How a Virtual Receptionist Can Improve Client Confidence In Your Small Business

As a business owner, your company probably started small. Maybe it’s just you or a handful of other folks on your team. While it’s nice to run a lightweight business, you may run into a few disadvantages when it comes to pitching prospects. 

Your potential customers might think your business isn’t big enough to handle their needs, and this may affect the trust and service you can provide, as well as your overall brand. If you look too small, customers may not feel confident in you. One of the easiest ways to handle this objection from potential clients is to hire a receptionist. Businesses with receptionists are perceived as more substantial and can help in proving to your customers you are not only professional, but you’re bigger than expected.

A virtual receptionist service can make your brand look well-established and instill prospect trust in your brand while remaining cost-effective. 

What is a Virtual Receptionist?

A virtual receptionist is precisely what it sounds like: they’re a remote professional who fills the role of a traditional receptionist but doesn’t sit in  your office.

Virtual receptionists are knowledgeable and well-trained administrative professionals who specialize in providing exceptional customer service. They can also work outside of traditional office hours and help with off-hour coverage. When you have a small staff, everyone will likely wear many different hats, some of which are more productive and meaningful to the success of your business. 

Answering phone calls and providing information to clients is essential, but you don’t want the head of your business development team answering the phone every five minutes when they’re trying to concentrate on growing your company. 

While you may not be at the point where you need or can even hire a full-time receptionist, a virtual receptionist can step into free-up your employee’s valuable time to concentrate on what they’re best at. There are a host of benefits to hiring a virtual receptionist for your business. In addition to answering calls and providing customer service, many are also very skilled at other administrative tasks.

A virtual receptionist can help with lead generation, scheduling or canceling appointments, and processing orders. They can even provide after-hours support,  take messages and even live transfer calls if on-demand support is an expectation in your industry, like web development. Simply put, a virtual receptionist can help you streamline and boost your customer service and provide your clients with confidence in your business.

Benefits of a Virtual Receptionist for a Small Business

While the features of virtual receptionists vary based on skill and your needs, let’s review how bringing one on for your small business can benefit both you and your customers.

Never Miss a Call

When you’re running a lightweight operation, small businesses generally don’t have one designated receptionist. Even if you do hire a full-time, in-person receptionist, they will end up missing phone calls because they can’t be everywhere at the same time. Not to mention, you’d lose any requests that come in after-hours. With a virtual receptionist, you can keep your team lightweight, and also ensure your phones are answered every time they ring, regardless of the hour. 

According to a 2017 Forrester report, missing a call can impact your business tremendously because it’s your customers that are the lifeblood of your company.

When a customer or potential prospect is reaching out to you, they are probably looking to purchase your product or service. Customers initiating an inbound call convert 30% faster compared to outside sales calls.

The Forrester report also notes phone call inquiries are rising throughout the industry, mostly because people don’t see the difference between digital and physical businesses anymore. A virtual answering service can ensure you’re capturing every call that comes into your business and you’re not leaving money on the table by missing a potential customer. They act as an extension of your business.

A Virtual Assistant ensures your company is available at all times which gives the impression your company is much larger than it is. 

Screen Phone Calls

As your business grows and your client list expands, you will eventually need to start screening calls to maximize your time. Cold inquiries can take energy away from that hot lead, so prioritizing becomes ever more important. 

When you hire a virtual receptionist, they can screen your calls so you can devote and prioritize your time wisely. Time is a valuable resource, and ROI needs to be evaluated as you grow. Stretched too thin, and your business starts to suffer.

For your virtual receptionist to screen calls, you provide a customized script for them to use. A script ensures you can devote your time to returning the calls that will have the most benefit on your business first. You can also provide different scenarios for business hours, after hours, and include support processes so you can delegate appropriately. 

Answer Basic Questions

When your business gets a phone call, there might be several questions people may ask that can be answered by pretty much anyone with a little bit of information.

Instead of wasting your precious time answering the same question for the 20th consecutive call of the day, a virtual receptionist will be able to take these off your plate. You’re ready to focus on the core business tasks that are important to the success of your business and your customers or potential clients are getting the answers they need. Provided with the appropriate information to give clients, your receptionist becomes the gatekeeper. They give the solutions to regularly asked questions and pass off only those messages that require follow-up for you and your staff. 

Respond to New Opportunities

When you hire a virtual receptionist, you’re putting your business in a position to respond to growth opportunities as they arise. With the proper channels in place, you can scale up your business quickly and easily. As your business grows, the influx of calls is only going to increase. Put yourself in a position where you won’t be struggling to keep up with a virtual receptionist. Your customers will receive top-notch services and phone handling and will help your business convert more leads.

