The eReceptionist Blog


Blog page banner

What Is a Virtual Receptionist? It's Not What You Think

January 17, 2019 - by Rory Whelan

At eReceptionist, we offer virtual receptionist services that help business leaders to improve their communication and save time. This effective call solution is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the influx of startup companies in Britain and established firms that are beginning to offer remote working opportunities to their workforces.

That said, we still often hear people asking the question, what is a virtual receptionist? In this blog post, we attempt to demystify the virtual receptionist role and create a clear distinction between virtual receptionist services and virtual personal assistants.

Virtual receptionist services

Virtual Receptionist Meaning

As a relatively new business service, the definition of a virtual receptionist phone system is fairly ambiguous. In this section, you will find a simple definition of the concept, along with a breakdown of exactly what the service involves and how adopting a virtual receptionist will boost your business.

What Is a Virtual Receptionist?

A virtual receptionist is a call handling system that uses automation to answer and guide callers through a customised phone options menu. Due to this, a virtual receptionist is also commonly referred to as a virtual auto attendant.

This is not an outsourced individual who answers your calls. A virtual receptionist is a cloud-based answering service software system that has been developed to enhance small business phone plans.

The Role of a Virtual Receptionist

Category: Phone System

A virtual receptionist will provide your company with the following benefits:

  • A customised personal greeting and phone options menu
  • The ability to transcribe voicemails to a text message on your mobile
  • A virtual receptionist application where you can schedule calls

A virtual receptionist is an efficient way to organise your calls and cover your communication. Although it might seem like text-based alternatives are taking over — such as live chat and email — phone calls still stand as the most popular customer service option that people want access to.

What customers service options people want access to

The ability to customise your personal greeting and phone options menu not only improves the user experience, but it also acts as a filter that sorts basic requests from more complicated queries.

If a customer has a frequently asked question, for example, your automated system can be set to answer the question ahead of time. This means that the caller does not have to wait for the call to be answered and your customer service representatives can spend more time on more complicated requests that require a two-way conversation.

A detailed phone menu is easier for the caller to navigate and avoids a fragmented experience by decreasing the number of diversions the customer has to sit through before reaching the appropriate operator. All in all, a virtual receptionist is like an intelligent funnel that is tailored specifically to your business plan. The funnel (your phone menu) directs customers to various sub-branches so that your communication is streamlined, easy and effective.

How Will a Virtual Receptionist Boost Your Business?

A virtual receptionist will boost your business by decreasing the amount of money you’re spending on communication. Since the solution is based on time-saving features, virtual receptionist software is often associated with being cheap and budget friendly. It’s true — our virtual receptionist software starts from just 30p per day.

Does your business serve international markets? If you are a supplier that takes queries from customers across Europe, a virtual receptionist is a smart investment. Since virtual receptionists are automated, they have the ability to be bilingual. A bilingual virtual receptionist can easily adapt its language settings based on the incoming area code. What does this mean for your business? It means that frequently asked questions can be understood globally so that your phone system can be a universal resource, allowing you to serve customers worldwide without the expense of hiring dedicated staff fluent in a specific language.

Still not convinced? Take a look at these virtual receptionist reviews, which highlight the key benefits you can expect to receive.

One more thing... We are so confident that our virtual receptionist service will be a big win for your business that you can try us Risk Free, with 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.

What Is a Virtual Receptionist Commonly Mistaken As?

As we’ve explained, a virtual receptionist is not a real person — this is the role of a virtual personal assistant. These two call-handling services sound similar, yet, in practice, they are two totally different concepts. If you’re wondering why you need a virtual assistant, this section of the blog will describe the service, breakdown the key features and, once again, show you how this service can boost your business.

What Is a Virtual Personal Assistant?

A virtual personal assistant is a real human being; somebody who can talk to — and laugh and resonate with — your customers. You can source a virtual personal assistant from various freelance websites or, alternatively, you can check out our team of highly experienced virtual PAs.

As a virtual personal assistant picks up where your in-house receptionist has left off, they can act as a direct replacement to an employee. They are also just as capable of being the first port of call for new businesses that are in need of receptionist services but cannot afford a salary for a full-time employee. Favoured by new startups and established companies alike, hiring a virtual personal assistant is a straightforward and simple way to cover your communications.

The Role of a Virtual Personal Assistant?

Category: Occupation

A virtual personal assistant will provide your company with the following benefits:

  • Live call answering for personable customer support
  • Out-of-hours call handling to provide 24-hour access
  • Basic query handling and answering of FAQs

A virtual personal assistant is a trained receptionist who is outsourced work from your organisation. Your virtual assistant will deal with basic enquiries (where you can set the guidelines and specific script) so that they can cover out-of-hours call handling and protect — or develop — your reputation.

This type of customer support has become increasingly popular as a result of the rise of employees in non-traditional work arrangements. Advancing technology has developed a new type of economy fueled by remote workers — also known as the gig economy.

Percentage of workers in non-traditional arrangements

The ability to hand over your basic communications to a remote worker can save you both time and money — resources that are increasingly vital for small business survival. As earlier identified, customers are not giving up on the phone call front. Picking up the phone to speak to a customer representative is still the most appealing option to the average buyer.

If you want to retain as much human interaction as possible in your organisational processes, a virtual personal assistant is the right choice for you. Outsourcing a virtual assistant means that your customers get the best possible experience, along with authentic interaction.

Put simply, a virtual personal assistant embraces the benefits of cloud-based technology, while retaining the traditional value of classic phone systems.

How Will a Virtual Personal Assistant Boost Your Business?

A virtual personal assistant will boost your business by cutting your operational costs. Think of all of the endless hours spent training up an in-house receptionist from scratch. With a virtual personal assistant, this learning and development process — which is crucial for employees — is eliminated. Your time is saved and your wallet protected.

This new-found format is the best of both worlds and will improve how your business operates by eliminating interruptions to your customer base. When organisations transition to new software, there is often a small adjustment period where customers have to deal with the change.

Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to a temporary drop in sales and a blip in customer retention. No customer likes change (even if it is for the better) — it feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar. A virtual personal assistant poses no risk to your business, as it’s only your external operations — how your business communicates and is perceived — that are affected.

It’s time to make a decision about how your business communicates. Try our virtual receptionist Risk Free, with our 30-Day Money Back Guarantee offer or find out more about our expert team of virtual PAs.

Try risk free


Try risk free

Learn more about Virtual Personal Assistant here

From the eReceptionist Blog

Demystify your customer's needs


Call answering IVR for UK Small Business tips
Making the perfect IVR


An explanation of UK telephone numbering
Telephone numbering explained


Starting a UK small business
Top tips for business startups


Adding business phone numbers virtually is easy
Virtual numbers, real revenues


03 numbers explained
03 numbers explained
