Posts Tagged ‘Telephone Answering Service’

Using the services of a virtual assistant should help ensure you have a business.

Some say the measure of whether you have a business or a job is to test what happens when you are not there. If the answer is ‘nothing’ or ‘crisis’ then, chances are you have a job. Having a business means that as an entrepreneur your work continues and, indeed, thrives even when you are not there; phones are answered, post is opened, email gets a response – all services that a virtual office can supply at very cost effective fees. 

A Virtual Assistant can help you build a real business, not another job.

When you start a business you will most likely be a sole trader: This means you immediately become responsible for the admin, the HR, the bookkeeping and the IT system as well as whatever it is you set out as the purpose of the business.

The way to preserve your most valuable resource – time – is to delegate; delegating to a virtual assistant can be the salvation of your business; acting as your personal assistant, undertaking data entry and bookkeeping and helping you with office administration including answering the phone, opening post, dealing with email and despatching mail shots. If you don’t need someone in the office to greet visitors, but do want an enhanced company image without the cost of a full time receptionist, you should consider virtual receptionist services.

As a business you should put a real cost on your own time, doing so will soon reveal that hiring a virtual assistant helps to cut costs and increase your business efficiency. You don’t have to manage an employee, find them a desk, you don’t have to pay for sick and holiday leave and you don’t have to pay for any unproductive time linked to lunch, office politics or gossip.

How to choose a good Virtual Assistant.

You might want to consider the following tips:

• Check their qualifications, skills and experience, ask for references.
• Find out how long they have been in business.
• Compare the hourly rate with others, the most cost effective is not necessarily the cheapest – how much work can they do in an hour?
• Test their communication skills, how do they handle phone calls with you?
• If you are UK based and English-speaking, choose a virtual assistant with the quality of written and spoken English you need. If your customer base is non-English speaking, consider alternatives.

The benefits of a good Virtual Assistant.

The benefits of selecting a good virtual assistant and telephone answering service include;

• Giving the best first impression. Telephones going unanswered or to answer machine is not a good impression. Telephones answered by professionals can win you business.
• Appearing to be a larger business. A virtual telephone answering service can be a seamless interface with you; callers will conclude you are larger enough to employ a full time receptionist.
• Better message taking and follow up. If you work from home: Will your children take a good message for you? Will you ever get it? When you are on the road: Are you tempted to answer the phone when driving? Do you have a hands-free kit, but still can’t take a message?
• Reduce costs. Professional services done by a qualified expert will be much more cost-effective than doing it yourself. Consider how long it takes you to create a PowerPoint presentation or book flights and accommodation for a business trip; hiring someone who is an expert will be quicker and save you time and money.

To find out about the extensive Virtual Assistant Services at Hyde Park House including:

• Telephone answering service
• Postal collection
• Fax and photocopying facilities
• Full administrative and secretarial services
• Live answering and full reception support
• Bookkeeping services

…call Lynsey now on 0161 367 9000 or email lynsey@hydeparkhouse.co.uk. Hyde Park House, Tameside, Cheshire; offering virtual office services to the World as well as flexible terms on Office Space to Rent, convenient for Manchester, Stockport and just a short drive from Manchester Airport.

When marketing a specific brand or company, one of the most important things you have to have is the right image. It is no different for your business; you want to project your business in a way that is appealing to others: And they will remember you by.

Images create an instant impression and can manipulate the viewer into thinking in a certain way about your business and can even influence them to buy things from you. The image your business has is the key factor in how it is perceived by your potential customers. It will happen whether you like it or not, so getting it right first time is crucial; otherwise your business could be tarnished with a brush that you may not have intended.

Many of the Tenants at Hyde Park House use images of the office building on their websites and in their literature in order to promote their company as a large organisation, and thus enabling them to compete in the market place with large national companies.

Our various sized meeting rooms are available to rent by the hour, half day or full day, and can accommodate one to one private meetings, larger board meetings or workshops and seminars. With options for audio visual presentation and catering, the emphasis is on creating a professional image for your business.

Of course, whilst the instant impression of your business will be based upon the images and design you use, long term, successful business relationships are influenced by the beliefs, thoughts, opinions, what they hear and what they actually see as well as the experience they have dealing with you as a company and your customer service.

Hyde Park House Real and Virtual Secretarial Services.

Our experienced receptionists and virtual secretaries are on hand to offer a front of house service to your business; this includes;

• A warm welcome to your visitors on arrival at Hyde Park House.
• Answering the telephone on your behalf and in your company name.
• Message, email and post handling.
• Typing and bookkeeping.
• Presentation services and meeting organisation.

Why not use our dedicated business centre team as an extension to your staff?

With a telephone answering service and the full range of secretarial services available to all tenants of serviced offices at Hyde Park House you can also get your telephone answered, your post handled, your correspondence typed and your filing complete; leaving you free to get on with running your business.

To find out about Services Office Rental and the extensive Virtual Assistant Services at Hyde Park House call Lynsey now on 0161 367 9000 or email her.

Hyde Park House, Tameside, Cheshire; offers flexible terms on Office Space to Rent, convenient for Manchester, Stockport and just a short drive from Manchester Airport.

With David Cameron moving in to Number 10 and continued talks about national, and indeed international, debt needing to be controlled and reduced; the sound of the axe making bigger and deeper cuts is getting louder.

Over the coming months it seems that all Government Departments and Public Sector Operations are going to be examined under the microscope and squeezed to ensure there is no waste and that all services are being delivered cost effectively.

