Virtual receptionist in Australia: answering service, virtual receptionist service or your own offshore receptionist?

A virtual receptionist in Australia can mean three quite different things: a pay-per-call answering service that takes messages, a virtual receptionist plan that answers and transfers calls from a shared team, or your own dedicated receptionist working remotely from the Philippines. Answering services are cheapest at low call volume. Once you’re handling a few hundred calls a month, or you want someone who also books appointments, chases paperwork and knows your clients by name, your own offshore receptionist usually costs less and does more.

This guide compares every virtual receptionist Australia option on price, what you actually get, how it works and when each makes sense, including the newer AI receptionist. If you’re looking for a general assistant rather than someone on the phones, see our virtual assistant guide instead.

What are the three types of virtual receptionist?

Most phone answering services and virtual receptionist services in Australia fall into one of three groups.

1. A pay-per-call answering service. A shared team of operators answers calls in your business name, takes a message and emails or texts it to you. You pay a small monthly fee plus a charge per call. Nobody does anything else for you.

2. A virtual receptionist service. The same shared-operator model, with more on top: call transfers, a fuller script, and on some plans diary bookings into your calendar. Pricing is per call or per minute, often with monthly bundles.

3. Your own offshore receptionist. An outsourced receptionist of a different kind: a full-time receptionist you hire directly, based in the Philippines, who answers your phones during your business hours from inside your phone system, CRM or practice software. Between calls they do the admin a receptionist would do onsite. You pay their salary each month, not a per-call fee.

How does a virtual receptionist work?

You divert your business number, or just the calls you can’t take, to the provider. When a call comes in, a real person answers in your business name, reads your greeting and the call details from your script, and then follows your rules: take a detailed message, transfer the call to the right person, or book an appointment. Messages are sent to you by email or SMS, with urgent messages and urgent requests flagged the way you’ve asked.

Because a shared service spreads incoming calls across many human operators, it can manage incoming calls during peak periods and high call volumes that would swamp one person. The trade-off is that the operator only knows what’s in your script.

Can a receptionist be remote? Yes. A remote receptionist does the same job from a different location, using your cloud phone system and communication tools, which is how both a shared live answering service and your own offshore receptionist operate.

How much do phone answering services cost in Australia?

Two Australian services we checked on 27 October 2026 publish detailed price lists, and their numbers are close to identical. All figures below exclude GST.

OfficeHQ’s published terms list a message-taking plan at $25 a month plus $2.50 per call on pay-as-you-go, and a receptionist plan (messages plus call transfers) at $33 a month plus $3.89 per call. Its receptionist bundles run from 100 calls for $345 a month to 1,000 calls for $3,145 a month, with excess calls at around $3.90 to $3.99 each. Its per-minute assistant and diary plans charge $2.99 a minute.

Virtual Headquarters’ published call answering pricing shows the same shape: message-taking from $25 a month plus $2.50 a call, a pay-as-you-go receptionist plan at $33 a month plus $3.89 a call, and receptionist bundles of 20 calls for $80 a month or 50 calls for $185 a month, with excess calls at $3.99.

Watch the extras. OfficeHQ’s terms add an after-hours surcharge of $1.00 per call on its receptionist plans (outside 8am to 6pm weekdays and on public holidays), $0.40 per transferred call, and $0.10 per SMS. Unused call allowances expire each month. Before you sign, ask about setup fees, minimum terms and the price of extra calls above your bundle.

What does a virtual receptionist service actually do?

On a shared-operator plan, the operator works from a script you supply. They greet the caller in your business name, take a message, transfer the call if you’ve set that up, and on some plans book an appointment into an online diary.

What they typically don’t do is the work around the call. They won’t look up the client’s file before answering, follow up the quote the caller asked about, confirm tomorrow’s bookings, or chase the missing form. Each call is a separate billable event, handled by whichever operator is free.

That’s the right trade-off for some small businesses. A sole trader who gets 30 calls a month and mostly needs messages taken while on site gets good value from a $33 plan.

