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Great reception – five advantages of a virtual receptionist
As anyone who runs a small business will undoubtedly know, you often need to handle administrative issues in addition to developing long-term business strategy and direction while juggling essential daily operational tasks. It’s not uncommon to feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, and at some point, you may feel like you need to hire someone to take on some of the load. However, the cost of a full-time or even part-time employee can be prohibitive. Fortunately, there is a middle ground that can relieve business owners of many of the more basic tasks, freeing their time for weightier issues, without breaking the bank. A virtual receptionist can achieve just that. In this post, we look at some of the advantages of using a virtual receptionist:
Often, the larger a business grows, the more time needed to devote to it. As you go higher up the chain of command, the hours you spend working grow exponentially. A survey of 500 managers found that 36% of them spend between three to four hours on administrative tasks every day. Stories abound of workers who start at 6:30 am to get through the pile of emails and administrative tasks before their real day begins.
Anything that can help free up some precious minutes in the day is more than welcome. An APSO virtual office provides administrative and secretarial services, mail handling and a host of other necessary services that allow you to focus on what’s important – for a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
You’re probably well acquainted with that feeling of being locked in a crucial meeting with one important client when an urgent call or email comes through from another. To pick up would be an affront to the client with whom you’re meeting. Not to answer risks putting client B’s nose out of joint. You want and need to be there for everyone, and in the age of smartphones, there’s an unwritten expectation that people should be perennially and immediately accessible. However, there’s only so much of you to go around!
An APSO virtual receptionist will ensure that you never miss a call. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, no client need ever go to voicemail again. The reassurance that their vital message has been communicated is almost always enough to set a client’s mind at ease, and reassure them that they’re a priority.
It’s also worth considering that nothing beats a human touch. Furthermore, in our modern world, nearly everything is becoming automated; the warm, personal touch can be a welcome point of differentiation. When a client calls you, the last you want is for them to become irritated at the sound of yet another pre-recorded message on the other end of the line. Speaking to a warm human voice provides that balm that everyone needs in our impersonal economy.
Some of us are great on the big ideas, but not so flash on the organisation needed to run a business. Fielding messages via email, text and voicemail often requires extraordinary juggling skills, and it’s easy for a client’s phone call to fall through the cracks. An APSO virtual office package includes a professional receptionist offering a systematic, methodical approach to secretarial services to ensure that never happens.
There is no shortage of things demanding our attention every minute of every day. Social media, advertising, endless notifications and reminders bleeping obnoxiously on our phones are conspiring to rob us of our ability to concentrate. A Microsoft Canada survey of 2000 participants in 2015 found that since the year 2000, our average attention span before becoming distracted has dropped from a mere 12 seconds to eight seconds – one second less than a goldfish.
Our access to information is growing at an unprecedented rate, but it is destroying our ability to concentrate on any one thing for a substantial period. Our mobiles can be a core part of the problem. As business owners, we often need to carry out essential tasks that demand our full concentration. However, a continually ringing, pinging phone can make it extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to devote our full attention to any one task. By using an APSO virtual office to take messages, field phone calls, and provide mail handling services, you can focus on building your business – without being constantly distracted.
Professionalism is everything in today’s world, and those lacking it are cast aside, to languish in the economic wilderness. When you’re flat out working to build your business dreams into reality, the last thing you want is for your competition and clients not to take you seriously. APSO’s virtual office services provide a dedicated business line and professional receptionist to ensure that you look the part. Your clients never need to know that you mostly operate out of your local café, or the living room couch.
A virtual office package will also grant access to meeting spaces and boardrooms in one of APSO’s virtual office addresses across Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide when those critical meetings occur. You can be confident that your client will be focused on your PowerPoint presentation, and not on the stain in the carpet at home where the dog had his accident.