Phone orders and quotes taken accurately

AssistBPO's order taking service puts a named, employed order desk agent on your phone line who takes orders, builds quotes and answers order-status calls inside your own store, ERP or job system. Callers get the right SKU, the right price and a confirmation the same call, and your warehouse or kitchen gets an order it can pick from.

  • Named assistant plus backup
  • Your hours
  • Employed, screened, managed
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What is an order taking service?

An order taking service is a staffed phone desk that takes customer orders, quotes and reorders, enters them in the business's order or point-of-sale system, confirms price, quantity and delivery details, and answers where-is-my-order calls. It suits wholesalers, restaurants, parts suppliers and any business whose customers like to phone. AssistBPO staffs it with a dedicated agent who learns your catalog.

· Reviewed by Issabela Masters

  1. Order taking: what we do and how it runs

    An order taking service is a staffed phone desk that takes customer orders, quotes and reorders, enters them in the business's order or point-of-sale system, confirms price, quantity and delivery details, and answers where-is-my-order calls. It suits wholesalers, restaurants, parts suppliers and any business whose customers like to phone. AssistBPO staffs it with a dedicated agent who learns your catalog.

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  2. What it is

    An order taking service is a staffed phone desk that takes customer orders, quotes and reorders, enters them in the business's order or point-of-sale system, confirms price, quantity and delivery details, and answers where-is-my-order calls. It suits wholesalers, restaurants, parts suppliers and any business whose customers like to phone. AssistBPO staffs it with a dedicated agent who learns your catalog.

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  3. What you get

    Phone orders and quotes entered in your store, ERP or job system

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  4. How it runs

    Order-status, delivery and stock questions answered from live data

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  5. Match

    The discovery call covers your catalog size, order volume by hour, the systems orders live in, your price rules and your delivery promises. Within 72 hours we propose a named agent with order-desk or retail experience and a head for product codes, plus a trained backup.

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  6. A named assistant, a backup and a team lead

    In your hours, inside your tools, with a reply from a person within 1 business day. Call +1-657-777-0006 or ask for a staffing plan.

    Get a staffing plan 06 / 06
Self-playing walkthrough built from this page's copy, about 36 seconds. Static storyboard under reduced motion; every scene is readable without pressing play.

Who is the order taking desk for?

Wholesalers and distributors
Trade customers who phone in weekly orders get an agent who knows their account, their usual lines and their price list, and enters the order ready to pick.
Restaurants, caterers and food producers
Phone orders, catering quotes and large pre-orders taken accurately during the rush, with allergens and pickup times confirmed.
E-commerce and retail with phone customers
Older or trade customers who prefer to call are served from the same Shopify or WooCommerce store, with order status looked up live.
Parts, supplies and building materials
Contractors calling from site get part numbers checked, stock confirmed and a quote emailed while they are still on the line.

What does the order taking service include?

These 12 tasks are what AssistBPO's order taking desk handles as standard for a business that lives on its phones.

  • Phone orders entered in Shopify, WooCommerce, QuickBooks or your ERP
  • Quotes built from your price list and emailed within the call
  • Reorders from account history for returning customers
  • Stock, lead-time and delivery-window checks from your system
  • Order-status and where-is-my-order calls answered from live tracking
  • Payment taken through your portal or link, never over the phone
  • Order changes and cancellations handled by your cut-off rules
  • Cross-sell prompts you approve, such as consumables with equipment
  • Order confirmation sent by email or text after every call
  • Callback to customers with a query on their order, with lawful consent
  • Daily order log with value, source and any exceptions
  • Monthly QA scorecard on order accuracy and call handling

Deliverables and KPIs

AssistBPO reports 6 measures on the order taking desk: what lands on your desk, what we count, and how often you see the number.

DeliverableKPI we reportCadence
Orders enteredOrders per day, order accuracy on auditDaily
Quotes issuedQuotes sent during the call, quote-to-order rateDaily and weekly
Order-status calls resolvedResolved on first call without a transferDaily
Order value capturedPhone order value, average order value, approved add-onsWeekly review
Exceptions flaggedOut-of-stock, credit-hold and address issues raised to youPer order
QA scorecardAccuracy, product knowledge, toneMonthly

KPIs are what we measure and report, agreed per engagement in the weekly review. Service-level commitments are set in your agreement, not on this page.

How does the order taking desk work?

