Running a small business involves wearing a lot of hats. There’s the salesman’s hat, the accountant, the receptionist, production and shipping departments to name a few. That’s a lot of hats for one person to handle, and if you aren’t ready to expand your company’s head count, there is an alternative to working yourself into a frenzy.
Virtual office services like Solid Cactus can offer you help in the back office, provide extra support during your busy seasons and give you the freedom to take the occasional vacation without worrying whether you’ll have a business to come back to.
Customer Service
You love your customers. Can’t get enough of ’em. But what do you do when you have a stack of customer emails, the phone won’t stop ringing and you have a backlog of orders to fill? While these are all nice problems to have, outsourcing your customer service functions gives you the freedom to do what you do best, produce the goods. A good service can take the pressure off you by:
- Capturing sales, cross-selling and upselling.
- Answering product enquiries.
- Scheduling appointments.
- Order entry and tracking.
- Returns and exchanges.
Here’s how it works. Potential customers view products on your website. They dial a toll-free number to ask a question, which a trained customer service specialist answers in a polished, professional manner.
The Virtual Office
Face it, you went into business because you love what you do and you’re good at it, not because you love doing paperwork. Luckily, there are people who can’t do what you do, but they love organizing people. You focus on running your business and leave the office work to the experts.
The electronic age has freed the administrative specialists to do more than take messages and sort mail. They track orders, handle declined credit cards, contact manufacturers, return telephone calls, check voicemail and manage email.
Answering Service
If you have your paperwork under control, but you spend a lot of time out of the office or away from the store, then you need somebody to answer your telephone. It’s the digital age, you can’t afford to be out of touch. If a customer can’t contact you, they can contact the competition.
It’s simple. A potential client calls and wants to make an appointment. Your human answering service specialist suggests dates and times when you are available. They schedule the appointment and let you know about it.
Managed Live Chat
Some virtual office centers offer managed live chat. This works the same way as a call center or customer service. The website visitor views your products on your website and initiates a live chat to ask a question. The customer service specialist answers the question. The customer completes their order online.
Live chat services increase conversion rates, boost customer satisfaction, increase productivity and reduce costs. Visitors who use online chat are three times more likely to make a purchase, and spend 35% more, than those who do not chat.
Another benefit of outsourcing your admin functions is the time you save on staff recruitment and retention. Not only does a virtual human resources manager take this load off you, you can be sure of getting highly committed, qualified people right out of the box, instead of having to take time out and train them yourself.