Are Virtual Receptionist Services Savior of the Modern Industry?

Before asking the question Are Virtual Receptionist Services Savior of the Modern Industry? You should know that In the modern days, the need of having some form of assistance for the office becomes necessary.

The digitization of the contemporary working operations and the environment has led businesses to think of hiring receptionists for their companies.

Thinking out of the box has become an immediate trend, and ever since the technology has evolved, there are specific ways of modernizing a job as simple as that of a virtual receptionist.

To discuss this in detail, the concept of virtual assistance needs to be elaborated and explained thoroughly. Here are the points that need to be considered before jumping to the conclusion of whether a virtual receptionist beneficial for the company or not.

Virtual Assistance (Virtual Answering Service)

A virtual assistance receptionist is an outsourced worker who performs the entire in-house receptionist tasks and virtual answering service on a contract basis. This can help the business in different ways like it can be time-saving, and it can help the organization on focusing on its core activities. Digital receptionists use state-of-the-art software, advocate for the highest level of call handling training and build systems that function with individual businesses to provide reliable customer care per the specific values of a company. 

Some of the roles and responsibilities of a virtual assistant that need to be performed daily are:

· Answer any calls your business receives:

Whether you are starting your business or a leading company, you must keep your customers satisfied. The virtual assistants provide the best quality call services and keep your customers happy and satisfied. Plus their 24-hour availability can help them attend the call at any moment, which will leave a positive impact on the customer.

· Take messages on your behalf:

Even the best customer services can lead to some problems; sometimes, even the best service providers need help and assistance. These receptionists can take calls on your behalf and then convey these messages to you. This can help the customer service department focus on their problems. 

· Forward calls to in-house employees:

Call routing, also referred to as patching, is another function which online receptionist systems routinely handle. For maximum convenience, calls can be patched directly to your in-house employees and managed to ensure that the highest level of customer care is maintained. If bells are repaired, messages received or requests addressed, and then you can rest assured that all inquiries will be answered.

· Deal with unwanted calls professionally:

A virtual assistant can help us in dealing with the unwanted calls whether they are from customers or salespersons. This can save the time of their employees. Dealing professionally with specific calls and unwanted messages can be one hell of a job. Hence, they need to be handled with a cool mind and a professional tone. 

· Support for existing customer service teams:

This can also help customer service agents when a customer is busy performing other activities and receiving other calls. The virtual assistant can attend the calls on your behalf. This way, no requests are ignored. 

Rise of Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistance is rising all over the world. While the masses engage in their daily tasks with virtual assistants, organizations need to chatbots to automate tasks. The development of virtual assistants is seen as a business advantage by 72 percent of business leaders. According to Accenture, “the effect of AI technology on business is projected to increase labour productivity by up to 40% and allow people to use their time more efficiently. 

· Is the Addition of ChatBots as Virtual Assistants a Good Idea?

Familiarizing with Chatbots and synchronizing operations in line with them is becoming increasingly important for companies. These Chatbots perform tasks that were traditionally performed by humans by using a simple user interface. It saves time, labour and money as Chatbots can handle customer-facing situations that are less urgent. AI is gradually becoming vital for human capacity support. However, we are clear on one thing that despite the regulation of technology and AI, a social presence is still required to tackle the more complicated and customized queries. 

Enterprise firms are increasingly using recruitment chatbots. There is always a need for skilled talent to be found. Hiring managers often receive hundreds of resumes for each open role. They are using various data points, such as filtering out candidates with too many or too few years of experience, when shortlisting candidates for interviews. This makes the task much more accessible and customized for HR. 

Based on the analysis and the development of technology, we can say that even though modern technology has eased the working environment, the need of human interaction and involvement is essential. 

The job of a virtual assistant

A virtual assistant’s specific duties vary depending on the customer’s needs and contract terms. Many virtual assistants perform clerical and bookkeeping tasks, while others may post daily social media updates or write blog posts. A well-rounded virtual assistant can also manage travel arrangements, arranging meetings, data entry, and processing of electronic documents.

The customer can maintain a better working relationship by providing detailed instructions on the activities they need to perform before recruiting a virtual assistant. A written guide reduces the risk of misunderstandings in a remote working relationship.

