Keep Your Business Running Smoothly During the Holidays with a Live Receptionist
Is your business prepared for the holiday season? By now, you’ve likely covered all the major requirements such as inventory, holiday promotions, advance notice of opening hours, and maybe even a festive celebration for your staff. One other important piece of the puzzle is customer service. Namely, who answers your calls and takes care of bookings while the staff is on leave? Often, it falls to other members of staff. Or in the case of solopreneurs and startups, it lands on the business owner.
What is a Virtual Receptionist?
Virtual receptionist services take care of incoming calls, customer service inquiries, and appointment scheduling on behalf of multiple companies. Often, receptionists provide additional services, such as general business support and admin assistance, too. If you’re skeptical about handing over your customer service to a third party, that’s normal. After all, you’ve poured your heart and soul into your business and it can feel daunting trusting your clients to an external service provider. That’s why it pays to research different live receptionist companies and satisfy yourself that the level of service provided matches your own expectations. That includes speaking to receptionists directly and even making ‘mystery shopper’ style test calls, too.
Hiring a Professional Receptionist
This might seem like a quick fix. But problems creep in when untrained staff (or overworked business owners) take calls and handle customer service inquiries in an unprofessional manner. You know the feeling. You’re rushed off your feet, or you’re trying to multitask, or you’re in the middle of a complex task and you really don’t want a distraction, yet at the same time, you really can’t afford to miss a client’s call. The outcome could be an inadvertently brusque or distracted response which leaves the caller feeling let down and undervalued. What’s worse is having that call go unanswered altogether – left to languish in voicemail until who knows when. It’s a common problem. And that’s why many small business owners now delegate their call-answering and customer service requirements to trained professionals.
Setting Up Virtual Receptionist Services
The good news is most receptionist services can be set up quickly and easily, often within a matter of days. That means you can have a system in place ready for the holiday period. But these services can also form part of your long-term business growth strategy. Most providers are flexible enough to enable you to increase or decrease your live call answering and customer service minutes depending on seasonal requirements. For instance, you may need extra call answering time over the festive period, and less in January.
One flexible service provider is Alliance Virtual Offices, a partner of MyCompanyWorks, which provides professional live receptionist services starting from $95 per month. This includes live call answering, friendly customer service, and real-time appointment scheduling with bookings entered directly into your business calendar. It also includes a professional business number with a local or toll-free area code and a VoIP phone system.
It’s a great way to keep your business running over the holidays. But more importantly, services like these can form part of a longer-term strategy to strengthen your call experience, create positive impressions, and build brand credibility for future growth.
Click HERE to find out more about Alliance’s Live Receptionist service.
Check out other reception services in our Vendor Network.
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