Receptionists handle a business’ incoming and outgoing calls. You can think of them as the frontliners of the business world as they constantly interact with potential customers that may generate sales for the company.
As the frontliners, their jobs can be quite demanding both physically and mentally, so it’s relatively quite difficult to find employees willing to work as a receptionist. That’s where the concept of virtual receptionist service comes in.
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What Are Virtual Receptionist Services?
Virtual receptionist service is when a third-party agency provides professional receptionists for your business. Companies often opt for these services whenever they lack the workforce or if their in-house receptionists are not as skillful as they can be. Moreover, even a skillful workforce can get their hands full with a booming business. Then, you can opt for the bilingual virtual receptionist service from one such certified agency that offers virtual answering services in two different languages, may be in English or Spanish & English, as per your customer requirements.
Virtual receptionist services became popular recently, and resources like a PATLive review can easily tell you why.
What Is PATLive?
PATLive is a company that offers virtual receptionist services to companies across different industries such as real estate, law, telecommunications, retail, and more. The company’s been around for over 30 years, so it’s not surprising to see how it’s become one of the most popular virtual receptionist services on the market.
While PATLive is quite similar to other virtual receptionist agencies, they’re known for their strict policies and high standards when hiring receptionists, so most of their receptionists are top-notch. So, what makes virtual receptionists different from in-house receptionists?
What Is A Virtual Receptionist?
Virtual receptionists do pretty much the same things as what regular receptionists do except they work remotely, which means your business might be in the United States, and the virtual receptionists might be in Asia for all you know.
Aside from being remote, there may also be some differences between their roles and responsibilities. Here are some examples of the duties of virtual receptionists:
- Handling incoming calls
- Taking messages
- Transferring or routing callers
- Managing appointments
- Provide bilingual services (sometimes)
At this point, you should know pretty well how virtual receptionist services work—it’s where an agency supplies you with professional virtual receptionists. At first glance, you might be thinking that this service is similar to answering services, but it’s not.
Virtual Receptionist Vs. Answering Service
The main similarity between virtual receptionists and answering services is that they both involve outsourcing, and perhaps that’s why you thought they were the same thing, but they’re not. One huge difference between the two is that while an answering service involves taking incoming calls and messages, that’s pretty much it. On the other hand, virtual receptionists may perform more personalized services such as the aforementioned tasks.
Think of it as an upgraded version of answering services, but, of course, that also means it’s much more expensive, so why should you choose virtual receptionists over answering services?
What Are The Perks Of Virtual Receptionist Services?
You may have heard from other people that virtual answering services are better than virtual receptionists. Perhaps others have also said that hiring receptionists to work exclusively for your business is a much better idea. In reality, it’s a case-by-case situation.
You may not benefit from virtual receptionist services, but other businesses might. Either way, here are a few perks you can enjoy with the right virtual receptionist agency:
- Affordable: Believe it or not, signing up for virtual receptionist services is much cheaper than hiring employees as receptionists. They don’t take up office space, and you also don’t have to deal with employee benefits such as dental plans and health insurance.
- Availability: Your employees can’t possibly work 24/7 for your company. While you can set up work shifts, you can’t always guarantee that employees will be available. Virtual receptionists, however, work by shifts so they’re available 24/7/365 services.
- Skills: Apart from the costs and availability, agencies like PATLive have proven time and time again that virtual receptionists are more skillful than the typical receptionist. As they often work for numerous companies at once, they’re also more flexible.
- Technologies: Lastly, virtual receptionist agencies tend to have the latest technology for outbound calling, which is a huge plus if your business lacks this aspect.
Wrapping Up
Businesses have to grow with the times because needs constantly change. At some point, you could require the services of virtual receptionists. The next time you find your business needing extra help with handling incoming calls, taking messages, transferring or routing callers, managing appointments, or even providing bilingual services, know that there are virtual receptionist services which can give you that extra mileage to keep on rolling efficiently.
