The number of Bay Area companies using virtual receptionists has been increasing steadily over the past few years, a change driven predominately by the growth of a modern and surprisingly effective business model: the virtual office. But why exactly have they been taking off so well and how exactly do they fit in to this change?
In some ways, it’s fair to say that the virtual office was born in California. As international hubs for technology and software, the major population areas of San Francisco and the surrounding communities have hosted huge numbers of highly intelligent, independent, and adventurous workers and innovators. Workers and innovators who baulked at the inconveniences common to big cities including high office costs, expensive utilities, and agonizing commutes.
Then came the coffee shops, free WIFI, broadband home internet, and company intranets—an explosion of communications technology that led more and more workers to the discovery that working remotely is not only far more affordable, but can be leveraged to provide a number of other advantages, particularly large region like the Bay Area. Advantages including:
- Killing the commute. No traffic, no problem. Working locally is better for the environment, your schedule, and your wallet.
- More flexibility. Workers can keep working when they’re sick, move their hours around to accommodate family time, and save their vacation days by offsetting hours to their convenience.
- Better employee retention. Workers can stick around even if they need to move halfway around the world. As long as they can log in, they can continue to contribute.
- Minimal Overhead. When a team works remotely their costs are much lower, particularly compared to the cost of renting, buying, and furnishing a traditional office space.
This trend led naturally to the concept of the virtual office, a set of services now offered all over the place. The company, in this system, forgoes the formal office of the past and instead purchases a set of services that provides everything they need to successfully run their business as if they had invested in brick and mortar. Typically, the packages include a formal business mailing address and space at a communal office building with desks, conference rooms, and meeting areas available for reservation as needed.
Supplemented by remote access, cloud hosted services, and modern communications and project management technology, the virtual office offers nearly everything a growing company needs to be successful.
This is where Reliable Receptionist come in. Now working with a number of small and medium sized business through the Greater East Bay Area, particularly startups or companies with a large number of remote workers, Reliable Receptionist provides comprehensive phone coverage and call-handling service to rival that of any in-house traditional receptionist. This includes scheduling, message taking, introductions, courtesy calls, and other services. For remote or dispersed companies in Walnut Creek and the surrounding areas, we provide virtual office space as well as the other tools needed to obtain a business street address and mailbox, have a meeting space, manage callers, make a great impression, and flourish even without a traditional office infrastructure.
To learn more about virtual offices services Reliable Receptionists has to offer, visit our homepage or contact our team today at (925) 627-4200.