With more and more companies offering business owners virtual services via the internet, a greater number of companies than ever before are taking advantage of the many services on offer, such as the one being offered by Your Virtual Office. A sole operator or entrepreneur can save themselves a lot of money by using someone to outsource different parts of the business rather than them having to hire out a large building to accommodate a full suite of in-house staff, as well as avoid all the overheads of supplying and running essential IT and telecommunications equipment.
A popular option for the single business owner or entrepreneur is to use a virtual receptionist through our professional call-handling package to help manage essential aspects of the day to day reception duties without the need for employing someone on site. But what are the benefits of hiring a virtual receptionist, and what can most businesses expect get from using such a service?
Ideal employee
For starters, a virtual receptionist can be available to your business needs 24 hours a day and doesn’t need time off for sickness or holidays – that’s because you are outsourcing to a virtual service rather than hiring an individual receptionist. The virtual service provider will have a team of people to handle all the individual services you need and this means there are none of the usual limits and barriers that you find with hiring a single member of staff to work on site.
Having a virtual receptionist service on hand also allows you to offer your callers a professional receptionist service at any time, ideal if you want to conduct in-depth or drawn-out business or client meetings where you don't want to be disturbed, but you cannot afford to miss any important incoming calls.
For those small business owners who may only need a voicemail only service to cover periods where they are out of communication, such as during business meetings, travel times or while away on holiday, then there are even low-cost services to suit you too!
The financial costs of hiring a virtual receptionist is also much less than taking on a full-time employee, especially when hiring the service over the longer term where you can get great value for money. Not only do you get that very important extensive receptionist coverage you require, but you don’t have all the associated costs that come with having someone offering this service within your business – there are no holidays to accommodate, pension plans to contribute to, sick days to cover, equipment to provide, or other expenses.
Avoid employee issues
Many businesses will have hired temporary staff over the years to do this kind of work and while this can be a great option, at other times it doesn’t work out quite so well. By using the services of a virtual receptionist, you are accessing professionally trained people who will be able to perform this service all of the time, no matter where you are based or what your line of business is. The kind of experience and professional expertise offered by a virtual receptionist would cost a lot to employ for your company, full or part-time, if you could even find someone that good.
Professional Virtual Receptionists services are also very flexible and are able to be completely personalised to suit your company – the receptionist answers with your company name, accesses your business information and will act as if they were a full-time member of your business team. This means that they can offer a fully comprehensive, seamless, and professional customer service without actually being physically present within your company, or ever having to set foot through your doorway.
Virtual Services Available
As well as ensuring that they answer your incoming business calls with a warm and friendly tone using your company name, your virtual receptionist will also know about your company background. They will be able to intercept and direct an incoming call confidently, politely and efficiently.
Depending on your business needs, your virtual reception services can be tailored to meet your requirements. This can include routing calls to the right person, transferring calls between different sections of the business, taking messages while staff members are unavailable, and even for the screening out sales calls and nuisance callers.
By simply outsourcing your essential company receptionist duties to Your Virtual Office, you can have all the professional services that a full-time receptionist offers without the need to hire any full or part-time employees whatsoever.
You can save yourself a lot of money too because you also don’t need a physical location for them to be based – no need to have an office within the premises with a phone system and a desk. There is no need to have an office at all for your administration needs if your business model doesn’t’ require one. And you can keep down the costs of overheads such as electricity, office rent, stationery, land-line and mobile phone costs by outsourcing this service while still offering the best possible customer experience to everyone who calls your company.
