Message taking service for UK businesses
If callers mostly need a call back, a message taking service is enough and beats voicemail. If they need bookings, transfers or answers, choose a fuller answering service.
Tools our VAs use for this
A message taking service answers calls you cannot take, records the caller's name, number, reason and the best time to call back, and sends that message to you by email, text or app. Callers speak to a person instead of a voicemail beep, and you call back with the context in front of you. It suits a business whose callers mostly need a call back. If they need bookings, transfers or answers, you need a fuller answering service. If callers need more than a message, a dedicated customer service assistant can cover the rest.
On this page
What a message taking service is
How it works
You forward your phone to the service when you are busy, out or closed. A person answers with your greeting, takes the caller's details and the reason for the call, tells the caller when to expect a call back, and sends you the message. You call back when you are free. We provide a message taking service as part of a dedicated receptionist's day, alongside call handling and diary work.
Message taking versus call answering
Message taking stops at the message. A full call answering service can also put calls through to you, book appointments, answer common questions and screen callers. Many providers sell message taking as their entry plan and charge more for the rest. Our guide to what a virtual receptionist does covers the fuller role.
Why businesses use one
Calls that go unanswered
Every business misses calls: when you are on another call, driving, with a customer or closed. To see how many you miss, check your phone system's call log over a normal fortnight and count calls missed and calls sent to voicemail. Then count how many of those callers left a message. The gap is the number of callers who gave up.
Customer loyalty
A caller who reaches a person and gets a call back at the time promised has been looked after. A caller who reaches voicemail twice may try someone else. Message taking does not solve the problem for you, but it makes sure the caller is still waiting for you when you ring back.
Benefits for the business
Time and focus
You stop breaking off from a job, a client or a meeting to answer the phone, and you return calls in one batch when it suits you.
Fewer missed calls
Callers who will not leave a voicemail will usually give their details to a person. Calls that would have rung out become messages.
Caller experience
The caller hears your business name, speaks to someone polite and is told when you will call back. That is a better first impression than an unanswered phone, and it sets an expectation you can meet.
How messages are delivered
Email, text or app
Most services send each message by email, text or their own app, and some do all three. Choose the one you actually check. A message that arrives in an app you never open is no better than a voicemail you never play. Ask whether messages can go to different people depending on the call, and whether you can search past messages.
Contents of a good message
A good message lets you call back without ringing the caller to ask what they wanted. Here is an example layout:
Example message
Caller: full name, and company if they gave one
Number: the number to call back on, read back to the caller
Reason: one or two lines in the caller's own words
Urgency: whether the caller said it was urgent, and why
Best time: when the caller said they are free
Promised: what the caller was told, for example "a call back this afternoon"
Taken: the time and date of the call
Give the service your own version of this, with any extra fields you need, such as a booking reference or postcode. For written follow-ups, our customer service email templates for ecommerce may help.
Urgent messages
Not every message can wait for your next break. Tell the service what counts as urgent for your business, such as a customer who cannot get in, a job cancelled today or a complaint, and how you want those messages sent: a call to your mobile, a text marked urgent, or a message to a second person if you do not answer. Everything else can arrive as a normal message or in a summary at the end of the day. Review the urgent list after the first few weeks, because what callers say is urgent is not always what you would choose.
Accuracy of names and numbers
One wrong digit in a phone number turns a message into a lost customer. Ask how the service checks details: does the person read the number back, spell unusual names, and confirm the email address letter by letter? Ask what happens if a caller's number is withheld.
Message taking versus voicemail and full call answering
Voicemail and answering machines
Voicemail costs nothing extra and records whatever the caller chooses to say. Many callers say nothing, or leave a message without a number. A message taking service gets the same details every time, because a person asks for them. If you choose between voicemail and automated options, our guide to AI receptionist vs human receptionist explains the difference.
When to step up to call answering and transfers
Move beyond message taking when callers regularly need something on the call itself: a booking, an answer, a quote or to speak to you now. Our guide to the best answering service for small business explains the types of service and how to choose one. If your callers are online shoppers, see what is ecommerce customer service for the wider picture.
If most of your messages come in the evening or at weekends, see our guide to the after-hours answering service.
Pricing for message taking
Entry plans and what they include
Message taking is usually a provider's cheapest plan, priced by the month with a set number of calls or minutes, or by the call. There is no reliable published average for the UK, so compare quotes on the same basis: your real number of calls in a month.
Set-up fees and extras to check
Ask about set-up fees, charges for calls over your allowance, for wrong numbers and sales calls, for sending messages by text, and for out-of-hours calls. Ask for the minimum term and notice period too.
Because a provider hears your callers' details, it handles personal data on your behalf. The ICO's guidance on what needs to be included in the contract sets out what that processor contract must cover under UK GDPR. Ask for it before you start. This is general information, not legal advice.
Message taking by a dedicated virtual receptionist
At Ant Assist, a dedicated virtual receptionist handles message taking as part of the role, alongside answering calls, booking your diary and covering chat and email between calls. You get one person, never shared with another client, who learns your callers and sends messages in the format you choose.
Your receptionist is a person, managed and supervised in Ant Assist's own office in Cairo under a UK-managed service, working UK business hours, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, with extended hours and weekend cover at additional cost. Every VA signs NDAs and data-processing agreements. The introductory rate is £5 per hour for the first 6 months on the Entry tier; after that, customer service Entry is £5.95 per hour full time or £6.50 per hour part time. Try your own hours in the calculator, and see virtual receptionist pricing UK for the full comparison. The same role sits within our customer service virtual assistant service.
Questions about call messages
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