What problems can a virtual receptionist solve for your business?

Written by Pocket Receptionist on 25th Oct, 2017

The problem of missed calls

Obviously, this is one of the leading reasons why someone would resort to a live call answering service. Every small business misses calls every working day, and the cost of a single missed call has been estimated to reach the whopping £1200.

Business leaders often express concerns over the amount of calls they miss. Phone calls should be regarded as the most qualified sales lead. Every call has the potential of bringing a new customer to your business. Moreover, most people find calling a company the quickest way to resolve an issue. Missing calls is unconceivable and reflects on your callers’ perception of your business. You should attend to the matter.

A virtual receptionist offers a handful of opportunities to businesses to execute their daily tasks more efficiently. Professional call answering has further implications than one might be thinking about. Here are five hurdles you can overcome with the help of a virtual call operator.

The problem of excessive staff costs

Outsourcing the receptionist’s function is a good way to streamline your spending budget. The average annual cost for keeping an in-house receptionist circles around £25 000. This is an exorbitant price to pay for something that can be done offsite, while investing much less.

Virtual receptionists are not directly employed by you. You do not pay their wages or set office space up for them. Therefore, they are the much cheaper option than keeping extra staff members. As a matter of fact, in-house receptionists spend only 25% of their time answering calls but get paid for 100% of their time. With virtual receptionists there is no such gap – they only work for you when there is an incoming call.

The problem of poor customer service

When a business is managed entirely by the owner or by a tiny group of employees, it is likely that none of them possesses the extraordinary telephone skills of a professional receptionist. This carries the risk of not leaving the best of impressions with your callers. Sure, phone skills can be learned and mastered over time, but it is a time investment not everyone would be willing to make.

The quicker and more efficient way to tackle such an issue is to rely on a professional virtual receptionist to deal with your calls. It is what they do for a living, after all, and they are streets ahead of anyone who is not a professional in the area.

Moreover, we should not forget the importance of having a real human answering the phone. Voicemail is generally being avoided by callers who are anxious to speak straight away to the right person in a company. This means that you should guarantee that your callers are always greeted by a real human delivering top-notch customer service.

The problem of lowered productivity

Answering phone call after phone call in quick succession inevitably disrupts working process’ smooth transition. Sometimes, actually most of the time, it is hard to switch back to what you were doing before you were interrupted by a phone call.

Small business owners are busy enough pulling their business forward on their own, and having to attend to the telephone could take its toll in drops of productivity levels.

The distraction of constantly incoming calls can be left behind by transferring the call answering function to professional virtual receptionists. You can rely on your virtual assistant that they will filter the really important calls and live transfer them to you, if necessary, while skillfully handling the more basic customer requests.

The problem of…receiving too many calls

Describing the burgeoning calls to your business as a “problem” may sound almost heretic, and to a degree, it is. Every business yearns to receive greater amount of prospective sales calls but sometimes the busy periods stretch the employees’ abilities to the point when an extra pair of hands will not be rejected.

Enter the virtual receptionists.

For example, you may be expecting a spike in calls related to the launch of a new product or a marketing campaign. In these cases, a virtual receptionist’s help in taking a portion of the calls, will have an auspicious effect on your business. They will relieve your staff members of part of the workload, and your business will still be answering every incoming call.