4 Important Qualities To Look For In A Virtual Receptionist

Qualities To Look For In A Virtual Receptionist

As an entrepreneur, you’ll be handling numerous tasks to keep your business running smoothly. But sometimes, even the most minor job can take up most of your precious time which ultimately holds you back from accomplishing more important ones. Some small yet essential tasks may include managing your calendar, following up on your appointments, or answering e-mails and phone calls.  

Fortunately, a virtual receptionist (VR) can be helpful for your business. Some entrepreneurs regard professional VRs as a significant addition to their companies for they assign other secondary tasks to virtual workers. 

Characteristics Of A Great Virtual Receptionist

It’s said that virtual receptionists can handle the various administrative demands of your company such as scheduling meetings, handling your social media accounts, assisting customers with their appointments, and submitting an end-of-day report for your reference. To simply put, having a virtual receptionist is beneficial for you and your firm.  

For that reason, it’s crucial to find the most suitable virtual receptionist for your company. They need to embody several traits for you to ensure they can handle numerous tasks despite working remotely with minor supervision. To help you find the perfect VR for you, here are five essential qualities to look for if you’re planning to add one to your team.  

1. Intelligent And Quick-Witted  

The first essential quality to look out for is a person’s mental capabilities. You need to find someone who can easily catch on to your company’s dynamics and is quick-witted when it comes to the tasks they should handle for you. 

It’s also important that this person is already knowledgeable about the basic and advanced online communication tools that’ll be a part of their daily work routine. Simply put, it’s much preferable to hire someone who is already experienced with providing efficient and high-quality virtual service for you and your customers.  

Suppose you’re not into hiring freelance remote workers. In that case, you can go for call answering service companies out there. But you need to read various reviews such as a PATLive review and others to learn more about the possible advantages of employing a virtual receptionist. 

2. Positive And Friendly 

Your chosen virtual receptionist needs to be positive and friendly. Keep in mind that they’re the first line of contact for all your returning and new potential customers which means they’re the ones who can make or break your client’s first impression about your company. It may be easier for an onsite receptionist to execute a positive and friendly service as they can show it through their reassuring smiles and personal interaction. 

Meanwhile, for a virtual receptionist, they only have their voices to rely on as they only interact through phone calls, emails, or brief video calls at times. Thus, your hired virtual receptionist must have an enthusiastic, friendly, and polite voice. Moreover, your VR will have at least 7-10 seconds of a brief interaction with your clients; hence, every word choice must be positive and the use of active-driven language is highly encouraged. 

This way, as soon as your client finishes their phone call, their brief interaction will improve their day and not otherwise. 

virtual receptionist

3. Organized And Has An Eye For Detail 

Your virtual receptionist will need to handle several customers at a time. This is beneficial especially for your company as not only are you gaining profit from numerous clients in a day, but you can also cut costs in your company budget skipping on having a full-time onsite employee. However, for this to take place, you need to hire a virtual receptionist who is self-organized and can attend to each client thoroughly without compromising the service quality. 

A person who is organized is said to be someone who knows how to manage their time efficiently and complete tasks within a given time frame. Moreover, it’s also ideal if your hired VR knows how to use online or traditional organization tools to help them with their job. Most importantly, if you want to ensure that your VR can fully dedicate their time and attention to your company, see to it that they’re not working for other employers alongside you.  

4. Knows How To Take Initiative 

It’s common for businesses to encounter problems every once in a while. However, it’s not all the time that you’ll be present to solve all these problems. Thus, it’s recommended that you hire a virtual receptionist who’s capable of taking the initiative and think of solutions in case issues arise.  

And so, ask your VR applicants about how they’ll handle on-the-spot and real-life issues such as irate customers, numerous complaints, or a sudden increase in the number of phone calls. You’ll know it’s the perfect candidate for the position if he or she can handle these situations at ease and make the clients feel assured during a phone call while waiting for an exact solution for their concerns.   

Wrap Up

Looking for the perfect virtual receptionist for your company will not only free up time to make way for more important business tasks but can also improve your company’s customer service quality. This may lead to a boost in your brand’s overall reputation. Now that you know what essential qualities to look out for when picking out a VR, use this article as a starting point to find yourself the best virtual receptionist your company will have.