If you are a small business owner, you wear many hats. In addition to being the owner you may also act as your own salesperson, webmaster, accountant and marketer. You are busy doing what you do best…… and you don’t want to also be your own receptionist or worse, miss important potential clients. Having someone to answer the phone when a current or potential customer calls is critical to keeping and landing new clients. One easy solution is to use a live answering service also known as “Virtual Telephone Reception Service” for small businesses. Unlike traditional phone answering services, Virtual Receptionists act as they are part of your face to face team and never say “we’re just an answering service.”
There are 3 top reasons to get a Virtual Reception Service today:
- Never Miss a Call: An answering service means you are always open for business – even when you are in client meetings, on the road, or attending to the million and one small tasks that go along with running your own business. If you hire a virtual reception service, they will politely and professionally answer your calls, forward them directly to you (if that’s what you choose) or take a message. The alternative is missed calls that go straight to your voicemail. Unfortunately, recent studies show that almost 89% of callers hang up when they reach voicemail – meaning unless a business owner is available to answer every call as they come in, he or she is losing out on a lot of potential customers.
- Save Money: Some small business owners have already realized the importance of not missing a call, but struggle with finding the budget to hire a receptionist to work at their office, if they even have a physical office due to all the costs involved. Hiring a full-time staff member to answer the phone will cost a typical business $2,500 – $3,500 a month in salary alone if not more. Any extras, such as a desk, phone, computer, etc. will add more to that cost. Small business answering services like our Office Alternatives’ Virtual Telephone Reception service offer reasonable rates starting at only $149 monthly, which makes hiring your own virtual receptionist one of the easiest decisions you will ever make as a business owner. If you think about how much
one missed client or sales costs you on average, it’s a no-brainer to get this valuable service. - Project an Image of Professionalism & Success: Many small business owners frequently run their business from their smart phone – making and receiving calls, answering emails and checking their calendar to see where the day will take them next. They need to answer calls wherever they receive them – which could be while driving, running errands or heading into or out of a meeting. As a result of not always working at a traditional office, they may not always be able to convey a sense of professionalism due to background noise or other distractions. a Virtual Reception service solves those problems. The dedicated virtual receptionists are fully trained on your company and will answer calls promptly and politely from the quiet of a physical office as “part of your company’s team.” A Virtual Receptionist will also give the appearance to the caller that they are actually sitting at your place of business when they answer the phone. This instills confidence in the caller that they have reached a successful, even larger than reality, business, and will make them feel comfortable working with your company. Lastly, the receptionists are able to “screen” your calls and when you’re not wanting to talk with a particular person, you can instruct them to tell the caller a very calculated and reasonable “excuse” that softens the blow of not taking the call. For instance, you may say, “tell him I’m in meetings all week and to call me next Monday after 10:00” instead of what would happen without the receptionist: repeated voicemails to your cell phone which makes you appear rude.
If you are ready to boost your business all the way around, give Office Alternatives a call today at 505-796-9600. Signing up is simple, quick and affordable. Month to month commitments with no long-term obligations.