• blog

Don’t Worry About Your Schedule, Your Virtual Receptionist Has It Under Control

So you’re thinking about getting a receptionist? It’s a really good idea, and you will find that your business is much more efficient and productive with the receptionist. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you will actually have your calls answered at all times. This might sound obvious, but it really means a lot when you think about just how much missing a call (and thus a possible client or order) can damage your business. You also will no longer have to worry about inane calls that take up your time and keep you from doing the work you really need to do. Instead, you will have a receptionist that can take all the calls. They will take the good and the bad. They will make sure you have time to focus on your work, and they will make sure that the important information does get to you.

A traditional, in house receptionist could do all of those things, and they would be there to help for other things you need too. This is definitely a huge benefit, but in this new time of digital service and online business, there is a new kind of receptionist that does so much more than the old kind. You might call this new kind a virtual receptionist, and they do so much more than just answer calls.

One of the really useful things about a virtual receptionist is how much they are working directly for the benefit of your business. Here’s an example: your schedule. A virtual receptionist is already handling your calls, so they have a good idea of all of your meetings, calls, and other objects on your schedule. A virtual receptionist can make sure that your schedule is organized, and they can let you know when to be at the places that you need to be at. Because they are working virtually, though, they will be able to do more than just write in on your calendar. A virtual receptionist can send you reminders by text, give you a call, or email you when you have a meeting to be at. If you need to cancel that meeting, they can do that too. This is just one of the many benefits of your receptionist being digital. Say, for example, you need to talk to a client across the ocean, and you want to get another team member on the call too. Your virtual receptionist can set that call up for you. If you want it to be a video conferencing call, they can do that too. When it comes to setting up technology for you, there really is not much a virtual receptionist cannot do. That’s just one of the benefits of having a virtual receptionist over a traditional one.

There is so much more a virtual receptionist can do too. In fact, you do not even have to be in the office to reap the benefits of a virtual receptionist. Say you want to get away from work for a while, but there is still a lot of stuff going on with your business. This a great use of your virtual receptionist. They will still be there working for you answering any potential calls that might come in, but they can also keep you in the loop. They can have important documents and orders emailed or texted to you directly. They can even have entire calls messaged to you if that is what you want.

Finally, you never have to worry about their professionalism. At least at virtual receptionist services like Gabbyville, the client is the number one priority, so that means that your business is just as important to them as it is to you. Not only will they make sure that every caller is welcomed and helped, but they are trained professionals that know how to make your business function to the best of its ability. With all of this, you really have no reason not to look into these new answering services, or virtual receptionists, today.

  • blog

How A Virtual Receptionist Can Make Your Cleaning Service Job Even Easier

When it comes to cleaning services, what is the most important part of the job? The actual cleaning job, right? Exactly. It definitely is not the booking of clients, scheduling and making appointments, or keeping all of those things organized. Those are all very important if you want your business to be successful, but they are definitely secondary to the cleaning itself. Why not give those parts of the job over to someone else then? A virtual receptionist can do all of those things for you and more, and it will help make your job a whole lot easier.

When a potential client is looking for a cleaning service, they are probably going to search for possibilities and then make some calls. Imagine the impression it would make on a potential client if a receptionist answered the phone. Chances are they would see that your business was professional and organized, and that would make them more likely to hire you. As an added bonus, having a receptionist take the calls and give the clients all of the pertinent information and scheduling means that you do not have to stop whatever work you were doing just to take a call from the client. If you have more time to do your work, and if your work is not interrupted as often by constant calls, then it means you will get done faster and have more time for more orders. This, of course, means extra income, and that is always a good sign.

But with all of these new clients calling in and with all the extra jobs you’re taking, you are going to have a hard time keeping all of that organized. Actually, you wont have to worry about that either. Your virtual receptionist will take care of all of your scheduling needs and make sure you are aware of when your next job is. You can even work with your receptionist so that they will send you text or email updates when your next job is coming up. Never again will you have to worry about missing an appointment or showing up to a job late because now you will have a virtual receptionist to always make sure you are where you need to be when you need to be there.

