Call handling service: key facts
- Call handling goes further than message taking: the agent completes the task on the call (an order, a booking, a delivery update) where your instructions and systems allow it.
- Most of the work is in the brief: call flows for each type of call, a knowledge base the agents can search, and a clear list of what must be passed back to your team.
- Agree service levels in writing, with definitions. An answer-time target or abandoned-call rate means little until both sides agree exactly how it's measured.
- System access should be the minimum needed: individual logins, only the screens and actions the agents need, and a way to switch access off quickly.
- Taking orders by phone is distance selling. GOV.UK says the customer must be given certain information before ordering, including the full price, delivery arrangements and their right to cancel.
- Peaks need notice. Tell the provider about campaigns, launches and seasonal rushes early, so they can plan staffing and update the knowledge base.
- Check quality, not just speed. Ask for call recordings or samples, scoring against your standards, and a routine for fixing errors.
- A team handling your customers' details is normally your data processor, so UK GDPR requires a written contract with the terms set out in Article 28.
What is a call handling service, and how is it different from message taking?
A call handling service answers your inbound calls in your business name and resolves as many as it can on the spot, following your call flows and using your systems. A message-taking service records who called and why, and passes everything back to you to deal with.
The two are often sold under the same name, so it helps to be clear which you're buying.
| Message taking | Call handling | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical caller | A client wanting a named person, a new enquiry, a supplier | A customer with an order, booking or service question |
| What the agent does | Takes the details and tells the caller when they'll hear back | Looks up the account, answers the question or completes the task, and logs the outcome |
| What you need to provide | A greeting, a contact list and simple routing rules | Call flows, a knowledge base, system access, and rules on refunds, exceptions and escalation |
| What comes back to you | A message for every call | A record of every call, plus only the cases the team couldn't or shouldn't resolve |
| Set-up effort | Low | Higher, and it keeps needing updates as your products and policies change |
If most of your calls need someone with professional judgement (a solicitor, an accountant, an engineer), message taking is usually the right fit, and our solicitors and accountants guides cover that. Call handling fits when a large share of calls are repeat patterns: "Where's my order?", "Can I move my booking?", "Do you have this in stock?", "How do I return this?"
What can an outsourced call handling team actually do?
With the right brief and access, a call handling team can take orders, make and change bookings, give delivery and order updates, answer product and policy questions, log returns and faults, and take payments by a secure method. Anything outside your written rules should be passed back to your team.
Start by sorting your calls into types. A few weeks of call notes, or simply asking whoever answers the phone now, usually shows a handful of types make up most of the work. For each type, decide whether the outsourced team can finish it or should hand it back.
| Call type | What the team can usually do | What they need from you |
|---|---|---|
| New orders | Take the order, confirm price and delivery, give the information the customer must have before ordering | Order system access, price list, delivery options, payment method, your terms |
| "Where's my order?" | Look up the order and tracking, explain the status, log a chase if it's late | Read access to orders and courier tracking, your rules on when to open a claim |
| Bookings | Book, move or cancel appointments, tables, classes or visits; send confirmations | Booking system access, cancellation and deposit rules, any capacity limits |
| Product and policy questions | Answer from your knowledge base: sizes, stock, opening times, warranty, returns policy | An up-to-date, searchable knowledge base and a named owner who keeps it current |
| Returns and faults | Log the return or fault, give the return instructions, issue a returns reference | Your returns process, what evidence to ask for, when to escalate |
| Complaints | Listen, record the details accurately, apologise where your script allows, and pass to your team | Your complaints process and who owns each type of complaint |
| Refunds, discounts and exceptions | Only within limits you set in writing; otherwise pass back | A clear limit (for example "goodwill credit only for late delivery, never refunds") and an approver |
What service levels should you agree with a call handling provider?
Agree a small number of measures, each with a written definition: how quickly calls are answered, how many callers hang up before being answered, how long calls take, how many are resolved without being passed back, and how quickly hand-backs reach you. Decide the targets based on your own customers rather than industry rules of thumb.
