admin, Author at Gabbyville

How to Successfully Manage Manipulators

admin December 28, 2015

When you have your own company, it is important to make sure that things stay in tip-top shape. There are a lot of stresses and issues you must attend to as a business owner. Because of your immense workload and responsibility to your company and your employees, you can sometimes be easily taken advantage of by your employees. Dealing with this reality means you may have to get rid of current employees and hire more committed ones, but who can you trust? Here we will discuss the option of a virtual assistant and why it may be best for your situation.

Virtual assistants are real people who work for your company but do not come into an office. They help run your company, usually from the comfort of their own home. The use of virtual assistants is a great way to conduct your business as it guarantees that work gets done on time. Live employees have the power to manipulate you with a lot of resources that are simply not available in the virtual world.

One huge component that could be used to beguile you is simply having a relationship with your employee. Because you may have built a rapport with your workers, this relationship can possibly make your employees think they have certain privileges. With a virtual assistant, there is no space for such a relationship, thus, it becomes much less likely that you can be taken advantage of.

Live employees can also compromise your business because of their own situations and personal agendas. While in-person employees may call in sick or show up late, leaving you without someone to do the job on time, virtual assistants are at no such liberty, and they understand their role is to show up on time and work for the required amount of hours. In addition, as the company owner, you do not have to worry about lunch breaks, vacation time, or sick days. With a virtual assistant, they are always working.

Hiring a virtual assistant can help you get the job done leaving you without worry and anxiety. The employees at Gabbyville understand how important your business is to you, and they are committed to making it their priority as much as it is yours. When you hire a virtual assistant from Gabbyville, you are making an investment that is sure to pay off.

Three Great Reasons to Hire a Virtual Assistant from Gabbyville.com

admin December 23, 2015

Are you overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to do in just a limited amount of time? Are your most important tasks being ignored because you can’t fit them into your schedule? Is your business growing, and you don’t know how to handle the growing amount of work? If you’ve answered “yes” to even one of these questions, you might benefit from hiring a virtual assistant (VA). There are many ways a VA can help ease your burden and keep you on the track to success.

Administrative tasks

Administrative tasks are a necessary part of any business. But, they often get pushed to the side to make time for “more important” tasks. If that practice goes on for too long, the tasks simply never get done, which can become problematic. A virtual assistant can take the everyday tasks off your plate and free you up to concentrate on the bigger picture of your business.

Social media

Owning a business in the 21st century means you must have a social media presence. However, Keeping up to date with updating Facebook statuses and Tweeting out messages takes a lot of time. Add to that keeping a presence on LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest and the task becomes overwhelming. It is virtually impossible for a business owner to keep up with social media and still maintain a business. Hiring a VA to focus on social media is the perfect solution. Virtual assistants are well versed in social media and are adept at knowing what to post and when.

Avoid hiring the wrong person for the job

Virtual assistants are fabulous placeholders. Gone are the days when a business owner or hiring manager had to hurry up and fill a position simply to get a warm body at a workstation. Virtual Assistants are today’s “temps”. Hiring a VA to fill the shoes of an employee who has left the company is a much better solution than hiring the wrong person to do the job on a full-time basis. Bringing a VA in will fill the gaps and allow the work to be done seamlessly until the perfect new hire is found. Plus, if the VA is not a good fit, it is easy to terminate the relationship with no reprisals and hire a new one until the best permanent fit can be found.

These three examples are but a few of the many advantages you can gain by hiring a virtual assistant. If you are trying to run your business without the assistance of a virtual assistant, you are not meeting your maximum ability. If you are a business owner and need the assistance only a Virtual Assistant can provide, contact Gabbyvill.com today. Our VAs are the best in the business!

Do Something Great Today and Hire a Virtual Receptionist

admin December 18, 2015

A business requires investments to be successful. Those investments could be your time, money, or resources. One of the best investments you can make for your business that you may never have thought of is hiring a virtual receptionist. Here are some reasons why hiring a virtual receptionist today is the greatest thing you can do for your business.

