Virtual Receptionist

As sales begin to pick up in the new year, do you want to be stuck with your phone ringing off the hook, and no formal answering service helping?  I know I don’t!  I am hiring a virtual receptionist to help catch all of the overflow calls, help me with prospecting, and make my shadow look a little bigger than it really is.

A virtual receptionist can make a good impression for your business at a fraction of the cost of hiring, training and employing a live receptionist at your office.  When clients call there will be a “real” person on the other end of the phone, instead of an automated machine, giving customers, partners and potential clients the impression of a well run office.

When comparing options for virtual receptionists, make sure you are getting the best deal possible.  Some of the benefits that you shouldn’t do without include the following key benefits:

• Hold music – If your client must be placed on hold they listen to melodious hold music – not dead air.
• Multiple Line Phone Systems – A live receptionist helps you avoid missing calls or forwarding callers to voicemail. Your virtual receptionist only answers the phone for you and up to four other businesses.
• Calendar/Appointment Scheduling – our virtual receptionists can help you get organized and stay organized as a point of contact for your meetings and appointments.
• Order Processing and Customer Service – your customer may have found you through your website, but they want to talk to a real live receptionist before ordering.
• Live Outbound and Sales Calling – we can actively partner with you to grow your business, find new clients, and remind clients of appointments.
• Voicemail and Voicemail to Email – You can get your voicemail via email or on your phone, whichever you prefer.
• Fax to Email and Professional Email Address – get your faxes in your inbox and never worry about having a fax machine again.

Anything less that those options above would be below quality service, and not worth your money.

Choosing a virtual office partner can be tricky, there is a plethora of companies to choose from, and each company has different options for their clients. There is a lot to be said about choosing a virtual office that isn’t right for you and this could cause a lot of stress and undue problems. So with all of the different options, how do you know which company to choose?  Here are some tips in finding the right fit.

First, find companies that offer virtual offices in your area, and see if you can set up a tour.  It is critical that you understand what you will be getting, in terms of quality and appearance. The key to choosing the right virtual office is ease of operations and a smooth flow of daily activities.  Make sure you see everything running smoothly.

Next, determine whether you would like to use an automated system, or whether you would like to have “real” people answering your phones and working your office.  Personally, I think that automated systems are cold and impersonal, and could really hurt your branding in the long run if customers begin to feel this way as well.

Once you have determined what type of company you would like to work with, make sure that the company will let you choose the type of secretary or call assistant that suits you. Just like hiring an employee, hiring a virtual partner that matches your needs is critical.

Next, look at the services the company provides. Things like a centralised fax number, providing a physical mailing address as well as other services like being able to acquire ‘virtual meeting’ software as well as the option to rent a physical boardroom for those all important meetings and presentations that demand the physical presence can really clinch the deal.
Lastly, analyze the cost per partner, and compare services to find the most cost appropriate client.  I am not stating that the cheapest company is the best option, but make sure you will be getting your money’s worth.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how small businesses can cast a big shadow by using several marketing techniques, including buying into a virtual office for client visits and presentations.  I want to make an amendment to that post, and include another, smaller way that small businesses can make themselves appear larger than life; hire a virtual receptionist service.

A virtual receptionist service can make a good impression for your business at a fraction of the cost of hiring, training and employing a live receptionist at your office.  Some of the benefits a virtual receptionist service can offer includes:

• Multiple Line Phone Systems – A live receptionist helps you avoid missing calls or forwarding callers to voicemail. Your virtual receptionist only answers the phone for you and up to four other businesses.
• Live Call Screen, Transfer and Forwarding – Live receptionists can screen your calls and prioritize them for you, making sure you receive the most important calls first.
• Calendar/Appointment Scheduling – Virtual receptionists can help you get organized and stay organized as a point of contact for your meetings and appointments.
• Order Processing and Customer Service – Your customer may have found you through your website, but they want to talk to a real live receptionist before ordering.
• Live Outbound and Sales Calling – Virtual receptionists can actively partner with you to grow your business, find new clients, and remind clients of appointments.
• Voicemail and Voicemail to Email – You can get your voicemail via email or on your phone, whichever you prefer.
• Fax to Email and Professional Email Address – get your faxes in your inbox and never worry about having a fax machine again.

