Where to Find Work at Home Receptionist Jobs

Customers have come to expect businesses to be accessible 24 hours a day. If they have questions or issues with products or services, they expect to be able to contact the business and immediately get answers. However, being available to take customer calls around the clock just isn’t feasible for one-person shops or small businesses.

To combat this issue and always be available to help customers, many small and medium-sized businesses hire companies that specialize in virtual receptionist services. These services answer phones even when the business owner is busy or unavailable. This allows businesses to be more accessible through real-time messaging and instant communication without sacrificing the quality of their customer service.

Many companies specializing in virtual receptionist services hire people to work from home. This has become another great way to make money from home.

If you are an outgoing person and love to talk to others, a receptionist job working from home may be right up your alley. And many of these remote receptionist jobs don’t require any previous experience.

Can a Receptionist Work From Home?

Yes, many answering service companies hire receptionists to work from home. They are called virtual receptionists, and these jobs are growing in popularity. Virtual receptionists are just like regular receptionists, except they perform their jobs virtually, and they are typically taking calls for more than one company at a time.  

What Does a Virtual Receptionist Do?

As an at-home receptionist, your primary job duties are answering calls, responding to emails, taking messages, and transferring calls to different people or departments.

Virtual receptionists can also be responsible for screening calls, gathering personal information from callers, scheduling appointments, sorting electronic files, and answering general questions about the business’s service or products.

How to Become a Virtual Receptionist

There are no special education requirements to become a work-at-home receptionist other than having a high school diploma or equivalent. Most companies don’t require any previous experience, but they typically require you to have some kind of prior customer service experience. Some employers prefer applicants who have administrative experience, but most provide on-the-job training. 

Skills Needed to Become a Virtual Receptionist

To work as a virtual receptionist, you should have basic customer service skills, outstanding verbal and written communication skills, organizational skills, and have excellent time management skills. You should also have basic computer knowledge and be good at typing and keyboarding. 

Where to Find Work-at-Home Receptionist Jobs

There are a few companies that hire work-at-home receptionists. Each operation is a bit different, and they may have different names for the positions. In other words, not all of these companies call the position “virtual receptionist”, but for the most part that’s what it is, and they each hire people to answer calls for a variety of clients.

AnswerConnect  

AnswerConnect specializes in telephone answering services for businesses. 

This company hires remote professionals to work as virtual receptionists. In particular, they hire people to handle incoming calls for healthcare, legal, real estate, and insurance companies. 

AnswerConnect starts at $15 per hour, or $15.50 per hour if you’re bilingual.

AnswerFirst  

AnswerFirst Communications is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and has been in business for over 25 years. The company specializes in 24/7 answering service and inbound call center solutions. 

AnswerFirst operates a physical call center, but they also hire employees to work at home within the United States. They offer both full-time and part-time hours.

This company starts their receptionists at $15 per hour.

AnswerFone  

AnswerFone is an answering service headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. This company hires receptionists living in the United States and Canada. 

They require candidates to have a typing speed of 40 words per minute, have outstanding communication skills, and be proficient in using computers.

Their rate of pay isn’t listed and no information is listed on Glassdoor.

Back Office Betties  

Back Office Betties, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, specializes in virtual answering services for law firms. Virtual receptionists with this company must answer 100 to 140 calls per day from over 100 different law firms.  

The company doesn’t require any previous legal experience to be considered, but you must have at least two years of customer service or sales experience. 

The starting wage is $15 to $18 per hour, but at this time, they only hire in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, or Florida.

Centratel 

Centratel is a telephone answering service that has been in business since 1984 and offers the highest quality phone answering services throughout the United States. They are headquartered in Bend, Oregon.

Centratel hires receptionists living in Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas, and the pay starts at $20 per hour.

Gabbyville  

Gabbyville is an answering service provider. Unlike other answering services, this company only operates from 8:00 AM until 10:00 PM EST. 

Gabbyville does not post any job openings on their website. You must submit your resume and cover letter to express your interest.

The hourly pay for this company isn’t listed, but according to Glassdoor’s website, it starts at around $11 per hour.

Ruby 

Ruby Receptionists is a live, 24/7 virtual receptionist service. The company has three offices in the United States; however, 95% of their virtual receptionists work from home. 

This company offers both full-time and part-time hours. They require candidates to have at least two years of previous customer service experience. 

Ruby appears only to hire in six states: Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. The starting pay is $15.75 to $16.50, depending on which state you’re in. 

Smith 

Smith.ai specializes in 24/7 telephone answering services. Receptionists with this company answer telephones, live chat, and messaging platforms. 

Smith offers full-time and part-time hours, and part-time shifts are broken into two-hour to five-hour blocks.

They hire employees living all over the United States and outside the US. The starting pay for those living in the United States is $15 per hour.

Final Thoughts on Work-at-Home Receptionist Jobs

If you have excellent communication skills, are organized, and enjoy interacting with people, a career as a virtual receptionist may be perfect for you. With the ever-growing trend of businesses wanting to offer customer service around the clock, the demand for virtual receptionists is high and is expected to continue growing. 

Another excellent option for working from home as a receptionist is to freelance. Offering freelance receptionist services is a great way to work when you want and create your own rates. You can sign up through Upwork or Freelancer and offer your receptionist services.