Work within the diary
Booking a slot follows your capacity, location and urgent-request rules. Confirmations, rescheduling and reminders stay within your existing process.
Calls and bookings
One named, full-time person answering your calls during UK business hours
Your dedicated receptionist works from South Africa, answering inbound calls, booking appointments and following up enquiries for a flat monthly fee. You get one named, full-time person who learns your business and works inside your phone, diary and CRM systems. This suits a business that would otherwise hire a receptionist or coordinator: someone to handle the calls and the work that follows them, during UK business hours only.
One-off £1,500 setup per seat. Free replacement guarantee if your person isn't the right fit. No long-term lock-in.
UK business hoursAn agreed schedule from our Cape Town office
Who This Is For
Built for businesses like yours
You need enough daytime work to fill one person's day. That means considering bookings, confirmations and warm follow-up alongside inbound calls. If you are comparing telephone answering or a virtual receptionist service, check whether you need a shared pool answering many firms' lines or a full-time person assigned to yours. An outsourced receptionist suits the latter. If you only need occasional calls answered and messages passed on, use a pay-per-call plan: it will cost less.
The Challenge
Sound familiar?
A call arrives while your team is delivering the work. Someone takes a message, but the booking still needs confirming, the quotation needs a follow-up and the next colleague needs to know what was agreed. If that describes your day, write down the work after the call as well as the calls themselves. Which requests can someone resolve using your instructions? Which need a technical, financial or complaint decision from your team? Those boundaries matter when you give one person responsibility for the routine work. They need your diary rules, product knowledge and escalation routes, alongside a clear list of priorities.
What You Get
Everything your team needs
01
A person assigned to your business
Your named professional learns your products, customers and way of speaking. Their role is dedicated to your business, with daily priorities directed by you.
02
Inbound calls and messages
They answer routine enquiries in your name, take messages and pass them to the right person. Answers follow the knowledge and permissions you provide.
03
Bookings within your rules
Appointments, confirmations, changes and reminders happen inside your diary and process. You set the rules for capacity, locations and urgent requests; your person works within them.
04
Warm enquiry and quotation follow-up
Your person follows up enquiries and quotations as part of the role. This is work with people already in your customer journey, with the next action recorded in your systems.
05
Records your colleagues can use
The reason for the call, action taken and next step go into your CRM or help desk. Your colleague can pick up the conversation with that context already captured.
06
Clear escalation boundaries
Technical, financial and complaint cases go to the appropriate internal owner with the context recorded. We agree call standards and reporting, then review performance during ramp.
The working day
Calls, bookings and follow-up in one role
Think of the day as a sequence of responsibilities, shaped around your call patterns. At the start of your agreed UK working day, inbound enquiries and messages sit alongside appointment confirmations and diary changes. During the day, your person answers calls and books or reschedules within your rules. Alongside that inbound work, they follow up warm enquiries and quotations according to the priorities you set.
As the day moves towards its close, the record matters as much as the conversation: why the customer called, what happened and what needs to happen next. Requests needing your team's decision are escalated with the context captured. This describes how the role can fit together; the balance between tasks depends on your queue and the capacity agreed during scoping.
Keep follow-up connected
Warm follow-up of enquiries and quotations belongs alongside inbound work. Recording the outcome and next action keeps it visible to your team.
Agree the working window
The person works UK business hours only, with exact hours and peak periods agreed during scoping. We do not offer evenings, weekends, 24/7 or emergency lines.
Where we work
Are you UK-based?
Your person works from our office in Cape Town, South Africa, not from the UK. You have one named, full-time person dedicated to your business, working as part of our supervised office team.
South Africa uses SAST: one hour ahead of the UK in British Summer Time and two hours ahead in winter. The time difference is small, but you still need to agree a fixed UK-hours schedule with us up front. Cover is during UK business hours only.
Load-shedding is a real issue in South Africa: the national grid has struggled with scheduled power cuts. Our office has backup power and redundant connectivity as standard. Ask us how we keep the office powered and connected during a cut before you decide.
Your daily priorities
You direct the day's work; we handle recruitment, training, HR, payroll and performance support.
Native English speakers
The professionals we place speak English natively in a neutral, easy-to-follow accent.
Your systems and access
Your person works inside your CRM, ATS, help desk, dialler and approved tools using access you control, keeping operational data in your existing environment.
Costs and fit
Compare the monthly fee with the job you need done
Published prices read in October 2026 put a UK receptionist hire at about £30,000 a year, roughly £2,500 a month. Cape's fee is £1,200–£1,600 per seat per month, plus a one-off £1,500 setup fee. The monthly fee includes salary, HR, payroll, equipment and workspace; setup covers recruitment, vetting and training. Where you land in the range depends on the role, seniority and hours, confirmed on a short call.
This comparison is useful if you would otherwise employ someone for the role. It does not make a full-time person the cheapest answer to a lightly used phone line. Without enough daytime work to fill one person's day, choose pay-per-call answering because it will cost less. When you do have that workload, you get a dedicated, named person who works only for your business on calls, diary and follow-up.
