OfficeHQ is a leading provider of virtual receptionist services in Australia, the UK, and US. Their services allow companies of all sizes to have their calls answered 24/7 without the high costs of full-time receptionists. Virtual receptionists can save businesses up to 90% compared to in-house staff by answering calls from anywhere at any time. They also provide a better level of service by ensuring calls are always answered promptly and professionally. OfficeHQ is experiencing strong growth as more companies recognize the cost savings and flexibility that virtual receptionist services provide.

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Big and small companies are realising the benefits of a round-the-clock virtual service.
Picture this: a customer calls a real
estate agency to enquire about
selling his or her house. The call goes
to voicemail because the phone is
unattended, and it takes two days for the
call to be returned. The customer calls
a rival agency, which gets the million-
dollar listing.
Another customer calls a busy small
enterprise and cannot get through. The
receptionist is overwhelmed by too
many calls, and is abrupt when she
does answer. The customer calls back at
5.15 pm, but the receptionist’s shift has
ended. Sales are lost.
Meanwhile, the small enterprise pays
$40,000 for the full-time receptionist
who is learning on the job. There is no
back-up when she is sick or on holiday,
and there is limited scope to train the
young receptionist.
OfficeHQ founder and managing
director David Atkinson has seen this
scenario play out too many times. It is
one reason that OfficeHQ, Australia’s
leading provider of virtual receptionist
services, handles more than 30,000 calls
a day for more than 8000 small and
large enterprises in Australia, the United
Kingdom and the United States.
OfficeHQ offers express messaging,
virtual receptionist and personal
assistant services, and add-on services
such as providing voicemail or fax-to-
email services, and virtual offices with
prestigious CBD locations for only
$75 per month.
It responds to 90 per cent of calls
within 10 seconds, compared with the
industry standard of 80 per cent of
calls within 20 seconds.
‘A receptionist is an obvious cost to cut,’
Atkinson says. ‘A business can go from
paying the wage of a full-time employee
to paying as little as $15 a month for a
virtual receptionist service, depending on
call volumes. It also gets a better service
because our systems can accommodate
call overflow, operate 24/7 and use
experienced local receptionists.’
Atkinson says larger companies are
increasingly using OfficeHQ. ‘The myth
is that only small businesses use virtual
receptionist services, to look bigger than
they are. Big corporates that had two
receptionists on the front desk are also
OfficeHQ answers the call for cost-
effective and efficient receptionists
David Atkinson

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realising the benefits of outsourcing this
function, or having a virtual back-up
service during busy periods. No business
can afford to pay people to wait for the
phone to ring.’
Technology is boosting demand for
virtual receptionist services in different
ways, says Atkinson. Websites effectively
mean that businesses are open 24/7, yet
many cannot answer phone calls outside
business hours. ‘Companies must be
able to take calls from any customer,
anywhere, at any time. To do so, they
need virtual receptionists.’
Antiquated phone technology is also
encouraging more enterprises to use
virtual receptionists. ‘Customers get
annoyed if they are on hold for too
long, have to choose between too many
prompts, are asked to leave a short
message, or keep going to voicemail.
There is renewed appreciation for having
a virtual receptionist to redirect calls.’
OfficeHQ is clear market leader
The Sydney-based company launched
in 2004 to serve an untapped market.
At the time, serviced office providers
mostly focused on offering physical office
services, and call-answer services took
enquiries for business owners, usually
quickly, but with little empathy.
After strong acceptance of its product
in Australia, OfficeHQ launched in the
United States in 2007, just before the
2008–09 global financial crisis. The timing
was fortuitous, as American companies
were looking to cut costs by outsourcing
functions such as reception.
In 2012, OfficeHQ expanded to the United
Kingdom – one of most competitive
markets for virtual receptionist services –
and made excellent early inroads. It now
has 120 staff members and operations
across three continents, and is growing at
20 to 30 per cent a year.
Atkinson says that a disciplined focus on
the core business and high-quality service
are behind OfficeHQ’s success. ‘We set out
to provide a high-quality virtual receptionist
service for businesses that did not want to
spend tens of thousands of dollars on a full-
time, in-house receptionist. It’s a no-brainer
for companies when they realise that they
can save a salary, get a better service, have
customer calls answered any time, and use
our service when phone volumes are high.’
OfficeHQ’s state-of-the-art technology,
which uses a cloud-based platform, is an
attraction. ‘Our technology is second to
none,’ says Atkinson. ‘We can seamlessly
take large volumes of calls and redirect
them, and we have developed phone apps
to allow staff to update their details, or tell
the virtual receptionist if they are unable
to take calls at a certain time.’
The technology also provides detailed,
real-time reporting on phone calls. ‘The
business can track how many customer
calls it receives each month, at what time,
and from where. Through OfficeHQ, it
can harness the same type of phone-call
reporting technology that big corporates
use in their call centres.’
The quality of its receptionists is
another strength, says Atkinson. ‘We
spend considerable time recruiting and
training more mature receptionists. In
many small enterprises, the receptionist
is often the youngest employee, and
may not have the experience to interact
with customers at a different level,
create a better experience, or find ways
to help them if staff are unavailable.’
Strong growth plans
Atkinson expects continued strong growth
in OfficeHQ as it expands its leadership
position. Growth in telecommuting,
where people work from home or
partly from home, and the rise of virtual
companies with no physical offices, are
driving demand for its services.
Asian expansion is a key part of
OfficeHQ’s strategy. It has signed joint
ventures in Japan and Spain, and has
been approached to license its technology
in other countries. The company has
established a hardware hub in Hong
Kong to service the Singapore and
Chinese markets, and to take its service
to fast-growing developed and emerging
Asian markets.
Atkinson believes OfficeHQ’s United
States business will be as large as its
Australian operation within 12 months,
and five times its size within three to
five years. ‘The quality of our virtual
receptionist service is as good as, or
better than, anything offered in the
United States, and our technology is
highly scalable.’
OfficeHQ also expects to offer a web-chat
service, where customers communicate
directly with a company representative via
a website. It is also considering providing
a sales collateral support service. ‘We’re
getting a lot of interest from the sales side
to send marketing collateral to prospective
customers when a company representative
is unavailable. In this era of search engines,
if customers cannot get through or get an
answer, they move straight to the next
company listed in the search engine.’
Higher demand from corporates
is also likely, says Atkinson. ‘Big
companies recognise that having a large,
experienced system of receptionists
can improve the overall customer
experience, and help convert more
enquiries into sales leads. Reception
is too important a function to be left
to one person. All companies benefit
from greater front-desk availability and
having timelier, more refined responses.’
A compelling offer
Atkinson says OfficeHQ has made it
easy and cost-effective for businesses to
use the service. Prices start from $15 per
month; charging can be on a usage basis,
typically around $2 per call; and there
are discounts for higher phone volumes.
A no-obligation, free seven-day trial is
offered: companies enter their details
online, and receive a phone number to
use, or redirect calls to.
‘Within a week, businesses can see that
more calls are being answered more
effectively, and that the service is seamless
and very cost-effective. Even if they spend
$1000 a month to handle a large volume of
calls, it’s a lot less than paying for a full-
time receptionist.’
To learn more, visit www.officehq.com.au.

