Hiring a receptionist to handle your business’ phone calls adds a layer of professionalism to your company.

But hiring a receptionist to sit in your office all day is expensive.

A receptionist’s salary can easily exceed £25,000 a year, plus more for experienced receptionists, and even more if you’re hiring in a big city like London.

Plus, you’re not just paying a salary.

You have obligations to pay for holiday pay, and sick pay.

And what do you do when they’re away?

You’re still paying them, but aren’t getting the call answering service you need.

Even during the day, who’s answering the calls when your receptionist is on lunch?

Or even when they nip to the loo?

Just because they’re not there, doesn’t mean customers won’t call.

Ultimately, hiring a receptionist in an office can be expensive, and still not completely solve your phone answering problems.

Also, what can you do if you’re a remote business and don’t have an office or a desk for a receptionist to sit at?

How about a remote receptionist?

Could a remote receptionist service be a better investment and give you the level of service you need, without the additional costs and admin that hiring someone full-time would bring?

First things first.

What is a remote receptionist?

A remote receptionist works just like a traditional receptionist, answering and transferring calls, taking messages or helping with diary management.

The difference is they work remotely, and don’t just work for your business.

You basically just pay for the time you need them.

There are a lot of benefits to investing in a remote receptionist that you could see straight away.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

Extend your business’ opening hours

Not all prospects and customers are going to call you during your office hours.

But just because you’ve closed for the day, doesn’t mean you should miss out on new business.

A remote receptionist doesn’t provide the 24/7 customer service you can get from a website, but they can be used to extend your business day without the need for you to be available.

For example, our remote receptionists work from 8am-8pm during the week and offer a weekend service with hours from 9am-5:30pm on a Saturday.

Take a worry free break

If you’re running a small business, or are a sole trader, then how do you find the time to take a holiday knowing you could be missing new business calls?

It can make your holiday just as stressful as a regular week – maybe even more so.

This is especially true in the early years when you’re spending so much of your time trying to drum up new business and add revenue to your business every month.

In these years, every call that comes into your business is precious.

You can’t afford to miss a single one.

Having a remote receptionist in place means you can take a break, without worrying that you’re missing calls while you’re away.

Your remote receptionist can continue to take details from new prospects and customers, and forward messages onto you to review when you have the time.

If you’re expecting urgent calls that you don’t want to miss, you can always arrange to have those calls sent directly to you.

Take your team off line for a meeting

Many business calls are missed when you’re in a meeting with your team, or on a client call.

During these times it’s easy for calls to be missed.

And you can’t exactly walk out of a meeting with one client to take a new business call – that won’t leave a good impression.

But you also can’t risk letting a client go to voicemail while you’re in a meeting, that won’t leave a good impression either.

And you can’t let a new business call deal with an answer machine.

Chances are they’ll just hang up and try someone else who picks up the phone.

A remote receptionist can handle all these calls for you.

You’ll never miss a call while you’re in a meeting again.

This way you can get on with your day uninterrupted, safe in the knowledge that all your calls are being dealt with quickly and professionally.

Get a professional call answering service

If you called a business looking for a quote for a new project, or were a client trying to get help from a service you’re paying for, you wouldn’t be very impressed if you got sent to voicemail would you?

So why should it be ok if it happens to people trying to call you?

Remote receptionists can provide a professional call answering service that means you never miss a call again, while your customers and new business calls are always met with a professional voice.

All our remote receptionists are fully trained to deal with phone calls for a range of businesses and can tailor their responses and the information they take based on how you prefer them to deal with enquiries.

If you need more specialist remote receptionist services, we have a number of sector specific operators.

Answer multiple calls at once

While a receptionist on a desk can answer calls when they come in, they can’t deal with multiple calls at once.

Neither can you.

A remote receptionist service can though.

That’s because you get assigned a number of receptionists to cover your calls.

When one steps away, you have backup.

And if one of your designated receptionists is already dealing with a call, another member of your account team can step in.

This means you’re not restricted to just dealing with one call at a time.

Invest less to get more

You could invest in a full-time salary for a receptionist and spend up to £25,000 plus on costs.

But we’ve already been through the additional costs and admin you’ll also get with bringing in a full-time member of staff.

Or, you could get fully trained professionals answering your business’ calls immediately, while investing a fraction of the cost.

For example, a simple call answering service starts at £39.

Compare that to the thousands you’d spend on a full-time member of staff and you can see why a remote receptionist might be the better option.

Get a customisable service

All businesses go through high and low periods when they’re dealing with different levels of calls.

Hiring a full-time receptionist means you’re paying the same every month, even when you’re taking fewer calls and enquiries.

A remote receptionist adapts to your business’ needs.

If you’re taking more calls than normal, you can easily invest more and expand your professional call answering service to handle those busy periods.

When your business quietens down, you can reduce your remote receptionist service.

Relieve the headaches of missed calls with a remote receptionist

How you answer the phone says a lot about your business.

If you’re constantly sending customers and leads to voicemail you’re always at risk of annoying your paying clients, and even losing them, or missing out on potential new business.

Similarly if you’re answering them sounding stressed because someone’s called in the middle of a job, you’re similarly at risk of coming across as unprofessional.

But you can’t always be available to answer calls when you’re working.

Hiring a remote receptionist can relieve this headache.

By dealing with calls for you, you can get on with the work that pays the bills, safe in the knowledge that your customers are being met with a professional call answering service, and that new business calls aren’t being missed and costing you money.

If you want to know more about how to get a remote receptionist service for your business, get in touch with our team today.

We’ll work with you to understand your needs and come up with a package of services that best suit your business while working to your budget.

Get in touch.