Hold up a second though. All of these benefits sound great, but they must be awfully expensive. Only the big corporate cleaning services can afford receptionists. Actually, that’s not true. It is true that a traditional receptionist can cost a lot of money. They are actual employees that require salaries, benefits, vacation time, and so many other added expenses. A virtual receptionist, though, costs just a fraction of that. Because you are working with a virtual receptionist service, you are paying a monthly subscription instead of an entire salary for another person. That means big savings for you. Plus, a virtual receptionist has lots of other benefits over traditional receptionists too. For example, a traditional receptionist will have to be away from the phone sometimes. They might take a lunch break, go on vacation, or quit unexpectedly and leave you with lots of missed calls and potential jobs that were lost. If there is one thing you do not want, it is to have a receptionist and then find yourself scrambling to find a replacement as all the receptionist’s old work falls back on you. You never have to worry about that with a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist is always working during business hours, and since there is a whole team of people dedicated to making sure that your cleaning service is the best it can be, there will never be an instance when you are without someone to answer the call of a potential client. And all of this does not even begin to scratch the surface of all the benefits a virtual receptionist offers in terms of digital connectedness, personalization, and so much more.

Do you see all of the benefits of a virtual receptionist now? There are even more that we haven’t listed here, and a virtual receptionist could really help any cleaning service looking to expand its business and become more professional.

  • blog
  • General

A Virtual Receptionist Can Help Take Your Event Planning Business to the Next Level

Let’s take a minute to think about what an event planner does. To the common person with know knowledge of the job, it might seem like an event planner comes up with a neat idea for a party or gathering and then just runs a credit card a lot at different stores. This, however, could not be further from the truth. An event planner does come up with amazing ideas for events, but they also put these plans and ideas into action. This means contacting a number of people (from the caterer, to the musicians, to the florist, and so on), coordinating with them so that everyone is on the same schedule, keeping in touch with the client to ensure everything is going according to plan, and, last but not least, making sure the event goes off without a hitch.

When you lay it all out, it sounds exhausting, and without any help, it probably is. Fortunately, the new advances in technology and business have created a resource that every event planner should be using to make their business more successful. That resource is a virtual receptionist.

If you are an event planner, you might be scratching your head right about now. “Why do I need to hire someone to answer the phone for me? Why can’t I just use my cell phone?” you might be asking. That’s a perfectly good question, and if the only thing a virtual receptionist did was answer the phone, then you would be right. In actuality, though, a virtual receptionist does so much more.

Remember that bit about contacting all of the various people and services needed for an event? That’s something your virtual receptionist could do. Virtual receptionists are trained to do the work and make the calls the way you want them to. Do you need someone to call through your contact list of bands to see which is available to work on a certain date and perform a jazz set? That’s a task to take off your plate because the virtual receptionist can handle it. Maybe you want a list of the caterers in the area that can serve a full meal under a certain price limit. That’s also something your virtual receptionist can do for you. Plus, it gets even better. When those people and services inevitably start calling you back and asking for confirmation of time, payment, and other inane details, your virtual receptionist can take their calls and provide them with all the information they need. That way, you will not be bogged down by those annoying calls and be able to focus on the important parts of your job. Furthermore, if there is something that needs your approval or inspection, the virtual receptionist can have the call forwarded to you. Or, if you decide a call is something you personally want to handle, then you can take on that part of the job yourself. You will be able to make these decisions because you will have a lot more time to do what you want than you did before.

A virtual receptionist does more than that too. One important part of an event planner’s job is making sure everything and everyone is where it needs to be and is there when it is supposed to be there. This is where the planning and scheduling functions of the virtual receptionist service really comes in handy. As the virtual receptionist is taking calls and helping you coordinate the event, they will also be taking note of times and dates that you need to remember. Because they are entirely digital, they can even have reminders sent to your phone or email to make sure you are where you need to be when you need to be there.

And don’t worry about whether you’re going to have some kind of heartless robot as your virtual receptionist. The virtual receptionists, especially at places like Gabbyville, are real people dedicated to providing the best level of customer care that they can. It is their mission to make sure every caller that they speak with can hear their smile through the phone. If you get a virtual receptionist, then you will understand. You’ll be smiling too.

