Virtual Receptionist

Almost everyone is familiar with the idea of a receptionist. They’re a member of the staff typically situated at the front desk or lobby of a building. They handle tasks like scheduling appointments and redirecting calls. A virtual receptionist, also known as a live receptionist or front desk virtual assistant (VA), does all of that but from a remote location.

A virtual receptionist or remote front desk officer can handle client-facing tasks, including answering calls and responding to general inquiries. They also help keep things in order by managing your calendar and call routing. Hiring an online receptionist to your team can help you become more organized and on track. Additionally, they help you give an excellent first impression to your potential and current customers and business partners.

Hiring a virtual receptionist service can be an excellent boost to the growth of a business. Virtual live receptionists can either replace or supplement a physical receptionist in a very cost-effective manner. Here are some of the benefits of hiring virtual receptionists:

Delegate Routine Tasks

Routine tasks may seem easy enough to handle, but they can take you away from doing your core tasks. Hiring virtual receptionists can take incoming calls, whether they are customer calls or calls from business partners. When your business gets inbound calls, your virtual front desk receptionist can either handle basic inquiries or take care of scheduling appointments. They can also take care of passing on the caller to the appropriate department if any of them are available.

Round-the-Clock Customer Service

Hiring live virtual receptionists to work during your off-peak business hours can give callers the feel of having a 24-hour service available to them, even without burning your budget on more expensive customer service specialists.

Flexible Staffing Solution

You can also hire a virtual receptionist to supplement your existing physical receptionist. When you have peak seasons when enormous call volumes come in, you can hire a virtual receptionist to supplement your current onsite staff. This way, each call can be answered within your standard lead time despite the big increase in demand.

All in all, hiring a virtual receptionist for a small business can give you the edge you need in making your customers and partners feel cared for and at a reasonable cost.

A virtual assistant receptionist can take over the basic tasks of a receptionist. From scheduling appointments to taking on basic customer service concerns, you can rely on a skilled VA receptionist to handle your front desk requirements.

Live answering service

Virtual receptionists are real people who can answer your inbound calls. This means your callers will have someone to talk to live, so the response will be faster than an automated answering service. They are also more versatile than automated answering services. Like bots, a help desk virtual receptionist can follow a set script. However, a receptionist’s intuition and experience allow them to adapt their responses based on a caller’s tone and inquiry.

Message taking

Virtual receptionists can record any important messages for you or your team. They can assess a concern and forward it to the right person. Your remote receptionist can ensure that the person at the other end knows their concerns are well-documented and routed to the correct individual in your team. While they may not instantly resolve a caller’s needs at all times, your VA can make a customer or business partner feel cared for and heard.

Call patching or transfer

When your virtual receptionist is on duty during business hours, they can directly patch inbound calls to the appropriate people. By handling this task, they help ensure a more seamless customer service experience and minimize customer frustrations about having to take down different phone numbers and “reset” their calls.

Scheduling appointments

A remote receptionist can help keep your schedule organized. As part of answering phones and dealing with inquiries, they can filter what appointments should go on whose calendar. Due to this simple but concrete action, customers or business partners feel immediately taken care of after each call.

Answering simple inquiries

Whenever customers, partners, or clients call, virtual receptionists can refer to a particular set of FAQs or common knowledge and answer quick questions about your business or product. This can improve relationships due to fast turnaround time while at the same time decreasing the load on other departments.

The above are just some of the basic tasks of a receptionist VA. However, you can easily modify your virtual receptionist’s job description to include other relevant tasks, like tracking KPIs and reminding clients of their appointments.

We’ve already established how hiring a skilled receptionist VA can benefit your business. Now, it’s time for the next crucial question: what makes a great virtual receptionist?

Friendly and approachable

Your virtual receptionist might be the first person your caller will talk to in your company. They have to retain your callers’ attention and positive feelings so that you can continue to have a good relationship with these callers.

Good communication skills

A receptionist virtual assistant represents you and your business. Their attitude, coherence, and general ability to communicate effectively reflect your company’s ability in your callers’ eyes. Hiring a remote receptionist with good communication skills is a must to keep up an excellent reputation.

Organized and meticulous

Since your virtual receptionist will have access to your calendar, they need to be careful not to overlap appointments and make sure they set meetings with the right people. Virtual receptionists need to be able to keep a lot of small details in their heads, in order to do their jobs effectively.

Familiarity with VoIP

Since virtual receptionists work remotely, they need to use VoIP programs to answer phone calls. Therefore, it is extremely important that they are comfortable with such programs, so they don’t fumble and present a disorganized front.

Willingness to learn

Virtual receptionists have to know the fundamentals of your company so they can answer simple inquiries and present a competent front to all your callers. It’s crucial to find a receptionist who’s not only a fast learner but a willing one.

Above-average fast typing speed

Virtual receptionists take down notes, messages, and appointments all the time. It would be in bad form to ask callers to repeat themselves too much, so it’s important that the virtual receptionist you hire can keep up with their typing.

Hiring a virtual receptionist allows you to select from a vast pool of talent. But, sometimes, diving into this pool can be overwhelming and time-consuming. If you find yourself at a loss on how to hire a good virtual receptionist, consider partnering with a trusted virtual assistant company like 20four7VA.
Our team can not only look for and vet qualified applicants, but we can also help train and monitor the virtual receptionist you choose. All you have to do is set a free, no-strings-attached consultation meeting with 20four7VA to determine your needs and wants, wait for them to send you qualified applicants, and then interview pre-vetted candidates to pick the best one for you.