Victoria Shepherd of MessageMail explains how a Virtual Office can benefit your business

Using a Virtual Office has become more common in recent years for many reasons. Primary among them is that there is no longer the taboo of not having your own office in the centre of town. Many people also now work from home and if needs be meetings can take place at virtual offices for a more formal surrounding.

So as this trend continues let's take a look at what a Virtual Office can do for your business.

The economic benefit

Start-ups and small companies find that using a Virtual Office cuts costs drastically. When the nature of the business requires you to be on the road or working mainly from home using a Virtual Office means you're not finding yourself covering the overheads to run an office at the same time. Add a telephone answering service to this, and you will no longer need to worry about hiring a receptionist to answer the phones or put calls through while you’re out and about. 

Mailing address benefits

Using a Virtual Office means that any mail addressed to your company will get received and handled as per your instruction. Gone is the need to give out your home address and therefore you can protect your privacy at the same time as giving your business a prestigious address location which adds to your company's professional image. Your Virtual Office can also sign for important documents and receive parcels on your behalf if you have that service included. So no need for you to worry about missing a delivery. 

Reduced admin & staff costs

Hiring staff comes with its own set of admin, upkeep, and organisation. Using a Virtual Office means that you won’t have to find cover for staff illness or holiday. There will always be someone there to answer the phone without you even having to think about it.

A team of professional people fronting your company

This is not to be overlooked! In reputable Virtual Office companies, the staff are highly trained and know how to speak to your clients and get the best out of the calls you receive. They are experienced with handling sales/cold calls and can field them for you, saving you valuable time.

No missed calls or engaged tones

The beauty of using a telephone answering service is having access to a complete team. So unlike having one person on site answering the phone for you, you can have multiple calls being dealt with simultaneously – all with short ring times. The effect of this on the caller is not to be overlooked either. The experience they have when contacting your company directly affects their overall impression of how professional and effective you are. 

Meeting rooms 

Many Virtual Offices also offer meeting rooms to their clients at an hourly rate. These meeting rooms are usually well equipped with not just video conferencing facilities, but with the option of a good spread for entertaining your clients too. Even if you’re working daily from your garden shed, you can impress your clients when they come to meet you at your ‘other office’. 

You can focus on what makes your company great

Unless your company is a telephone answering company itself, the main focus of your business isn’t going to be answering the phone. Getting the phone to ring is an important first stage of attracting new clients and keeping in touch with the current ones, but if you’re the one answering it can be very distracting from your real work. So productivity levels can dramatically increase as a result! 

If that hasn’t convinced you to at least enquire about a Virtual Office service then you must already have one. Remember you can always ask them for references from other companies in your industry or you can ask to be put in touch with them too!

Victoria Shepherd is the Marketing Co-ordinator for MessageMail, a trusted provider of Virtual Office services to new and growing companies for over 15 years.