You can take your cats to a cattery, your dogs to the kennels, and even, if it is a romantic break that you're after, offload the children to grandparents, uncles, aunts or cousins.
The question is, what do you do with your customers when you want to get away from it all? They certainly do not want to be 'locked' away for a week or two whilst you are enjoying yourself on that well-earned break in the sun.
They want to get in touch with you, and you can guarantee that they will want to get in touch with you during your 2 weeks in the sun.
You can picture the scene...
there you are, a glass of sangria in one hand, a plate of paella in the other, and the sun slowly fading away...
behind the mountain of paperwork on the desk that you couldn't leave for a week or two because; a) your customers need you; b) your business needs you; c) you have been squeezed so much by the recession that it just is not financially viable to employ a full-time person to babysit the business whilst you are away; d) insert your own favourite statement in here if not included.
Can you console yourself with the distant dreams of holidays past and accept that this will be another year without a break? It doesn't have to be like this.
I'm sure you've heard of Virtual Office (a term first used back in 1983 at the boom of the computer age).
Well, it really has come of age now.
Virtual Office services can include anything from office administration, secretarial services and telephone answering, right up to a fully functioning office space, offering a registered address, mail forwarding and call centre facilities.
Virtual Office services can be particularly useful if you cannot justify the cost of employing someone directly yourself.
And, when you consider that the true cost of employing someone can often be double or treble their annual salary, after you take into account holiday pay, sick pay, National Insurance contributions, etc, then it is easy to see why Virtual Office services are big business.
Telephone Answering services (that come under the umbrella of Virtual Office) can be a huge benefit if, for example, you need to get on with other, or more profitable tasks, or, you just need to take that well-earned break away from the business for a while.
Some providers will offer their Virtual Office services on a short-term basis with, no set-up fees, no monthly contracts and no minimum contracts.
You just pay for what you use (much as you would with a Pay as You Go phone).
They are ideal if you only want to use the services for a short to medium term.
As a minimum, they will offer a Telephone Answering service, where a local or non-geographic (i.
e.
0845/0800) number will be provided to you.
It's then simply a matter of diverting your telephone line(s) to this number.
The company then answer your calls and take a message.
They then pass this message on to you via e-mail, sms text or allow you to collect your messages when you are available.
Having a call answered personally gives more of a professional image and sounds so much better than getting through to a voicemail.
In fact, did you know that 79% of people will not leave a message on voicemail when wanting to talk to you about a product or service? Staggering, isn't it? So, you can effectively still be in the office whilst you really are enjoying that well-earned break with your sangria in one hand and paella in the other, safe in the knowledge that your business is being looked after and you're not losing customers.
The question is, what do you do with your customers when you want to get away from it all? They certainly do not want to be 'locked' away for a week or two whilst you are enjoying yourself on that well-earned break in the sun.
They want to get in touch with you, and you can guarantee that they will want to get in touch with you during your 2 weeks in the sun.
You can picture the scene...
there you are, a glass of sangria in one hand, a plate of paella in the other, and the sun slowly fading away...
behind the mountain of paperwork on the desk that you couldn't leave for a week or two because; a) your customers need you; b) your business needs you; c) you have been squeezed so much by the recession that it just is not financially viable to employ a full-time person to babysit the business whilst you are away; d) insert your own favourite statement in here if not included.
Can you console yourself with the distant dreams of holidays past and accept that this will be another year without a break? It doesn't have to be like this.
I'm sure you've heard of Virtual Office (a term first used back in 1983 at the boom of the computer age).
Well, it really has come of age now.
Virtual Office services can include anything from office administration, secretarial services and telephone answering, right up to a fully functioning office space, offering a registered address, mail forwarding and call centre facilities.
Virtual Office services can be particularly useful if you cannot justify the cost of employing someone directly yourself.
And, when you consider that the true cost of employing someone can often be double or treble their annual salary, after you take into account holiday pay, sick pay, National Insurance contributions, etc, then it is easy to see why Virtual Office services are big business.
Telephone Answering services (that come under the umbrella of Virtual Office) can be a huge benefit if, for example, you need to get on with other, or more profitable tasks, or, you just need to take that well-earned break away from the business for a while.
Some providers will offer their Virtual Office services on a short-term basis with, no set-up fees, no monthly contracts and no minimum contracts.
You just pay for what you use (much as you would with a Pay as You Go phone).
They are ideal if you only want to use the services for a short to medium term.
As a minimum, they will offer a Telephone Answering service, where a local or non-geographic (i.
e.
0845/0800) number will be provided to you.
It's then simply a matter of diverting your telephone line(s) to this number.
The company then answer your calls and take a message.
They then pass this message on to you via e-mail, sms text or allow you to collect your messages when you are available.
Having a call answered personally gives more of a professional image and sounds so much better than getting through to a voicemail.
In fact, did you know that 79% of people will not leave a message on voicemail when wanting to talk to you about a product or service? Staggering, isn't it? So, you can effectively still be in the office whilst you really are enjoying that well-earned break with your sangria in one hand and paella in the other, safe in the knowledge that your business is being looked after and you're not losing customers.
SHARE