  • blog
  • Business Tips

A Real Estate Agent Can Set Themselves Apart With A Virtual Receptionist

A real estate agent can be a really great job. Depending on where or how you work you might be able to set your own hours. You might be working from home and your own boss. Not to mention, you get to see the insides of lots of different houses and see where other people live. All joking aside, there are lots of downsides to working as a real estate agent too. You probably get a lot of phone calls of people wanting to list their home with you or looking for help buying a home. You are moving around constantly as you go from house to house and meeting to meeting. It can definitely get tiring.

A receptionist would be a great way to get a lot of those stresses off of your back. You would not have to worry about missing calls from potential clients when you were trying to make a sale. You would not be so tied to your phone, and you would be more scheduled. This would help you get to all the showings you and meetings you need to get to and never worry about being late or forgetting anything. Unfortunately, receptionists are not cheap. For a profession that is largely dependent on home many sales you make in a single month, it can be very difficult to hire someone on a full salary. Plus, you would have to give the receptionist benefits, vacation, and so much more that would really eat up an extra profits you would make from having a receptionist in the first place. While all of that is true, it does not even consider the extra cost of buying or renting a space for your receptionist to work from. This is a huge expense that you might not have considered if you are working from home and thinking about hiring a receptionist.

Don’t misunderstand, we think you should hire a receptionist, but let us tell you about a different option that you might not be familiar with. It’s called a virtual receptionist, and it’s so much more than it sounds. Unlike a traditional receptionist, a virtual one does not need a physical space because they work out of their company’s home base. They do not need a full salary from you because you are paying for a subscription. This also means you do not have to worry about providing benefits at all. Overall, this will save a ton of money.

And that lower price does not get you any lower quality. In fact, especially with virtual receptionist services like Gabbyville, you are getting even better service than you would with a traditional receptionist. At Gabbyville, for example, their goal is to make sure that every caller can hear the receptionist’s smile through the phone. That is to say that your callers will always feel welcomed and listened to. Virtual receptionists are dedicated to making sure that their customer care is as valuable as you want it to be. You can work closely with them to ensure that they have all the information they need to cooperate with all of your potential callers. Plus, they will never be away from the phone during work hours. That’s how dedicated they are to you. A traditional receptionist might be away on vacation, sick, taking leave, or any number of other things. A virtual receptionist service will make sure you have a team of professional receptionists ready to answer your calls at any time. Since the whole team is working for you, there will always be someone there to answer that call.

Plus, a virtual receptionist has other special qualities that a traditional receptionist does not that can allow you the chance to get away. Maybe you’ve had your eye on that vacation to the beach, but you have been too worried to step away in case you miss a possible business opportunity. A virtual receptionist will answer your calls even while you are gone. Any important business that comes through can be sent to you via text, email, voice message, or any other method you prefer. That way you can treat yourself with that relaxation time. After all, you deserve it. You made the great decision to hire a virtual receptionist!

  • blog
  • Receptionist Tips

How A Virtual Receptionist Can Benefit A Contracting Company

Okay, let’s paint a picture here. Your company gets a call from a big company that wants to contract you and your employers out for a rush job. You have the manpower, the time, and the fortitude to get it done and do it well. Because it is a rush order, the company is offering you big bucks too, and if you do well, then you will be the first company they call with other orders in the future. The only problem? You weren’t there to pick up the phone. Sure, they left a message and all, but do you think they are going to sit around and wait for you to call them back and accept the job? Probably not. In fact, there’s a good chance that they are going to move forward, call your competitors and hire one of them instead.

Yeah, this is definitely a worst case scenario, but for a contracting company especially, a missed call can be the difference between a big opportunity or a big failure. What you need, then, is a receptionist. Receptionists can be expensive though. You have to pay another full salary that will always need paying regardless of how many orders you have coming in. You will also need to buy or rent a space for your receptionist to work from. Not only that, but you also have to worry about benefits, vacation, hiring and firing, and training. After all of that, you are talking about a lot of expenses. It’s definitely important, but is it worth it?

