3 Ways a Virtual Office Receptionist Can Help With Non-Revenue Generating Distractions

If you are a new small business owner, you have just discovered how hard it is to run a one-person show. You find yourself accountable for every aspect of your business operation and are starting to become frustrated and overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities that come up. You may even miss the days of being an employee and realizing how essential a support staff is to the success of a business.

A Courteous Communications is here to help guide you through this new territory and to provide you with an affordable virtual office receptionist that can help with non-revenue generating distractions.

Let’s get creative and discuss the top 3 non-revenue generating distractions and how you can streamline your business practices to combat these common diversions that bring your business revenue down.

How our Virtual Office Receptionist Service can help with non-revenue generating distractions

1. Time Management

Poor time management can be the root of evil when it comes to declining profit-margins. Many entrepreneurs that don’t hire a live receptionist service have seen the time eating horrors that come by not hiring a support staff. Take a moment to add up the time needed to handle these common administrative tasks:

• •Acting as your own receptionist and being chained to your business telephone 24 hours a day.  
• •Being your own assistant by scheduling, canceling and confirming your daily appointments or service calls.  
• •Providing customer service to old, existing and new customers and answering frequently asked questions throughout the day.

If you add up the time it takes you to complete these administrative tasks on a daily basis, and that number comes up to 1 to 2+ hours a day, you are not managing your time as efficiently as you should be. Do a quick calculation with us and let’s say that your hourly rate is $50 and that you spend only 2 hours each day handling administrative work for your small business.

You are costing your own company $100 each day; just by trying to run your company on your own, you are running it into more debt! 

If you hired a highly skilled virtual office receptionist, not only would you free up your valuable time, but you would also do so at a much lower cost. An affordable answering service for small business administrative tasks could cost you as low as $10 a month. Stop working harder and start working smarter.

2. Customer Service and Communication

 What are you currently doing to improve your customer service and satisfy your customers’ inquiries? If your answer is, “I am not doing anything to improve customer satisfaction and communication,” then your small business will join the millions of businesses that fade out and expire. 

You may be putting little effort into customer service because you just can’t find the time to properly communicate and be available for calling customers. What you may not understand is how much revenue your business is losing by not providing your customers with excellent customer service and open communication.

Finding the time and resources to provide elite customer service will benefit your business in countless ways and can help you to dramatically increase:

• •Customer Loyalty
• •Customer Spending
• •Customer Frequency
• •Customer Referrals  

An answering service for small business customer service support can save your business and give your customers 24 hour telephone assistance to help them in their buying decisions. When our virtual office receptionist answers your business lines, we act as an extension of your office. Our customizable telephone business features allow us to fully speak on your behalf and assist your customers all day and night; allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business operations.

Our live receptionist service can answer your calls all day or just after normal business hours; schedule and confirm your appointments; and, be your company’s customer service representative to answer frequently asked questions. We can get the job done at a fraction of the cost it would take an in-house employee or yourself to achieve.  

3. Organization and Accountability

You opened your own business so that you could have absolute freedom and so that you didn’t have to answer to anyone. Now, you’re knee deep in unchartered waters of not having an organized system in place or staff to force you to be accountable for the daily operations of the business. What do you do?

Chances are you are like most new business owners that do a bit of running around like a chicken with its head cut off in the beginning stages of operation. You can’t stop the business’s daily functions or tasks from overwhelming and distracting you.

The important c-level and specialist tasks that you enjoy doing are pushed to the backburner because you have a nonstop ringing telephone, phone messages written on pieces of scrap paper that are awaiting callbacks and a full appointment calendar. You could continue to operate in such a scatterbrained manner or you can hire the help you need and deserve.

A live receptionist service can help your office to be more organized and can even act as an accountability coach. Here are some creative support tasks that your new startup business can afford and take advantage of:

• •Answering all calls and helping with frequently asked questions.
• •Taking detailed messages and providing consistent reminders for callbacks.
• •Processing payments and/or delivery requests.
• •Centralizing all customer communication and providing call reports.
• •Scheduling and handling your calendar with real time updates and confirmations.
• •Providing customer service support to decrease refund payments and increase customer satisfaction
• •And so much more!

Providing Virtual Office Receptionist Services since 1986

We hope that you have learned that a virtual office receptionist is affordable, essential and lucrative for your new small business. A Courteous Communications has thirty years of experience in working with any small business owner’s budget. Click here or give us a call today to request a custom rate!