I run a virtual assistant service and have been researching the idea of having a bolt on virtual receptionist service for small businesses. In a nutshell the service would take calls (after being briefed on the business) so no potential sales are missed if a business owner is out of the office on business. The service is particularly good for the smaller business owner who either works from home or has hardly any staff.

I would like to get the opinion of businesses who have:

a) used such servicesbefore; how they found the service; was it beneficial and value for money?

b) Is there a need for such a service for small/medium size businesses?

I would appreciate any response about such service. Thanks in advance
Myrtle
assist-u.co.uk

Sounds a good idea, however you will need to research the cost of the telephony system as you will need to be able to handle multiple in bound calls either, manually, or automatically forwarding the calls on (and, if it is just you, how will you take multiple calls at the same time remembering you are going to have to take messages); and, the reality is, most phone service providers have call forwarding, call diverting and answer machine services.

The liklihood is you will also have to use 0845 numbers for your clients (you could not have a 01274 number for a Bradford based business if you are in Sheffield for example), some people do not like using these.

If you plan to offer this as a service to your existing customers, it might work because you know the business; if you are looking for clients who would use this service only, I'm unsure.

Good luck with your research.

Thanks your views, Steve

The service I was researching is as a franchisee/re-seller of an already established system, which has a actual receptionist talking business calls when a business owner is unavailable. I would be managing the service myself as the re-seller and finding my own clients. I did get a call from a small business a few weeks ago enquiring about such a service.

I understand the point about using answer phones etc but most people (myself included) tend to put the phone down and move on if it isn't answered by a person. The beauty of the receptionist service is that your calls are answered by a real person.

That's answered most of the questions; can the system handle/create local STD codes for geographic specific businesses (or does the client set up call forwarding to the virtual service provider?)

PS; any reason why you have not set up your autosignature with a link to your website, I'm sure there will be people out there who would be interested in your book keeping service?

Hi Myrtle

I have used such a service for a number of years, and have found it extremely useful. As I consult and do seminars on customer service, I can't afford to not have the phone answered - it doesn't look good!

If we're not in the office, or we're busy on the phones, the call is automatically redirected to them. We don't have hundreds of calls to deal with, and it's just a back up really.

The nature of my business is that I have a number of ongoing clients and as a result, the people who answer the phone for us get to know them. As far as people ringing up are concerned, they are talking to one of my team - they answer the phone as such too.

They then text me and email me and /or Lucy (my business manager) with the call details.

Key ingredient to their success with us I feel is that they 'know' our business - they are not just a message taking call centre - it's the personal touch thing that works!

Good luck with it - happy to answer any other queries that you might have

Thanks, guy

Really appreciate your opinions. I need to save up the money to become a re-seller in my own right. It's not a a huge amount but finances are tight. I work at my business 2.5 a days a week as I cannot afford to not have an income coming in - need the pay the mortgage etc :-) I've have more successful over the last 6 mths via hard work and networking and was looking to have the virtual service as a bolt on to provide extra residual income.

Steve I haven't put a link to my website as I'm not allowed until I've posted 5 posts (I think). I will try with this msg.

Myrtle
www.assist-u.co.uk

I have used Aizlewood's Mill on Nursery St as a "virtual office" for over 10 years. I am a recruiter and sometimes book a room to interview candidates (although more often than not I interview at my client companies' premises) I use the Mill's postal service and have occasionally used their reception/ phone answering service.

The reception staff are very polite, pass messages on quickly either by phone to my mobile or by email. It's an invaluable service for me. They charge per message they send me.

Thanks, guy

Really appreciate your opinions. I need to save up the money to become a re-seller in my own right. It's not a a huge amount but finances are tight. I work at my business 2.5 a days a week as I cannot afford to not have an income coming in - need the pay the mortgage etc :-) I've have more successful over the last 6 mths via hard work and networking and was looking to have the virtual service as a bolt on to provide extra residual income.

Steve I haven't put a link to my website as I'm not allowed until I've posted 5 posts (I think). I will try with this msg.

Myrtle
www.assist-u.co.uk

Well done re autosignature.

Myrtle, take a look at my autosignature and andyhansellmans. You'll notice that our signature do not refer to our websites but, more importantly the search terms we want search engines to recognise which then links to our sites.

So, for me, the term 'Product Design' is very important. So when search engines crawl over the forum website (which Google does regularly; it is well recognised by Google's spiders), they see that the term 'Product Design' refers to my company website so, when someone types in 'Product Design' into Google, Google knows there is a link referring to 'Product Design' to my website in a highly ranked page on Sheffield Forum so gives it greater importance; hope this makes sense?

So, change your autosignature to a phrase which you think people would use to find your website (for example freelance book keeper...you can use Google's adword tool to find out the relevant phrases for your industry) and link that phrase to your URL (like Andy and I have).

Just a word of caution folks - signatures should not be placed within your posts - you have to wait until you are eligible to have a proper signature or you run the risk of your posts being deleted because we cannot edit them for you.

We will be looking a this kund of service in a couple of months. If you decide to go ahead drop me your costs by email, david@electricalrecruit.co.uk

I run a virtual assistant service and have been researching the idea of having a bolt on virtual receptionist service for small businesses.

I've recently started using answer.co.uk and been happy so far. They charge per call, so perfect as I do not have many calls per week.

Previously I forward the office number to my mobile and just use voicemail. I've found that using a real human to answer is much preferable.

I was assigned a London 020 number, but that doesn't matter because my main number is a 0114 sipgate number anyway which goes to my desk IP phone, which will forward to answer.co.uk if no answer or I'm on the phone.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot for your opinions. They have really given me food for thought about setting up a virtual receptionist service. Now I just need to find the money! Does anyone know if Business link/Senta are giving small grants/loans out. I thought maybe they had stopped. I managed to get some funding from Senta last year for marketing leaflets etc.

cheers
Myrtle
www.assist-u.co.uk
virtual administration - "pay as you go" - admin/secretarial support for small businesses/sole traders