How Remote Workers Stay Connected with a Virtual Receptionist

We’re months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and plenty of businesses still have as many of their employees working from home as possible. Even outside of the pandemic, a large number of businesses have been increasing remote work opportunities for their staff.

While there are plenty of great advantages that come with remote working, some businesses struggle with some of the challenges that are part of the package, too. One of the biggest challenges that we see brands struggling with is trying to stay in touch with their customers even when everyone is out of the office. 

Fortunately, there are a variety of different tools that can help with this. The most beneficial asset you can add to your team to help with this particular challenge, however, isn’t a new piece of equipment: It’s a virtual receptionist.

In this post, we’re going to take a close look at how virtual receptionists can help remote workers stay connected with your customers. 

Virtual Receptionists Work All Hours of the Day

It’s not uncommon for remote workers to sometimes have unusual working hours, particularly right now. As long as their business allows it, they may take an hour off at 2 in the afternoon for a doctor’s appointment, a home workout, or to help their kids with homework. 

If your team isn’t keeping standard working hours but your clients are, this can cause a bit of a disconnect. 

A virtual receptionist can help bridge that gap, taking messages, answering basic questions, and assuring the customer that they’ll get a quick call back if needed. If the team member doesn’t answer their phone right away, the call can go straight to the receptionist if needed.

By letting the client know that someone will get back to them soon, you’re increasing customer satisfaction and keeping that connection a positive one, even if your team needs to take a break during the day. 

Another benefit of this is that it can make it easier for your remote workers to disconnect at night. It’s common for individuals who are working from home to struggle to shut down; they feel guilty, and just continue working. By knowing that someone will help your customers even if they call at 2 AM, they can take the time they need to rest and recharge so they can better serve your customers the next day. 

Virtual Receptionists Will Manage Call Overflow 

If your business is like many, it seems like the phone just never stops ringing. If your team is tasked with handling this themselves, they can feel like they’re drowning before long. They might end up rushing customer calls just to try to get to the next, which sabotages any chance of a meaningful connection and a positive customer experience.

Virtual receptionists can handle all call overflow, and they can even tackle plenty of calls themselves. If you want receptionists to qualify leads so you can reach out and hit the ground running, that’s possible! PATLive’s virtual receptionists can also process orders, register attendants for events, answer questions about company policies, and more. 

By allowing virtual receptionists to take some of the mundane tasks off your hands, you can focus more on those critical client calls that actually need your attention. 

Virtual Receptionists Can Step Up if You’re Having Technical Concerns 

Let’s say that a standard part of your team’s job is to process payments online for services that your business offers. Maybe one of your key remote workers has their internet go out, due to no fault of their own. Because it’s their home line and not a major business account with backups, they’re pretty much out of commission until it’s fixed.

They could forward all of these calls, however, straight to your virtual receptionist, who can process payments and tackle multiple other mission-critical tasks. Here at PATLive, technical concerns are not something you need to worry about, even if your staff at home does. 

Virtual Receptionists Allow You to Maintain a Single Point of Contact 

Even if your team is using virtual business lines or they all have a second iPhone courtesy of your work, there’s a good chance that you won’t have all those numbers listed online. Instead, most businesses prefer to have a unified front with a single point of contact listed online.

If you want to have your virtual receptionist field calls so that you can keep a single point of contact and keep some of your staff’s numbers at least a little more private, this can work well. Our receptionists can forward calls to the appropriate number as they’re coming in, helping your customers reach the right staff members quickly. 

When most businesses think about building meaningful relationships with their customers, they might not automatically jump straight to remote workers and virtual receptionists. The times have been changing for a while, however, and this year’s events have pushed remote work of all kinds into the forefront of the business world.

With a virtual receptionist, no one even needs to know that your staff is working remotely if you don’t want them to, and they can even be spread out across different time zones without any concern. 

Virtual receptionists can offer your staff some relief from the onslaught of calls while providing top-tier, instantaneous customer service for your clients. It’s a win-win, particularly for busy remote workers who are doing their best to serve your customers well.