Comparison
Ella vs hiring a receptionist
A receptionist costs £28k - £40k a year fully loaded and covers one site, eight hours a day. Ella covers every site, 24/7, for a fraction of the cost - and most customers redeploy their reception time to higher-value work rather than replacing it.
Side by side
Total cost of ownership, head to head
Like-for-like across cost, coverage, consistency and where the human still wins.
| Feature | Ella Virtual Assistant | In-house receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost (typical) Salary plus NI, pension, cover, training and equipment. | ~ £1,500 - £6,000 | ~ £28,000 - £40,000 |
| Coverage | 24/7/365 | Office hours, minus leave / sickness |
| Capacity at peak | Unlimited concurrent calls | One call at a time |
| Consistency of greeting | Identical every call | Varies by mood, day, person |
| Multi-site coverage | Yes | Requires receptionist per site |
| Routine enquiries handled end-to-end | Yes | Yes, but consumes their day |
| Captures structured CRM data | Yes | Manual entry, error-prone |
| Holiday / sickness cover | Not applicable | Temp agencies or team backfill |
| Soft skills (VIP greeting, complaints) Humans still win for emotional or VIP-facing reception. | Partial | Yes |
| Identifies returning callers | Yes | Depends on memory |
| Scales for a campaign launch | Yes | No |
Where Ella replaces reception
Best fit for replacement
- Single-site operations where reception is a cost-line not a relationship-line
- Out-of-hours and overnight cover for trades, services and on-call teams
- Multi-site rollouts where headcount per site doesn't scale
- Inbound enquiry funnels (sales, lettings, bookings)
Where humans still win
Keep the human on payroll when...
- VIP / executive reception with high relationship value
- Visitor management on a busy office site
- Regulated industries where every call must be human from word one
- Customer-success roles where 'reception' is a misnomer for relationship management
FAQs
Common questions
Talk to a UK technology partner who's done this for 20 years
Book a practical, no-pressure consultation. We'll review your current setup, show where AI communications, cloud telephony or managed IT could improve customer experience and reduce admin - and tell you straight if you don't need us.
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- Honest recommendations - even if it's not us
- Practical AI where it adds value, not hype
