Whatever the trade and whatever the tier, buying one of these comes down to the same short list. Two numbers determine the bill and three terms determine whether the service does what you imagined. Everything else on a provider's website is elaboration, and a buyer who settles these five things can compare any two providers in this market properly.
The two numbers
The monthly plan, and the rate for going past what it includes. The plan is always advertised; the rate is published by five of the nine providers checked here and withheld by four. Published rates run from a dollar fifty four to two dollars ninety nine a minute, and seven and eleven dollars fifty a call. Because inclusions range from nothing at all to fifty minutes or fifty calls, the plan on its own ranks providers in an order that has almost no relationship to what you will actually pay.
Term one: the hours
The advertised tier is normally business hours. Evening, overnight, weekend and public holiday cover are variously a higher tier, a surcharge, or excluded, and pricing pages rarely say which. Since out-of-hours cover is the most common reason for buying at all, quote it first and treat daytime answering as the addition. Ask specifically about public holidays, which is the least advertised term in this market.
Term two: the transfer policy
When an operator reaches you, does the time spent getting there bill to your minutes, including the ringing, and does a failed attempt bill at all. Providers differ, none advertise it, and over a month of live transfers this moves the invoice more than the difference between two plans does. It matters most for anyone whose people are not at a desk.
Term three: what setup costs and what it buys
A greeting is free everywhere. A script that qualifies, routes on answers, or works from your systems is work, and providers variously include it, bill it once, or restrict it to higher tiers. Ask what the script may contain at the quoted price and what it would cost to add the branch you actually need. Settle these five things and any two providers here become genuinely comparable; leave them and the comparison is between five different products wearing one name.
Questions people ask about telephone answering service
What does a telephone answering service cost?
Advertised entry plans in this record run from twenty five to three hundred and ninety nine dollars a month, median sixty five. The plan is only half the price: five of the nine providers also publish a rate for going past the inclusion, from a dollar fifty four a minute upward.
What are the terms that actually matter?
The hours the plan covers, whether transfer time and failed attempts bill to your minutes, and what a script may contain before setup is charged. None of the three is usually on a pricing page and all three move the bill.
Why can I not just compare the monthly prices?
Because the inclusions range from nothing at all to fifty minutes or fifty calls, so the advertised figures are not buying the same quantity. Converting to your own volume usually reorders the providers entirely.
Which providers publish enough to compare?
Five of the nine here publish both a plan and a rate. The other four publish a plan and no rate, which means their bill cannot be modelled from public information and has to be asked for directly.