The advantage that a telephone answering service has over the rest of your employees is that nothing else distracts or concerns them other than hearing what the customer has to say over the phone. They are not stressed out because their resources aren’t being swamped by too much multi-tasking

The job of a virtual receptionist can be taxing, namely because it can be very monotonous, almost like robots especially if the answering service uses a script. And somewhere along the lines, important details begin to blur and the person can no longer tell which parts are important and which are ‘noise’. This can become a problem when the receptionist faces the same questions time and time again, and when they are able to solve all these questions immediately, they adopt the same solution to different problems.

Automated phone systems are the operator’s equivalent of saying, “I don’t care.” In one full sweep the business detaches itself from the consumer by throwing away the one thing that connects its services with their user base – human interaction. Very few people who have called and interacted with an automated phone service never have good things to say about them.

Through live chat you can show prospective customers that your business is available to answer questions, concerns and complaints through any online channel. You will also be able to demonstrate your business expertise by providing customers with insights and recommendations for your products and services

As a business owner, you may have many strengths, such as leadership, charisma, the ability to motivate, communicate effectively or more. But you can’t be good at everything. For example, your strength might not be in answering phone calls, but that doesn’t mean your business should suffer as a result. Your business can leverage the strengths of a live phone answering service.

The terms used by each of these services are quite different. On a fundamental level, however, the answering services and virtual receptionists are very similar to each other. They help your customers find out more about your business and help address their needs. Some telephone answering services offer both services.

What separates industry-leading businesses from their competitors? Is it the cost and quality of their offerings, or is it the effectiveness of their marketing and advertising that allows them to pull ahead of the pack? Perhaps, it’s none of the above.