Investing in a virtual receptionist can cut down on how much money you need to invest in your business. If you could reduce how much of your money you put into your business, wouldn’t you take that opportunity? A virtual receptionist is more affordable than hiring an in-house receptionist. Between the hourly wage, paid sick days, lunch breaks, and any other benefits provided, the costs start to add up for an in-house receptionist. With a virtual receptionist, you can pay as little as $99 per month without worrying about sick days, contracts, and extended lunch breaks.

The other investment that can be reduced with a virtual receptionist is your time, and it’s another great thing to do today for your business. Sometimes, it’s hard to find good employees to fill positions that can become tedious or slow. Reduce the amount of time you spend interviewing and training new employees for your receptionist position by hiring a virtual receptionist.

If you feel like you spend extended hours in your office for fear of missing an important phone call, a virtual receptionist will allow you to spend your valuable time doing things that are important for your business, rather than waiting for the phone to ring. Your virtual receptionist can pass messages on to you right away, and can also forward urgent phone calls to you so you don’t miss anything important.

Missed phone calls can equal missed sales, missed clients, and missed opportunities. Virtual receptionists can ensure that you don’t miss out on money-making opportunities by being available all the time during your business hours. While your regular employees can get caught up in doing the day-to-day tasks of the business and miss a few phone calls, and your virtual receptionist is there for you for the specific purpose of making sure phone calls don’t go unanswered.

Most people will not leave a message and will not call back, so you could potentially be losing out big time by not answering every call. Hiring a virtual receptionist is a great thing for you to do today.

Do something great today and hire a virtual receptionist from Gabbyville! It’s not too late to make a small investment that will have a big positive impact on your business.

Do What Successful People Do: 8 Habits

admin December 17, 2015

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be successful? After speaking with and interviewing hundreds of people who consider themselves to be successful, there are eight habits that they practice that stand out. If you want to be successful, do what successful people do.

1. Put Thought Into Action

It’s one thing to always think about what your next step is or what you want to do next. It’s another thing to put thought into action. The first step is usually the hardest.

2. Persevere Against the Odds

Persevering against the odds means that you have a goal and you’re determined to meet that goal – no matter what. Everybody experiences setbacks. It’s almost as if plans were made to be broken. However, nothing ever gets accomplished without a plan first.

3. Maintain Confidence

Maintaining confidence can be a daily struggle. You have to look inward and be mindful of your limitations – but don’t dwell on them.

4. Read

Read articles and do research. Even if it takes away from your daily tasks, by reading articles, you’re exercising your brain and becoming a little smarter every day.

5. Exercise

Exercising your body is just as important as exercising your mind. This is best done in the morning. Take a 30-minute walk before you hit the office or simply take the stairs instead of the elevator.

6. Meditate

When your mind is constantly going all the time, it’s important to schedule downtime. Schedule some time so that you can meditate. Calm your mind, turn off your cellphone, and step away from the computer.

7. Watch Your Reputation

Warren Buffett said this best when he said, “It takes 20 years to build your reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Always be mindful of what you do and what you say. Reputation is one of the few things that you cannot buy. It has to be earned. If you ruin it, your only choice is to salvage what’s left.

8. Think Outside the Box

Always be open to new opportunities. Many business opportunities will end up at a dead end. Even successful people experience failure. If something isn’t working out, abandon it and start something new. Don’t waste your time, money or effort.

Are you ready to put productivity into overdrive? Start your FREE trial with Gabbyville and get your Virtual Receptionist today!

A Virtual Receptionist Lets You Do What Is Important

admin October 20, 2015

If you have read any of the other posts on this blog, then you probably know quite a bit about virtual receptionists already. You probably know about the money that you can save from hiring a virtual receptionist instead of a traditional receptionist. You probably know about the ways in which a virtual receptionist keeps your business up to date in the digital world. You probably know about the guaranteed professionalism that comes with hiring a virtual receptionist service like Gabbyville. If you have not read the other posts, then you can check them out, but take our word for it, virtual receptionists offer so many benefits to businesses that you would have to be crazy not to have one. That’s because hiring a virtual receptionist lets you do what is important.

