Death To Voicemail – Hail The Virtual Receptionist!

Back in 1973, Stephen Boies of IBM was credited for inventing voicemail. Achieving over a million sales a year by the early ‘80s, voicemail was hailed as a miracle invention – a true boost to office productivity!

Fast forward to 2019, it’s fair to say that enthusiasm for the voicemail has somewhat waned, with research saying 20% of people who have voicemail never listen to it, whilst a further 30% will happily leave unheard messages for 3 days.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that up to 80% of callers don’t leave messages because they don’t think they’ll be heard. This presents an issue for small businesses – especially sole traders – as missing calls is sometimes an unavoidable aspect of the job, when you’re trying to juggle multiple roles.

In a world of Instagram and instant gratification, people want to get stuff done now . With voicemail being viewed as archaic, the pressure is on to pick up the phone immediately before a potential customer heads back to Google to try your competitors instead.

“The pressure is on to pick up the phone immediately before a potential customer heads back to Google to try your competitors instead.”

So what can a smaller business do about it?

Another major reason why people don’t leave voicemails is that they want to talk to a human to verify what they’ve heard, read or otherwise found out about you, or they simply want the reassurance of speaking to a human.

In the knowledge that you aren’t always able to pick up every call, it’s therefore imperative that your website and marketing materials answer any question a would-be client may ask. This will reduce calls from researchers and increase calls from real buyers.

You can add to contact methods on top of your phone number to help buy you time – providing an email, Facebook page or number to WhatsApp (95% people find a text message more convenient than leaving a voicemail) allows you vital minute minutes whilst still appearing responsive.

"95% people find a text message more convenient than leaving a voicemail"

However, if you really want to make the most of every call your business receives, then you need someone to pick up that call. The great news is that modern technology makes a call centre viable for any sized business.

Virtual Receptionist services are increasingly popular as it’s an affordable way of dealing with all of your calls, without the cost of having full time staff. Internet based phone systems make it possible for a virtual receptionist to answer a call to your business number with connected software providing a script so – for the customer – it’s as if they’re talking to one of your own.

Virtual receptionist services are increasingly popular as it’s an affordable way of dealing with all of your calls, without the cost of having full time staff.

With buyers evermore impatient and the cost of winning new business growing, improving sales conversions should be every businesses priority, no matter their size. That first step is having the means to answer every call, and then to reassure the caller that you are a professional, trusted outfit.

If you want to move away from the ‘80s, using the services of a Virtual Receptionist could be the answer. But first of all, check that voicemail!

Miss MPS is a team of Virtual Assistants based in East Malling, Kent. We provide call answering and associated admin services to help small business owners get on with what’s important – running their businesses.