These are some of the duties a virtual assistant should perform:

• Respond to emails and phone calls
• Schedule meetings
• Book travel and accommodations
• Manage a contact list
• Prepare customer spreadsheets and keep online records
• Organize managers’ calendars
• Perform market research
• Create presentations, as assigned
• Address employee’s administrative queries
• Provide customer service as the first point of contact

The trend of outsourcing VA in the UK: 

The virtual receptionist is the newest trend in the world, and the UK has also started hiring virtual receptionists. Here are some of the patterns of virtual receptionist UK. 

· Still, it’s Cost-cutting Ability: 

You can find virtual assistants in outsourcing services for BPO. As it is under the outsourcing umbrella, VA services carry out the cost-saving capability of outsourcing. You save more money for future investments and gain valuable employees at the same time.

· Seniors Have More Employment Opportunities:

As the years go by, retired professionals are expected to be able to work part-time as a virtual assistant with various companies. It allows seniors to practice and earn from their skills, depending on the company’s need — saving more money for a retirement vacation!

· Work-life balance: 

An employee looks good, feels better, and does more if he/she exercises a routine of work-life balance. This is likely to happen if you work as a virtual assistant as they are offered with fixed days of rest and flexible shifts where you can choose the right time to meet your needs. With this, while having the right time for their families and themselves, they earn money.

· More Valued Workers = Productivity: 

During research by the UK, it was concluded that workers are more responsive when they are appreciated and secured. The environment of the organization matters a lot for the employees; it is essential to provide the best environment to the employee. A company should provide a context for the employee that is comforting. 

· In-office Positions To Virtual Assistant Positions: 

As a Virtual Assistant position offers more opportunities to be productive and maintain a work-life balance, more business owners may choose to turn office-based jobs into virtual assistant positions. With this, the overall costs such as office spaces, seats, leasing and equipment will be significantly reduced. 

Telephone Virtual Assistants Receptionists: 

Telephone virtual assistants are hired for the company, whereas; virtual receptionists are employed to provide services to the customers. Besides, the first experience a customer has with your organization is often a digital receptionist. That’s why their work is very critical. 

Virtual receptionists spend their days booking appointments, organizing calendars, responding to and transferring calls to the person concerned, sending appointment reminders, providing customer service and scheduling meetings. In other words, we can also call them telephone receptionist because they spend their days and nights on calls. 

They also have a responsibility to engage with your customers in live web chats and phone calls. The company can hire the receptionist according to their needs, whether they need a live one or the automated. Then virtual receptionists work almost always as independent contractors, just like virtual assistants. 

It ensures that you will not be entitled to withhold taxes or provide compensation. And, they’re going to work home. As we have discussed above, what is the virtual receptionist, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of a virtual receptionist. 

Virtual receptionist pros:

It can be cost-effective because you don’t have to hire a full-time receptionist. 

• It can be to increase efficiency. 
• Increase the organization’s image
• 24/7 availability. 
• Sometimes the receptionists can be bilingual too, which can help the organization.
• Online receptionists can overall benefit the company. 
• Virtual receptionists cons: 
• Several clients are upset when they are unable to speak to a real person
• It cannot be helpful for a small business that doesn’t need a receptionist. 
• As the answers are automated, it can only answer a few answers.
• The automated receptionist cannot perform the typing or filing. They can only attend the calls.

Job role:

The job role of virtual receptionists is versatile and not confined to just one operation. Here are some of the tasks that virtual receptionists do;

Communicate with customers and solve their queries. As we know that excellent communication is critical for a satisfied customer. So, it is essential for a receptionist to be fluent, bespoke and tends to engage customers.

Virtual receptionists not only communicate with customers and clients but also make business appointments, prepare work schedule and prepare letters. 

They can also play a role for virtual secretary services like they can make reservations, can make travel arrangements and other tasks that are related to the CEO of the company.

VR is a person who will perform the tasks given from a remote area and can be known as the freelance agent of the company. 

VR can work for your other companies at the same time. And can perform different tasks assigned to them.

Benefits of VA Receptionist: 

· Cost Advantages:

VR can help us save the cost because a hired company receptionist will charge more. The VR will be paid for the work she has done whereas; a company hired will be paid a monthly salary. That is the reason VR can provide a benefit of cost-saving. Through the efficiency and working hours, we can know how much does a virtual receptionist costs.

