This article looks at the diverse ways in which call answering services are priced across providers in the sector. It uses the Paperclip cost/pricing model as a base point and then explains other approaches. Whilst price is often an important factor in purchasing decisions, this article explains other factors to consider when choosing your preferred supplier of call answering services.
The Paperclip approach to pricing
Paperclip has always been transparent about its pricing, which consists of three elements:
- An initial one-off set-up charge – £99 (December 2025)
- A monthly management fee – £85 (December 2025)
- A monthly invoice for calls based on cumulative minutes used – 85p/minute (December 2025)
We have adopted this approach to pricing because we believe it is easy to understand, fair to all customers both large and small, and straightforward to administer.
This approach to pricing also mirrors how Paperclip incurs costs in delivering its call answering services:
- The set-up charge reflects the time and administration incurred in ensuring a client’s onboarding is accurate, protocols are established with regards to the greeting used, how calls are to be handled, and the outcomes desired by the client are agreed and implemented.
- The monthly management fee ensures every client contributes to covering the fixed costs incurred in maintaining the delivery of the service. Fixed costs could include, for example, maintenance of IT and telecommunications systems, office rental and maintenance, and senior management.
Paperclip uses an outsourcing business model, so all services which are not core to the delivery of professional call answering services are provided by third parties, including accounts, cleaning, and some aspects of marketing.
- The monthly invoice for calls based on cumulative minutes used reflects the variable and semi-variable direct costs incurred from delivering the call answering services. The most obvious cost in this category, and the largest cost element for any call answering service provider, is the Paperclip call handling team. As well as employment costs there is also the time spent on training the team to improve their call handling skills and understand any technical or process changes.
It should be noted at this point that Paperclip operates on a 30-day rolling contract basis. This means, effectively, that you can opt out of using Paperclip’s services at any time at minimal cost. Paperclip’s philosophy is to retain clients based on quality of service rather than a contractual straitjacket.
Whilst the factors listed above explain why and how Paperclip prices its call answering services the way it does, they do not answer the question every new client asks: ‘How much will Paperclip’s call answering services cost my business?.’
The Paperclip Quotation Generator
To answer the question, ‘How much will Paperclip’s call answering services cost my business?’, Paperclip has created its Quotation Generator (https://www.paperclip.co.uk/quotation-generator/). The Quotation Generator is free-to-use, and you can use it as many times as you like.
To generate your quote, you need to answer only two questions:
- How many calls will Paperclip be answering on your behalf each day?
- How long will the average call be in minutes?
There are basically three ways to answer the above questions:
- You may know from experience how many calls you receive in a day, and the average duration of those calls.
- Many phone systems, particularly modern VOIP systems, will be able to provide you with the data with which to answer the Quotation Generator questions.
- Paperclip offers a 14-day free call answer trial. At the end of the trial we provide a detailed call analysis report which contains valuable information regardless of whether you decide to use Paperclip’s services or not.
A decision you will need to address prior to using the Quotation Generator is whether you want Paperclip to answer all your calls, or only those calls you have been unable to answer internally after, for example, ten seconds.
Answering all calls is referred to as a ‘full divert’ and, in effect, Paperclip acts as your dedicated reception desk. Picking up unanswered calls after an agreed delay is a ‘delayed divert.’ Paperclip’s clients are split evenly cross full diverts and delayed diverts.
Alternative call answering pricing approaches
Here are just two of the alternative pricing approaches other call answering service providers adopt:
Fixed cost per call
On the surface, this approach to pricing seems straightforward. If your business receives multiple calls that are all similar in duration – i.e. where limited flexibility and initiative is needed on the part of the call handler – then it may provide a cheaper cost than the Paperclip approach.
Fixed cost per call pricing is frequently used by new market entrants to establish a foothold in the market, and it does make good marketing copy.
However, very few professional and long-established call answering service providers adopt this pricing model because its simplicity masks a number of service challenges. If you are being charged, for example, £1.50 per call this effectively means that the provider is ‘allocating’ about 1.5 minutes of call handler time to each of your calls. With fixed cost per call pricing the key driver is, therefore, to keep calls as short as possible rather than focus on achieving the outcomes agreed with the client.
All professional call handling service providers will train their call handlers in being empathetic to a caller’s needs whilst, at the same time, being quietly assertive to ensure agreed outcomes are achieved within a reasonable timeframe. Furthermore, there may be additional tasks a client wants undertaking as part of the call – updating contact details in real time on the client’s CRM, collecting specific data, diarising an appointment – which militate against fixed cost per call pricing.
Call bundling
A common variation on the fixed cost per call pricing approach is ‘call bundling.’ With call bundling you sign up for a minimum number of calls per month, e.g. 100 calls, at a fixed price.
There are two questions you need to ask yourself before signing up to a ‘call bundling deal’ (in the scenario below we have used a 100-calls per month call bundle as our example):
- What happens if less than 100 calls are answered?
- What happens if more than 100 calls are answered?
Typically, if less than l00 calls are answered the average cost per call increases. For example if your are paying £2/call for a 100-call bundle your monthly bill is £200. If, instead of 100 calls answered you only have 50 calls answered, the average cost per call increases to £200/50 which is £4/call,
If more than 100 calls are answered, the provider will typically have a ‘cost per call’ for ant surplus calls. This is often at a significantly higher price than the bundle. If you regularly receive over 100 calls per month you may then decide to switch to a larger bundle, e.g. 200 calls per month. See the above paragraph for the potential pitfalls in receiving only 150 calls at the 200-call bundle rate.
Other
Other approaches to pricing include ad-hoc negotiated rates and PAYG (pas-as-you-go) pricing.
There is more to choosing a call answering provider than price
The Paperclip call answering mantra is ‘Professional. Tailored, Affordable’. Of these, only the ‘affordable’ relates to price.
Here are just some of the non-price factors to take into consideration when choosing a call answering services provider.
Experience
You want to know your chosen provider has experience and resilience.
How long has the call answering company been in business? Am I contracting with a business that has proven that it can operate through recessions and Covid, for example?
Sector
In certain sectors – e.g. law firms, estate agents, healthcare, trades, IT firms – it is advisable to choose a provider with experience of answering calls in that sector. This may be because of the sector-specific language used; the understanding of the management software packages used in the sector; ability to start answering calls effectively immediately; …and so on.
Adaptability
Will you want your chosen provider to simply answer calls, take a message or transfer, or do your preferred outcomes require more complex involvement such as, for example, managing appointments/diaries, updating databases, collecting information from callers and so on?
Culture
This is a difficult factor to explain on the page, but we all recognise it when we experience it. It can be summarised as: is the chosen provider a good fit with our business? Do we share a similar ethos to customer (caller) service? Is the provider approachable? Is it easy to modify call protocols?
Flexibility
Will you require your provider to undertake additional tasks over and above call answering from time to time? At Paperclip, for example, we make outbound calls on behalf of clients, as well as providing a range of admin support services.
In conclusion
If you are considering using call answering services for the first time, make sure you fully understand the pricing approach being adopted by different providers. At Paperclip, we focus on a ‘no surprises’ approach, which is valued by our clients.
If you are still unsure, consider the free Paperclip 14-day call answering trial to check out whether call answering can help your business improve customer service and ensure you never miss another sales call.
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Hi, I’m Louise Bellwood, Director at Paperclip. I am responsible for delivering Paperclip’s customer service and growth strategies for 2024 and beyond, I am a crusader for the benefits call answering can deliver for organisations of all kinds; customer service, sales generation, customer retention and more. If you have a question about call answering – pricing, set-up, benefits – I would love to hear from you at louise@paperclip.co.uk or 01246 418 181.