Glossary
Outsourced reception glossary
The terms that come up when a freelancer or a garage looks for someone to answer the phone, explained in a sentence and without jargon. Each definition has its own link.
- Outsourced reception
- A service in which an external company answers a business's calls, messages and emails in its name, on its terms and with its diary. Recepciona is an outsourced reception service for freelancers and small businesses in Spain.
- Also known as: subcontracted reception, reception outsourcing
- Virtual receptionist
- A person or team that answers a business's phone remotely, as a receptionist at the counter would, without being physically on site. Unlike an answering machine, it informs, resolves and books appointments.
- Also known as: virtual assistant, phone answering service
- Virtual switchboard
- A cloud phone system that routes calls: menus, queues, forwarding and extensions. A switchboard distributes calls; it doesn't answer them. Recepciona can work with or without a switchboard, because what it provides is the answering, not the routing.
- Answering machine or voicemail
- A recording that plays when nobody answers and lets the caller leave a message. It is the cheapest alternative to reception and the one that loses the most customers: someone looking for a service who reaches voicemail usually calls the next name.
- Business profile
- The document Recepciona prepares with each client and uses to answer in their name: services, guide prices, hours, diary slots, tone and rules on what is decided without asking and what isn't.
- Call forwarding
- A carrier setting that sends calls from one number to another. Unconditional forwarding sends them all; conditional forwarding only those that aren't answered or when the line is busy. It is the usual way to connect a business to Recepciona without changing number.
- Also known as: unconditional forwarding, conditional forwarding
- Enquiry
- The unit Recepciona uses to measure work: a call, a WhatsApp message, an email or an insurer request handled and logged. The Essential plan includes up to 150 enquiries a month; the Complete plan has no limit.
- Insurer platforms
- Web systems where insurance companies and fleets post repair requests for garages, with response deadlines and required documents. Recepciona monitors them, logs each request and alerts you to deadlines and missing documents.
- Also known as: claims portals, fleet platforms
- After-sales
- Communication with the customer after the service: job-ready notification, answering questions, following up pending quotes and requesting a review. Included in Recepciona's Complete plan.
- Data processor
- A role under the General Data Protection Regulation (Article 28) for whoever processes personal data on behalf of the controller. When Recepciona serves a business's customers, the business is the controller and Recepciona the processor, with a contract setting this out in writing.
- Voice cloning
- An artificial intelligence technique that reproduces a person's voice from a few minutes of recording. At Recepciona it is used, with express consent, so that notifications, confirmations and reminders reach the customer in the voice of the owner or their team.
- API
- A set of rules that lets two programs exchange information automatically. The Recepciona API sends every enquiry (contact, request, appointment) to the business's management software with nobody having to copy it by hand.
- Also known as: programming interface, integration
- Programa Taller
- AI-powered management software for mechanical workshops: quotes, Verifactu invoicing, accounting, diary and customer communication. Recepciona integrates with it natively: every enquiry goes in with its customer, vehicle and appointment.
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Last updated: · Content reviewed by the Recepciona team