Most business executives agree that one of the most valuable employees you can hire is the receptionist because this person is often the first contact that a potential client has with your business. A professional receptionist presents a certain image and is most definitely the look and voice of your business. Whether this person is a male or a female, he or she must know a certain amount about your business because he or she is often called upon to answer questions and clear up misconceptions.

This and many other reasons is why making sure your receptionist is highly qualified and professional is crucial, but what happens when your regular receptionist goes on holiday or maternity leave? Should you hire another receptionist to take the place of your regular receptionist or choose a more temporary method? Believe it or not, you do have reasonable and effective options these days.

Determining What Your Needs Are

When a regular receptionist is going to be out for a while, a business has an important decision to make. Hiring someone on a temporary basis can be ineffective and expensive but the last thing you want is to have no one around to answer your important phone calls. These days, depending upon their basic needs, a lot of businesses are choosing a virtual receptionist instead of going the regular route and this option is a lot more effective than you might think. Virtual receptionists are well-trained and very professional, and because they are educated on the basics concerning your business, they can answer questions by potential customers in an efficient and professional manner. This is just one of the reasons why choosing a virtual receptionist is becoming so popular these days.

Not What You Might Think

When businesses think of using a virtual receptionist, it is easy for them to feel a bit hesitant and think that this option is a sloppy one but these days that is simply not the case. Virtual receptionists are not only available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, but the companies that hire them always have dozens of employees on hand, which means that your phone calls will always be answered in a timely manner. This is important for many reasons because many studies have shown that if a business’s telephone isn’t answered by the second or third ring, it can cause a caller to hang up and forget about that business altogether. With a virtual receptionist, that is never a problem because all phone calls are answered promptly every time, allowing you to increase your customer base.

Let Others Handle the Difficult Part of Your Job

Answering the telephone is not a simple task because it involves a great deal of knowledge and professionalism. Companies such as Message Direct hire expert virtual receptionists and since they offer their services 24/7, they can work for you even while you are asleep, which means that they can take a lot of the difficult parts of your job off your plate and perform these tasks themselves. If you can imagine someone being there to answer potential customers’ questions even if they call in the middle of the night, it is easy to understand why this service is so important and beneficial. Whether you need a virtual receptionist for a day, a week, or a year, you can hire them to do the jobs that you yourself simply don’t have the time to do. Furthermore, because you operate the virtual receptionist system by simply entering a few digits into your telephone, you get to choose when you will use the service and you can even switch back and forth between their services and answering your calls yourself – it’s just that simple.

Virtual Receptionists Provide Numerous Duties

When you think “virtual receptionist,” it is easy to think that all these people do is answer the phone, but if you think that you’d be wrong. Today’s virtual receptionists can provide assistance when:

• There is an emergency and you need extra help, such as utility companies that need help when there is an outage.
• You have sent out a brochure or marketing piece and people will be calling in for additional information.
• Your company has a database that needs to be updated and you therefore need someone to contact everyone on the list to make sure that his or her information is correct.
• You have unusually high call volume during certain times of the year.

Furthermore, because you can quickly and easily switch back and forth between your business and the virtual receptionist company, you are in control because you can make the decision on which option is best at any given time. If you are out of your office for a few hours, you will naturally want to use the virtual services, but it is still good to know that it is simple and fast to answer the phones yourself once you get back to your office. These virtual receptionist companies make it fast, simple, and convenient to be in complete control of your phone-answering services because everything can be done by simply entering a few digits on your telephone keyboard.

Offering Other Advantages as Well

There are many other advantages to using a virtual receptionist service and one of the main advantages is the cost. Simply put, most virtual companies provide their services at a very low per-call or per-day rate with no hidden fees and no contract needed. If you use the service for a month and decide that it isn’t for you, you can stop, and since many of these companies offer a free trial period, this is a great way to decide if the service is or isn’t for you. Your business deserves to have professional assistance when it comes to answering your phones and virtual receptionist services are invaluable for both new and older businesses. Virtual receptionist companies are the epitome of professionalism, convenience, and knowledge and they are easy to work with and inexpensive as well. Whether you use these services occasionally or regularly, you can depend on them for excellent customer service and the assistance that you have a right to expect when relying on an outside company to answer your phones.