on the move. It is a simple way to give customers a consistent experience while your team enjoys flexible working.
The best call answering services are more than stand alone solutions. Today, businesses look for tools that connect with the systems they already use so their teams can work smoothly, just like a joined up call centre but without the overheads. Moneypenny supports a range of integrations that help you manage customer calls with more accuracy and speed.
Popular integrations include CRM platforms, appointment scheduling tools, call tracking services and communication platforms like Microsoft Teams. These tools help your receptionist team route calls more intelligently, update records instantly and reduce admin for your in house team.
Website chat integrations and live chat services can also link directly with your receptionists. This means customers can move from live chat to phone calls without repeating themselves, giving you a polished and excellent service that feels effortless for the user.
When these tools work together, you get clearer data, faster workflows and an experience that feels as professional as a high performing contact centre, all delivered through a bespoke service that is tailored to your needs.
Moneypenny has evolved far beyond traditional call answering. Today, we are the go to partner for businesses that want to deliver brilliant customer conversations across every channel, including phone, AI receptionist, live chat and more.
Our difference lies in the combination of extraordinary real people and market leading AI technology. With more than 1,000 receptionists and specialist agents in the UK and US, we act as a seamless extension of your business, representing your brand with warmth and professionalism 24/7.
Here is what sets Moneypenny apart:
Together, these services mean Moneypenny can cover every communication touchpoint your business has, giving you one trusted partner for phone, chat and digital engagement.
Whether you need overflow support, full outsourcing or a mix of live agents and AI, our solutions scale effortlessly as your business grows. We make sure your customers always reach a real, confident voice, wherever they get in touch.
That is why Moneypenny continues to lead the way in blending human connection with cutting edge AI technology, giving businesses of every size the power to sound polished, professional and always available.
Many companies reach a stage where managing calls internally starts to affect productivity and service quality. Here are some common signs that your business is ready to invest in a professional call answering partner.
If any of these feel familiar, a telephone answering and call handling service such as Moneypenny can transform how you handle customer calls and help your business run with more confidence and calm.
Running a business is full of distractions, but your customers should not feel the impact of that. When every call is answered quickly, warmly and professionally, it changes the way people see your brand.
A telephone answering service is more than just a backup plan. It is an investment in better communication, calmer workdays and stronger customer relationships.
If you are ready to find out how it could work for you, explore Moneypenny’s free trial and see the difference our receptionists can make from the very first call.
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