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If you run a company that has demands on its customer service, closing the office leaves your customer who has a problem, with either an unanswered call, or a voicemail. Either way, it doesn’t fix his problem and it doesn’t enamour him to you any further. This is when he starts questioning himself why he did business with you in the first place. But at the same time, how do you justify the massive costs of having staff in your office 24/7?
The Virtual Receptionist
A Virtual receptionist isn’t some clever computer programme which deals with problems when you are out. It is instead an outsourced receptionist and Customer Care company that will take your calls when you are unavailable, or out of office hours. It can be incredibly simple. Callers are greeted with the same welcome as they get normally, and your new receptionist can now handle calls, make appointments and bookings, and provide an initial point for customer service and deal with all other calls coming in, exactly how your 9-5 receptionist does it, all on your normal local number.
It Sounds Like a Call Centre
A Virtual Receptionist is very different from using a call centre service and it isn’t just a standard phone answering service. A call centre may employ very large numbers of people, who are taking calls at random, so that every time you call, you are likely to find yourself talking to a different person who probably doesn’t know who you to talked to last time, so you keep coming back to square one. One aspect of choosing a virtual receptionist is to ensure your provider will have the same small team answering your calls, who all have the same etiquette, and become familiar voices to regular or repeat callers. This also provides a backup in case your day to day staff are sick or on vacation.
Affordable Packages for Every Sized Company
Regardless of the location of your business, Packages for Virtual Receptionists such as those offered by Office HQ based in Sydney are very economical and can be expanded upon whenever you wish. The beauty of it is that you are not paying a person to sit there endlessly waiting for a call. You are only actually paying for services you receive. You can operate a pay as you go service, or find a monthly package, with “X” amount of calls thrown in and then pay for the excess. Look for the provider that has a package suitable for every company’s needs, and level of after-hours activity, from the sole trader to the much larger business.
Better Than the Real Thing
When you engage the services of a professional virtual reception provider, you will be working with very highly trained and professional people, who have a wide range of call handling techniques. The chances are actually quite high that your virtual receptionist is better trained than the person who answers your phone during regular office hours. It is a good idea when choosing to inquire about the training techniques they provide to staff, for dealing with angry or emotional customers, or those hard of hearing.
You may well learn something from them, which you can pass on to dear old Doris, back at your office, which may well get your working day operation in better shape too.