How can a virtual receptionist service actually help your business?

You know what it’s like as a business owner.

You have a million things to do, and more things coming up all the time.

And just when you’re ready to get started on your work, or when you’re in the middle of a client project, your phone rings again, either with a new customer looking for a quote, or an existing customer with a question or looking for an update.

And you can’t ignore those calls when they come in.

Not answering a new business call can cost you the business. Letting an existing customer go to voicemail isn’t going to win you any customer service points.

So what can you do?

One answer is to hire a virtual receptionist or a phone answering service.

A virtual receptionist is a dedicated, professional service that works as part of your business and understands the importance of dealing with your customers professionally.

But a virtual receptionist is so much more than just a service to answer the phone.

Here’s how a virtual receptionist can help you make your business better.

Have more time to focus on your work

By spending less time answering calls or worrying that you’re missing out on new business, you can focus more of your time on your business and completing work for clients so you can get paid and move on to the next job.

Plus, because you’ve got more time to focus on the job at hand, you could improve your chance of winning future referral business for a job well done.

You’ve also got more time to think about your business.

What growth areas you could move into. Or what marketing could you do to better promote your services?

And you can do all this safe in the knowledge that all your calls are being dealt with professionally at all timesin the background.

Reduce the chance of losing business

If you’re a smaller business or a sole trader with lots of calls coming in, it’s impossible to answer them all without losing too much time in the day to actually complete the work you’re being paid to do.

But you can’t leave a call unanswered because it could be a new customer looking for a quote who will just go somewhere else if you don’t answer.

Or it could be a current customer in need of support, and you definitely don’t want to get a reputation for having poor customer service.

With a virtual receptionist your business calls will be answered every time. Your receptionist will get the information you need from the call to be able to follow up later on – or you can have urgent calls sent directly to you.

Professionalise your call handling

It doesn’t matter what sized business you are, getting employees to answer the phone and deal with calls as you want them to can be a nightmare.

They’re busy doing their work and it’s hard for a call not to be seen as an unwanted distraction, rather than potentially more business for you.

When they’re rushed it’s too easy to just answer the phone with “hello” or to take a message but not get all the information needed to follow up properly.

It’s not their fault, it’s easily done in a busy environment. But it can be disastrous for your business.

With a virtual receptionist service you know your calls are being dealt with exactly as you want, every time.

Plus you’ll never have to worry about getting messages with important bits of information missing.

Manage your business better

Virtual receptionists don’t just help with your call answering.

They can also be used to help with your diary management and can even take booking meetings off your hands as well.

Managing multiple diaries and organising meetings is a time consuming job for a business owner.

By syncing your calendar to a virtual receptionist service, you can have all this taken care of for you.

You can set the rules for when and how you want meetings booked, and then your receptionist will take care of the rest.

New meetings will be automatically updated in your calendar with all the details you need to prepare. All you’ll need is to prep and show up.

Get more time to turn your business into a success

Answering calls is a vital part of running a successful business but it can quickly take up large parts of your day and stop you from getting on with tasks to earn money.

By getting a virtual receptionist on board, you can make sure your business never misses a call again and be confident that when a new customer does come to youthey’ll get the kind of customer service that will make them look forward to choosing you as their next partner.