Luckily, you don’t have to worry about answering that question. Instead of wringing your hands about whether or not to hire a receptionist, you can just get a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist works a lot like a traditional receptionist except with a lot less hassle. You won’t have to worry about paying a full-time salary, benefits, or any of that. Virtual receptionist services work on subscriptions and cost a whole lot less than a traditional receptionist would. Plus, because they are completely through the phone and digital, you don’t have to worry about putting all that money out for a physical office space. You also never have to worry about a virtual receptionist being away from the phone. Traditional receptionists might be gone for vacation or leave. They might have to quit their job and leave you without a replacement, or they might take long lunch breaks or be sick and miss that important call. None of those things are issues with virtual receptionists. Instead, you will have a team of receptionists dedicated to working for you. Because there are several people working for you, you can be sure that someone will always be there to keep you in contact with your employers, clients, and everyone else.

Surely there has to be a catch then, right? There’s no way a virtual receptionist can provide the same level of customer care that a traditional receptionist would, right? Wrong on both counts. Virtual receptionists are completely dedicated and focused on making your business run well and keep your customers and clients happy. You get to work closely with them to ensure they are providing the level of care that you expect. Plus, you can keep them informed so that they know just what to say and how to say it.

Virtual receptionists have other benefits too that make them perfect for contractors too. Say you’re have a job that day at a work site, but you’re also really waiting on an important call. A virtual receptionist means you have a number of options. They can transfer a call to your cell phone. They can also take a voice message or talk to the person on their own and then send you an audio file to your email or phone so you can listen at your own convenience. Virtual receptionists will also keep you up to date on your schedule. Never again will you be at one site and leisurely finishing up only to realize that you were supposed to be at another site 15 minutes ago. Virtual receptionists will keep track of your calendar and send you alerts on your phone about what you have coming up next and when to be there. Virtual receptionists are really great for a lot of different kinds of businesses, but if you are a contracting company, then a virtual receptionist is even more important for you.

  • blog
  • Business Tips

Are You A Tech Startup? You Need A Virtual Receptionist

Starting your own technology company is a lot of work. If you are starting from the ground up, then there is a lot to do and a lot to keep organized. You will probably be fielding a lot of calls and trying to get investors, make money, and sell your brand. You will also want to distinguish yourself from competitors. In all honesty, there are a lot of tech companies trying to get off the ground right now, and it can be hard to stand out amongst all of the others that are flooding the market. How do you set yourself apart, stay organized, keep in touch with clients, investors, and other and seem professional while doing it? It might seem like it is impossible, but keep to it, and you will be bound to make it. One thing that can help you ensure you make it, though, is a virtual receptionist.

A virtual receptionist is almost as trendy as having a tech startup. Just like the name sounds, a virtual receptionist works much the same as a traditional receptionist, but it operates entirely digitally. This is a great benefit for a tech startup. Everyone will have a receptionist, but a virtual receptionist that works digitally makes sure that your clients and potential investors see that you understand the tech market and know where the next big thing is. A virtual receptionist might seem like a scary idea though. How will they give that personal, positive interaction that an in house receptionist would bring? At least with services like Gabbyville, virtual receptionist are dedicated to offering the same customer service that a traditional receptionist would offer. At Gabbyville, for example, their goal is to make sure the caller can hear their smile through the phone. They will make sure to work closely with you to provide a personal, courteous, and welcoming demeanor to your callers.

“But an old fashioned receptionist would help me get organized with everything I have to do,” you might be saying to yourself. Luckily, a virtual receptionist can do this too and even better. A virtual receptionist will help keep you organized, on time, and they will do so entirely through calls, messages, and emails. They will help you keep a calendar with your appointments on it. They will then use this to send you text messages, phone calls, or email reminders to make sure you are where you need to be and when you need to be. They will also send any files, documents, voice messages, and anything else to you in any format you need. If you want a voice message sent to you, then they will have an email waiting in your inbox. They can also have pertinent documents faxed to you and texted to you if you prefer. With a virtual receptionist, then, the goal really is to have things functioning the way you want them to.