To make it even better, most virtual receptionist services offers pay-by-the-minute options, so you are only paying for the time they spend on your account.  An easy way to make your business grow, or at-least appear larger to your customers!

One of the challenges that small businesses face is staffing.  A lot of the times, small businesses don’t use the standard hiring mediums of large corporations.  Instead, they rely on networking and job referrals to find the right person for the job.  An article on BusinessWeek.com’s website insights as to where to turn to find the top talent out there looking for a job.  Here are their suggestions.

“Small businesses should enlist their current employees as recruiters, essentially selling friends and contacts on the benefits of working at their company,” says Chris Collins, associate professor of human resource management at Cornell University’s school of Industrial & Labor Relations, for BusinessWeek. “Take the price of that ad you were going to run and give it to the person who identifies the candidate who eventually gets hired,” he says. “You’ll probably get a better pool.”

Small businesses can also find quality candidates by working with local and state universities, and recruiting graduating students.

Begin the hiring process before you need to fill a position.  Don’t wait until you are desperate for a  or your business could suffer.

Lastly, utilize the social networks, like LinkedIn, to find the right professional for the job.  There is a wealth of information available to you out there, along with a large amount of potential candidates looking for a job.

Do you have tips for a small business owner?  Leave me a comment and I will  include them in future posts!

I am very excited!  One of my favorite business authors, David Allen, is coming out with his third book, “Making It All Work,” a book that takes his popular “Getting Things Done” model to the next level.  This new book focuses on helping people who fall victim to common organizational “syndromes,” such as the micro-manager, or the person who just does what is necessary to slide by, by offering a full-fledged road map for processing life and work in tandem.

Fast Company calls David “one of the most influential thinkers on productivity,” for his innovative steps to help us excel in dealing with our daily commitments, the unexpected, and the information overload that threatens to drown us.   This new book addresses the following key points:

• How to figure out where you are in life and what you need to succeed
• How to be your own consultant and the CEO of your life
• How to Move from hope to trust in decision-making
• When not to set goals
• Harnessing intuition,spontaneity, and serendipity
• And lastly, why life is like business and business is like life.

David’s last book, “Getting Things Done” has become a international hit, with his system being implemented in many Fortune 500 companies today.  I am excited to read this new book, and once I am finished I will come back to give you all a summary of what has been learned.

As I begin the process of working with a Virtual Assistant, I am now embarking on the journey of picking out the right one.  Like real-world assistants, virtual assistants all have their own areas of expertise, and/or specialty, and it is important that you choose the right person for the job.  Moreover, because this will be a virtual relationship, hiring a virtual assistant can be harder than hiring a real-world assistant, after all you may never meet this person face to face, or even have a phone conversation with them.  The right virtual assistant should be a person whose skills and personality are a fit with yours, not just whoever has an opening or charges the least.

Here are some tips in choosing the right virtual assistant for your job:

• Find the right person.  One of the most important parts in finding a virtual assistant is finding someone you “click” with personally.  Look for someone who is friendly, enthusiastic, and enjoys your industry/line of work.
• Make sure you know exactly what you want your virtual assistant to do.  By setting up an action plan, you can look for assistants that have skills or qualifications to match your needs.
• Make sure your virtual assistant candidates carry themselves with professionalism and courtesy. Does the candidate answer her voicemails and emails from you in a timely manner? Does he/she answer the phone professionally? Does the candidate put you on hold to take another call?  These are all things to look at in determining the right person for the job.
• What type of technology skills do the candidates hold?  Idealy, you want to work with someone who is proficient in all Microsoft office applications (mac applications if you own a mac), Quickbooks, website content management systems, etc.  Most small businesses rely on technology to survive, so you want your assistant to have excellent technological skills.
• Lastly, make sure you review your candidates’ references.  Talk to as many as you can to determine which candidate will be the best fit for you.