A virtual receptionist service can help your small business scale up quickly and look bigger to a potential client, helping them build trust and confidence in your services. Providing fantastic customer service to your current clients keeps them happy, and your business relationship flourishing.

 A virtual receptionist helps you appear more professional while delivering the same functions as an in-house receptionist at a much more affordable cost. If you want to level-up your small business and prepare for expansive growth, a virtual receptionist will get you there. 

So, what are you waiting for?

2023 Buyers Guide

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Computer Telephony Integration

 

1.)

Premium Listing Call Center Studio Call Center Studio Call Center Studio is the world’s first call center built on Google and is one of the most secure and stable systems with some of the industry’s best reporting. It is one of the most full-featured enterprise grade systems (with the most calling features, one of the best call distribution, outbound dialing features and integrations—including IVR, AI Speech Recognition, blended inbound/outbound calling and includes Google’s new Dialogflow and Speech API. Call Center Studio is the absolute easiest to use (with a 10 minute setup), and is the price performance leader with lower equipment cost and less setup time.

2.)

AMC Technology DaVinci DaVinci provides Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) to a library of pre-built applications + UXiPaaS (User Experience Integration Platform as a Service) built specifically for contact centers. As contact center needs evolve, organizations need to have access to extend or create new functionality, without waiting to be a part of a software roadmap. Get the benefits of CTI within your CRM like screen pop, click-to-dial, screen transfer, speed dial and more, but future-proof your contact center so you can expand and integrate how and when you want.

3.)

ComSys S.A. CLink for CRM and Call Center Integration CLink by Comsys is a middleware that connects in real-time the CRM and the contact center applications. CLink enhances the CRM with interaction management capabilities from the contact center that allow agents to work more productively across all communication channels. Comsys is a provider of οmnichannel customer engagement solutions that assist companies around the world in delivering unique customer experiences. For the last 15 years, Comsys designs and implements complex projects for clients from the outsourcing, financial services, telecommunications, and retail sectors. Comsys enjoys strategic partnerships with technology vendors like Cisco®, Aspect Software®, and Microsoft® for the delivery of innovative interaction management and contact center optimization solutions.

4.)

Consilium Software Consilium UniAgent™ Today’s call centers need their agents to work more naturally, and respond better and faster. Here, we talk about the innovations Consilium has made with the latest desktop and mobile agent releases of the UniAgent™ CRM connector. From small enterprises to Fortune 500 companies and governments across 110 countries, UniAgent™ comes into action right at the moment of reckoning, making every contact center experience engaging and personalized, powered by simplified customer identification and anticipating customer needs. UniAgent™ provides CRM integrations between all the Cisco contact center solutions (UCCX, PCCE, UCCE and HCS-CC) and over 20 CRMs, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365... (read more)Today’s call centers need their agents to work more naturally, and respond better and faster. Here, we talk about the innovations Consilium has made with the latest desktop and mobile agent releases of the UniAgent™ CRM connector. From small enterprises to Fortune 500 companies and governments across 110 countries, UniAgent™ comes into action right at the moment of reckoning, making every contact center experience engaging and personalized, powered by simplified customer identification and anticipating customer needs. UniAgent™ provides CRM integrations between all the Cisco contact center solutions (UCCX, PCCE, UCCE and HCS-CC) and over 20 CRMs, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Service Cloud & Siebel, BMC Remedy, Sugar CRM, ServiceNow, SAP C4C, FreshDesk, and more. Consilium UniAgent™ CRM connectors are proven in over 110 countries with thousands of agents globally. Enterprises are proactively working towards enhancing their Customer Experience (CX) strategy to optimize omnichannel interaction throughout the customer lifecycle. Consilium UniAgent™ is delivering this as a Connected Digital Experience, being at the center of the agent and customer interaction. The 8.0 release of UniAgent™ is designed to help organizations deliver intuitive, contextual and experience-driven customer service across voice and digital channels (chat, SMS and social media.) As we enter the next stage of the global pandemic, contact centers are faced with the prospect of permanently allowing at least some of their agents to be Work-from-Home agents, without reducing the customer experience (CX.) UniAgent™ Mobile (UA™ Mobile) provides a mobile phone-based solution for Work-from-Home (WFH) agents, and can also be used from tablets or PC’s, all without the need for installing anything or requiring VPN. UniAgent™ is now available in a cloud-hosted deployment model. Our choices of subscription-based or owned-license pricing gives the flexibility customers and partners need. UniAgent™ can reduce call handling time, accelerate resolutions, and allow for faster call processing to reduce customer wait times in queue. Contact centers can shorten the total time agents spend on inbound and outbound calls, increasing agent productivity by up to 25% by providing customer information to an agent's desktop at the same time the customer call arrives. This cost saving alone can provide a rapid return on investment (ROI). In addition, quick resolution of customer concerns is possible because agents can now use the historical information in CRM’s to shorten call hold times and quickly address the problem. Finally, simple on-screen click-to-talk capabilities are integrated into the CRM screen, allowing agents to initiate outbound calls quickly. Features and Benefits • Automatic logging: Administrators and managers get Cisco CUIC reporting of all agent activity, and voice and non-voice contact activity is also saved to the CRM. • Omnichannel federation: Support for voice, chat, email, and Universal Queue/UQ routing with Single-Sign-On supported • One-click dialing: Agents need only to click on a phone number once in the CRM to place calls, saving time and removing the possibility of dialing wrong numbers. • Pre-packaged integration: Allows pre-packaged integration between CRM’s and the Cisco Unified Contact Center solutions for fast, easy installation, and easy upgrades when Cisco Unified Contact Center and CRM product versions change. • Full telephony functions: All telephony functions in the CRM agent desktop including phone control, caller identification, and screen pops • Proven architecture: A robust, proven architecture that has been successfully deployed for governments and Fortune 500 companies since 2008.