· Flexibility:

 VR is a mobile worker, as in the person is not confined to four walls, and they can perform the tasks by sitting at home. If your client base is international, it can be beneficial for the company that you can hire the VR at that time of the work, and you can hire them except for the regular hour. Plus we can employ more multi-talented and skilled workers. 

· Improved quality of work: 

VR can help the organization in improving work quality because it is specialized in that field. They know how to engage the clients, and they can note every piece of information that can be beneficial for the enterprise. Virtual receptionists can be accommodating for the organization because they can provide necessary information for the business. 

· Broaden availability to bilingual clients:

Some people can speak different languages. When we hire VR, we can select bilingual people they can help us deal with international clients. This can help us increase the client base. 

Future of VA:

Due to the advantages, virtual assistants provide the company; it seems like it will be the most used thing in the future. VA seems to have a bright future because it is feasible for the company. Virtual assistants are already emerging as taskmasters in the workplace, completing repetitive tasks and giving workers time to concentrate on more complex tasks. 

Since we see children interacting effortlessly with virtual assistants, we can assume that they are here to stay and can be embedded in the future in all aspects of our lives, including our working lives. B2B advertising virtual assistants are already making some progress, expanding sales professionals ‘ ability to improve communications.

The voice technology is linked to the Omni-channel marketing strategy that many companies are adopting. Virtual assistants have the potential to become trusted collaborators for business operations while leveraging the predictive capabilities of AI tools. 

Given the recent improvement in virtual assistants ‘ accuracy and intelligence, coupled with the increasing popularity of their use, it is not impossible to think that they are going to be transformative in business. 

For the betterment and safety of the company, the virtual assistant must be a fully trusted person with whom the data of the company is safe and secure. 

Why outsource VA to Pakistan:

Outsourcing a VA from a country like Pakistan is a developing country that can be beneficial for the company because it can help them save much money. Due to the difference in currency and due to less value of Pakistani Rupee, hiring a virtual assistant can be cost-saving because a little amount of money will be enough for the person. 

The other reason for outsourcing in Pakistan can be that Pakistan has professional and skilled workers who are waiting for opportunities but because there are fewer jobs in the country they don’t get a chance to show their talent. This can help the jobless people they can earn the right amount of money like this, and it can be beneficial for the enterprise. 

They can get highly skilled and professional labour at less cost. Companies in the UK, USA, Canada like to outsource their services in countries like Pakistan, India, the Philippines, etc. this can be beneficial for the country even because it will help them increase their economy. Another reason for outsourcing services in Pakistan is its excellent internet services that provide the best quality of work to the customers. 

Global Call Outsource VA services: 

Global call outsources the best outsourcing facilities to their customers. We make sure that our customers are sent satisfied and they don’t face any problem. We are dealing with some of the cab companies in the UK. We will provide the best of the best services to you. Your customers are our responsibility. Our agent knows well about what a virtual receptionist does. 

We are experienced in the delivery of all inbound customer care and call centre products at Global Call Outsource. Our agents ‘ deep skill set allows them to persuade any customer and ultimately force them to leave a useful review. Since our focus is on providing quality inbound customer services to companies, our drive for improvement and excellence has been an ongoing journey.

We believe in educating our agents until they become customer service masters and are in a position to handle every situation at hand. The purpose of this customer-centred training is to raise awareness among our agents about quality inbound calling services and to enable them to generate positive income and effectively meet the targets. 

Conclusion: 

 We have discussed above how virtual assistants are playing an essential role in any organization. Virtual assistants are helping the organization in numerous ways. Hiring virtual receptionist for an organization can be cost-effective and can help an organization in multiple ways. As they are experienced and they know how to perform their tasks effectively and efficiently, it can help the business.

Their 24/7 services can also help the company because if the organization has international contracts, they need someone who is available accordingly. This service is being availed around the globe because of the facilities it is providing to the organization. Virtual assistance is highly recommended to the organization due to the advantages it is providing. It is facilitating the organization in numerous ways. There is a massive scope of virtual assistants and receptionist soon, especially for large businesses.

Also, the organization should not hire someone who is not trustworthy because they hold all the personal information of the organization and its employees. So, before hiring a virtual assistant or receptionist, every single detail and previous history of that person should be checked. Virtual receptionist/assistants will lead in the coming future.