Virtual Receptionist - How Does It Work?
Getting a virtual receptionist for your business is really quite easy to do. First up you need to sign up for our 7 day free trial and we will then allocate you a unique telephone number for your account. Secondly, you tell us how you would like us to greet your callers when our receptionists are answering your incoming phone calls. Finally, you need to tell us how you would like any messages delivered to your company. You then simply divert your existing phone number to the phone number that we have provided for your business and you are ready to go.
View Package PricesMessage Taking
This will be the first thing that you do when you get your telephone answering service. When you are unavailable to take phone calls you simply check "Do not disturb" on the account and our team will take a message for you. Simple!
Call Transfer To You
This is for when you need a gatekeeper to screen all of those unwanted calls. We will answer incloming calls and see whether they meet your criteria. We then transfer important ones to you.Think of how much time you will get back.
Call Transfer To A Colleague
When you are really busy but there are calls that you don't want the business to miss we can answer your calls and transfer the important ones to one of your colleagues. Give us a list of colleagues and we will look for someone to transfer to.
Information Provided To Callers
Quite often people will call your business because they want information about quite basic things like what station do I get off at or is there parking? We can provide your callers with this information and leave you to get on with important business.
Skilled Receptionists
We don't cut corners when it comes to training staff. We employ English speaking receptionists who understand about Australian business and who follow specific standards of service. We feel that using cheap offshore services is a false economy.
No Lock In Contracts
Unlike a number of our competitors we don't try to lock our customers into lengthy contracts. Our customers are free to cancel their plan with just one months notice. We currently have thousands of customers in Australia who stay with us because they value the services we provide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a virtual receptionist?
A virtual receptionist is similar to a live physical receptionist but a virtual receptionist has a lot more benefits. Firstly, with a virtual reception you only need to pay for what you use rather than paying for idle time. This means that when things are slow in your Sydney office you are not liable for all those wages costs of the telephonist. Secondly, if your business is extremely busy and getting loads of calls you do not have to worry about how all of these calls are going to be answered. Regardless of when the call is received you can organise for us to answer it. In effect you can have an after hours answering service. We can allocate as many or as few virtual receptionists as you need to get the job done. Thirdly, with a virtual staff member you don't need to worry about holiday pay, sick pay, overtime or superannuation. You simply pay for what you need.
What does a virtual reception do?
A receptionist answers your incoming telephone calls. It really is quite easy. Once you sign up for your free trial you will be allocated a telephone number. This number can either be a local Sydney number (or another local regional number if you want) or a 1300 number. This allocated number is then the phone number that we answer and you will need to divert your existing number to this number. You then need to let us know what greeting our telephonists need to use when they answer your calls. This greeting is unique to your business and can be changed at any time that you like. Finally, you need to tell us how you want to receive your messages and we are ready to get started answering your calls.
What is the difference between virtual assistant and virtual receptionist?
A virtual receptionist answers calls and forwards you messages, a virtual assistant can perform a variety of tasks including sales support, filling out web forms, delivering customer surveys and much more.
Do I need a virtual receptionist or receptionist staff for my small business?
It depends on your size and type of business. For a small business it makes sense to have an outsourced receptionist so that you don't have to employ another staff member and you have the potential benefit of having someone there 24 hours a day to take calls. If you are a large business then you may want to have an in-house receptionist as well as a call answering service as the answering service can take calls after hours or when your receptionist is on a lunch break or is away sick or on leave. Having a receptionist that is virtual means that there is always someone available to answer that incoming call. If you just have an in-house receptionist and they are already on a call and another call comes in, then you need to have other options set up for how you deal with that call. It might be that you forward the call to your sales team or forward the call to someone in accounts or office support. Either way, you are taking your chances that the call gets answered promptly and professionally. It doesn't have to be one or the other, ie, inhouse receptionist or an outsourced receptionist. The outsourced receptionist can complement your inhouse team and every single call can be dealt with professionally.
Difference between the virtual receptionist and receptionist?
A virtual receptionist works remotely via the internet while a receptionist will work in your office answering that incoming call. With a call answering service you can also get the benefit of having mulitle people available if there are a lot of calls while with an inhouse receptionist you will be limited to one person. When you outsource that receptionist role you give your business flexibility and ensure that every call will recieved at your office will be answered. It also frees up your team to do what they do best.
What is a virtual receptionist service?
A telephone answering service. One or more remote receptionists in our team can answer your businesses incoming calls and forward messages to you in respect of those calls. Our team can also field questions from your customers and in some instances answer those questions.
For 7 days. No obligation. No credit card required.TRY OUR AUSTRALIAN PHONE ANSWERING FOR FREE...
How do I get my messages?
Once the receptionist answers your incoming call and delivers your customised greeting to your callers they will take a message from the caller. This message can then be relayed to you in one of two different ways. Firstly, you can opt to have that message sent to you via email. With the majority of our customers we find this to be the preferred option as almost everyone these days has a smart phone that can receive emails. The other way that you can get your messages delivered is via text message however this option incurs a small fee per message sent.
Phone answering service
How much does the virtual receptionist cost?
From as little as $50 per month. It very much depends on how much you intend to use the digital receptionist. Our basic answering package starts at $29 per month retainer with a small cost per call (excl gst). If you expect to be receiving a reasonable number of calls then it makes better financial sense to opt for a package price that includes a set number of calls. The majority of our customers end up paying between $50 and $60 per month for their service.
Do they just answer the phone
No, our team can also answer questions if the information is provided to them. Also, we can provide a whole variety of answering solutions if you want to work with our call centre staff to build up a more complex solution to your problem.
Do I need to sign a contract?
We don't believe in locking our phone answering service customers into long term contracts and you will be able to cancel at any time with just one months notice. Typically, if you get a virtual receptionist service then you will likely stay with us for 3 years and our typical customer stays with us because we provide an excellent level of service at an affordable price. We have spent many years building a state of the art telephone answering service to ensure that we deliver an incredible level of service to our customers each and every call.
What is a virtual reception?
A virtual reception is a phone answering service. It's really easy to get started with a virtual reception. All you need to do is sign up for a 7 day free trial of our virtual receptionist and you will be able to test drive our answering system for 7 days at no cost to you. We don't even ask for a credit card on sign up so it really is no obligation. If you are happy with the outcome of the free trial then you can talk to one of our helpful customer care representatives and we can upgrade you to a package that suits your call volume and your business. Don't worry, if your business grows or declines then there is the option to upgrade or downgrade these packages at any time.