How Does a Virtual Receptionist Work?

Customer support is a crucial component of any modern business’s success. Setting up a top-notch call support department is essential if you want to keep your customers close. However, not every business has the resources to arrange such a department.

That’s where call answering services and their virtual receptionists come into play. Wondering how do these services work? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is a virtual receptionist?

A virtual receptionist, also known as a remote receptionist, is someone that picks up your customers’ calls for you. However, that’s not the only service these receptionists provide — there’s much more to them than their name implies. Alongside taking incoming calls, remote receptionists answer messages, make outgoing calls, transfer calls, generate leads, and do much more.

Customer management is a serious problem for startups and smaller businesses as they don’t have the resources to set up their in-house call answering department. Virtual receptionists solve the problem by providing cost-efficient, state-of-the-art customer support.

Virtual receptionists vs. in-house receptionists

As the name suggests, in-house receptionists are based in your company. You put out job openings, conduct interviews, and hire private receptionists to work from your office.

On the other hand, virtual receptionists aren’t employed by you. They are employed by a third-party firm, usually a phone answering company. When you partner with such a company, their receptionists provide their services to you.

In almost all cases, in-house receptionists are a more costly means of handling customer calls. Not only do you have to spend a hefty amount on hiring and training staff, but you also have to provide them with workspaces and equipment.

Furthermore, service charges of call answering services are much lower than what you’d spend monthly on a batch of in-house receptionists.

Reasons to onboard virtual receptionists

Virtual receptionists don’t just answer calls — they add value to your customer support. Here’s how.

They are trained like in-house employees

Virtual receptionists are experts at handling customers’ calls and giving them satisfactory support. They are well trained to do what they do. You never have to worry about a virtual receptionist providing undervalued support to your valuable customers.

They know how to handle each call

Customer support agents have to handle several types of calls from different customers every day. Some customers might be super angry, some could be illiterate, some may be under-aged — customer support agents have to know how to handle each call effectively. Virtual receptionists get extensive training during their learning phases; they learn how to handle each call and make the most out of it.

They are available 24/7

Your in-house employees can’t work 24/7 as they have to leave after their 9-to-5 is over. However, a call answering service will assign you receptionists working in multiple shifts — so your customers get their questions answered any time of the day, and any day of the week.

They can transfer important calls to you

We are aware not every call can be handled by customer support. Some of them have to be forwarded to your in-house departments. Not to worry — when a receptionist gets a call that may require your concern, it’s forwarded to you without any hassle.

They can take customers’ messages for you

Alongside answering calls, virtual receptions can also reply to customer messages through SMS and other messaging platforms.

They can schedule your appointments

Virtual receptionists don’t only answer simple questions, they can also take care of important tasks like appointment scheduling for you.

They can collect leads

While conversing with customers, your virtual receptionists can get you valuable leads so you can expand and grow your business.

They can process orders

Virtual receptionists can also take orders for your products or services from customers on the phone; then process these orders for you. Handling on-phone orders was never easier.

They can register customers for your events

If you have a corporate event coming up, your virtual call receptionists can also accept registrations from potential attendees on the phone.

Takeaways

Virtual receptionists are a reliable and cost-efficient replacement for in-house customer support agents. Not only they are cheaper and more experienced in handling customers, but they can also hook you up with several other benefits like lead generation, order processing, call forwarding, and much more.