If you could map out just how much time you spend on the phone each day, you would probably be surprised. For many business owners and operators, being away from the phone would just be a complete nightmare. You have the chance of missing important calls that could be potential customers that might go off to another competing business. Or that call might be an important client or business partner and missing the call could mean losing a contract or seeming unprofessional. At the same time, that same phone that is so important can also be a real burden. Many of those calls from customers or even the important ones from business partners or clients could probably be handled by someone other than you. So many of those calls are mundane details about hours or prices, or they are calls that need a response, but the timing of the response is not necessarily important. That’s where the virtual receptionist comes in. Literally all of these problems are solved with a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist can take those mundane calls and give the important and relevant information, so you never have to worry about customers moving on to a competing business. A virtual receptionist can take those important calls too, and they can make sure the message gets to you, or if the call is too important to wait, then a virtual receptionist can transfer that call directly to you. All of this means that you have time to do what you really should be doing. That early map of how much time you spend doing different parts of your job is no longer comprised primarily of answering phone calls and talking on the phone. Instead, with a virtual receptionist, you will find that you are getting more done and have more time to do the important work you should be doing.

A virtual receptionist also means that you are not tied to that phone. That means you can get out of the office. You can go to job sites, you can get to important meetings, and most importantly you can get away from work from time to time. You can do all of this because your virtual receptionist has things covered, and they can make sure you are still connected even when you are away from the office. They do that by forwarding your calls to your cell phone. They can also forward messages to you, and they can forward them through a variety of ways that best fits your preferences. If you want messages sent to you through text, then they can do that for you. They can send voicemails to your phone. They can even send you audio recordings of messages to your email. With a virtual receptionist, you can get away without having to worry about everything getting away from you.

Finally, virtual receptionists help you do all of those important things you will be doing with all of your extra time, and they help you do them better. Because your virtual receptionist is a digital experience, you will have all of the benefits of a more technologically savvy office. Your virtual receptionist can organize your schedule and text you updates when you have something important coming up. They can set a video conferencing call for you with people in all different parts of the world. There really is so much that a virtual receptionist can help you do and so many more things that they can help you do even better.

Your Office Productivity With This Simple Step: A Virtual Receptionist

admin October 15, 2015

That title might sound silly to you. How would a receptionist make my office more productive? So they answer the phones, so what? If you actually sat down and mapped out all of the time that you spend on the phone or that your employees spend on the phone, you are probably going to surprise yourself. Most people at businesses spend a large chunk of the workday on the phone, and that means they are not able to get to the work they need to be doing. So yeah, a receptionist can make your office more productive by answering the phone. But we are not just talking about a standard, traditional receptionist here. We are talking about a virtual receptionist, and they can help you make your office so much more efficient in so many ways.

First of all, they can answer the phone for you, and they will. In fact, at any time during work hours, they will answer the phone. This actually is not the case with a traditional receptionist. A traditional receptionist will have to take breaks, and that will mean there is time that they will be away from the phone. A traditional receptionist is also normally just one person. With most virtual receptionist services, such as Gabbyville, you have an entire team working for your business. That means that even if one person is taking a break, then there are several other people that will still be there making all of your calls are being answered. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about missing other important calls while your traditional receptionist is bogging up other lines. With a virtual receptionist, everyone’s calls will be answered promptly, cheerfully, and exactly the way you want it. How does this make you and your business more productive though? Well most of the calls that a business receives will be asking for information that is easily found like hours, prices, location, and so forth. If you think about it, these are the pieces of information that automated voices provide when you call a major corporation. It might not seem like these calls take you away from your real job much, but they add up quickly, and the time you lose when you keep getting distracted and losing your focus is actually pretty significant too. A virtual receptionist means you never have to do that. You also do not have to worry about callers hanging up and turning away from you when they hear that robotic, droning automated voice. Callers will be greeted with professionalism and a welcoming voice. And while the virtual receptionists are handling all of those annoying calls, you can focus on taking care of what really needs to be done and the parts of the job that are actually in your job description.

Virtual receptionists do more too. A virtual receptionist means that you are no longer tied to the office. If you have off-site work that you need to do or a meeting to go to, you do not have to worry about missing that important call you were waiting on. A virtual receptionist can have a call forwarded to you on a cell phone or through a computer. They can also take a message and send it to you via text, email, voicemail, or other options. This means that you are never bound to the office again. For most purposes, the office goes wherever you go when you have a virtual receptionist. But let’s talk about that important meeting you have too. If you’re anything like most people, you have a lot of work on your plate, and getting behind and disorganized can happen all too easily. Luckily, a virtual receptionist can help you out with that too. A virtual receptionist can make sure that your schedule is up to date, clear of any possible mistakes, and they can even send you reminders of when you have something coming up. Just think about how much more productive and organized you would be if you had someone to just send you a gentle text reminder when you need to start heading out for that big meeting. You would be so much more on top of things and so would your business, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what a virtual receptionist service can do for you and your business.

