Handling phone calls eats up time that you would rather dedicate to your business. Have you thought about hiring a secretary, but hesitated because the requisite expenses could hurt your bottom line? If this is your situation, consider hiring a virtual answering service instead. The goal of live receptionists is to make your life easier by handling your phone calls, assisting your clients, and saving you money. Off-site reception services can help you increase the quality of the customer care you provide just as a secretary in your own office would, but at a lower cost. Read on to discover the myriad ways that a phone answering service can increase business while reducing your expenses.
How a Virtual Answering Service Can Save You Money
1. Avoid paying additional employee benefits.
An additional employee in your office means paying additional expenses. If you hire a full-time receptionist, you may need to provide benefits such as health insurance, sick leave, paid time off, and so on. Even if the employee only works part-time, you are still responsible for making sure you can pay workers' compensation insurance and employment taxes for that individual.
On the other hand, when you contract for phone answering service, the virtual reception company is responsible for providing benefits to their virtual receptionists. In the end, you get all the perks of having a professional receptionist work for you, without the costs of adding an on-site employee to your team.
2. Win more prospects.
How often do prospective clients hear your voicemail message? Your answer could indicate a weakness in your sales strategy. This is because an estimated 60 percent of callers would rather hang-up than talk to a machine. Those callers that reach your voicemail would prefer to speak with a friendly, live receptionist--and they're likely to take their business elsewhere if they reach an automated phone message. (This is especially true for solo and small firm lawyers, whose clients often "call down the phonebook" until they reach a real person.)
A virtual answering service has the bandwidth to manage all the calls that come into your office. After calling your published phone number, the call is transferred to a virtual live receptionist, who acts just like an on-site receptionist: she can transfer calls to you live, take and pass on messages, and screen calls for you. Best of all, your prospective clients won't be able to tell that the receptionist is off-site. You can win more business with a phone answering service on your side.
3. Only pay for the time the receptionists dedicate to handling your calls.
In any office, some days are slower than others. If you hire a receptionist to work in your office, you will have to pay her for the time she is there, regardless of whether she is answering calls or just waiting for the phone to ring. When you have a virtual answering service working for you, you only pay for the time dedicated to handling your organization's phone calls.
4. Less wasted time.
How many times have your employees been interrupted with a phone call? As a result, how many times has a caller been placed on hold for too long? When this happens, it can cause staff to lose focus and customers to become annoyed. A phone answering service can remedy this situation because a live virtual receptionist can answer the incoming calls and transfer them to the appropriate person or department. Consequently, business operations run more smoothly and successfully, and you're not paying more experienced employees to answer the phone.
5. Focus more time on growing your business and less time on managing your staff.
When you use a virtual answering service, you will find your staff to be more effective. They will also be less annoyed that their work was interrupted by a phone call not meant for them. Additionally, when you have a new staff member on your team, you have one more person to train and manage. On the other hand, a virtual office receptionist works off-site, which saves you an average of $1800 per month over the cost of hiring a traditional receptionist.
When you find yourself held back by a lack of good office help, think twice about hiring a secretary as a quick fix. Often, a virtual receptionist can offer all the same services you seek while saving you money, so you never again miss a new business opportunity.
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