We know, understand, and appreciate that every business has unique needs. That’s why you should be able to choose the service that works best for you.
If you’re looking for a virtual receptionist, you may find yourself choosing between options like Abby Connect and Gabbyville.
Gabbyville is a newer virtual receptionist company, but it’s not just years of experience in the virtual reception industry which differentiates Abby Connect from Gabbyville.
Work From Home Receptionists
One of the major differences between Gabbyville and other virtual reception companies is that their receptionists work from home. This might sound fun and modern, but it’s important to understand the implications of this business model and how it might affect your services. Today’s digital phone systems rely on high-grade internet connections which are significantly faster than most residential plans allow. Additionally, work from home receptionists do not have the opportunity to create a sense of community and general communication can become inefficient and impersonal. This leads to loss of productivity, decreases in employee happiness, and an increase in turnover. Read further below on to hear what Gabbyville Receptionists say.
Answering Hours
In any customer service business, the needs of your customers always come first. In virtual reception and answering services, each and every call is a business opportunity, either in new business or client retention. But what if the important call comes through outside of typical business hours and isn’t answered? For Gabbyville, that is a definite possibility.
Gabbyville only answers phones from 8 AM to 10 PM EST Monday through Friday. They don’t offer weekend answering. Abby Connect offers standard business hours phone answering (8:30 AM to 5 PM based on your time zone), as well as extended hours (Monday-Friday 5 am to 9 pm PST, and Saturday-Sunday 6 am to 6 pm PST), and 24/7 answering so you’ll never have to miss a call.
Dedicated Receptionist Team & Account Manager
Many virtual receptionist companies advertise a dedicated receptionist team for their client, but do they really mean it? At Gabbyville, they offer a dedicated receptionist team of 4-5 receptionists, but only if you purchase the premium or executive packages. At Abby Connect, every client is assigned to a dedicated team of 5 receptionists, no matter which package you choose.
Also, every Abby Connect customer has a dedicated account manager you can call or email directly at anytime. To receive support at Gabbyville, you must email a support queue or call a support line. Abby’s accessible customer service team allows for new customers to be setup and active almost immediately, whereas with Gabbyville the setup takes about 48 hours.
Bilingual Answering
Did you know that as of 2015, the United States has more Spanish speakers than Spain? The US has 18.2% (41 million) native Spanish speakers, along with 11.6 million people who are bilingual. Abby Connect recognizes how important it is to be able to service all callers. Gabbyville does not have any information about bilingual answering on their website.
Pricing
| Package | 100 Minutes | 200 Minutes | 500 Minutes |
| Monthly Price | $279 | $499 | $1,089 |
| Package | Starter (100 min) | Basic (250 min) | Premium (600 min) | Executive (1000)min |
| Monthly Price | $229 | $429 | $799 | $1169 |
Upon initial glance, Gabbyville has lower prices than Abby Connect. Gabbyville and Abby offer many of the same services including live call answering, call routing, outbound calling, accurate message taking, customized call greetings, and requests and updates sent to the receptionist team, among other things. There are several services Gabbyville doesn’t offer to their clients that Abby Connect considers important for their customers to have. Those include extended answering hours, dedicated receptionist team of 5, dedicated account manager for every customer, and bilingual answering.
Reviews
Before you purchase a product, you should always look at the reviews and see what people think of the product. If you look online for reviews about Gabbyville, there are only a handful of reviews of their services. They have positive customer testimonials on their website, but no reviews on popular websites such as Trustpilot, Consumer Affairs, Google Business, or even Facebook. In the reviews we found, while most of their customers were satisfied with their service, some complained that Gabbyville’s communication with them was lacking.
On Virtualassistantassistant.com T. Adames was disappointed because he wasn’t alerted when he went over his minutes and the overage charges per minute were significantly higher than his rate (+26%).
“I used this service as a virtual receptionist for my small business. The upside was that it was quick to set up and they offered a good starter plan at $99/50 minutes**. The downside was the brutal overage charges ($2.50/minute). They failed to alert me when I reached my threshold—but why would they if it made them more money? I decided to cancel [when] my monthly bill almost reached $400. I would have appreciated a simple phone call or some form of communication to let me know my usage. Overall, I liked the service, but it seems to be set up for larger businesses that would overlook charges like the ones I was getting. They may not have “hidden” fees but they will mercilessly pummel you with the ones they do have.”
Abby Connect’s Portal allows you to monitor your minute usage in real-time and overage charges are pro-rated based on your plan.
Abby Connect has reviews all over the web, such as on Clutch, Consumer Affairs, Facebook and Google. Abby Connect consistently ranks on the top of the review sites for its outstanding virtual receptionists, answering services, and nonstop customer care.
Employees
While most of the Gabbyville employees said they like working from home and having great team leaders and teammates, many of the online reviews from past and present employees stated they are unhappy with their work conditions.
A current employee of Gabbyville said on Glassdoor, “This company is a disgrace to the virtual receptionist business model. The company is out of touch with proper business models, employment engagement. The company voices a great pep talk during your interview stage.. Don’t be fooled. They are untrustworthy, and do not provide accurate information. The turn around is awful. The pay is below poverty level, the work is demanding and requires a lot of multi tasking. Upward mobility is ZERO. The policies of the organization are incomplete and are written only for a few. The morale at this company is so sad, I don’t know really how this place functions. The only saving grace is it is a small company, and it is virtual… anyone can work here for the ‘in between’. This job is not worth your time, energy, or patience. I recommend you STAY AWAY. This is not the golden egg, this is not a growing company with ‘growing pains’. It is a mismanaged, inappropriate, and awful place to work.”
Another current employee echoed their comments. “The pay is low, the call volume is high, and the number of people who quit is very high. The clients you take calls for can be quite rude, and [you have] multiple calendars with intense instructions for different companies.”
At Abby Connect, the receptionists are happier and you will be too. Abby believes happy employees create better experiences and services for clients. On their online employee reviews, Abby employees share that they love working for a company who care about them, and enjoy their co-workers and clients.
Who Should You Choose?
Overall, while Gabbyville could provide virtual reception and answering services to your company, based on their work from home receptionists, answering hours, dedicated receptionist team, account management, and the reviews, Abby Connect is the clear choice winner. Abby Connect not only offers what Gabbyville does but additional features as well to better serve your clients. If your business is looking into using a virtual receptionist service, try Abby Connect’s 14-day free trial.
*all information is accurate and cited as of 09/2018
**Gabbyville’s Starter Plan has since been increased to 100 minutes for $229 a month
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