  1. Match

    The discovery call covers your catalog size, order volume by hour, the systems orders live in, your price rules and your delivery promises. Within 72 hours we propose a named agent with order-desk or retail experience and a head for product codes, plus a trained backup.

  2. Onboard

    We build a product sheet with your top 100 lines, substitutions and common questions, document the order process step by step in your system, and set the payment rule: portal, link or transfer. The agent practices on test orders in a sandbox or a flagged test account before taking a live call.

  3. Daily rhythm

    The agent opens the shift with yesterday's exceptions and any stock alerts, takes orders and quotes through your hours, answers status calls from live tracking and sends confirmations. The end-of-day report lists every order and quote with value, customer and any exception waiting on you.

  4. Weekly review

    Twenty minutes with the team lead on order volume by hour, quote conversion, accuracy errors found, products callers asked for that you do not stock and next week's promotions. Each month a sample of orders is audited against the recording on the QA scorecard.

Hours, coverage and models

AssistBPO staffs the order taking desk on 4 models. US Eastern to Pacific, UK and Australian Eastern hours from the group's two offices. Spanish or French order taking is available on request.

  • Dedicated order desk agent, 80 or 160 hours a month, in your hours
  • Peak-hour desk for the lunch or morning rush, priced per order
  • Order desk plus general phone answering combined for smaller firms
  • Weekend and evening order line as an add-on

See what is staffed in your zone on the coverage clock.

What are the terms on the order taking desk?

The card, the contract terms and the order taking desk's own numbers, in one place.

SpecificationWhat you get
Focus, 20 hours a week$800 a month, 80 hours
Dedicated, 40 hours a week$1,600 a month, 160 hours
Evening, weekend or overnight coverTier rate plus 20 percent
DeskFront desk & phones
Standard scheduleDedicated order desk agent, 80 or 160 hours a month, in your hours
CoverageUS Eastern to Pacific, UK and Australian Eastern hours from the group's two offices.
Tools10 platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, QuickBooks Online
KPIs reported6 measures: daily, monthly, per order
Setup feeNone
Minimum termMonth to month, no lock-in
Notice30 days, to stop or to change hours
If the fit is wrongTrained backup covers the desk the same day, re-match at no charge
ContinuityOne named assistant, one named backup, one team lead
Who does the workEmployed by SS Support Network LLC, never freelancers or contractors

These are rate-card starting points. What you pay depends on the hours, the desk and the coverage window, which is what the staffing plan sets. Rates improve as you add assistants. Your staffing plan states the rate for the number of seats you need. The rate card carries the other currencies, the add-ons and the six things that move a plan off it.

How much does order taking cost?

Plans start at $400 a month for 40 hours, at $10 an hour, and rates improve as you add assistants. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day.

What moves the plan

  1. Hours a week and whether the desk is dedicated or shared
  2. Phones: live answering needs a receptionist profile and a backup
  3. Coverage zone: business hours, after-hours, weekends or 24/7
  4. Tools and access to set up
  5. One person or a pod with a lead

What the market publishes

Other providers' published ranges, by market, so you have something to hold this against. These are not AssistBPO prices.

MarketPublished rangeSource
United StatesPer-call answering plans from about $292 for 30 calls with $9.75 a call overage; per-minute plans from $235 for 50 minutes with $2.95 to $4.70 a minute overageOnceHub, AIRA and NextPhone pricing roundups, September 2026
United StatesManaged remote staff $640 to $2,400 a month full time; part-time 20 hours a week $350 to $1,300 a month; US VA average $19.45 an hourPayScale via Wishup, Cherry Assistant and Zedtreeo, 2026
United KingdomOffshore full-time staff £900 to £2,000 a month against £3,000 to £5,000 for UK-based; employed PA average £15.33 an hourPayScale and UK agency pricing pages, 2026
AustraliaOffshore managed staff A$8 to A$35 an hour; full-time offshore A$22,000 to A$35,000 a year against A$91,000 plus for a loaded local employeeVirtual Coworker, DotVA and Smart Staffing published rates, 2026

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Proof

Case study

One engagement on this desk, anonymized. Numbers appear only once the owner has verified them.