Virtual Receptionists Let You Record Your Calls. Here’s Why That Is Helpful.

admin October 12, 2015

The term virtual receptionist can be a little confusing. Just by the sound of it, you might assume that it is the same thing as a traditional receptionist but online. That’s not wrong. A virtual receptionist can do all of the same things that a traditional receptionist can do, but there is more to a virtual receptionist than just that. In fact, a virtual receptionist can do a whole mass of things that a traditional receptionist can’t do, but today we are just going to focus on one important aspect – recording calls.

You might not have thought about the benefits of having a call recorded before, but you have probably been on a recorded call. Think about all those times you have called big companies, and you are told that a call may be monitored or recorded. When you are the caller, you think nothing of that sort of thing. It’s no problem at all for the caller, but it is a huge benefit to the company, and it can be a huge benefit to your business too. Usually that line is followed by something about how the recording will be used for training purposes. This is the first among many great benefits to recording calls. If you have a backlog of recorded calls that demonstrate common customer or client problems, then you have a training resource right there. Maybe you are promoting someone to a managerial level, and you need to show them how to handle a call with an important business partner. Recorded calls would be useful then too. These examples hopefully show that a virtual receptionist does not even have to be on the call to record it for you. They can set up a call for you, and then record it. A rare traditional receptionist might be able to do that, but not with the speed and efficiency that a virtual receptionist can.

But training is not the only reason why having calls recorded is a benefit. Imagine you are having some issues with a client or partner. There is a disagreement between you and this other individual over what was said or agreed upon in an order. You can go back to the recorded call to ensure them that what you are saying is correct. In a more positive light, recording calls can make sure this problem does not even come up in the first place. If you are questioning something on an order form, or if you are unsure of something in your notes from a business call, then you can just go back to the recording. Having your call recorded means that mistakes will happen less often, and when they do, then you have something to fall back on or something to use for more training of future employees.

Let’s look at one more example though. Already you have two great examples of why having your virtual receptionist record calls for you can be helpful, but there’s a third – better messages. The traditional receptionist is well known for writing down notes or messages and handing them to the boss when he or she walks in from a meeting or from being off site. These messages can sometimes be illegible, confusing, and they might not get at the important details of the call in the first place. All of those problems are out the window when you have a virtual receptionist. They are professionally trained to make sure you and your business run as efficiently as possible, so that means that there would never be any sloppy, confusing, or misguided notes that you would have to sort through. Better yet, you can ditch the notes and messages entirely. A virtual receptionist can record the call for you. That way you can go back and actually listen to the call and get the message exactly as it was meant to be delivered. Furthermore, you don’t even have to wait to get back to the office to get it. A virtual receptionist can have the audio recording sent to you, and they can have it sent in a variety of ways depending on how you want it – text, email, or phone. Recording calls is only one of the many benefits of a virtual receptionist, but it is definitely a big one, and it is one that can really help a small business.

A Virtual Receptionist Makes Your Business More Professional

admin October 2, 2015

Why do you want to make you business more professional? If you get the job done, what difference does it make, right? For most businesses, this cannot be further from the truth. If you want clients and customers to actually work with you, then you need to be as professional as you can. And even if you have little to no interaction with clients or customers, chances are you have a competitor, and if they are more professional than your business, then you can bet your bottom dollar that the customer or client is going to choose them over you.

So it is important to be professional, we have that much covered, but how can you do it? Most small businesses are working on a very tight budget, and most of the big ways to seem more professional require major systematic changes. Fortunately, there is one addition you can make that will make your business seem more professional to clients, and it will actually make you a lot more professional by increasing your efficiency and productivity. That simple addition is getting a receptionist. You shouldn’t get just any traditional receptionist though. With full time salary, benefits, vacation, the chance of them calling in sick and leaving you high and dry, and so much else, there is a lot of risk and cost involved for a small business with taking on a new receptionist. No, what you need is a virtual receptionist.