Service levels are only useful if both sides measure them the same way. Here are the terms you'll meet, what they mean, and the questions to settle before you agree a number.
| Term | What it means | Questions to agree |
|---|---|---|
| Service level (answer time) | The share of calls answered by a person within a set number of seconds, written as "X% in Y seconds" | Does the clock start when the call reaches the provider, or after any recorded greeting or menu? Is it measured per day, per week or per month? |
| Average speed of answer | The average time callers wait before a person picks up | Averages hide bad hours. Ask to see it by hour of the day as well. |
| Abandoned calls | Calls where the caller hangs up before anyone answers, usually shown as a percentage of calls offered | Are very short calls (a few seconds, often wrong numbers) excluded? Over what threshold? Is it reported by hour? |
| Average handling time | Talk time plus any hold time plus the after-call work of logging the outcome | Is after-call work included? Useful for planning and costs, but a poor quality target on its own because it rewards rushing. |
| Resolved on the call | Calls fully dealt with by the outsourced team without being passed back to you | Who decides what counts as resolved? How is a repeat call about the same issue counted? |
| Hand-back time | How quickly cases that need your team reach you after the call ends | By which route (email, helpdesk ticket, CRM task), and does it differ for urgent cases? |
| Accuracy | How often orders, bookings and notes are correct, judged on a sample | Who checks, how many calls are sampled, and what counts as an error? |
There's no single right target for any of these. A high-value order line and a "where's my parcel?" line justify different answer times, and tighter targets usually need more staff on the provider's side, which can affect cost. Ask the provider what they can realistically commit to for your call pattern, and what happens if they miss it: a review meeting, a service credit, or a right to end the contract.
How do you brief a call handling team: scripts, call flows and a knowledge base?
Give the team a short call flow for each type of call (questions to ask, actions to take, what to tell the caller, when to hand back), plus a searchable knowledge base for facts like products, prices and policies. Keep both owned by a named person in your business and update them before anything changes.
Scripts word-for-word rarely work for customer service calls, because customers don't follow them. A call flow works better: a sequence of checks and decisions the agent follows, with set wording only where it matters (greeting, legal information, data protection, closing).
- Identify the caller. What to ask to find the right order, booking or account, and what security checks to do before discussing it or making changes.
- Find out the reason for the call and match it to a call type.
- Follow that call type's steps. For example: look up the order, check the courier status, if it's more than a set number of days late open a chase, tell the customer what happens next.
- Know the limits. What the agent can offer, and the point at which they must stop and pass the case back.
- Close and log. Confirm what's been done, give any reference number, and record the outcome in the agreed place.
Example: delivery question
"Thanks for calling Northfield Garden Supplies, this is Priya. Can I take your order number or the postcode it's going to? ... I can see that went out yesterday with the courier and it's showing as due tomorrow. I'll send you the tracking link by email now. Is there anything else I can help with?"
Example: outside the agent's limits
"I'm not able to agree a refund on this call, but I've written down everything you've told me and passed it to our customer team, who handle refunds. They'll be in touch by email. Your reference is ..."
Example: what not to say
Avoid "That'll definitely arrive tomorrow" or "I'm sure we can refund that". The agent can only report what the system shows and what your rules allow.
What goes in the knowledge base
- Products or services, with the details customers ask about most
- Prices, delivery options and charges, and opening or service hours
- Returns, cancellation, warranty and complaints policies in plain words
- Current promotions and their terms, with start and end dates
- Known problems (a delayed product, a system outage) and the agreed wording
- Who to hand back to, for each type of case
If you take orders by phone, the call flow has to cover more than the sale. GOV.UK says that for distance selling, including by phone, the customer must be given certain information before they order, such as your business details, the price including taxes, how they can pay, delivery arrangements, and how and when they can cancel. In most cases they must also be told they can cancel up to 14 days after delivery without giving a reason. Some sales are exempt, so check the GOV.UK guidance against what you sell and build the required wording into the call flow and the confirmation email.
Should a call handling team have access to your systems?
Usually yes, because they can't resolve calls without seeing orders, bookings or accounts. Give each agent their own login, only the access each call type needs, and make sure access can be removed quickly when someone leaves or the contract ends.
Without access, the team can only take messages, which defeats the point. With too much access, you take on risk you don't need. Work through it system by system.
- Order or e-commerce platform: often read access plus the ability to add notes, with order creation only if they're taking orders.
- Booking system: create, move and cancel bookings, within your rules on deposits and notice.
- CRM or helpdesk: so every call is logged in the same place as your own team's emails and chats, and hand-backs arrive as tickets rather than separate emails.
- Courier and tracking portals: read access to check delivery status.
- Payments: ideally none directly. Use a secure link or keypad method so card numbers don't pass through the agent.
