Reduce Expenses with a Virtual Office Answering Service
No monthly lease or mortgage payment. No utilities payments. No maintenance costs. When a business decides to go virtual, the cost savings are significant. But cutting costs should not mean cutting services. Customers expect the same support from a business whether there's a "headquarters" location or not. Virtual offices mean no business hub since staff either is located at multiple sites or works from home.
Virtual office answering services are the perfect complement for small or large businesses that find the cost of providing in-house, 24/7, live call-support unaffordable. A virtual office answering service may offer the benefits of a live answering service with a sophisticated IVR (voice-mail system), providing the option to be completely live, completely automated or a combination of both.
Virtual office accounts are typically answered on the first ring by the IVR system. The caller hears an announcement offering a series of choices, one of which may be to transfer to a live receptionist. Other answering service options may include leaving a message in a mailbox or being transferred to an extension linked to someone's cell phone or another land line.
No matter what options are offered in the virtual office answering service announcement, that is where the cost savings begin. An automated IVR can be programmed to manage non-urgent calls, while the live answering service receptionists can manage revenue generating, urgent or other specific types of calls.
Receptionists who answer the calls transferred to the live virtual office answering service greet callers with the company name as if they are part of the staff. A variety of answering service protocols and delivery methods are often available to meet business needs. Most live virtual office answering services have direct access to the Internet, allowing business owner and/or staff to access your on-line problem tracking system, FAQs, knowledge base and account information.
No matter whether a business offers products or services, is Internet based or operates in a smaller geographic area, moving operations to a virtual environment may be worth considering as a significant cost-saving measure. If so, a virtual office answering service might be the solution to your call management dilemma.