Virtual receptionists are very similar to traditional receptionists except they do not have any of the previously mentioned faults, they have numerous benefits, and they do not cost anywhere near as much. But how will this virtual receptionist make you more professional? Well, the first and simplest answer is that it will give all of your clients a great impression of you and your business when they call or email you and are answered by a trained voice that is ready to help them. At some virtual receptionist services, well at least at Gabbyville, it is their biggest goal to make sure every caller is welcomed and appreciated. They strive to make sure their smile is heard over the phone. Plus, they are there to work for you. They want to see your business succeed too, and you can work directly with them to get just the right personal touch to really make it your own. Having that trained, professional voice answering the phone will give off the impression that you are a serious business, and it will set you apart from your competitors who probably do not have a virtual receptionist like you.

Being professional is about more than just an impression though. If you are really wanting to take your business to the next level, a virtual receptionist is still the right option for you. Think about all those inane calls that you have to answer all the time. No one seems to tell you when you are just starting out, but moving up in a business often means just answering more phone calls, emails, and texts. You never get to work with what you actually should be doing. You never get to do the real part of your job. A virtual receptionist makes it all possible. You don’t have to worry about those calls with all the same questions or responding to another email with the same complaint for the hundredth time. Your virtual receptionist can take care of all of that while you take care of something more important. Plus, you virtual receptionist will make sure you get to those more important things too. They will organize your schedule and send you reminders when you have places to be or things to do. You can personalize this service too. Your virtual receptionist can send you reminders by phone, text, or email. The digital connectedness of your virtual receptionist is definitely a benefit, and it will make you a lot more professional and effective in this growing digital world. In the instance that you need to take a call, though, when you think it is important enough for you to handle, your virtual receptionist can get that for you too. They can transfer the call to you like a traditional receptionist would, but they can have that call transferred wherever you want it. Maybe you are on a beach somewhere, and you need to respond to an important call. Your virtual receptionist can have the call transferred to your cell. After all, taking breaks is part of being professional too.

Virtual Receptionists Versus Traditional Receptionists

admin September 30, 2015

So we are here to break this down for you. But before we do, do you even know what a virtual receptionist is? You will get a better sense of the answer to that question as we highlight the numerous benefits a virtual receptionist has over a traditional one, but let’s give you some basic information. Simply put, a virtual receptionist like a traditional receptionist. They complete the same tasks of answering calls, organizing schedules and so forth. The main difference being the virtual part. A virtual receptionist is not present in the workplace, and instead operates digitally. We will get to why that’s such a good thing in just a second, but it’s also important to note something else. Most virtual receptionist services, at least at Gabbyville, have a team of virtual receptionists helping any one business as opposed to just the one traditional receptionist.

So that’s the basic idea of what a virtual receptionist is. You probably have some ideas in your head about why one is better than the other or vice-versa, but here’s some information that you might not have thought about. A traditional receptionist is almost a relic of the past. So many businesses these days do not even have a physical workplace. That means that a company that wants a traditional receptionist would have to actually buy or rent a physical space just to house the traditional receptionist. Most of the time, too, a traditional receptionist is just working on their own. It might not seem like a big deal. How many people do you need to answer the phone, right? But a receptionist is actually doing a lot more than just that. Multiple calls might be coming in at any one time, conference calls might need to be set up, their might be orders or other calls that need to be made, and schedules and reminders need sending out. It is actually a lot of work for just one person. Furthermore, a traditional receptionist is not even always there. Traditional receptionists go on vacations and leave businesses high and dry. They also call in sick, take lunch breaks, and quit their job without giving so much as a notice. For any business that even slightly relies on calls for possible orders, or any company that has common to expect a certain amount of help from their traditional receptionist, these kind of things can be a real blow to productivity. Finally, a traditional receptionist is a full-time employee. That means that they will require a full salary, of course, but they will also expect benefits and other packages. This can add up on a small business that is just looking for a way to boost their efficiency.

