If you are thinking of having a ‘virtual office’, what are the services that the office should or could provide? Furthermore, over and above the services offered, what factors should you take into consideration before choosing your ‘virtual office’ provider?
Covid-19 has led many businesses to review how they work. Some have moved to a hybrid model with a proportion of staff working in the office and others working from home, often with an element of rotation involved. Others have opted to have all staff working from home complemented by a virtual ‘head’ office.
‘Virtual Office’ Services
At the core of ‘virtual office’ services is telephone answering. When your customers, prospects or suppliers call, you want them to believe that they are dealing directly with your business.
Telephone answering
When a Paperclip team member answers an incoming call, their screen pops with your details. These details include:
- The greeting you have asked to be used – ‘Good morning, this is Company ABC. How may I help you?’
- How you want calls to be handled – take a message, transfer the call, collect information or other.
- Those numbers you want to be put through automatically and those you want blocked.
- Your ‘virtual office’ should also be able to screen out sales calls and other nuisance calls.
You may also want a personalised voicemail for those few calls that fall outside 8 am to 6 pm on a weekday, and 9 am to 4 pm on a Saturday.
Zoom, Skype, Teams…
With the increase in home working and the growth in Zoom, Skype, Teams and other digital communications platforms when your mobile phone is on silent, having someone to answer your calls ensures you maintain a professional customer-friendly approach to communications.
Your ‘virtual office’ provider should also be able to act as facilitator/administrator should you wish to run online webinars or conferences.
Landline and virtual phone numbers
Your ‘virtual office’ provider should also be able to furnish you with landline and additional phone numbers. For example, you may generate a lot of your sales from a specific city or town, and having a number with the local dialling code could be one way of attracting and reassuring prospective customers.
Registered and postal address
If you are a relatively small company you may want your ‘virtual office’ provider’s address to be your business address for postal purposes. This keeps your home address private and reinforces the ‘serious company’ image provided by having your phone calls, landline and mobile, answered professionally. Paperclip can provide both a mailing address and a registered address for clients, the latter being a legal requirement of the incorporation process for limited companies. All companies have to maintain a registered address throughout their existence.
Administrative tasks
Depending on the type of company you are, and whether you prefer to keep your fixed costs as low as possible, your ‘virtual office’ should be able to support you with a wide range of administrative tasks. At Paperclip, for example, these could include credit control, social media monitoring, maintenance and cleansing of databases, email filtering, diary management and outgoing customer care calls.
Live Chat
Over the past twelve months, Live Chat is a feature many companies are offering on their websites. Your ‘virtual office’ should be able to both set-up Live Chat on your website for you and then handle the chats as they come through. In most cases, this is facilitated by a series of FAQs you provide to Paperclip and which grows over time as trends within chats are identified.
Selecting Your ‘Virtual Office’ Provider
It is important to note that selecting your ‘virtual office’ provider is a major business decision. The ‘virtual office’ represents and, ideally, enhances your reputation and brand. It is not a decision to be taken lightly.
Firstly, you need a ‘virtual office’ you are comfortable with. Did they answer your call professionally when you first called? Have they worked with similar businesses to your own in the past? Did they take the time to get to know you, your business and your specific needs? Do their marketing materials and email communications match the sales message they are giving you verbally? In a Covid-19 world, of course, this process may need to take place over Skype or Zoom calls.
Secondly, take a good look at your prospective ‘virtual office’’ providers website. Does it carry testimonials? Do they have the ring of truth or are they all ‘anonymised’: Mrs C of Tunbridge Wells! Will they let you speak to a couple of their current clients as reference points?
Finally, does your chosen ‘virtual office’ provider have the size and scale that gives you the confidence they can respond to your needs and requirements as they, inevitably, fluctuate?
Call me if you want to discuss your ‘virtual office’ options
If you want to know more about the many ways in which a ‘virtual office’ could benefit your business, then please give me a call at Paperclip on 01246 418181. We know you will enjoy working with us.
I look forward to your call.
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Hi, I’m Anne Batty, Managing Director of Paperclip. I am passionate about customer service. I believe enduring relationships are built on being open, transparent and trustworthy.
I love questions. So, if you have a question relating to telephone answering – pricing, technical, scope and more – I would love to hear from you at anne@paperclip.co.uk or 01246 418181.
Paperclip’s clients enjoy working with us. I know you will too.