3. Lower
costs and
flexibility:
the big
benefits of
virtual or
serviced
offices
Technology is changing how
fast-growth small enterprises
view their front-desk
availability
It is often thought that small enterprises
use virtual offices and receptionists to look
bigger than they are: a postal address at a
fancy office tower in Sydney or Melbourne,
for example, or an experienced receptionist
who works off-site and is paid by the call.
That is true of many fast-growing small
enterprises that use virtual office services
to enhance their brand and corporate
reputation, or as a place to work in
town and meet clients. But technology is
changing how fast-growth small enterprises
view virtual and serviced offices.
The emergence of the virtual organisation
has led to many entrepreneurial ventures
minimising or avoiding fixed costs, such
as traditional office space. Growth in
telecommuting, where business owners
work all or part of the week from home, is
also driving growth in virtual offices.
Consider entrepreneurs who start online
retail businesses from home. They have
suppliers in China, distributors in the
United States and customers worldwide,
thanks to the internet. As the hub of a
global online retail network, they have less
need for a fixed office.
Instead, they use virtual or serviced offices
that provide off-site receptionists, and
meeting rooms and office space in town
when needed. Through larger serviced-office
providers, they can access these services in
locations worldwide.
They also use a virtual assistant to manage
their diary, book flights, take calls and
do other tasks that an executive assistant
would normally complete – at a fraction of
the cost.
Virtual and serviced offices have several
benefits for entrepreneurs. First, they
reduce fixed costs and free up capital that
can be used to grow the venture, rather
than being wasted on unnecessary office
space. Also, short-term or pay-as-you-go
contracts provide greater flexibility for
fast-growing ventures that do not want to
be locked into long-term arrangements.
Second, a serviced office can help a ‘born
global’ start-up venture quickly build a
network of low-cost locations worldwide.
The online retailer, for example, sets up
postal addresses in Manhattan, Milan
and London through the serviced-office
provider, giving added market credibility
and a place to work from on buying trips.
The big benefits, of course, are cost and
flexibility. Virtual receptionists provided
by OfficeHQ, for example, start from $15
per month. Compare that with the cost of
hiring a young receptionist whose salary
is $40,000 per year, who may not be as
experienced as the virtual equivalent.
A virtual-receptionist service can answer
calls 24/7, meaning that the business
can operate around the clock in markets
worldwide, and never miss an important
customer call after hours. This is a huge
advantage of start-up ventures that cannot
be confined to a 9 am to 5 pm workday.
Larger businesses, too, are recognising
the benefits of virtual assistance. ‘All
businesses can benefit from greater front-
desk availability,’ writes OfficeHQ in a
white paper on virtual receptions.
It adds, ‘Many larger businesses may
assume that low headcount is an issue
only experienced by their smaller
counterparts. But what about after-hours
or holiday periods, when most employees
aren’t available; and peak-demand
windows, when staff may face more
inquiries than they can handle? Failure to
maintain an adequate phone-answering
service during these times can result in
lost leads, missed opportunities, and
reputational damage – no matter the size
of the enterprise.
‘Professional virtual receptionists can
be “on stand-by” to take overflow or
cover for times when regular employees
are unavailable. In other words, a
call-answering service doesn’t have
to be running 24/7; it can scale to
your business’s capacity requirements
whether you’re a start-up or an ASX-
listed enterprise.’
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