Okay, but what makes a virtual receptionist better? Well to fix some of the obvious concerns that came up when talking about traditional receptionists, a virtual receptionist does not require a physical space. That means a business can operate entirely online or from home if wanted. Furthermore, you never have to worry about the phone being unattended or being without your virtual receptionist. Because a team of people is working for your business, there will always be someone manning the station during work hours. You never have to worry about hiring a new person that is incompetent either because these teams of virtual receptionists are trained professionals ready to do what they can to make your business work the best that it can. Finally, the cost is less. You do not have to pay a full salary, you do not have to worry about benefits, and you do not have to worry about any other costly packages either. Virtual receptionist services like Gabbyville are handled with affordable subscription services that any business can fit into their budget.

There are other benefits of a virtual receptionist, too, that traditional receptionists simply cannot even compare with. Because virtual receptionists are operating digitally, they are more tech savvy and can help you with a lot of technical aspects of your office. For example, they can set up conference calls for you or even international video conferencing. They can also record messages and calls for you and have these messages delivered to you. The mode of communication is even in your hands. You can have it faxed to you as a physical note, but you can also have them emailed or even texted to you. This means that you can have important work information sent to you even if you are away on a beach somewhere and out of the office. With virtual receptionists you are not only getting rid of the many problems of traditional receptionists, but you are entering a whole new world of benefits that you would not have even dreamed your business could have.

A Virtual Receptionist Costs Less Than a Traditional Receptionist and Here Is Why

admin September 29, 2015

If you are coming to this post and are deciding on whether your business needs a traditional receptionist or a virtual receptionist, then you have already made the most important step of recognizing that your business would benefit from a service like one of these. Especially for small businesses, missing a call can be detrimental, and businesses with lots of work will find the time saving benefits of either of these services is a huge benefit to your company. Regardless of your reasoning for coming to this question, though, money is probably a consideration. In both circumstances, you are talking about an added cost for your business that will come to be a required expense. There are a number of reasons why an answering service is the better option though.

Hiring a traditional receptionist is a huge cost. Unlike virtual receptionists, a traditional receptionist requires a full-time salary. That is a huge cost difference by itself. That is not all though. A traditional receptionist, being a full-time employee, will expect certain benefits – another huge cost on your business. This does not even account for the potential cost of a physical location if you were previously working from home or operated primarily digitally. Despite all of these costs, you are still not even guaranteed a receptionist at all times. A traditional receptionist will take vacations, they will require leave, they might call in sick, and they will have breaks during which they will not be able to answer the phone. Even still, this does not even account for the time that you will have to take to train the receptionist, and it ignores the possibility of the traditional receptionist quitting. In that instance, you would be high and dry, and you would have to start the whole process over again. After all of that, the cost of a traditional receptionist seems pretty lofty, but surely a virtual receptionist would be equally as expensive, right?

Actually, no. Virtual receptionists work differently. You would not be paying a full-time salary, and would instead only have to pay a low subscription cost. You will not have to worry about paying benefits because the virtual receptionists are not your employees. If you work from home or have a business that is primarily digital, then you do not have to worry about securing a costly physical space. You never have to worry about a virtual receptionist being sick or off. You will likely be working with a team of professionals that are dedicated to you and your business that will always have more than one person there ready to answer your calls and help your company. Finally, you do not have to worry about training them or find out that they are quitting. With a virtual receptionist, you are guaranteed a team of professionals that know what they are doing and do it well.

Okay, but a virtual receptionist is not going to be able to help out in most of the ways that a traditional receptionist could, right? They’re just there to answer phone calls and direct them, right? Wrong again. Virtual receptionists are not like the stereotypical idea that you probably have. In fact, there are a number of newer, better services, like Gabbyville. These virtual receptionists do a lot more than answer your calls. They will organize your schedule, help you set up meetings, and generally make your company more efficient and productive. They answer calls too, but not in a robotic and unemotional way that you are probably associating with answer services. Instead, they are committed to you and your business. That means you can work with them to personalize their work to make sure that your clients have an experience catered to your company every time they call. Furthermore, at least at Gabbyville, the virtual receptionists are dedicated to making every call welcoming and pleasant. At Gabbyville their goal is to make sure that every caller can hear their smile through the phone. And all of this just barely hits on the numerous benefits of a virtual receptionist service. So the short answer between a traditional receptionist or a virtual receptionist is a resounding yes, and you get so much more for your money too.