All case studies

Peak season handled without a backlog

Case study

E-commerce Brand Survives Peak Season Support

A direct-to-consumer brand selling on Shopify did most of its year in six weeks. The rest of the year two people cleared the queue comfortably. In peak season the same two people were answering chat, email, Instagram messages and returns at once, first response times stretched into days, and shipping-delay questions arrived faster than anyone could answer them. Temporary hires had never worked out, because training finished about the time the season did. AssistBPO built a peak-season pod on the support desk: named agents with a team lead, trained in October, live from the start of November and stood down in January. The pod worked inside the brand's own Gorgias help desk using macros written with the in-house team. Tickets were tagged by reason so the operations team could see which problems were worth fixing at the source.

Consumer e-commerce

Security and compliance

  1. Card numbers are never spoken, typed or stored by the agent; customers pay through your portal or a link you send
  2. Employed, background-checked agents under NDA, working on managed devices with MFA
  3. Order entry through a named user in your system with permissions limited to orders and customer lookup
  4. Price lists and customer files stay in your system; nothing is exported or printed
  5. Call recordings, where you enable them, carry the notice each state and country requires

Full control list on the security page and country rules for calls, texts and email on the compliance page. Certifications are listed only when held.

Country rules for this service

AssistBPO makes outbound calls, texts and emails only with lawful consent and do-not-call scrubbing. Assistants never take card numbers. Country rules.

  • PCI DSS: no card data taken by phone; payment through your portal or link
  • US: recording notices in two-party consent states; callbacks inside TCPA hours
  • UK and Australia: consumer contract information confirmed in the order email under the Consumer Contracts Regulations and Australian Consumer Law

Frequently asked questions

How much does an order taking service cost?

Plans depend on hours, desks and coverage. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day. For orientation, US answering services publish per-call plans from about $292 for 30 calls with $9.75 a call overage, and per-minute plans from $235 for 50 minutes (OnceHub and NextPhone, September 2026). Order calls run longer than message calls, so a per-minute meter punishes a good order desk. AssistBPO prices a person for a block of hours.

Can the agent take card payments over the phone?

No, by design. Taking card numbers by voice would put your business and ours inside the full scope of PCI DSS and would mean a person holding card data. Instead the agent completes the order, sends a secure payment link by text or email, or transfers the caller to your own payment line, and confirms the order once payment shows in your system. Trade customers on account are invoiced as usual.

Which order systems do you work in?

Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon Seller Central for order lookups, QuickBooks Online and Xero for invoiced orders, plus most ERPs and point-of-sale systems that have a web login. Support tools such as Zendesk and Gorgias are used for order-status tickets. The agent works in an account you create with the permissions you choose, following the order steps we document together in onboarding, so your reporting and stock levels stay accurate.

How do you keep orders accurate?

Three checks on every call: the agent reads back product, quantity, price and delivery address before confirming; the confirmation email or text goes out immediately so the customer can spot a mistake; and the weekly audit compares a sample of orders against recordings. Substitution rules and minimum quantities live on the product sheet so the agent does not have to remember them. Accuracy is the first line on the monthly QA scorecard.

Will the agent upsell my customers?

Only where you ask and only in the way you approve. Typical prompts are practical: the filter that goes with the unit, the delivery slot that saves a second trip, the case price instead of singles. Pushy scripts hurt repeat business, so the weekly review tracks the add-on rate alongside the complaint rate. If a customer says no, the answer is noted and the prompt is not repeated on their next call.

Can the same desk handle order-status and returns calls?

Yes. Where-is-my-order calls are answered from your live tracking, and returns or exchanges are started under your policy and handed to the right person if approval is needed. If your volume is mostly support rather than orders, the e-commerce customer service desk may fit better, and the two desks can share one agent for smaller stores. The discovery call sizes it from your call mix.

What about trade customers with special pricing?

The agent works from the customer's account in your system, so contract prices, discounts and credit terms apply automatically. Where pricing is in a spreadsheet rather than your system, we load it as a lookup on the product sheet and keep it current in the weekly review. Accounts on credit hold are flagged to you before the order is confirmed, following the rule you set.

Is it the same person taking our orders every day?

Yes. One named agent learns your catalog, your regulars and their usual orders, which is what makes a phone order desk faster than a web form for trade customers. A trained backup covers breaks and leave using the same product sheet and system access, and a team lead runs the weekly review. Your customers hear a familiar voice and get the same order process every time.

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  • A named assistant proposed within 72 hours
  • Employed, screened and managed staff, never freelancers
  • Your hours, your tools, your data
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