TIPS & RESOURCES

If you lack manpower and time to deal with customer calls, then you might need virtual assistant phone answering service.

7 Benefits of a Virtual Phone Answering Service

Each day, more and more businesses are discovering the unique benefits of a virtual phone answering service. They’re outsourcing all of their communications needs to off-site personnel who answer and transfer calls, place outgoing calls, take messages, and perform various other administrative duties.

For businesses, that virtual help translates into real-world perks. Virtual assistants help businesses run more smoothly, increase their productivity, and boost their bottom lines—among many other crucial benefits that other services simply can’t provide.

If you’re curious to know more about what a virtual assistant phone answering service can do for your company, keep reading for seven benefits that can transform your business operations.

#1 Never Miss a Call

When you partner with a virtual telephone answering service, you’re matched with a team of digital receptionists standing by to ensure that every time your business line rings, someone’s there to pick it up.

Some answering services give you the flexibility of scheduling their services at specific times. For instance, depending on your business needs, you may only require help a few days a week, only in the evenings, or according to a changing schedule. On the other hand, the best answering services are available at the times you need them most, like:

During business hours
After business hours
During peak hours

From a business standpoint, it’s easy to see how this is one of the biggest benefits of a virtual phone assistant. In short, it allows you to do two key things:

Seize every business opportunity – When it comes to managing your business, every call is an opportunity to boost business, whether that’s pitching a service, making a sale, or fielding inquiries. In short, each time your business line rings, it’s a chance to make money.
Bolster your business image – On the customer’s end, a few things are as frustrating as not being able to reach a business when you need to. When customers cannot get a hold of you, they may lose faith in your brand. A call answering service means customers are always able to get in touch.

#2 Be There For Your Customers 24/7

Hiring a virtual phone assistant is an excellent way to boost your customer service, make positive impressions on your customers, and build the kind of long-term relationships that keep small businesses thriving.1

How? When you partner with an answering service, you can provide 24/7 customer support. Your customers want to be able to get a hold of you on their schedule. And it’s important that a representative is there to answer customer calls if your customers have:

Questions about a product they purchased from you
Concerns about a service they received
Appointment-scheduling needs

#3 Professional, Competent, Knowledgeable Help

Yes, ensuring that your customers are able to easily contact your business is a big part of excellent customer service. But that doesn’t mean you want just anybody answering their call. Instead, you want well-trained, highly skilled professionals with experience interfacing with the public in a variety of industries, such as:

Home services
Healthcare
Legal
Real Estate
eCommerce
Technology

Beyond having an answering service that provides value to your customers, it’s also important to have one you can trust. Receptionists, whether they’re sitting at a desk in your office or working from a remote location, are likely to handle a lot of your business’s sensitive material.

Confidential reports, private customer information, and top-secret future plans—your receptionist has access to all of it.

That’s why the best virtual assistant phone answering service is one that staffs only the most trusted, qualified operators. When you’re partnering with an answering service, make sure that their operators are:

Fully vetted – The most trusted virtual assistant companies thoroughly vet all of their operators through background checks, criminal history, verification of work history, and references.
Credentialed and experienced – Make sure that the company you work with hires operators with proven work histories in the field. They should come with stellar, verified recommendations and have experience in in-office and virtual communications.

#4 Save Money

There’s the old saying that in order to make money, you have to spend money. But in the case of outsourcing your business communications to a virtual answering service, spending money saves money. Here’s why.

Answering services aren’t free. But using one can save your business money in ways that, in the long term, make the costs associated with an answering service more than worth it. Taking your business communications out of the office saves you on overhead costs associated with:

Office space and equipment – If you hire an in-office receptionist to handle your calls, you’ll need a place for them to work. You’ll also need to provide the tools they’ll need to do the work, like a computer, a phone, a desk, and other office supplies. A remote virtual assistant means you can cut costs without sacrificing quality customer service.
Hiring personnel – Say goodbye to the days of sifting through stacks of resumes or fielding online job inquiries. Hiring a virtual phone assistant saves you money and time that you used to spend on finding in-person employees.
Paying out benefits – Full-time employees typically require full-time benefits. Health insurance, sick pay, and vacation time—these are all expenses you as the business owner has to meet. But outsourcing to a virtual assistant company removes that responsibility.

#5 Bolster Your Business Reputation

How your business handles its communication—with customers, with vendors, and with others in your community—goes a long way toward shaping its reputation. Phone lines that ring and ring, calls that are never returned, and messages that don’t get delivered are all things that can make the public question the integrity of your company.

But when you work with a virtual assistant phone answering service, you streamline your business communications network, ensuring that every experience a member of your community has with your company is professional, personable, and, in the end, profitable.

#6 Optimize Productivity

There’s another ageless saying that you’re probably deeply familiar with as a business owner: time is money. And frankly, keeping up with inbound and outbound calls, emails, and other communications-related aspects of doing business takes a lot of time.

Unfortunately, if you’re returning communication yourself, you likely aren’t focusing on the aspects of your business that require just as much of your attention. And even when you aren’t personally managing your business communications, the responsibility falls to one of your employees. Surely there’s a better use of their talents and skills.

Virtual assistants are an opportunity to off-load the time-consuming work of being a modern business with modern communications needs. Hiring a virtual phone assistant is an opportunity to step away from the telephone and get back to what’s important: running your business.

#7 Experience Built-In Benefits

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about virtual phone assistants is that the only thing they do is field incoming calls. But the truth is, virtual assistants do much more than that, managing every facet of how your business communicates.

Yes, that means answering and placing phone calls—but it also includes answering emails, sending and receiving important faxes, and even scheduling services and other appointments.

But what a service can do for your business goes beyond just those things. Other services on offer may include:

Call recording – Documenting of all of your interactions is a key aspect of doing business.2 It allows you to maintain superior customer service by providing you with a record of what your customer needs. In turn, this allows you to anticipate their future needs as well as the needs of other customers. Fortunately, call recording is a service many virtual phone answering assistants offer.
Live chat – Setting up a feature for your customers to chat with you via your website can be an expensive and laborious process. But if you partner with the right answering service, they can manage your online chat functions for you.
Bilingual service – Offering your customers the opportunity to communicate with you in the language they’re most comfortable with is a level of customer service that can build customer trust and loyalty. Partner with an answering service that offers services in other languages aside from English.

Other benefits of a virtual assistant phone answering service:

Aside from answering calls, the right service can also minimize administrative tasks, such as scheduling appointments, checking on voicemail, following up on a missed call, and forwarding phone inbound calls to the right people.

Outsource Your Business Communications to Nexa

When you have a growing customer base, you’ll need all the customer support you can get. If you’re thinking of incorporating a virtual phone assistant into your business strategy, there’s only one name you need to know: Nexa.

Nexa helps small businesses manage their communication needs, from answering inbound calls and placing outbound calls to facilitating live chat answering service and text messaging. When you work with our communication specialists, you can rest assured that there’s a real person behind every call. That’s how we help small businesses grow and thrive.

We provide people-powered communications solutions for small businesses that need a helping hand. Combining exemplary customer service with the latest technology, we’re making it easier than ever for your small business to achieve big business results.

Ready to discover how Nexa can improve your business? Get started today.