Expanding Business by Using an Answering Service

Rising costs of brick-and-mortar offices, and the desire of many professionals and entrepreneurs to be flexible and mobile, have given birth to the trend of virtual offices over the last several years. Enterprising and tech-savvy individuals have found ways to replace almost every aspect of a traditional office with virtual equivalents, freeing them from the responsibility and the cost of maintaining a physical office. Answering services are another piece of the puzzle, and can help people maintain a virtual office even when dealing with larger operations than might have been run in more traditional ways in the past.

A Match Made in Virtual Heaven

Realistically, the union of answering services and virtual offices just makes sense. The virtual office manager wants to find ways to cut costs and to provide customers with all the benefits of a regular office without incurring the costs or responsibilities associated with the more traditional way of doing business. Answering services offer excellent savings over having to hire and provide office space, equipment and training for reception staff.

In addition, it is difficult to be constantly answering a cell phone or checking voicemail messages throughout the day. If customers are always getting your voicemail, they can feel like they’re not being heard. A business answering service improves your customer service, frees up your time, and ensures that your customers are dealt with promptly and effectively.

Benefits of an Answering Service

One of the largest benefits of an answering service is that you never have to worry about missing calls, without the constant interruptions that looking after this yourself would entail. Many virtual executives stay stuck like glue to their phones, because they operate entire companies from the palm of their hand. However, answering every customer question or entering every tiny order can interrupt more important work constantly throughout the day. An answering service leaves you free to focus on what’s important.

An answering service is also a great way to expand the hours during which your company can serve your customers. A virtual office is flexible in terms of location, but it still demands that someone be receiving and processing customer inquiries. Customers who ask questions in the middle of the night often end up waiting until morning for a reply, which can be problematic for companies with a global client base. A live answering service can fill in the gaps for a virtual executive so that the company is never unavailable to its clients or customers.