No one likes change, but this is an excellent opportunity to make some overdue changes to Public Sector operating systems that should not be wasted. Whilst it is normal to focus on the negative aspects of change when they are targeted to achieve a cost reduction; the benefits of outsourcing some administrative functions should not be overlooked.

The positive aspects of administrative services in the Public Sector being provided by Virtual Office Assistants are very similar to those available to the small business and the large private organisation; service can be improved, costs can be saved, flexibility is increased and the public are better served – a win, win, win, win!

Top Rate Virtual Office Services.

Making cost savings of £14 billion by 2013 is not going to be easy, but it is critical for the Public Sector to focus on best practise, improved service delivery and enhanced accountability, so experienced administration virtual office service teams are standing by ready to deliver a top rate service to the Public Sector.

Areas of administration that are commonly overmanned and poorly managed include:

• Routine and repetitive tasks such as payroll
• Dispatch of mail shots and brochures
• Database building and maintenance
• Telephone answering and message handling
• Appointment booking and reminders
• Handling of general email enquiries
• Opening and distribution of incoming post
• Making travel arrangements and booking accommodation

Many Public Sector department managers may already be wondering where to turn for help and advice on using virtual assistants in order that administration tasks can be managed and delivered remotely whilst also achieving an improvement in quality of service.

Lynsey Handley from the Virtual Assistant Services at Hyde Park House knows that success depends on three things: planning, commitment and communication. Call Lynsey now on 0161 367 9000 or email her to get the help and advice you need to achieve your budget cuts and deliver excellent:

• Live telephone answering services
• Post collection, opening and sorting
• Fax and photocopying services
• Full administrative and secretarial services
• Full reception support
• Bookkeeping services

Hyde Park House, Tameside, Cheshire; offering virtual office services to the Public Sector as well as flexible terms on Office Space to Rent, convenient for Manchester, Stockport and just a short drive from Manchester Airport.

At Hyde Park House the Virtual Reception and Assistant Services are provided by real people!

On Friday, 14th May we will be sorry to see one of our real virtual receptionists, Gill Ryan leave us for pastures new.  Gill has been a receptionist at Hyde Park House since 2001, during that time she has been a vital member of the Business Centre team providing a warm and professional welcome to the tenants and visitors of Hyde Park House. 

We all wish Gill and her family the very best of luck as they relocate to Cyprus!

We would also like to extend a warm welcome to Jenny Fox who will be taking over from Gill on Monday, 17th May.  Jenny is a highly experienced receptionist and personal assistant who will play an important role as ‘real life’ receptionist at Hyde Park House as well as being a member of the virtual office services team, providing pay as you go secretarial services such as;

• Live telephone call answering services
• Message and distribution
• Post collection, opening and sorting
• Mail-shot co-ordination
• Fax and photocopying services
• Full administrative, typing and secretarial services
• Full reception support
• Bookkeeping services

To benefit from Jenny and the whole Virtual Office Services Team’s expertise call Lynsey now on 0161 367 9000 or email lynsey@hydeparkhouse.co.uk.

Hyde Park House, Tameside, Cheshire; offering virtual office services to the World as well as flexible terms on Office Space to Rent, convenient for Manchester, Stockport and just a short drive from Manchester Airport.

For most small b2b companies the telephone is a critical business tool: When and how you answer it could make the difference between business success and failure. When your competitors are only a phone call away, make sure your customers don’t need to call them:

1. Answer the phone on the third ring. Don’t answer too quickly; you may catch your caller off guard, don’t let it ring longer; you don’t want your caller to think you aren’t there.
2. Answer the phone with a smile. The caller’s first impression of your company will be the warmth of the greeting.
3. Introduce yourself and your company. Ensure your caller knows they have called the right number and who they are speaking with.
4. Pause for breath. Don’t speak too quickly; make sure your caller is able to understand what you are saying.
5. Be positive and helpful. If you can’t help the caller offer to find someone who can to call them back.
6. Have a telephone message pad and take detailed notes including the time of call, name and company of caller, who the message is for and the nature of their call. Repeat anything you are unsure of back to the caller and check any odd spelling.
7. Make sure all messages reach the intended recipient promptly and accurately.
8. If you must put a caller on hold, ask their permission to do so and never leave them on hold for longer than 30 seconds.
9. Avoid the use of your speaker phone, the caller will sense that you aren’t focussed or think that someone else might be listening in.
10. Return all calls from messages as soon as practically possible. This should be within one business day, if you are not able to, get a colleague to do so; offering your apologies and offering to help with their query.

For many small businesses, the reality of life is that you cannot always answer your own phone; you may be with customers, in a meeting or simply out of the office. Of course answer machines and mobile telephones can help, but many potential customers don’t like leaving messages. So, better still is employing a telephone answering service like those offered by Hyde Park House. With your own assigned telephone number the live office support team at Hyde Park House will answer your calls as if they were your dedicated receptionist. They will handle calls exactly as you specify and get accurate and detailed messages to you. With the full range of Hyde Park House secretarial services on hand you can also get your post handled, your correspondence handled and your filing complete.

To find out about the extensive Virtual Assistant Services at Hyde Park House including:

• Telephone answering service
• Postal collection
• Fax and photocopying facilities
• Full administrative and secretarial services
• Live answering and full reception support
• Bookkeeping services

…call Lynsey now on 0161 367 9000 or email her. Hyde Park House, Tameside, Cheshire; offering virtual office services to the World as well as flexible terms on Office Space to Rent, convenient for Manchester, Stockport and just a short drive from Manchester Airport.