We usually make our minds up in the first few seconds. Whether it’s people you meet or voices you hear, we tend to judge very quickly whether something is positive and good for us or not – everyone knows, first impressions really count.
With a dedicated telephone answering service, it’s not just that the voice on your call is friendly and helpful and welcoming, it is also the fact that you are actually talking to a real person. Too many companies don’t really value incoming phone calls and then they wonder why their competitors are so much more successful. Plugging in voicemail isn’t good enough if you want your small business to be popular with customers. These days people are really insulted and frustrated by having to compress all their thoughts and questions into a few seconds before the machine recording goes beep – and who has any idea at all when the company will respond to your voicemail?
I guess voicemail is better than just letting a phone ring on and on, but if you really want to make the caller welcome - talking live to another person is the very best solution. People like to talk to people. No matter what you are doing as a small business owner, a live answering service always ensures you are showing a welcoming openness to opportunity – and you are not making your customers jump through hoops!
Every small business needs to keep a constant eye on costs. Balancing the cost of operating a business with the need to generate revenue is an ongoing challenge. Whether your small business is involved in on-site services like electrical installations and construction or you specialise in hospitality and retail, a professional answering service for small business offers you two benefits – you save costs and you save customers.
A phone answering service saves costs because you don’t need to employ an in-house receptionist to answer incoming customer calls. You also don’t need to pay for dedicated space for a receptionist. Even if your small business doesn’t have a dedicated receptionist, you’ve probably arranged to have calls answered in an ad hoc fashion by anyone that’s available – that’s now solved. You’ll now save money with your virtual receptionist because no-one in your business has to step in to act as receptionist anymore and they can totally focus on the main task - generating revenue.
An answering service for your small business will also save customers because you will never miss a call. Every telephone call will be answered promptly in a professional manner, every time. Whenever your small business is really busy, maybe there are new marketing campaigns or a special summer sale or you’ve introduced a new product line that everyone wants – all those sales calls will still be immediately answered because your virtual receptionist service is scalable. More business calls will never be a problem for your live answering service, we just scale up with more professional local Australian based virtual receptionists answering in your company name. So you save customers because they will never be told, “We are busy, please hold”. You’ll always maintain that professional image that will calm and keep potential customers.
Prospective sales lead will never have to wait and wait - and you know with every passing minute they will like your business less and less until their patience is exhausted and they hang up. A call answering service with Virtual Headquarters solves all those worries.
With your small business answering service you can also capture those revenue opportunities from customers who don’t adhere to your business office hours. After Covid19, so many people have changed to WFH and chosen to reschedule their working day. An answering service allows your business to really welcome revenue after hours and on weekends or holidays. When peak sales periods come along like Christmas, its so easy to extend your live answering service to cater for interested buyers at 7pm on weekdays or on the weekend.
As a small business owner you have to use all the options to stand out in the market place. Developing a reputation as a customer focussed business that really cares about customer satisfaction is an excellent marketing point. A telephone answering service will be your partner, keeping the door of opportunity open, with just the right friendly professional tone.
Its no use setting up a call management solution for your small business unless it is with a company that you can trust. You want to really impress your clients and get that first impression totally correct - it needs to be warm, welcoming and absolutely professional. The first detail to check is where the virtual receptionists for the answering service company are based. Your customers are going to be so much more relaxed and open if they talk to a local Australian who understands the Australian business world and all the business jargon of your products and services. At virtual Headquarters, the virtual receptionist team supporting your business are all Australian based, always.
The second big thing to check is how experienced the small business answering service is. How long have they been in business? How many years have they been handling calls? At Virtual Headquarters we have been providing live answering services for small business for more than 15 years. That’s experience.
A few other points to check are whether you can have a free trial. Virtual Headquarters offers a one-week free trial.
Its also important to see that the incoming phone call handling packages are simple – check there is no minimum period, no long-term contract that you have to sign, no set up fee. A telephone answering service should be an easily affordable service – with no special terms or pre-condition jargon.
At virtual Headquarters we will answer calls for small business owners whenever and however they want. Just need us to cover overflow calls? Done. Just need us while your receptionist is on leave. Done. Want to go 24/7 month to month. Done.
You’ve talked to our telephone answering service team and together we’ve decided on the best pricing package that matches your needs. You’ve received a new local number that will simply revert through to your new Virtual Reception. We’ve learnt about your small business and you’ve created a comprehensive FAQ for the virtual receptionists. You have provided instructions on which calls should be prioritised and how you would like important calls to be routed to your key staff. It’s been an easy but concise process because after 15 years experience we have learnt how to smoothly implement our answering service for every type of business. Now everything is in place, you have a small business answering service managing every call on behalf of your business. Its such a good partner to your business.
Call us at virtual Headquarters. We’ll answer promptly in a welcoming voice.
Test us. Trial our service. We are your experienced call management partner.