5.)

IntraNext Systems IntraNext Systems develops agent efficiency tools and data security software solutions for medium-to-large contact centers. Our Event Intelligence® Platform solutions include SmartCTI™, iGuard®, and SmartSIP™. SmartSIP is based on our patented SIP layer technology and provides a DTMF masking solution for VoIP environments.

6.)

Megacall CRM integration CRM We know how important it is for a business to obtain data from its customers and to manage them effectively, so we help small to large companies by integrating their CRM with the Virtual Switchboard. This type of integration will simplify the work of your team and improve the management performance of the contact list and its information.

7.)	NovelVox NovelVox CTI Connector NextGen Cisco Finesse, Genesys & Avaya Embedded CTI Connectors for Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, ServiceNow, Zendesk & more.

8.)

PhoneIQ PhoneIQ What is PhoneIQ? PhoneIQ is the modern cloud phone system and contact center platform built exclusively for companies on Salesforce. Our all-in-one cloud communications platform brings together power dialing, local presence, voicemail drop, Salesforce call routing, call recording and a complete PBX replacement that lives within your CRM. With support for desktop, mobile, and desk phones, PhoneIQ works seamlessly at the office or remote, logging all interactions in Salesforce and generating reports in real-time. Best For Companies using Salesforce and looking for a phone system, dialer, or contact center software that provides deep integration capabilities with their CRM and expert Salesforce support.

9.)

PRILINK Easy Contact Center Traffic Analytics (Ec2Traffic) Prilink Ec2Traffic provides network traffic analytics (NTA) for Internet, SIP Trunk and WebRTC traffic for on-premises and cloud Contact Centers. Ec2Traffic analyzes network layer 2 to 4, RTP and SRTP packet loss and SIP protocols in real-time from the demarcation point or network edge, generating NTA metadata and requires little telemetry bandwidth. Ec2Traffic provides: - Year-round NTA metadata - Daily CSV files upload to Customer business applications - Capture packet to Wireshark for Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) - detect traffic anomalies - and more ....

10.)

Teckinfo Solutions Pvt. Ltd. InterDialog UCCS InterDialog UCCS - a robust contact/ call center software that helps organizations provide a seamless customer experience across all channels in the customer service journey. All interactions from various channels come to a single unified queue on the InterDialog platform. With unified view agents get to see all historical interactions , enabling him to give a resolution quickly. InterDialog UCCS is a comprehensive Contact/Call Center Software with robust CTI, Unified Q ( ACD), Reporting, Unified Agent Management, Administrator, Supervisor - Monitoring (Pmonitor)

11.)

The Primas Group Primas CX Primas CX is a CTI-based contact center enhancement suite that takes your contact center software to the next level. It provides a set of tools that every contact center needs, over and above their vendor features. *Advanced Call Back in Queue & SMS in Queue *Agent Screen Pop *Chatbot Automation *Welcome Back Greeting *Post Contact Survey *Dropped Call Reconnect *Digital Front Door & Many more As a Vendor Agnostic ISV, we pride ourselves on delivering the best COTS & Custom solutions for any contact center in any industry.

 

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