Shared answering for a smaller workload
Published prices read in October 2026 include pay-per-call entry plans at about £15–£115 a month from a shared team. These are entry plans, not a price range for all answering work; compare them first if calls and messages are the whole requirement.
Automated answering as a separate option
Published prices read in October 2026 include AI receptionist plans at about £15–£250 a month. Treat these as examples of published plans, not a market-wide range, and check whether the product can do the diary and follow-up work you need before comparing it with a person.
Agency calling for a sales brief
Published prices read in October 2026 put a UK agency caller or SDR at about £2,495–£6,000 a month. Consider that category if your brief is sales calling; establish whether you need outbound sales work or someone handling inbound enquiries, bookings and warm follow-up.
Our Process
How it works
01
Understand
We map the reasons people call, the volumes and peak periods, your systems and the cases that must stay with your team. Include the booking and follow-up workload so the brief reflects a whole person's day.
02
Tailor
We define the role, UK-hours schedule, call flows, verification questions, booking permissions and escalation routes. We also agree reporting and channel priorities, so the person has a defined remit.
03
Train
Your person learns your knowledge base, tone and systems, using real scenarios. They practise the conversations and demonstrate the required standard before taking calls, including when to refer a request to your team.
04
Deploy
They begin with an agreed scope while calls and outcomes are reviewed during ramp. Responsibility expands as quality and judgement are demonstrated. You direct service priorities and provide product feedback; Cape supports the person, workplace and employment arrangements.
Why Outsource
Telephone answering with a dedicated receptionist
A shared answering service spreads call handling across many businesses. That can be the right purchase when you need messages taken without employing someone full-time. This role gives you one named person assigned to your work, learning your products and working your diary as well as answering calls. The offer is one named, full-time person working only for your business, not a shared call centre seat. You direct the day's priorities; Cape handles recruitment, training, HR, payroll and performance support. You still need an internal owner for questions and decisions that sit outside the person's remit.
Doormatic: inbound calls and appointment booking
“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. They have also recently begun supporting us with proactive B2B lead generation and outreach. The team represents our business perfectly and has become a valuable extension of our operation.” — Harry, Doormatic
Read the published testimonial and other stories on our case studies page.
Plan your dedicated team
Pricing
Review the setup fee, monthly seat fee and what each covers.
Learn moreHow it works
See the steps from defining the role to training and deployment.
Learn moreWhy South Africa
Read about the time difference, English and office arrangements.
Learn moreClient stories
Read the published Doormatic testimonial and other client accounts.
Learn moreFAQ
Common questions
You get one named, full-time person assigned to your business. The phrase virtual receptionist can also describe a shared pool answering many firms' lines. Our model is dedicated staffing, with work in your systems and daily priorities set by you; it is not a pay-per-call plan.
Routine general enquiries, bookings and rescheduling, order or delivery updates, account questions, messages, service reminders and warm follow-up can form part of the role. We agree what they can resolve and what they must escalate before they start. Technical, financial and complaint decisions stay with the appropriate internal owner.
They work UK business hours only. We agree a fixed UK-hours schedule and the peak periods during scoping. This service does not provide evenings, weekends, 24/7 or emergency lines.
Your person works from our supervised Cape Town office in South Africa, not from the UK. They work an agreed UK-business-hours schedule; see why South Africa for the time-zone and office arrangements.
Published prices read in October 2026 put a UK receptionist hire at about £30,000 a year, roughly £2,500 a month. Cape charges £1,200–£1,600 per person per month, including salary, HR, payroll, equipment and workspace, plus a one-off £1,500 setup fee for recruitment, vetting and training. If you do not have a full day's work for someone, a pay-per-call plan will cost less.
We offer a full replacement guarantee: if the person is not the right fit, we find a replacement at no additional cost. Contracts are flexible with no long-term lock-in. Notice terms are agreed up front and kept deliberately straightforward.
Your person works inside your phone, CRM and help-desk systems using individual access you control. We train them on your verification, privacy and escalation rules, and they work from our managed Cape Town office. We sign NDAs and data-processing agreements on request. Contractual requirements can be addressed during onboarding.
We scope realistic capacity against your call reasons, volumes, peak periods and the other work in the role. We do not promise unlimited simultaneous queues. Bring the booking, follow-up and record-keeping workload into that discussion too, rather than judging the role on the number of incoming calls alone.
Yes. The role can combine phone with email, live chat or help-desk tickets where that matches your customer journey. We scope channel priorities and realistic capacity rather than promising one person can handle unlimited simultaneous queues.
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.
Work out whether you need a full-time person
Tell us why people call, when demand peaks and what booking and follow-up work needs doing. We will scope the role and confirm the monthly fee on a short call. A one-off setup fee applies, with a free replacement guarantee and no long-term lock-in.
One-off £1,500 setup per seat. Free replacement guarantee if your person isn't the right fit. No long-term lock-in.