What does your own offshore receptionist cost?

Tarino’s typical salary for a customer service representative or a medical receptionist based in the Philippines is around $1,200 a month, about $14,400 a year. On top of salary you’ll budget for Philippine employer costs such as 13th month pay and statutory contributions, plus a headset and a decent internet connection. The cost calculator gives typical all-in totals by role.

For comparison with an in house receptionist, Jobs and Skills Australia lists median weekly earnings of $1,229 for receptionists in Australia, which is about $63,900 a year before super and other on-costs.

To find the person, Tarino charges a one-time fee: $250 upfront plus $4,750 on hire, $5,000 excl. GST in total, with nothing monthly after that. If you’d rather not run payroll yourself, Tarino EOR (powered by Deel) handles the contract and payroll for $387 per employee per month.

Managed offshore agencies are the other route. One published rate is A$1,099 per person per month plus A$1,200 per hire (Staff Domain), on top of the receptionist’s salary, for as long as you keep them.

Answering service vs virtual receptionist vs your own offshore receptionist

	Answering service	Virtual receptionist service	Your own offshore receptionist
Who answers	Shared operators	Shared operators	One person, on your team
Published pricing (excl. GST)	$25/month + $2.50 per call	$33/month + $3.89 per call, or bundles (e.g. 50 calls for $185/month)	Around $1,200/month salary, plus a one-time $5,000 recruitment fee
Cost at 300 calls a month	About $775/month	About $1,200/month	About $1,200/month salary, whatever the call count
Call transfers	Usually not included	Yes, often charged per transfer	Yes, no extra charge
Admin between calls	No	Limited (diary bookings on some plans)	Yes: bookings, follow-ups, data entry, inbox
Knows your clients and systems	No	No	Yes, works inside your CRM or practice software
Hours	Often 24/7, with after-hours surcharges	Often 24/7, with after-hours surcharges	Your business hours, as agreed
Best for	Low volume, messages only	Low to medium volume, transfers needed	300+ calls a month, or phones plus admin

The 300-call figures use the pay-as-you-go rates above. Bundles lower the per-call price a little, but they also expire monthly.

What about an AI receptionist?

An AI receptionist is software that answers phone calls with a synthetic voice, so no human picks up. It can answer promptly at any hour, handle common questions, take messages and book appointments into a connected calendar. Many business owners now ask, can I get AI to answer my phone calls? You can, but test it on your real customer calls first.

AI handles routine calls well. It is weaker on unusual, emotional or complicated callers, where a helpful response depends on judgement. If you trial one, check how it hands a caller to a real person, how it routes important calls, and where recordings and customer information are stored. For many Australian businesses the answer is a mix: AI or a shared service for after-hours overflow, and people for the calls that matter most.

When is a dedicated receptionist cheaper than paying per call?

The break-even is simple arithmetic. At $3.89 a call, 300 calls a month costs $1,167 in call fees plus the $33 plan fee, about $1,200 a month plus GST. That’s roughly 14 calls per business day, which is not a lot for a busy clinic, agency or trade business.

Around that point, a dedicated receptionist costs about the same each month as the answering service. The difference is what you get for the money. The service answers 300 calls. Your own receptionist answers the same calls and then spends the rest of the day confirming appointments, logging enquiries in your CRM, sending quotes and following up the people who didn’t call back.

Below that volume, or if you only need after-hours cover, a per-call service is usually the sensible choice. Some businesses run both: their own receptionist during business hours and an answering service for overflow and after hours. As the business grows, the dedicated receptionist usually takes over more of the work.

Which industries benefit most from a virtual receptionist?

The industries that benefit most are the ones where customer calls arrive while staff are busy with clients, so calls get missed:

• Dental practices and medical clinics, where front desk staff juggle patients in the room and on the phone. See our medical receptionist role.
• Real estate agencies, where agents are at inspections and appraisals most of the day.
• Trades and home services, where the owner is on site and can’t answer.
• Law firms and accounting practices, where professionals bill by the hour and every interruption costs money.

