Before we discuss the advantages of getting a virtual receptionist, it would be best if we tackle first the exact description of a virtual receptionist.

For businesses to survive in this competitive world, they must have the flexibility, accessibility, and ability to save money in all possible instances. And one of the most crucial things a business must possess is the capacity to answer incoming calls at all costs.

What is a virtual receptionist?

A virtual receptionist is an individual who does not belong to your in-house employees but served the same purpose as an in-house receptionist. He or she is in charge of answering incoming calls from customers or clients and transferring them to the appropriate person or if necessary. At the same time, a virtual receptionist can answer questions and other concerns from customers, thus creating a professional identity for the organization.

One of the main advantages of a virtual receptionist is that they are cost-efficient. It is a fact that in-house employees, particularly receptionists must undergo a series of training. Furthermore, you are required to provide a desk or office table that is exclusively dedicated to them, not mentioning the calling equipment such as telephone or desk phone that they will need to fulfill their job role.

On the contrary, a virtual receptionist doesn’t need any of these things aside from a brief training maybe. After that, he or she can immediately start to perform the work using their equipment such as mobile device, computer, or another required form of communication. This alone proves to be a much cheaper option compared to employing an in-house staff to perform the job.

Benefits of hiring a virtual receptionist

As mentioned, there are great benefits to hiring a virtual receptionist. Let’s discuss the most significant advantages of having one.

•  Less cost than in-house receptionist – as we talked about it earlier, a virtual receptionist is way cheaper than employing someone to do the job physically and present in your office. Come to think of it: you don’t need to put a virtual staff in physical training. You also don’t have to purchase an additional table and chair, and even a computer desk for your virtual receptionist. Another major thing is that there is no need to purchase expensive communication device since your virtual staff can utilize his or her mobile phones, computers or laptops, and other required equipment if there’s any.

•  Availability any time of the day – the fact that you can schedule your virtual receptionist any time of the day is a great relief. Let’s say your business is located in the US and your usual clients are located in South East Asia, then you can assign your virtual receptionist to work during their time zone without incurring additional overtime pay. You can even tell them to work with particular time zones. For example, 4 hours in the morning and another 4 hours in the evening since those are the times your clients and customers are available. In that way, you’re dealing with the scheduling in a very efficient manner.

•  Handle all calls – Picture this, you own a clinic that receives hundreds of calls and sees the influx of thousands of patients daily. Managing and catering to all people is a challenging task, and they might be left with an automated message over the phone. But when you hire a virtual medical receptionist, these patients have the chance to connect with a real person, and can book and cancel appointments in real time. Similarly, many organizations from different industries utilize the help of virtual receptionists to prioritize clients. This reinforces their importance and only gives them a positive impression of your organization.

•  Work-life balance – work -life balance is defined as looking at how working individuals manage time spent at work and outside of work. If you decide to answer the calls on your own, spending more time beyond office hours waiting for possible calls from your clients or prospects, then probably, you don’t have enough time to spend with your family, with your hobbies, and other outside interests. Don’t let these things happen to you. In fact, you can eliminate all of these by simply hiring a virtual receptionist to take calls from your customers, prospects, or clients. And you? You can spend and devote your precious time to what matters most to your life – focus on your core responsibilities, more time for your relationships and families, and more time to enjoy your hobbies and interests. And of course, you deserve a break. You can go on vacation without worrying about who will entertain your customers’ calls.

As we can see, these are just a few of the amazing benefits of having a virtual receptionist. But before you dive into getting one, you must be able to figure out that the following characteristics are available in your virtual receptionist service.

•  Auto-attendant – a less expensive option than a live receptionist, auto attendants, and interactive voice response or commonly called IVR proved to be indispensable to any organization, regardless of their size. They can reroute the calls to the right person or department in no time. There is no need for human intervention to redirect calls since an auto attendant is capable of doing that.

•  Live answering – virtual receptionists provide your customers with the possibility to talk to a real person over the phone on your behalf and behalf of your company. It adds another form of professionalism and more of personal touch to your customer support system. Furthermore, you can have full control over how your virtual receptionists should handle calls since you can customize the greetings and script your agents should use.

•  Taking messages – one of the most notable features of a virtual receptionist service is the ability to take down notes on messages conveyed by your clients. It involves recording your caller’s details and the very reason behind their calls.

•  Response time – a very important aspect in handling calls. We are pretty sure that most callers don’t want to wait for a long time before someone answers their calls. Most of them tend to be irritable if they are not answered promptly. Virtual receptionists should be able to take the calls as swiftly as possible to avoid bad impressions and negative feedbacks from the callers.

Final words

If you think that your organization needs a virtual receptionist, we highly suggest you take a look and consider Telnum. You can visit their website at https://telnum.net/. Telnum offers a wide range of virtual phone services for your business. In addition, their Tech Specialists are available 24/7 to assist you with all your queries ad they will even guide you to assess your communication service needs for a proper decision.