Remote receptions: the secret tool for businesses on the go

Today more and more business are promoting remote working, flexible working, and are generally conforming less to the typical 9 to 5 working pattern.

This is great for staff and morale, but it can be challenging when it comes to maintaining good communication if everyone is working in different places at different times.

Fortunately, a remote reception can help.

Let’s take a look.

What is a remote reception?

At this point you might be wondering what a remote reception service is.

A remote reception is a service provided by an outsourced call answering company, where they will manage the calls that come into your business, and then take a message or transfer the call depending on the requirements of the caller.

A lot of these companies will offer a 24/7 service, which makes it great if you need to support staff working unusual hours.

How does it work?

For the clients, the process couldn’t be more straight forward.

All you have to do is divert your phoneline to the remote reception company, and all your calls (or just select ones as we’ll discuss shortly) will be sent to them.

From there, how the call is managed can vary depending on the call answering service and the options they have available.

Generally however, they will follow a script or a framework that will allow the PA answering the call to understand the caller’s needs, capture all the required information, and then transfer the call to the right person in your company or take a message as required.

If the call is transferred the desired recipient’s phone will ring, and the PA who answered the call will let them know who they have on the line, and put the call through.

To all extents and purposes it is no different to having your own reception team manage the calls. A remote reception will even answer calls in your company name, and the caller will never know their call has been answered by a third-party service.

What are the benefits compared to in-house?

The benefits compared to hiring your own reception team in house fall into two categories, flexibility and price.

A remote reception provides greater flexibility because you can use it as and when you need it. If you have people ready to answer calls during normal office hours, you can simply use the remote reception as your office answering service once your main office has closed. If you decide you no longer need a reception team, you can simply discontinue the service. You get completely flexibility.

When it comes to price, a remote reception will save you a considerable amount of money.

When you employ a receptionist in-house, you have to pay a salary for every hour of they day they work.

With a remote reception, you a billed on a per call or a per minute basis. That means you only pay for the time spent answering your calls, and you’re never paying for the receptionist’s down time.

This results in considerable savings, especially outside of normally working hours when you probably aren’t getting enough calls to keep a receptionist busy for an entire shift.

But I don’t want to replace my in-house team!

It might be the case that you see the benefits of a remote reception, but you already have an in house reception team that are an integral part of your business.

That’s great – but even businesses with in-house reception teams can benefit from a remote reception service.

Simply use the remote reception service to manage any overflow and out of hours telephone answering, and give your reception team the support they need to focus on any other work they have or dealing with guests in the building.

A remote reception simply means that on the occasions your in-house reception can’t take a call, your caller can still talk to a real person instead of an answering machine.

Conclusion

Whether you’ve got a reception team in-house, or whether you’re a small team spread around the world, remote reception can support your business and make sure you have great communication with each other and your clients whenever their call come in.

If you want to improve the customer experience, a remote reception is an easy first step to take.

You can find out more on our virtual receptionist page.