How Can I Save Money With A Live Virtual Receptionist?

If businesses want to install a virtual receptionist, they frequently consider it an additional expense. But in fact, adding a virtual receptionist to your team will save you money, particularly when compared to a full-time in-house receptionist.

Remote reception services may be complemented by a typical office staff. Or you can create a virtual office to function from anywhere. Either way, a virtual receptionist can be a very cost-effective way to provide the great service the customers want.

Here are seven ways that virtual reception can save your business money.

Recruiting

An analysis of employee turnover costs by the Center for American Progress reports that replacing an employee who earns less than $30,000 costs 16% of the worker's annual salary. Using the average receptionist pay in the U.S. means you're going to spend around $3,885 just to find and employ a receptionist. With a virtual receptionist, you don't have to think about recruitment or retention.

Salary

According to Glassdoor, the national average earning salary is $27,965. It's for a full-time employee who works 8 hours a day. Yet company owners know that trade doesn't just happen from 9 to 5. You will need several receptionists working full time to protect the phones 24/7/365. You can get remote reception services around the clock for a few hundred dollars a month, including weekends and holidays.

Equipment

Hiring an employee to work in your office means that you have to supply them with the equipment they need to do their job. For a receptionist, that probably means a desk, a chair, a computer, a phone, of course. We take care of all that when you partner with a virtual receptionist service like us. Our receptionists have everything they need to get to work with you right now. You don't have to set them up, and you don't have to replace something either.

Time

There's another way a virtual receptionist can save you money. This may be the most significant of all, but it's often ignored. How much is it worth your time? If you spend time recruiting and training a receptionist, you're not working on your company. If you answer your own calls, you're not working on your company, and you're putting in place the strategies that will help you develop. Your time as a company owner or manager is extremely important. There are only things that you can do for your business. It's not one of them to answer the phone.

Productivity

A virtual receptionist is often more effective than an in-house employee, for a few reasons. It takes time for a new employee to get up to speed, for one thing. Professional virtual receptionists already know the tools that we use to make and route your calls. They're doing this all day every day.

Second, you have to pay the in-house receptionist while they are on duty, even though there are no calls coming in. Naturally, you're going to be tempted to give them something else to do in those cases. But then they're not going to be able to answer your calls. There's a safer way out there.

You pay for a pool of minutes with a virtual receptionist. If you get three calls at once, they will all be answered simultaneously. If you're not called for an hour, you don't use any of your minutes. A live, knowledgeable person is always able to answer your phone calls, so you just have to pay for the minutes actually spent on your customer service.

Space

Speaking of the equipment that your in-house receptionist wants, where are you going to put all that? The national average cost for office space in a high-rise building is $43.79 per square foot. And although the cost varies greatly depending on the location and type of building, it's probably not free. Adding an employee means that you need a bigger office than you might otherwise need. Wouldn't you rather devote your precious room to an employee who works in your core business?

Training

When you appoint a receptionist to your staff, you don't have to pay for recruitment. You've got to teach them. This takes time away from more important activities. A virtual receptionist service like ours has already developed a training program and validated it for thousands of companies in a wide range of industries.

The hardest thing about recruiting and educating a new employee is that there is no guarantee about how much return you can get on the investment. Your receptionist will leave at any moment, leaving you to start the process and spend it all over again. You don't have to think about turnover with a virtual secretary.