Can a Virtual Assistant Help My Business?
Companies hire remote virtual assistants to help with routine and administrative tasks. Virtual assistants can answer phones, direct calls, find team members when clients are looking for them, and more. However, these professionals can cost a substantial amount of money. Although remote virtual assistants do not have the same costs as in-house employees and may not require a full-time salary, they will still require you to pay for:
- Hourly salary (which may be higher than the per-hour rates of in-house staff)
- Training
- Supervision and management
- Any technology the assistants need
In addition, virtual assistants do not work around the clock, meaning you may need to hire multiple assistants to take care of your business full time.
Is there another solution?
Many businesses have found an effective and budget-friendly alternative to virtual assistants with AccessDirect. AccessDirect virtual phone systems handle many of the same tasks as virtual assistants, but with more efficiency and with less expense. Like virtual assistants, AccessDirect systems can:
- Organize calls. With AccessDirect, your calls are routed to the right departments and the right staff members. Even when part or all of your team is remote, all your calls get to the right person or voicemail box.
- Build customer relationships. Customers want convenience and reliability when they call you, and AccessDirect offers both. When customers call your number, they stay firmly in charge and get to choose how a call is routed. They are greeted by a professional, friendly message each time, and you never need to worry your assistant is away from their desk or is in a bad mood. With AccessDirect, all of your calls are answered with the professionalism your business deserves.
- Offer useful information to customers and clients around the clock. AccessDirect allows you to record messages for your customers, relaying hours of operation, directions, services you offer and additional information. That way, the most important information is always only a phone call away. This also frees up your staff to spend their time more efficiently, rather than answering frequently asked questions.
- Take messages. AccessDirect offers voicemail-to-email and fax-to-email services, so you get your messages sent right to your inbox, no matter where you are. Customers and clients can leave messages for you any time of the day or night, ensuring you never miss a call.
- Transcribe. The voicemails sent to your email inbox come with an automated transcription, enabling you to prioritize calls with a quick glance. Transcribed messages also allow you to learn the content of your messages without having to disrupt a meeting or another call.
- Save you time. One of the big advantages of virtual assistants is they save your company time by taking care of some tasks, so you can handle more of the mission-critical projects and tasks needed to generate revenue. Compared with virtual assistants, AccessDirect virtual phone systems save you even more time. With AccessDirect, your phone lines are automated, so you can answer your phones and retrieve your messages when it’s convenient for you. A virtual phone system saves you time by eliminating the need to train a virtual assistant and answer his or her questions.
- Screen your calls. Do you have an important meeting or an important project to work on? AccessDirect lets you screen your calls, keeping you firmly in the driver’s seat. You can choose to accept more urgent calls or reject the calls you know you can answer later, saving you valuable time.
- Forward calls. AccessDirect allows priority calls to be forwarded to the right team members, even when they are working remotely.
With all these virtual assistant benefits, why not check out the features of AccessDirect for yourself? If you have been considering hiring a virtual assistant to become more productive, AccessDirect can offer many of the same benefits, but at considerable time and cost savings. You don’t even need to worry about equipment — AccessDirect is virtual and will not require expensive installations of specialized technology.
