Yes! OfficeHQ is a privately-owned Australian company. Our head office is on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, with about 90% of our entire Australian team – including our virtual receptionists – based in that region.

Our telecommunications network extends to 66 telephone exchanges, giving us the largest range of local numbers of any Australian virtual reception services provider.

Yes. This is referred to as “call overflow”.

A lot of companies require their phone calls to be answered only when they are unable to take the call themselves. For example, if you step out of the office for an hour or your in-house receptionist goes to lunch, is on leave or is busy on another call and you have multiple calls coming in at the one time.

You can set your business phone number to divert (to the unique local phone number we allocate your business during the Free Trial setup process) only when the phone rings for more than a specified period (such as after 5 rings) or if your line is busy/engaged.

In such instances our receptionists will then answer the phone as if we were in your office. You’re always in control and can relax knowing you will never miss another important call again! 

Transferring calls to OfficeHQ is easy. To have our team of virtual receptionists answer your calls, simply:

1. Decide whether you wish to forward calls immediately to OfficeHQ (the best solution for most businesses) or have calls forwarded after a delay.
2. Identify the call forwarding codes for your telecommunications provider. Most providers publish these codes on their websites.
3. Use the codes to enable your calls to be forwarded to the unique phone number that we’ve allocated to you.

For more information, check out our article Forwarding Your Business Phone to OfficeHQ’s Reception Team, which outlines:

• Immediate and delayed call forwarding options
• Setting up call forwarding for fixed-line telephones (with specific instructions for Telstra and Optus)
• Setting up call diversions for mobile phones (with specific instructions for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone)

The majority of calls are answered by our professional receptionists in Australia, with support from our global teams to ensure your calls are always answered promptly.  For MyAssistant and MyDiary plans, our UK-based team provides overflow support after hours.  For MessageExpress and MyReceptionist plans, overflow support is available from our global offices, e.g. in NZ, the UK and the US, during any unexpected peak in call volume.   This enables us to ensure your calls are always answered as fast as possible, reducing the risk of call abandonment. We know Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is very important to our clients and one of our key differentiators is that we’re able to answer calls in under 15 seconds, on average.

MyReceptionist is a live call answering service where a friendly, professional receptionist answers your phone and handles your calls exactly as you require.  You may instruct our receptionist to take messages for one or more separate staff members or departments, transfer calls based on availability or provide basic information about your business.  Just like having your own in-house receptionist, but without the cost.  To your callers, they will feel as though they are speaking to someone sitting in your office.

When you sign up to the MyReceptionist service or the 7-day free trial, we will allocate an exclusive local telephone number (02 for Sydney, 03 for Melbourne, etc) for you to divert your business calls to.  When we receive calls to your number, we will answer with your customised greeting, take a message or transfer specific calls to you, if requested.  With the MyReceptionist service, our receptionists can answer basic questions about your business, such as your business address, hours of operation or when a return phone call might be received.

Set up can take as little as a few minutes.  For a MessageExpress or MyReceptionist service, you can start using the service almost instantly. Simply set up an account yourself, using the free trial webform or have our customer service team do this for you.  Either way, it only takes a few minutes to get started.  Once your account is set up, you simply need to forward your phone line to us and we’ll start answering your calls.

If you’re interested in a MyAssistant or MyDiary plan, a short setup may be required, depending on complexity, to train our receptionists on your preferred software, business information or webforms.  Please contact us to find out more.

The live call answering free trial is based on the MyReceptionist service and is completely free.  We don’t require a credit card and it can be cancelled at any time.  When you sign up for a free trial, you’ll be allocated a local phone number to divert your calls to as well as gain instant access to our online client portal and mobile app to manage your service.  At the end of the trial, you can simply add a credit card to continue, or stop using the service if you’d rather not continue with the service.  There is no obligation at all.