Perhaps the most important feature of a virtual receptionist for a tech startup is the cost. Surprisingly, the cost is lower with a virtual receptionist than it would be with an old fashioned receptionist. “How can that be with all of these services they offer?” you are asking yourself. Well, if you think about it, then it makes a lot of sense. A virtual receptionist does not require a full salary or benefits of any sort. Instead you are simply paying for the subscription to the service itself. This alone will already be substantially less than hiring a traditional receptionist, but there is more too. A virtual receptionist means that you do not have to rent or buy a physical space where the receptionist can work from. This will be a huge cost benefit for you and your business if you are still in the very early stages of your startup. Finally, a virtual receptionist will always be present. A traditional receptionist will need to go on vacation. They will also take sick days, lunch breaks, leave early sometimes, and they might even leave the job entirely. This would leave you high and dry for those periods of time when you do not have anyone answering the phone, and it can be a huge mistake for a startup to miss a call when it is just starting out. A virtual receptionist will be there throughout all of work hours and, along with everything else, will make sure you don’t miss that call with the million dollar offer to invest in your company.

  • blog
  • General

A Virtual Receptionist Can Be Your Best Friend If You Work in IT

People who do not work in IT might not understand the frustrations that come along with that kind of job. Sure, many times calls that come in will be serious problems that require a lot of work and attention. A lot of calls, however, will be really simple fixes like resetting a router or restarting a computer. It would be great, then, if IT professionals had a way to get rid of those pesky calls, help them with the more difficult ones, and keep them in the digital zone so they don’t require a physical office.

As it were, there actually is something that can do all of that, and it is a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist really is a great resource for an IT professional and for a number of reasons. Let’s start with those pesky calls though. A virtual receptionist is your vanguard between dealing with all the customers that just need to call in and be told to restart their computer. A virtual receptionist can answer the call, determine the severity of the problem, and if it is something that can be fixed really simply, then they can go ahead and tell them what to do. The receptionist can even bill the customer, then, if needed. This way you do not have to deal with the same issues over and over again. This will make your job easier and will let you work on the more important stuff.

This is another benefit. Those pesky calls for simple things take up your time. They might not take up much time at all, but when they compile on top of each other, then it can really take you away from more important work. Plus, nobody wants to really be in the zone and working hard, only to have their concentration interrupted by a call saying a mouse stopped working or that someone does not know how to install a new software. A virtual receptionist can help that from happening, but they can also make working on those difficult orders a bit easier too. A virtual receptionist can get all of the details from the client before you even start working on the job. This can also mean setting up screen sharing, compiling all of the details for you in an easy to access way, and communicate with the client if anything else has to be done. With all of that extra help, you will be able to quickly get in, do what you need to do, and move on to your next job. Not only will this make your work much easier, but it will also make you more efficient. This means more orders for your and more profit.

Plus, you will not have to worry about much of that profit going to a receptionist. A virtual receptionist, after all, costs less than a traditional, in house receptionist. When you account for a full-time salary, benefits, and everything else, an in house receptionist can prove to be rather costly. A virtual receptionist, on the other hand, has half of those expenses, and is generally cheaper overall. Plus, you never have to worry about being without your receptionist like you would with an in house receptionist. A traditional receptionist takes lunch breaks, goes on vacation, and calls in sick from time to time. A virtual receptionist, though, never does that. With a virtual receptionist, you will have a team of people dedicated to you and your business that work together to ensure that you will always have someone ready to answer the call and assist your customers to the best of their ability.

Finally, a virtual receptionist is particularly better for IT professionals than an in house receptionist because of the impression it will have on your customers and clients. A virtual receptionist shows how technically savvy you are. It shows that you know how to navigate and operate within a heavily digitized world and do so with ease and professionalism. Furthermore, an in house receptionist would mean that you would have to rent or buy a physical space for them to work from. If you are an IT professional, you don’t want to have to worry about any of those pesky annoyances, and a virtual receptionist can help make them all disappear.

  • blog
  • General

How a Virtual Receptionist Can Help a Plumber, Electrician, or Other Handyman

So you have your license and the experience to work as some kind of handyman. Maybe you’re a plumber, or maybe you’re an electrician, or maybe you’re something else entirely. Most people probably assume that your job simply consists of fixing whatever is broken and moving on to the next job, but there’s a lot more to it, isn’t there?

