You Will Thank Us – 5 Tips About Virtual Reception You Need to Know
How to get the most from virtual reception and get your callers’ needs met with the greatest efficiency.
Virtual reception: it’s the most cost-effective way to quickly meet your customers’ needs without maxing out your labor costs. While the inclusion of the word “virtual” doesn’t immediately make you think of a warm and personal greeting, you’d be surprised by just how polite, knowledgeable, and warm a virtual receptionist can be. In fact, the receptionists themselves are far from virtual: they’re real-live agents in an off-site location, but your callers will never know they don’t work for you in-house.
To get the most from a virtual reception service, you should keep a few pointers in mind. It’s important to make the distinction between third-party virtual receptionists and your contact centre’s existing interactive voice response (IVR) menus. IVR is a great way to collect call data such as account number, reason for call, and verifying identity, but a virtual receptionist will provide the seamless “real person” experience most callers prefer to an IVR “robot” service.
1. Avoid Repetitive Data Entry
Keep in mind that your virtual receptionists’ scripts shouldn’t ask callers to repeat the same questions they’ve just been asked by your telephone software’s IVR menu. If your customer has already been asked to enter their account number in an IVR system, it will be frustrating to have them repeat it again to a live agent or virtual receptionist. Be sure to work out these types of repetitive kinks in your IVR menus and calling scripts to avoid additional customer frustration.
2. Invest in a Great Voice
Be sure your virtual receptionists provide your callers with a smooth, soothing voice with which to interact. It’s dangerous to underestimate the power of a virtual receptionist’s voice or the chosen sound you use for your in-house IVR menus. Consider the exhaustive process Apple undertook when selecting the perfect sound for the voice of Siri, the iPhone’s onboard virtual assistant.
3. Mind Your P’s and Q’s
Virtual receptionists should have excellent telephone manners, including polite requests instead of demands for information and a professional speaking style. Don’t accept “Give me your account number again?” when “I’m sorry, would you please repeat your account number for me?” is the appropriate response.
4. Stay Calm
Especially when customer frustration is high, virtual receptionists (and your in-house service agents) should be prepared to take a Zen master approach to handling irate callers. Encourage your receptionists to express empathy by listening to customers’ complaints without becoming defensive and adding fuel to the fire. Sometimes, people just want to yell into the abyss for a few moments before they calm down and are prepared to hear you out. Express empathy with statements like:
- “I understand how frustrating this is for you…”
- “I can certainly see why you expected something different….”
- “Let’s see what we can do to fix this situation right away…”
5. Express Expectations Clearly
You’ll get the most from your virtual reception service if you express your needs and expectations with as much clarity as possible. When outsourcing any part of your operations to an outside entity, it’s important to clearly identify your priorities and any desired special considerations such as formatting of messages or ways to manage specific call types. Empower your virtual receptionists to help you get the most from the service you’re paying for by clearly expressing:
- Your specific needs for message taking
- Important information you want from every caller
- How to handle specific call types (i.e. service outages, complaints, sales opportunities, and more)
A virtual receptionist can free you up to put out other fires while minimizing hold times for your most valuable asset: the customer. Getting the most from a virtual reception service requires you to think through your priorities and express them clearly to your chosen contractor. For more information on how getting really specific with information about who’s calling and how to best serve each type of caller, read our free white paper.
