Benefits of Using a Virtual Office

Owning your own business is a tough job. There’s no doubt about that. It can be hard to find the time to do all of the necessary work to help your business run smoothly and grow at the same time. Here are a few benefits of outsourcing to a virtual office, call answering service or virtual assistant.

• Professional Image: It gives your business a professional image. Whether you work from home, on the road or from an office your calls will be answered in your business name in a courteous and professional manner. A phone call to your company can be the first point of contact a customer may have with your company. Imagine getting through to a voicemail, someone on a bad speaker phone or someone in a noisy environment. That’s not a great first impression for a customer to have of your company. Having a virtual office ensures that your customers feel that they are getting a good service.

• Optimise Your Time: You have spent a long time training or gaining experience to get where you are today. Why waste time answering the phone or doing administrative tasks when you can spend that time on generating revenue for yourself. Another point to note is that a ringing phone can really distract you. When you are concentrating on a task and are interrupted by your phone, it can take up a considerable amount of your time. By the time you stop what you are doing, take the time to speak to the caller, deal with the query and get started again on what you were originally doing, you can lose a considerable amount of time. If this happens several times a day, imagine how much time you have lost. By using a virtual office, you can set aside time to respond to your customers. And if there are any urgent queries, they can be sent to you straight away so you are not worried about missing anything that needs to be dealt with right away.

• Save Money: You can save a substantial amount of money on office costs and staff costs. Why rent an office if it’s not necessary. Many people work from home these days as advances in telecommunications have allowed them to do so. The costs of renting an office, paying utility bills and buying office equipment are huge. Hiring staff is the biggest cost for most businesses not alone in wages, but in PRSI, holiday pay and cover for when staff members are on holidays. By using a virtual office, you only pay for what you need. Think of how much you can save by using a virtual office

• Increase Sales: By spending more time concentrating on your skills and less time on administration, you will increase your sales by default. Missed calls are missed opportunities. 70 per cent of people will not leave a message on a voicemail. They will simply move onto the next company. By having a virtual office, you are ensuring that you will not miss any potential customers, which will in turn increase your sales.

• Ease of Set Up: A virtual office can be simple to set up. You will not need to interview staff, train staff or worry if they are capable of doing the job. This will already be done for you. Staff in a virtual office will be well experienced in what they do, used to all kinds of customers and be able to deal with all kinds of situations. Virtual offices often have no contracts so you can try one out to see if they are the right fit for your business without having to commit to a long term contract.
  

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