After all, when you start working as any kind of handyman or maintenance worker, the jobs don’t just make themselves. You have to find clients, establish a reputation in the community, deal with logistics, and schedule the orders. All of that on top of simply doing the work that you have to do. With all of this added work that you probably didn’t intend on doing when you got into this line of work, you can easily find yourself swamped under lots of office work. This keeps you from actually going out and completing orders. And, of course, if you don’t have time to complete the orders, how will you get paid?

This is when it would be really helpful to have some extra assistance to take care of these extra parts of the job. A receptionist, obviously, would be an excellent idea, but there are so many issues with a traditional receptionist. Just to begin with, many handymen and other maintenance workers do not have an actual physical office that a secretary would work from. Furthermore, many handymen are working for themselves and working like contractors of sorts. If this is true in your case, you are not going to want to spend a significant chunk of your earnings on another person’s salary. After all, a traditional secretary would likely require a salary, benefits, and so forth. At the same time, a receptionist would mean you would have to worry about missing calls (and therefore missing precious job opportunities, building a reputation with clients, and so much more). It also means you would be able to focus more on the working part of work and actually be able to do what you planned to do when you went into this line of work.

Fortunately, there is an option that provides the benefits of traditional receptionists without the problems they create on their own. That solution is a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist works just like a traditional service, but does a lot more for a lot less. A virtual receptionist takes calls and messages for you, forwards calls, schedules appointments, keeps you up to date on your work, and so much more. Plus, you don’t have to worry about having a physical location or not. When you pay the monthly subscription, you are signing up for a team of receptionists that work remotely, but still provide excellent level of care to your clients and potential clients. You also don’t have to worry about that extra salary being taken out of your profits. Virtual receptionists are much cheaper than traditional, in house receptionists, and because you are contracting out their services, you don’t have to worry about benefits, sick time, or anything else.

In fact, you could easily think of virtual receptionists as a handyman for handymen. They come in and fix all of the problems the handymen are having with their own work. If you are struggling to get clients, this is also a great option to really boost your reputation in the community. Imagine a potential client that is shopping around for a plumber to come fix an issue with their kitchen sink. They call several plumbers to inquire about services, but one particularly stands out to them. This plumber has a receptionist that answers the phone promptly – there’s no chance the call will be missed because the receptionist is always working during work hours. The receptionist is friendly, knowledgeable, and provides all the information the client needs quickly and courteously. Now compare that to the other plumbers that answered their cell phone while they were in the middle of a complicated job or the plumbers that didn’t even answer the phone because they were too busy. I think you can imagine which plumber got the job from this client.

  • blog

How A Virtual Receptionist Can Help An Attorney

Most individuals expect an attorney’s phone to be answered by a receptionist. A receptionist suggests class, prestige, and a professionalism that clients want in a potential attorney. In a job that hinges largely on appearances and perception, it is important that your clients have the right idea of you as a well put together individual that takes their job seriously. A receptionist is a great way to do this, but they also come with a host of problems of their own.

An in house receptionist means a hefty salary that you will have to pay. Chances are high that you will also have to cover benefits for your receptionist too. Full time employees will also expect sick days, vacation time, and possibly even leave for numerous possible reasons. When you are counting on your receptionist to help you deliver the quality service and professionalism that your reputation suggests, you hardly have the time or the ability to worry about these added expenses and possible times you would have to go without your receptionist.

Fortunately, virtual receptionist services, such as Gabbyville, offer the same great services without any of those issues. Most virtual receptionist services work like an answering service. Instead of paying a whole person’s salary and giving them benefits and so forth, you simply pay a fee to the virtual receptionist service that undercuts the cost of an in house receptionist by a lot. Plus, because there is typically a team of people ready to answer and direct your calls as you need them, you do not have to worry about your receptionist ever being sick, taking lunch, being away, or leaving. Virtual receptionist services offer coverage throughout the work day.

Virtual receptionist services might seem like an impersonal approach, but they really aren’t that at all. In fact, you can work with your virtual receptionist service to make sure they answer, direct, and respond to calls the way that you want them too. Plus, at least at Gabbyville, your virtual receptionist will make sure that callers can see their smile through the phone. This indicates the level of personability they offer, and they promise this welcoming, courteous attitude at all times. Beyond that, any impersonal or detachedness can even prove beneficial for an attorney. Attorneys often must deal with private business that an in house receptionist might treat insensitively or without extra concern. Virtual receptionist services are bound by their company and their agreement with you to behave in a professional and appropriate manner.