Some practical points to agree:
- Individual logins, not a shared one, so you can see who did what and remove one person's access without affecting the rest.
- A process for joiners and leavers on the provider's side, and a contact who tells you when someone leaves.
- What happens if your system goes down. A fallback such as taking details for a call-back, with agreed wording for callers.
- Licence costs. Some platforms charge per user, which affects your costs as well as the provider's.
The provider will see and record your customers' personal data, and call recordings are personal data too. That normally makes the provider your processor under UK GDPR, and you need a written contract containing the terms required by Article 28. The ICO's guidance on controller and processor contracts sets out what to include.
How does a call handling service cope with peaks and campaigns?
By planning ahead with you. Share your calendar of sales, launches, mailings and seasonal rushes, give an estimate of extra calls where you can, and update the knowledge base before the peak starts. Agree in advance what happens to service levels and charges when volumes jump.
Call volumes in customer-facing businesses are rarely flat. Common causes of a spike include:
- A sale, discount code or promotional email going out
- A product launch, a TV or radio slot, or a social media post doing well
- Seasonal patterns: Christmas ordering, January returns, summer bookings, back to school
- Something going wrong: a courier delay, bad weather, a website outage, a product recall
The planned ones can be prepared for. Agree a simple routine:
- Share a calendar of known campaigns and seasonal dates as far ahead as you can.
- Give a rough forecast. Even "we expect roughly double a normal Monday" helps the provider plan staffing. Use your own past call data if you have it.
- Brief before go-live. Send the offer terms, dates, codes and likely questions so the knowledge base is ready on day one.
- Agree what changes at peak. Will service-level targets still apply? Are there extra charges for calls over a set volume? Can some call types be moved to a call-back to protect answer times?
- Review afterwards. Look at answer times, abandoned calls and the questions that came up, and feed them into the next campaign.
For unplanned spikes, agree a fast way to tell the provider what's happening and approve a holding message, for example: "We know some deliveries in the North East are delayed today because of the weather; here's what we're doing." A short, consistent message helps agents answer quickly and keeps callers informed.
What reporting should you get from a call handling service?
Ask for call volumes by hour and day, answer times and abandoned calls against your agreed definitions, handling times, the share resolved on the call, a breakdown by call type, and a list of everything handed back. Reports should help you fix the causes of calls, not just count them.
Agree the reports at the start, along with how often they arrive and who receives them. A useful set looks like this:
| Report | Why it's useful |
|---|---|
| Calls offered, answered and abandoned, by hour and day | Shows when demand peaks and whether staffing matches it |
| Service level and average speed of answer | Checks the provider against what was agreed, using the agreed definitions |
| Average handling time by call type | Highlights call types that are slow because the process or knowledge base is unclear |
| Calls by reason | Tells you why customers are ringing, which often points to fixes on your side (a confusing email, a missing FAQ, a slow courier) |
| Resolved on the call vs handed back | Shows whether the team has enough access and authority, or whether more could be handled |
| Hand-back log | Every case passed to your team, with time sent and whether it's been picked up |
| Quality scores and complaints about the service | Shows whether speed is being achieved at the expense of accuracy |
Ask whether you can see live figures through a dashboard as well as receiving periodic reports, and whether you can download the raw call data to check the figures yourself.
The "calls by reason" report is often the most valuable. If a large share of calls are about the same thing, fixing the cause (a clearer dispatch email, a tracking link in the confirmation, a better returns page) can reduce calls more than any change to the phone service.
How do you check the quality of outsourced call handling?
Listen to a regular sample of calls, score them against a short checklist you agree with the provider, check a sample of orders and bookings for accuracy, and hold a routine review to fix problems. Speed figures alone won't tell you whether customers are being treated well.
Agree a simple quality checklist with the provider, then both sides score calls against it. Typical points:
- Greeting in your business name, and the agent's name given
- Correct security checks before account details are discussed or changed
- Right call flow followed, and accurate information given
- Required information given on order calls, including cancellation rights where they apply
- No promises outside your rules, and no advice the agent isn't authorised to give
- Tone: polite, patient, and clear about what happens next
- Outcome logged correctly, with any hand-back sent to the right place
Other checks worth building in:
- Accuracy sampling. Pick a set of orders, bookings and returns logged by the team and check them against the call.
