How a Virtual Receptionist Improves Customer Relations
Customer service can be the make-it-or-break-it factor for businesses in 2020. It’s well established by now that customers will actively seek out businesses with outstanding service, and that they’ll stick around longer if they find it. This is the differentiator that will help you land and keep clients, allowing your business to thrive.
While implementing great customer service is multi-faceted and doesn’t all boil down to a few quick tricks, there are a few easy changes you can make within your business quickly to improve customer relationships fast.
One of those changes is to work with a virtual receptionist to improve customer relations.
In this post, we’re going to discuss what exactly a virtual receptionist is, and how they can improve customers’ relationships with your business.
What Is a Virtual Receptionist?
A virtual receptionist typically refers to a third-party answering service that will handle incoming calls for your business. These services work with simple call forwarding technology and use actual people (not auto-attendant navigation menus) to greet and help callers.
The best virtual receptionist services offer 24/7, around-the-clock availability, and they are experts trained in customer service. They use call handling instructions approved by your business so that they’re helping your customers exactly as you would. In addition to getting calls to the right destination, they also schedule appointments, process orders and payments, and collect lead information.
How a Virtual Receptionist Improves Customer Relations
Plenty of businesses first consider working with a virtual receptionist when their call volume increases to the point where it becomes difficult to manage. They focus on time savings, convenience, and ultimate affordability when compared to an in-office receptionist.
All of these benefits definitely hold true, but they barely even hold a candle to how virtual receptionists can improve customer relations. Let’s take a look at a few key ways this can happen.
Callers Speak to Someone, Every Time
No call goes unanswered when you’re working with virtual receptionists. This means that they aren’t hanging up feeling frustrated, or leaving voicemails that take too long for the business to return.
Your customers feel appreciated, and they know that working with you is easy when they’re able to talk to someone on the third ring of the phone instead of needing to sit on hold for an hour.
This goes a long way with your customers, even if they need to be transferred to someone else or have to have someone else call them back. The get confirmation that their message is received and that they’re appreciated, and they know what to expect moving forward.
They Can Handle Basic Customer Needs Quickly & Painlessly
Quality virtual receptionist services like PATLive do more than just answer calls and transfer them to one of your team members.
We can handle a large number of basic customer needs quickly without ever needing to transfer the call, creating a painless process for them with no wait times and no hassle. We can process payments, set up appointments, answer questions about store hours or policies, collect lead information, register users for events, and more.
Your customers get what they need quickly, and there’s no hassle involved for your business, too. Win-win.
They Allow You to Spend More Time with Customers Who Need You
Since virtual receptionists spend more time navigating the large volume of calls that need help with relatively basic tasks, you don’t have to. And since you’re not drowning in calls asking about your store hours, it means that you can focus more on the customers who need you.
Maybe this means spending time closing a sale with a high-value lead, or walking users through technical support. Or it could mean tackling a particularly difficult customer service issue yourself.
Whatever it is, your team has more time to dedicate to the customers who truly need their attention, which improves relationships overall across the board.
They Can Make the Small Talk So You Don’t Need To
A mundane customer service call can be enhanced by asking about the dog that the representative hears barking in the background while the customer digs for her order number. This builds rapport, and even if the customer never speaks to that particular agent again, it can leave a lasting impact.
Your virtual receptionist’s entire job is to talk to and serve your customers. We’ve got all the time in the world to make small talk with your customers while helping them with whatever they need, setting the stage for more positive relationships.
Virtual receptionists offer a lot of value to businesses, including those who are so busy they don’t know what to do and those who are starting out but wanting to scale quickly. They’re able to give you an enormous amount of time that you can allocate to other essential tasks, including following up with the customers who need your direct attention.
Customer service is always worth investing in, especially since it’s one of the most powerful differentiators that will determine whether a business succeeds or fails. A service that helps your business scale and improves your productivity while simultaneously improving customer relations is well worth considering.