But an in house receptionist does a lot more than answer the phones for me – you might find yourself saying. This is probably true, but so do virtual receptionist services. They can make sure your calls are forwarded as you need them. They can turn away unwanted clients or annoyances before they reach your desk. They can also be an extra benefit for attorneys because of the way they handle any documents that are sent to you. Important legal documents will no longer be at the mercy of whatever else happens to be on your or your receptionist’s desk at the time. A virtual receptionist service will make sure that all these documents are delivered to you in the manner you wish (whether that be through digital, post, or fax), and they can dispose of any files as you wish on their end too.

They can also work around your busy schedule. Any good attorney never spends the entire day in the office. A virtual receptionist service can work with you to make sure that calls are forwarded to your cell phone directly. They can also send voice recordings through texts and emails if a message has to be taken. They can also make your business less of a hassle. By working closely with them, you can make sure your virtual receptionist has your calendar and sends you reminders about court dates and other meetings as needed. Even when you are taking your own vacation, a virtual receptionist can still make sure your practice is running smoothly by directing calls to you wherever you may be or taking messages that you can respond to at your own leisure.

The argument here is pretty clear, and it does not take a persuasive attorney to make the case for virtual receptionists. If you are an attorney, and you want to set your practice apart from others, consider hiring a virtual receptionist service.

  • blog

What a Missed Call Can Mean to a Small Business

If you read the title of this post, you are probably thinking through the possibilities. A missed call could mean you don’t have to deal with a problem right now. It could mean that you have a customer with a question, and they will call back later. It could mean there’s someone calling that you don’t want to talk to anyway.

These are all definitely possible, but there are lots of other possibilities too. It could be that the person that was calling was going through the list of businesses similar to you on a web search, and because they did not get an answer from you, then they are going on to a competitor that takes the job. A missed call could mean that a client gets a bad impression of your business as one that is inattentive and does not answer calls, and they leave a bad review or a tell other potential clients about your poor customer service.

There are lots of things a missed call can mean for a small business. Some are good, but many are bad. There are also many reasons that a call may go unanswered by you and the phone keeps ringing. Maybe you simply do not get to the phone in time. Perhaps you are busy with another client and cannot get to the phone. It is also likely that you have more important things to do as the owner or operator of a small business. Running a small business takes your attention in several different directions, and the last thing you need is to be tied to a desk or a phone. Constant phone calls are annoying and make you less efficient as it draws you away from work that needs to be done.

This is not to say answer phone calls are beneath you though. A small business cannot thrive without answering their phones. If you are a lawyer, you cannot expect work to fall on your desk. If you are a shipping company, you can only receive orders when people call in and request them. With all of the digital integration today, it may seem like you can simply rely on emails and other online communication, but it really is important to have contact with your customers and clients through phone too, as many of them may not be equipped to contact you through the internet.

But that still doesn’t make answering the phones your job. What you need is a receptionist or a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist will make sure that none of those negative scenarios that was mentioned before will happen to you or your company. Furthermore, a virtual receptionist will handle all of the other scenarios mentioned at the top too. Whether a call is wanted or not, the receptionist will be there to answer the questions and respond to the complaints, and it will take the extra work off of your desk so that you can focus on other things. If you are worried about this also being impersonal, you shouldn’t be. Virtual receptionist services, like Gabbyville, make it their priority to familiarize themselves with your business to make sure that they give the right responses and so they know when to direct the clients to you. Furthermore, services like Gabbyville are dedicated to providing great customer care so that your clients really feel welcomed and almost feel like they can see the receptionist smiling through the phone. Virtual receptionists are even better than in house receptionists in ways too because they are always working. You don’t have to worry about the receptionist being away on lunch or on vacation because the virtual receptionist will always be there to answer the calls. Instead of just having one person there answering the phones, virtual receptionists work as a team. This way, there is always someone there to make sure your calls are answered and your customers are taken care of.

If you agreed with any of the possibilities mentioned above about how missing a call can hurt your business, or maybe if you thought of your own possibility, then you definitely should consider hiring a receptionist or virtual receptionist to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.