A  (VA) can be a big help for a small business…if you plan properly.  One of the most important things to remember about utilizing a virtual assistant, is just like a normal employee, you must set aside work for them, and plan their tasks properly.  There are several things you can do to make sure that your working relationship runs smoothly, and the assistant is aware of your expectations.  When setting you your task list for your VA, it is important to discuss the following:

• Detailed description of the task, as well as what the final output should look like.
• How long the task should take, and the maximum amount of time you want the assistant spending on it.
• Why you want the task completed.  More often than not, virtual assistants can help with business problem solving, not just the research needed to solve the problem.
• Other tasks that this will affect.  Does this new tasks take a higher priority than all of the others?

Remember, a virtual assistant’s job is to help you run your business more smoothly, whether that is by transcribing notes from a call, setting travel appointments, or making airline reservations.  To utilize your skilled assistant properly, you must be prepared, and have a set action plan in place for them to work off of.  Your virtual assistant will only be as good as the leadership and guidance you give them!

I have given a lot of though to the possibility of hiring a Virtual Assistant to help me out next year in my business.  In have been told by friends and colleagues that hiring a virtual assistant could help me streamline my business, and help me stay organized.  Goodness knows I could use the help!

In order to make a well-thought out decision, I decided to make a list of all of the things my virtual assistant could help me with. Here is what I came up with:

• Transcribing - I could really use some help transcribing my interview notes, and phone call conversations.  A lot of times I will use these conversations as jumping off points for white-papers, or presentations, so to have all of the information spelled out could really help
• Researching key new technologies - In my industry, new technologies and platforms are constantly popping up all over.  I would use my virtual assistant to help research all of the new technologies and platforms, so I can have a quick overview of the market at my disposal whenever needed.
• Organize and manage all of my upcoming speaking engagements and conference travel arrangements.
• Research on industry trends
• Research on competitors

All in all, not a bad list of ideas.  I think that hiring a virtual assistant to help with my work load could be an interesting and productive option for me.  Check in with me next week, as I begin to share my experiences on interviewing for the right virtual assistant, and starting off our relationship on the right track.

As the end of the year draws closer, I find myself preparing for 2009 (getting organized, cleaning up my files, setting all my travel dates and accommodations for the first quarter of next year, etc.)  What I am realizing, is that I am going to be on the road quite a bit from January to March, visiting clients and speaking at various conferences and events.  I am going to running non-stop for three months, and one of the problems this causes is I will be struggling to not fall behind in my basic business admin duties (i.e. payroll, taxes, benefits or insurance, paying bills, etc).

To solve this problem, I am contemplating hiring on a “Virtual” Assistant to help manage my administrative load.  A Virtual assistant is just what the name applies, they assist small businesses by offering many of the administrative services of a larger company, including:

• Creative services
• Managerial services
• Technical services
• Business services
• Office/Administrative services
• Personal support services

One of the things that I find the most helpful, is that by using a virtual assistant, I can provide their services to my clients anywhere in the world.  It can really come in handy!

Have you ever used a virtual assistant?  Share your success stories by sending me a comment!

Like many businesses around the country, I have a hard time keeping everything organized around the holiday season.  Maybe it is the time of year, maybe it is the rush of the holidays, but this season is always hectic for me.  Last year, to help me stay on track, I employed an assistant to come in during the holiday months to help out.  Several of my colleagues have employed similar techniques, some even work with a virtual assistant to keep things lined up and organized while they are on the road.  Whether you decide to bring on some extra help or not, here are a few helpful hints to help you stay on track.

1. Set a list of priorities that you want to accomplish by the end of the year. Categorize each task as a level 1, 2, 0r 3 priority.  (1 = most important, 3 = least important)  This will help you understand where your need to spend your time.
2. Help your team stay motivated.  Productivity usually drops around the holiday season.  Help combat this problem by motivating your employees to stay focused.  Develop a holiday reward system to help keep your employees’ morale high.
3. Create a list of bills that have to be paid in December of 2008 and January of 2009.  This will help you remeber critical payment dates, that could be forgotten, and help forecast expenses for the begining of the new year.
4. Lastly, keep in touch with your customers.  Just like you, your customers are running a little crazy during this time of the year.  Now is the perfect time to reach out to them remind them how your products/services can help them through these crazy months, and make their life just a little bit easier.