The Cost Of An In-House Receptionist By State: What You Need to Know

If you’re looking to improve your support options, you might be considering hiring an in-house receptionist. After all, if you don’t have someone to answer your phones, you’re missing 67% of potential customers. But exactly how much will a receptionist cost you? We ran the numbers with data from Indeed, and found out the hourly average rate of receptionists per state.

Receptionist salary data by state:

• Washington had the highest average hourly rate at $15.07 per hour
• Alabama had the lowest average hourly rate at $10.80 an hour
• High cost salaries for receptionists are concentrated on both the East Coast and West Coast
• Texas and Wisconsin had the median average salary, coming in at $12.25/hour

So, what does this mean for your business?

It might not seem like a substantial cost (depending on your location), but it’s going to add up, fast. Let’s run the numbers with the lowest cost state, Alabama. $10.80 ends up being $1,728 a month. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? That ends up being $20,736 a year. But wait- we need to factor in other costs. Let’s talk insurance. People Keep shared these numbers for an average cost of insurance:

• $5,179 annually (83 percent of the premium) to cover a single employee
• $12,591 annually (72 percent of the premium) to cover a family

Now, we need to think about vacation policy and sick leave. What about retirement contributions? Health saving accounts? Paid holidays? The simple costs of having one more person in the building, if you have a brick and mortar location add up.There’s more. The U.S has the second-highest Spanish speaking population in the world, and those numbers are only going up. Your business needs to offer bilingual answering services to remain competitive. This, however, will cost you. Salary.com reports that bilingual people make 5-20% more per hour than the base rate of an office position. You’re looking at a lot more than just that 20K annually, especially if you’re in a state with a higher cost than Alabama.

Is an in-house receptionist worth it?

If you want the best service for your customers, this might be a cost you’re willing to pay, right?Unfortunately, an in-house receptionist will only be available during your office hours. After-hours callers are going to get voicemail, despite your efforts to reach every lead. An in-house receptionist also isn’t scalable. If you receive a high volume of callers only during peak hours, they’re not going to be able to handle it as one person. This also means during non-peak hours, they will have a lot of downtime. If you’re wondering how exactly the benefits and cons break down, check out our guide here: Find the Best Type of Receptionists For Your Business

So, what’s the takeaway?

Find a virtual receptionist. Virtual receptionists will take your calls as they come in, and since multiple agents work at a time, your callers won’t ever get stuck in a queue during high volume periods. When doing your research on virtual receptionists here are some questions to ask: do they offer 24/7 coverage? How are their agents trained? Does it cost extra for call transferring or appointment scheduling? Even the best services are about 1/10 the cost of the average in-house receptionist. NexaProfessional virtual receptionists can do it all. 24/7/365 bilingual call answering plus we’re 100% based in the U.S, and can schedule appointments and integrate with your CRM in addition to taking calls and messages. Better yet, the price stays the same, no matter your location. Nexa receptionists are priced based on volume, the more minutes you use, the lower your price per minute.

You need a service that works as hard as you do.

Nexa can help. Contact our team at team.sales@nexa.com to get a free quote, and enjoy a 21-day trial, no strings attached. We work with you month to month; you’ll never sign a contract with Nexa.