A receptionist is a good hire when you have enough work to keep one busy. Most trades and small service businesses do not, and that is where the maths stops working.
Joe is answering as Sunshine Plumbing & Gas, a fictional business on the Sunshine Coast. Call or text her like a real customer would, then compare that to what the alternative gives you.
+61 485 067 607No registration. Real Joe. Real responses.
A full time receptionist in Australia sits somewhere around the high fifties to mid sixties in salary, before you add superannuation, leave loading, workers compensation, a desk, a phone and payroll admin. Call it well over $70,000 a year all in.
For that you get roughly 38 hours a week of coverage. Your customers do not only ring inside those hours. Emergency plumbing, a broken air conditioner in February, a car that will not start on a Sunday. Those calls land outside business hours and go to voicemail.
Then there is annual leave, sick days, training, and the day they resign and you start the whole process again.
This is not an argument that people are worthless. It is an argument that most solo operators and small crews cannot justify a full time hire, so their phone goes unanswered instead. $150 a month is a decision you can make this afternoon.
| Hiring a receptionist | Workbench | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Roughly $70,000 a year all up once super, leave and on-costs are counted. | $1,800 a year, plus $400 once-off setup. |
| Hours covered | About 38 a week. | All 168. |
| Nights and weekends | Overtime, or nobody. | Included. |
| Annual leave and sick days | You cover the phone yourself. | Does not apply. |
| Ramp up time | Weeks of training on your services and pricing. | Same-day setup. We do it with you. |
| Handles texts | Only if they are sitting at the desk. | Yes, on the same number as calls. |
| Consistency | Varies with the day they are having. | Same questions asked every time. |
| Scales with call volume | Second hire. | Same price. |
| Turnover risk | Real. Reception is a high churn role. | None. |
| Xero invoicing | Manual data entry. | Accepted quotes become draft invoices automatically. |
| Commitment | Employment contract, notice period, obligations. | Month to month, no lock-in. |
If your phone is busy enough to keep a person occupied all day and the work is genuinely relational, hire the person. If you are a solo operator or a small crew whose phone rings twenty times a day and rings out half of those, a wage is not the answer and never was.
One price, everything included. Compare it to whatever you are paying now.
Run Workbench for a month. If Joe hasn't caught you at least one job you would have missed, tell us and you don't pay for that month. No forms, no argument.
Prices in AUD. GST not yet applicable.