A telephone answering service supports businesses by providing cost-effective solutions to managing inbound calls, outbound call transfers and message-taking.
OfficeHQ’s business answering service provides optimal caller experiences for business across Australia, including 24-hour call answering (if required) to ensure no important calls are missed. All for a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
Our team of virtual receptionists can relay urgent calls to listed contacts on your team, as well as free up employee time by screening non-urgent or superfluous calls.
By using our online portal or smartphone apps, you have the ability to instantly update each contact’s availability for transfers and instructions for our receptionist to follow.
Besides answering calls, we can also assist with scheduling and managing appointments in your preferred calendar or practice management tool.
What is a virtual receptionist?
A virtual receptionist is a person who answers your calls from a remote location, rather than physically being present in your business premises.
At OfficeHQ, we specialise in prividing:
- Standard live call answering services: Our receptionists can handle your calls 24/7, so you never miss an opportunity, whether you need a simple answering and message-taking solution or want to provide more support to callers with call transfers when appropriate.
- Call answering virtual assistant services: Our most experienced and skilled receptionists can handle more involved tasks when they answer your calls to enhance customer service and streamline your business processes (such as quoting fees, taking payments and inputting leads into your CRM) or even manage your diary including appointment scheduling, rescheduling and waitlists.
How can virtual receptionists cut your business expenses?
One of the biggest benefits of using virtual receptionists is they can help your business save money.
- They don’t take up any space in your business premises
- You don’t need to fork out money on their computer, headset, phone, desk, chair or stationery
- You don’t have to pay a regular salary (and associated expenses such as superannuation, sick pay and annual leave entitlements)
When outsourcing call answering to virtual receptionists, you simply pay for the work they do for you (whether per call or per minute).
A virtual receptionist can also handle basic admin and customer service questions, which can free up other staff members’ time, or reduce the number of permanent employees you need.
Other benefits of a virtual receptionist
Beyond cost-effectiveness, there are many benefits to using a business answering service. These include:
Enhanced professionalism: When you’re too busy to take a call, or you forget to call someone back who has left a message on your voicemail, there can be a perception that you lack professionalism. Having someone on-call to always ensure the phone is answered, fast and professionally, conveys a better impression.
Flexibility: You can choose to have virtual receptionists answer all yours calls 24/7, only after-hours calls or only the calls that aren’t answered in-house.
Better productivity: Studies have suggested that people working 8 hours a day at an office are actually only productive around 30% of that time. That’s right. For about 3 hours of the workday! The rest of the time is spent reading news websites, chatting with colleagues, eating, drinking coffee and so on. You only pay virtual receptionists when they are actively on-task for you.
More time: Having someone handle your phone calls can save hours of unnecessary chit-chat. As you receive messages from your virtual receptionist, you have the ability to prioritise who you call back and when. This gives you time to focus on the business that matters.
Try an answering service with OfficeHQ now with a free 7-day trial period with no credit card required and instant activation.
