In physical offices, a receptionist serves as the company’s first brand ambassador. They’re the initial point of human contact visitors have with your business. This position’s role has also evolved as more organizations adopt a hybrid or remote work setup. Moreover, some organizations launch their brand and operate entirely online.

Virtual receptionists are human professionals who answer business calls on your behalf and perform almost all of the same tasks as an in-house receptionist from a remote location. They work for an outsourced agency, which you can tap into, like live answering services. However, businesses typically get one virtual receptionist at a time, unlike an answering service that involves a team of agents.

Three factors determine the success of every partnership with a virtual receptionist service:

Virtual receptionist services use specific software and equipment to manage inbound calls. They can set up your account so that these calls automatically route to them, and your existing platforms will work in synch with theirs.

Virtual receptionists use scripts to guide their responses to different client concerns. Receptionists receive training to uphold ethical and legal standards when handling calls, especially sensitive customer data. Additionally, with these protocols, they provide one voice, and one brand to callers.

Most importantly, these service providers choose people with good active listening skills, empathy, critical thinking, stress tolerance, and teamwork to serve their clients. These qualities ensure that every call creates a positive experience for callers, aligns with business guidelines, and offers a quick solution.

Virtual receptionists are an extension of your internal team, providing call answering support outside your regular office hours or 24/7, depending on your service agreement. With this availability, your brand can capture all possible business opportunities. According to Ruby’s 2022 Call Trends Report, 92% of calls give brands a chance to connect with their market on a deep level. Receptionists can use these moments to win, retain, and strengthen engagement.

Speaking the same language as your customers is another big plus for virtual receptionists. An Intercom poll showed that prospects and customers alike are more likely to wait longer and tolerate product weakness if the company can engage with them in their native language.

When prospects contact your business, virtual receptionists can ask the right questions and gather information to determine if you can convert these callers into clients. Thus, these agents can support your sales team in the lead screening process.

At the same time, virtual receptionists can build and update your block list of spam callers, preventing future calls or transferred calls from these spammers.

You can integrate your payment software with your service provider to allow your virtual receptionist to process orders and other related tasks, such as shipment scheduling, invoicing, and payment processing.

Virtual receptionists can book appointments and sales calls on the calendar software you already use. They can send you reminders so you won’t forget these appointments or notify you in case of changes and cancellations.

These receptionists can also take messages for you or your staff and pass them on via text or email. Or you can assign them to respond directly to messages by SMS, live chat, or social media.

Receptionists can transfer or forward calls to the appropriate departments after the initial screening. With integrated systems, your team can view any new data from the lead or client that your receptionist recorded.

On Call Centre’s award-winning multi-lingual virtual receptionist service can represent your business in the hours of your choosing. You can work with our scripting and message management team to ensure that your receptionist’s performance is consistent with your company’s needs and expectations. Contact us today to explore the best virtual reception solution for your current operations.

On Call Centre has been in the business of stewarding customer interactions for hundreds of brands across various fields for over 50 years. But don’t just take our word for it. Discover how we created customized solutions for our clients. Contact us today to learn how our team can serve your inbound call centre requirements in British Columbia.

At On Call Centre , we deliver exceptional customer support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year—sometimes 366. On Call Centre has been providing tailored, fluently French/English bilingual answering services and call centre services to small business owners (professionals, trades) and customer support departments (government, high tech, property management, healthcare, emergency clients) serving Ottawa , Montreal and Toronto —and all over Canada —for almost 50 years.