One named, full-time person in South Africa to answer your incoming calls, book visits and follow up enquiries during UK business hours, for a flat monthly fee. Built around your office, diary and quote pipeline.
If your office handles incoming calls, web enquiries, visits and quotations, look at what happens between those tasks. Who calls back the person asking for a survey? Who checks whether a quote has been received? Who tells your team that a customer wants to proceed? Scope the role around that whole sequence, including the records and handovers, rather than counting only the time someone spends answering the phone.
Dedicated receptionist and call handling gives you a named person to answer enquiries, manage bookings and follow up quotations. You direct their daily work and priorities; Cape handles the employment side and supports performance. Set clear limits around what they can confirm, what needs your approval and which questions belong with your team. Keep technical advice and pricing decisions with the people you authorise to give them.
Doormatic’s published testimonial says: “Since then, their role has grown significantly — Cape Solutions now manages our inbound calls, books servicing appointments, handles new garage door enquiries, and assists with scheduling.” — Harry, Doormatic. You can read the published testimonial on our case studies page. When scoping your own role, bring examples of incoming enquiries, booking changes and quote questions so the responsibilities can be agreed around your process.
When your office is answering a booking question while trying to arrange an installation, decide which requests a dedicated person could handle. Routine enquiries can sit with them; questions requiring your team's judgement need a clear handover route.
Before handing over your diary, define where you work, which visits can be booked and who controls availability. Your person books within the capacity and location rules you supply, rather than deciding what your team can deliver.
Give follow-up a place in the working day. Your person follows up existing enquiries and quotations, logs the customer's response and records the next step. Ask them to distinguish a question for your team from a customer who wants another call later.
Decide what your team needs before taking an enquiry forward: the customer's request, the conversation so far and the action agreed. Your person records that context in your systems and passes questions outside their remit to the appropriate colleague.
Build the brief around a normal working day in your office. The person learns your business, uses your systems and handles the repeatable customer contact you agree. You retain control of priorities, booking permissions and decisions that need your expertise.
Your person handles routine enquiries using the information and permissions you provide. Agree what to ask and record before passing a request on. Include examples of the calls your office can resolve and those that need a colleague's answer.
Follow-up starts with people who have already contacted you. Your person works through those enquiries and records the next action. Agree which details you need before offering a visit, so your team receives context alongside the customer's contact information.
Your person books, confirms and rearranges appointments in your own diary under agreed rules. Define the visit types, areas and available capacity, including who approves exceptions. Keep control of the slots you make available for surveys, visits and installations.
Use the role to contact customers about quotations already sent, capture their questions and record the agreed next step. Set the follow-up approach yourself. Changes to the quoted work or price should go to your authorised colleague for a decision.
Your person logs the conversation and passes the next action to the appropriate internal owner. Specify what a handover should contain when a customer wants to proceed. Your team then has the record it needs to review the request and arrange delivery.
Calls, actions and next steps are recorded in your CRM or help-desk systems. Technical questions and complaints go to the internal owner you identify. Make those routes part of the brief, including what the person should tell a customer while a question awaits your team's answer.
Cape charges £1,200–£1,600 per seat per month, plus a one-off £1,500 setup fee per seat. Setup covers recruitment, vetting and training. The monthly fee is all-inclusive: salary, HR, payroll, equipment and workspace. Where you land in the range depends on the role, seniority and hours, confirmed on a short call. Onboarding, ongoing training, line-management and reporting support are included.
Cape's own salary guide gives an indicative UK base salary of £20,000–£24,000 a year for a customer service agent. Employer National Insurance and pension sit on top of that base. Keep Cape's setup charge visible in your budget, and assess whether the duties you need are suitable for the dedicated role before comparing the costs.
The test is whether you have enough daytime work to fill one person's day. Without that workload, a pay-per-call answering plan is cheaper: published prices read in October 2026 show shared-team entry plans of about £15 to £115 a month. Those are entry plans, not a price for every volume of calls. Cape provides a named, full-time seat.
Start with the work already arriving at your office. Bring your call reasons, booking process and examples of open quotes. We use that information to define the role, train the person and agree what stays with your internal team. Most clients go from first call to a fully trained professional starting work in around 2–3 weeks. This varies depending on role complexity and how quickly details are confirmed at each stage, so treat it as a typical guide rather than a fixed promise.
We review your incoming contact, busy periods, systems and handovers. Describe what happens from first enquiry to agreed work, including where your team must make a decision. Use that discussion to assess whether the combined workload justifies a full-time person.
We agree the responsibilities, UK business hours, booking permissions and escalation routes. Identify who gives daily direction and who answers questions about your work. Put the rules for booking and follow-up into the brief before the person begins handling customers.
The person learns your information, tone and systems through real scenarios. Supply examples of an enquiry, a booking change and a question about a quote. Training covers how to handle the request and when to pass it back to your team.
Your person starts with the agreed responsibilities, with calls and outcomes reviewed as they settle into the role. You direct the day's work and provide feedback. Cape supports performance behind the scenes; expand the remit only as knowledge and judgement are demonstrated.
Sole traders and very small firms with few calls are better served by a pay-per-call answering plan. This role handles inbound calls, bookings and quote follow-up for customers who come to you; firms that sell into projects and want outbound sales to contractors, merchants, specifiers or procurement teams should look at construction sales. Choose by the work you need done, rather than the industry label alone.
You get one named, full-time person dedicated to your business. The role can combine inbound calls, booking and follow-up, with responsibilities agreed during scoping. Bring the whole workload to that conversation, including the record-keeping between calls, so priorities and capacity can be set realistically.
Yes. Your person can book, confirm and reschedule visits in your diary using the permissions and rules you agree. Define what can be booked without approval and what needs checking with your team. The same principle applies when a customer wants to change an appointment or asks for something outside the agreed remit.
Coverage is UK business hours only, with the fixed schedule agreed up front. The person is office-based in Cape Town. You direct day-to-day tasks and priorities, just as you would with any other team member. We handle HR, payroll and IT infrastructure behind the scenes, with senior oversight from our own team leads. We agree call standards, escalation rules and reporting, train against real scenarios and review performance during ramp. Name an internal contact who can resolve questions and keep your booking information current.
Your customer information stays in your existing systems, using access you control. Agents work inside your phone, CRM and help-desk systems using individual access you control. We train them on your verification, privacy and escalation rules, and the team operates from our managed Cape Town office. Contractual requirements can be addressed during onboarding.
We offer a full replacement guarantee: if a team member is not the right fit, we find a replacement at no additional cost. Contracts are flexible with no long-term lock-in. Use the scoping conversation to agree the responsibilities before proceeding.
Tell us what comes into your office, which visits need booking and who follows up your quotes now. We will help you scope the role. Cape charges £1,200–£1,600 per seat per month plus a one-off £1,500 setup fee per seat, with a free replacement guarantee and no long-term lock-in. The monthly fee covers salary, HR, payroll, equipment and workspace; the exact fee depends on role, seniority and hours.
Book a free consultationOne-off £1,500 setup per seat. Free replacement guarantee if your person isn't the right fit. No long-term lock-in.
Cape Solutions UK
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Hi! Whether it’s sales, appointments, or customer service — we’ve got the right people for you.
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