For all of them, the key benefits are fewer missed calls, a more professional image, and an internal team that can stay focused on the work in front of them.

How do you choose an answering service?

• Human operators or AI? Decide which calls need a real person.
• Coverage hours. Check business hours, after-hours surcharges and public holidays.
• Pricing. Compare plan fees, per-call or per-minute rates, setup fees and excess call charges against your actual call volume.
• Transfers and call routing. Find out what each transfer costs and how calls reach the right person.
• Scripts tailored to your business. Ask how your script is set up and how quickly changes are made.
• CRM integration. Ask whether messages and appointment bookings go straight into your systems or arrive as emails someone has to re-key.
• Service quality. Make a few test calls before you commit. Good service sounds like your own team.
• Languages. If your callers speak multiple languages, ask whether the service can cover them.

Many virtual receptionist services price per call, so the best virtual receptionist for you depends on how many calls you take and what you need done with them.

What should your own receptionist handle in customer interactions?

A good offshore receptionist brief usually covers:

• Answering your main number and transferring calls using your rules
• Taking detailed messages and logging every enquiry in your CRM or practice software
• Booking, rescheduling and confirming appointments
• Running reminder calls or texts and working the cancellation list
• Monitoring the shared inbox and website enquiries
• Following up quotes, missing forms and unpaid invoices from templates
• Sending a short end-of-day summary of calls and open items

Keep anything that needs a licence, a qualification or a judgement call with your team: clinical advice, legal or financial advice, pricing negotiations and complaints that need a decision. A receptionist should also never give out customer information without checking who is calling, or make promises your team hasn’t agreed to. Our guide to what a customer service hire handles goes into more detail.

How should a receptionist answer a business call professionally?

Answer within a few rings, give the business name and your own name, listen to the full request, capture the caller’s name, number and reason, and confirm the next step before hanging up. The top skills for a front office role are clear communication, good judgement and organisation, which matter more for customer experience and customer trust than any script.

How do you protect customer information?

Your receptionist will hear and record personal information, so the Privacy Act matters. Under APP 8, the OAIC says that before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient you are generally expected to take reasonable steps, usually an enforceable contract, so the recipient handles it in line with the Australian Privacy Principles. If you run a clinic, our guide to medical virtual assistants covers the extra rules for health information.

In practice, that means a written employment contract with confidentiality and data-handling clauses, individual logins with multi-factor authentication, and access only to the systems the role needs. Our offshore staff security checklist covers the setup. This is general information, so confirm your obligations with a qualified adviser.

How do you hire your own offshore receptionist?

1. Measure your calls. Pull a month of call logs from your phone system: volume by hour, missed calls, and what people call about.
2. Write the brief. Coverage hours, call scripts, transfer and escalation rules, and the admin you want done between calls.
3. Screen for voice and judgement. Look for clear communication on the phone and the ability to handle calls calmly. A live role-play call tells you more than any CV. Tarino’s process starts with 1,000+ candidates per role and includes video screening and a practical assessment before you see a shortlist of 3–4, typically within about 2 weeks.
4. Set up the systems. Phone system login, CRM or practice software access, templates and a call-handling guide.
5. Shadow, then hand over. Have them listen in for the first few days, then take calls with a team member on hand. Our first 30 days checklist walks through it.

If the hire doesn’t work out, Tarino’s 6-month replacement cover for the same role applies, with the conditions set out in the Scope of Work and terms.

Which option is right for your business operations?

If you get fewer than about 100 calls a month and mostly need messages taken, use an answering service. If you need transfers and some diary bookings at modest volume, a virtual receptionist plan works. If your phones are busy enough to cost $1,000 or more a month on a per-call plan, or you want the person answering to also do the admin, hire your own.

See pricing for how Tarino’s one-time fee works, or book a 30-minute call and we’ll look at your call volumes with you.