Are you looking to move your team to home working? Or perhaps you’re growing your home business and are looking for other alternatives to renting an office space for you and a small team?

In this blog we talk you through how our Virtual Receptionist Service can be the missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle of home working.

Think of the service a bit like your very own central receptionist, answering, handling and directing your incoming calls so that you and your home-based team can confidently work on managing your business without unnecessary distraction.

What the service offers:
Privacy for your home workers – there’ll be no need for them to give out their personal mobile or home landline number.
Always ensures that every call is answered, even during lunch breaks, sickness and holidays.
Always ensures that every call reaches the person in your team best to deal with it.
Produces a professional and efficient customer service image.

So let us take you on a journey, let’s call it a stream of consciousness of concerns that we regularly hear from stressed business owners when it comes to home working for a team…

It goes a little something like this…

“…I’m thinking of asking my team to use their personal mobile phones or home landline to answer incoming calls for the business, but I’m worried they wont be happy about it as I’d have to give their personal numbers out to customers and suppliers….

Perhaps I’ll buy them work mobile phones, that would solve it, but giving out a mobile number to customers doesn’t look very professional.

What happens if a call reaches the wrong person in the team, how do we re-direct the call to the best person to deal with it? Asking the customer to redial another number really doesn’t feel very professional at all.

What happens when my home working team take a lunch break, it’s not like in an office where someone else can grab the ringing phone.

I’m concerned that my team working from home is just going to lead to poor customer service, and leave a pretty unprofessional impression of the business….”

Meet Our Virtual Receptionist Telephone Answering Service
How it works…
If you currently have an office but are moving to home working, you can direct your business number to us to answer on your behalf. Or, if you’re currently relying on a mobile number to receive your calls, or even a home landline, all of these can be diverted to us…it’s a very easy thing to do, we can talk you through it, and you’re always in full control of when you divert the number to us, and when you answer it yourself.

You’ll have a small team of polite, friendly and professional customer service advisors answering your calls, they’ll get to know your business and your callers, and your callers might even get to know them too! They’ll know exactly how you’d like your calls managed (you’re in total control of that!). Your virtual receptionist team will appear just like an extension of your own team, your callers will have no idea they haven’t reached you directly.

Your virtual receptionists will answer your calls (always with your personalised business greeting) and ask only the questions you’ve asked as to ask them. Your virtual receptionist can then redirect the call to the best person within your team to deal with the enquiry. Perhaps you’d like calls regarding new sales patched through to one member of your team, and existing sales queries patched through to another. You can even supply us with a ‘patching hierarchy’ list, so if the best person to handle the call isn’t available, we can try the next best person in your team. If no one is available to take the call, your virtual receptionist can take a message and details for someone to return the call, or you can even equip us with answers to your most commonly asked questions.

Privacy
Using a virtual receptionist means that personal mobile numbers or home landline numbers never have to be given out. Your virtual receptionist will simply patch the call through to the relevant mobile number or landline, but it wont be traceable by the caller, maintaining the privacy of your team.

Professionalism
If your customers want to get in touch with a member of your team, they can call your business number which will be answered by your virtual receptionist, the caller can then simply give the name of the person they’d like to talk to and it will be patched straight through. Our service gives you an incredibly professional image, appearing to have your own receptionist in place, answering, directing and handling your calls.

Reliable call answering
We can handle multiple calls at the same time for your business, there’ll never be a break in your service because of lunch breaks, sickness or holiday. We can even offer you a 24/7 service, or a service that extends beyond standard business hours.

If you don’t currently have a landline number, and instead rely on a mobile number, but would like to appear more professional with a landline number, we can supply you with a virtual’ landline number to use as your own. You can give your virtual number to your customers, suppliers, and use it on all your marketing, and it can then be diverted to us to answer on your behalf. For more on a virtual telephone numbers, do read our short blog here.

For more information on our Virtual Receptionist Service and whether it could be the perfect solution for your business, call one of our friendly team on 01273 741400.

What is a Virtual Telephone Number?
A virtual telephone number is a number that can be provided to you, it is exclusively yours, and comes with an area code therefore appearing to be a landline number. This number is however virtual, and any calls made to it will need to be diverted, either to your mobile or home landline for you to answer, or they can be answered on your behalf by a virtual receptionist.

Who could benefit from a Virtual Telephone Number….and how?
If you’re a sole-trader, lone-ranger, or a new start-up.
If your business doesn’t have an office and instead is based from home (no matter the field you’re working in).
If you’re looking to extend the geographical reach of your business, and pull in new customers from further afield.

…in all of these instances, a virtual telephone number could really help boost a business.

It’s all about what it stands for…

A landline evokes lots of reassuring connections for your potential customers. A landline telephone number is connected to a place, it has an area code and offers a sense of location, traceability and permanence. It tells a potential customer that you (appear to have) a base, an office, and a physical presence. This offers reassurances to a customer who is contemplating spending money with you, and may give you the edge over a competitor who only has a mobile telephone number. You’ll instantly appear the more established business – and the better choice!

Relying on your mobile, or using your own home landline number comes with lots of privacy pitfalls. Do you really want to be handing out your personal phone number to customers and suppliers, do you really want them being able to trace the number to your family home? And what about your mobile…how will you know if it’s a personal call or a business call, will you just have to answer your phone with your professional greeting whether it’s your family or your biggest client calling?! Finally, it’s impossible to set boundaries and have business hours and quality time away from work. There’s no way of knowing when the phone rings at 7:30pm on a Saturday that it’s a work call that could have waited until Monday morning.

You always remain in full control of where you send your Virtual Telephone Number. Your callers will never know if it’s being diverted to your mobile, your home landline, your voicemail, or even answered by a telephone answering service that can handle the call for you.

A telephone answering service (like ours at CSnotepad!) can take a name, number and message for you and give you the information so you can return the call at your convenience. They can deal with general enquiries on your behalf, make bookings, take orders and even take payments – all while appearing as though members of your own in-house team, and always answered with your own personalised business greeting.

Do you already have an established business, but looking to extend your reach?
A virtual telephone number could be perfect for you. With it’s area code, the virtual telephone number you’re provided with could be for any area you choose within the UK. You can add this number to your website and all business marketing, it will instantly appear as though you have a new regional office, and this could appeal to a whole new audience of potential customers looking for a local solution. Any calls made to your new number can simply be diverted to your main business number to be answered.

We hope this gives you a clearer idea of what a virtual telephone number is, how it works, and how it could be a perfect solution for so many business owners.

For more information on Virtual Telephone Numbers or any of our Virtual Office Services – chat to a member of our friendly team on 01273 741400.