Clocking Off for Easter

The hard earned Christmas break seems a distant memory and your kids are looking forward to the Easter holidays and the chocolate treats that come with it.  If you run your own business, ensuring you meet the needs of both your family and your customers can be tricky; especially when it comes to the school holidays. 

Childcare is expensive and yet you don’t want to spend the holidays either working or worrying about your business – new or existing customers could call over the break and you won’t be there to take their call.
 

There is a way you can do it all.  You could sneak off, relax and gorge yourself on chocolate with your family, safe in the knowledge that all your calls are taken care of, even with no one on the premises.
 

How? By being in your virtual office. A virtual office is a modern day solution to having an Easter break as well as a business. Even when small businesses are stretched and growing too fast to meet demand, it’s so easy to create a professional, established image by using virtual receptionist tools.
 

Digitisation and virtual offices

Phone systems used to be large, involved engineers and were prohibitively expensive for many small businesses. Then along came digital communications and everything changed. Now, communication is mobile, instant and digital.
 

Small companies now have an advantage; unlike larger companies, they don’t need expensive fixed phone lines or the premises to house them in. Utilising mobile and virtual office technology they respond quickly, efficiently and cost effectively to customer queries – no matter where they are in the world or whether they are taking the Easter holidays off.
 

Service with a smile

Big businesses know that answering calls, rather than going to voicemail is critical to productive engagement.  Surveys show this to be true with a massive 85% of new customers preferring to move on if they get through to voicemail rather than speaking to someone.
 

However, by creating a virtual office with an e-receptionist to answer calls, smart, nimble businesses are gaining all the benefits of a real life receptionist (or an expensive PBX system) at a fraction of the cost. There’s no hardware or software to be installed or support. All you need is an existing phone line and that includes the mobile in your pocket.
 

Using a virtual landline number (and that’s a real number, we call it virtual because there’s no fixed line to install) you get the benefits of the professional image that a landline number brings to your business as well as a welcome greeting and caller menu bespoke to your business.

 
You can also choose a local landline number – anywhere in the UK – as customers often choose local numbers for that first call. But you can also bring your business to national attention and get calls from all over the country with a non-geographic or freephone 0800 numbers.
 

Always connected

Calls can be forwarded to any location, whether to your home, mobile, hotel room, or if you are paying family a visit over the Easter period, a colleague’s number or even mum and dad’s! Adjusting your call routing can all be done online – giving you flexibility throughout the year to match your schedule to that of the business. 

 
All in all, having a service such as this allows you to enjoy your Easter break, safe in the knowledge that you’re not missing out on business just because you’re away from your desk. Meaning that you, your family, your colleagues and customers can have a decent break and to come back relaxed and refreshed.

This article was written by Rory Whelan, Voice Marketing Manager, j2 Global, providing advanced communications for more than 11 million customers in more than 4,100 cities around the world. For more information on the eReceptionist products, go to www.ereceptionist.co.uk