- Test calls. Ring in yourself, or ask a colleague to, with a few realistic scenarios, including awkward ones.
- Calibration. Every so often, score the same calls separately with the provider's quality lead and compare, so you're judging calls the same way.
- Customer feedback. Look at complaints, reviews and any post-call surveys that mention the phone line.
- A regular review meeting to go through results, update call flows and the knowledge base, and agree actions.
Ask how call recordings are stored, who can access them and how long they're kept, and make sure this matches what you tell callers and your privacy notice.
What should you ask a call handling provider before signing up?
Ask how they'll learn your business, who will answer your calls, how they work in your systems, which service levels they'll commit to and how they're measured, how they handle peaks, what reporting and quality checks you'll get, how data is protected, and how charges and notice work.
- Onboarding: how long does set-up take, who writes the call flows, and how do you test before going live?
- Team: will a dedicated or regular group of agents handle my calls, or a wider shared team? How are new agents trained on my business?
- Systems: can you work in my order, booking, CRM or helpdesk system? Do agents get individual logins?
- Service levels: which measures will you commit to, how exactly is each one defined, and what happens if you miss them?
- Peaks: how much notice do you need for a campaign, how do you staff for it, and do peak calls cost more?
- Reporting: what reports come as standard, how often, and can I see live figures and raw data?
- Quality: how are calls checked, can I hear recordings, and how are errors fixed?
- Payments: how are card payments taken so that agents don't handle card numbers?
- Data protection: will you sign a UK GDPR processor contract? Where is data stored, and how long are recordings kept?
- Hours: which hours are covered, and are weekends and bank holidays included?
- Charges and contract: how calls are counted and billed, what's included in set-up, and the minimum term and notice period.
If you're still deciding whether to outsource at all, our guide to a virtual receptionist vs hiring a receptionist sets out the cost of employing someone. If your main gap is evenings and weekends, see out of hours call answering.
Related guides
Call handling service: frequently asked questions
What is a call handling service?
It's an outsourced team that answers your inbound calls in your business name and deals with them, using your call flows, knowledge base and systems. Unlike a basic message-taking service, the aim is to resolve routine calls on the spot, such as orders, bookings and delivery questions, and pass back only what your team needs to handle.
What's the difference between call handling and call answering?
The terms overlap and providers use them differently. Broadly, call answering often means taking messages and routing calls, while call handling means completing the caller's task on the call. Ask any provider exactly what their agents will do with each type of call.
What types of calls can be outsourced?
Calls that follow a pattern are the easiest to outsource: new orders, order and delivery updates, bookings and changes, product and policy questions, returns and fault logging. Calls that need professional judgement, or decisions outside written rules such as refunds above a limit, are usually passed back to your team.
What service levels should I agree?
Usually answer time, abandoned calls, handling time, the share of calls resolved without hand-back, and how quickly hand-backs reach you. The important part is agreeing exactly how each is defined and measured. Set targets based on your own customers and call pattern, and agree what happens if they're missed.
What is an abandoned call?
A call where the caller hangs up before anyone answers. It's usually reported as a percentage of calls offered. Check whether very short calls are excluded and whether the figure is reported by hour, as a monthly average can hide busy periods.
Does the call handling team need access to my systems?
Usually, yes, because they can't resolve calls without seeing orders, bookings or accounts. Give each agent an individual login with only the access needed, keep card payments out of the agents' hands with a secure method, and make sure access can be removed quickly.
Can a call handling service take orders over the phone?
Yes, if you give them access and a clear call flow. Phone orders count as distance selling, so GOV.UK says the customer must be given certain information before ordering, including the price, delivery arrangements and how to cancel. Build the required wording into the call flow and check the guidance against what you sell.
How does a call handling service cope with busy periods?
By planning with you. Share dates of sales, launches and seasonal rushes in advance, give a rough estimate of extra calls, and update the knowledge base before the peak. Agree beforehand whether service-level targets still apply and whether extra calls cost more.
What reports should I expect?
Typically call volumes by hour and day, answer times, abandoned calls, handling times, calls by reason, the share resolved on the call, and a log of hand-backs. Ask whether you can see live figures and download the raw data.
Do I need a contract covering data protection?
Normally yes. A provider handling your customers' details and call recordings is usually your processor under UK GDPR, and Article 28 requires a written contract with specific terms. The ICO publishes guidance on what it must contain.
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources on 11 November 2026: