Image matters in business
Every little aspect of the way that you do business is related to how the overall image of your company will be portrayed to your customers. It may be the way a virtual receptionist answers a call or it may be the smallest connection between a potential customer and a representative of your company. Whether it is displaying your business logo on something like a shirt, uniform, building, sponsorship, or elsewhere all of these facets can combine to help form your business reputation and the basis of how people and customers regard your company as big or small, effective or ineffective, successful or not.
A Virtual Receptionist enhances your image
Customer experience is a major indicator of whether your company is successful in achieving it’s goals. The person or persons answering your incoming calls are effectively the gate keepers to your business. If they take too long in picking up the phone or if they are negative or short with the callers then it will likely tarnish your company image with the caller. Client feedback tells exactly how consumers expect the business to operate. Does the company satisfy their needs or are they below their satisfactory level? Customers are the bloodline of the company. If they are receiving a service below their expectations, most probably, there will be no customer repetition, no more coming back, and no more second chances. Repetition is the only key to give your consumers a consistent customer experience. Without this, you can never build a good relationship and a strong positive image to your consumers. What they have to say whether in reviews, social media, or just simple interaction with their friends and colleagues can have a big impact on your company. The most effective strategy to avoid incidents like these is to offer customers the best experience from the time they initially do business with your organization. How is this possible? You can accomplish it by having strong frontliners to welcome customers from their initial inquiries to more complicated issues to address.
One way to ensure that you get a positive result from your callers is to make use of a professional virtual receptionist service.
So, what are the characteristics of a good virtual receptionist.
- Firstly, they are virtual. Basically, they can be located anywhere and carry out their services via internet technology. (Ivy uses USA based staff)
- They work to specific scripts, ie, they answer with the same greeting each time and if required can provide pre-approved information.
- The ability to be able to answer those calls within seconds of the phone ringing
- If necessary, the ability to take calls around the clock 24/7.
- They have the ability to screen calls and with your guidance they can know which are the important calls.
- Important calls can be transferred through to a nominated number or the receptionist can work through a list of potential recipients of that call.
- Ability to capture data from the customers in custom designed web forms.
- A good understanding of the way that businesses operate in the USA.
Getting a good outsourced phone answering service will give your customers an excellent overall experience. It’s a service that can potentially operate 24/7 so you don’t have to worry about missed calls and unanswered queries. Outsourcing your call answering to a third party like Ivy eliminates the need to hire permanent employees to handle your business’s phone answering tasks, which makes it very cost-effective for the company. Also, there’s no need to arrange for a physical office if you’re just a one-man business.
With the phone answering service provided by Ivy Answering the cost of your service is tied to the number of calls that we answer. If you are not receiving many calls then your cost will be low. If you do end up having a lot of calls answered then we have cost effective packages to help you manage that cost. Either way, it is significantly cheaper than the cost of having your own in-house team. With Ivy Answer, your calls will be answered by a real professional, trained receptionist who will have the information in front of them in terms of how to deal with your calls.
If you are a small business or a sole trader then getting an answering service really takes the pressure off you. Think of all of the times you have been right in the middle of a complex task and then the phone rings! Your momentum just suddenly disappears. Not being able to meet your business goals due to lack of resources and constant distractions is one of the biggest reasons why startups can find it hard to expand.
Even if you are a large business or a division of a large business then an answering service can make really good sense. Maybe it gives you the flexibility to take calls 24/7 or maybe it provides you with lunchtime cover or cover when your existing reception staff want to take leave. It really does make good business sense regardless of the size of your organisation.
How does a Virtual Receptionist Service work
Let me take you through the process;
- When you sign up fro a free 7 day trial we will allocate you with a phone number – either a local or a toll free number.
- This is the number that we will be answering and you will need to divert your current number to this number.
- You don’t need to divert all of your calls, you only need to divert the calls that you want us to answer.
- Next step is to tell us what greeting you want used when we answer your calls. We will then use this greeting whenever we answer for your business.
- The next stage is to tell us what you want done with the calls once we have answered then. Do you want us to send an email or would you like an sms.
- If you think you are going to receive a large number of calls then you may want to get a cost effective package of calls.
- You should now be ready to go. Remember, if your circumstances change and you need to cancel then you can do so at any time.
- Also, if you have any difficulties with any of the steps then our customer care staff will be more than happy to help you out. All you need to do is call and we can talk you through the whole process. We can even email you with instructions if you want.
We are so confident in the way our service works and the value that it adds to our customers that we are willing to offer you an obligation free 7 day trial to test us out. The 7 day trial gives you the ability to try out the different aspects of our business and to even get feedback from your customers in terms of how they found the experience. You don’t need a credit card to sign up for the free trial and we will not pressure you to sign up once you are finished. We find that once people have seen just how much value a service like ours can add they want to make it permanent.
Don’t let the lack of resources stifle your business operations. Now is your time to take your business to the next level with the help of Ivy Answering Services. Sign up now for a free 7-day trial!