As your business develops, you may find yourself in need of help. You do not know what with, you just know that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything you need to do. One task you can delegate is answering calls. You may not think answering calls is that time consuming in your day. However, the biggest issue with your incoming calls is that they derail you from whatever task you may be doing thus making you inefficient. The solution is clear, the first person you need to bring on board is someone to help with your call answering.
You have now decided that you need a Virtual Receptionist, so you set yourself to find the best Virtual Receptionist for your business. What do you look for? Lucky for you, we hire and train Virtual Receptionists weekly. Let us share with you some of the qualities we look for in a Virtual Receptionist.
They are extroverted
If you are looking for someone who will be on the phone 8 hours a day, you want that person to enjoy talking to people. We often turn down candidates with beautiful qualifications because they are drained by being social. We want Virtual Receptionists to enjoy their work, not dread it. An extroverted Virtual Receptionist is much more likely to perform better than an introverted Virtual Receptionist.
They smile
One of the first things we train our receptionists to do is to “smile through the phone.” You can hear a person smiling through the phone. Their tone is more pleasant, and their choice of words is more polite.
They know how to keep their cool
Anything can happen during a call. Unfortunately, not all the people calling your office will be pleasant. Knowing how to handle unpleasant callers is a key part of a Virtual Receptionist’s job. Someone with a “short fuse” may engage in a match of raising the voice with an angry caller or may treat them unprofessionally. When looking for a Virtual Receptionist, make sure you look for someone who understands how to keep their cool.
They are honest
Over your years as an answering service, we have encountered Virtual Receptionists that use little white lies when taking calls. They go a bit too far when giving an excuse as to answer a caller’s question. “Will the attorney be able to help me on my case?” “Yes, the attorney can help with everything.” “May I speak to John?” “John is grabbing lunch with a client, right now.” This may not sound like much, but these white lies can show a great lack of professionalism in your organization. A Virtual Receptionist cannot over-promise and put you in a position to under-deliver. Nor they can excuse you by saying you were doing X when in fact you were doing Y. We select and train our operators to be transparent in their answering endeavors. Both our clients and their callers appreciate this.
They are bilingual
The market is changing. Over 30% of Americans speak Spanish. We want to anticipate market shifts and provide more value to our clients. To do so, we seek receptionists that are fully bilingual in English and Spanish. This has allowed us to become strategic partners to a number of professionals that highly rely on the Hispanic market. If this is your case, or you would like to explore expanding your market, we recommend hiring a bilingual receptionist.
Finding the right Virtual Receptionist may not be an easy task. Training them and providing the right environment to their success is also a complicated endeavor. At Easybee, we do this daily so other professionals and small to medium businesses do not have to.
If you are in the market for a Virtual Receptionist, we recommend you look into Easybee Answering Service. We provide 24/7/365 live answering services. Our team of operators has been carefully selected and trained to ensure your business’ success. Give our 2 week free trial a try!
