Owning a business in the modern world is now necessarily easier that what it was decades or centuries ago. Despite new practices and advanced technology we get to use, numerous aspects have to come together and mesh well if a business is to be long-lasting and successful. A contemporary customer is hard to please and not because they are spoiled. There are simply too many high-end companies out there that provide top-notch services and sell amazing products, so why should anyone settle for less if they can get the best?
If you want your business to grow and become more popular, and if you wish to attract more customers to your website and to your store, there are certain things that have to exist. Apart from the obvious need of a good and in demand product or service, and the professionalism and experience in the market, you must also provide the potential customers with the right information, warm greetings, and clear instructions. Traditionally, these were all roles of receptionists, employees whose main task was to answer the phones and emails and provide answers to the questions and solutions to problems.
Automation and Virtual Solutions
Since we are rapidly moving to automation and considering how advanced out hardware and software are, more and more of these tiresome and repetitive tasks are being done by virtual programs, apps, and artificial intelligence (AI). Humans are much more needed elsewhere and there is no reason to hire a person to answer the call and act as a receptionist if you do not have to. The new way of doing this is to introduce virtual receptionists and/or answering services to help you.
Worry not if you have no idea what this is or how it works. In this article we talk about it in depth and determine the best ways in which such an introduction can grow your business. To find out more, make sure to visit Conversational.com.
1. Fewer Employees
Source: protothema.gr
While this may sound as a bad thing, hiring too many employees to handle, care for, and pay salaries to is not a good way to do business. Your business will suffer if there are too many people on the payroll, or rather more than is needed. Consider the receptionist. You own a small company where every employee does something more hands-on, either makes the product or provides the service. If you do not require a front desk, you do not need a receptionist, so why hire one just to answer the calls? The better solution would be to go virtual and have an answering service take care of things and point the callers to the right place. These solutions are highly customizable and you can make them do whatever you need in terms of giving information and offering solutions. At the same time, you will have more money to pay the rest of the employees and invest in your business in other ways. Cutting costs is always welcome no matter the size of the business.
2. More Accurate Service
Source: jobtoday.com
The position of a receptionist is often boring and repetitive, and it takes a lot of focus and attention to go make it through the entire shift with 100% of your physical and cognitive capabilities. On top of that, some customers may have extra special requests and problems that the receptionist cannot solve alone. This takes time from other workers and makes the customer wait. Despite having a computer in front of them and all the necessary paperwork and data, it is often a nightmare to deal with rude, impatient, or uncooperative customers all day. In an effort not to lose a customer or to simply deal with all of that more easily and quickly, many businesses opt to switch to virtual solutions. They are always friendly, professional, and patient, and best of all, they will give the customer the necessary information every time. Bookings and appointments are easy to set up, inquiries, messages, and calls will be taken care of, and reminders and notifications are there to help too.
3. Better Customer Service
Source: medium.com
You should remember that the job of a receptionist is to care for the customers and provide them with whatever kind of issue they may have. In the modern world customer support is among the leading causes of people switching to competitors. Bad customer service harms the business and makes people leave in favor of others. What is more, we are nowadays used to good service because most businesses go the extra mile to keep the existing customers and attract new ones. By showing them that you care and that they will be taken care off long after they make the purchase, you make sure that they recommend you and that they come back. And what better way to do so than to have an AI assistant answering the emails and phones, a virtual employee who never gets tired, frustrated, and can work non-stop? Customers will be able to reach you at any time since there are no office hours, something that directly influences the number of potential customers coming your way.
4. Know the Problems and Issues
Source: cloudapper.com
Last but not least, virtual assistants and receptionists have ledgers and data that they accumulate from the calls so that you can better identify what most customers have problems with. If they constantly call about certain things, it will be easy to examine the records and improve the areas they may have bad experiences with. It is all about statistics and analytics, so making sure the answering services records the calls and actually helps the people will also be ready and available for you to review. This would be an overall improvement for the whole company you are trying to grow and all without an employee who may have misunderstood the customer, who may have been rude or impatient, or who was not professional or willing to cooperate. It also serves to protect you if a customer has shown any of those traits and is now saying they were right and trying to claim innocence.
