Rapid growth in popularity of remote virtual receptionist services like Heart Communications (www.heartcommunications.co.uk) suggests in-house switchboard operators are a thing of the past.
The recession is being blamed for thousands of receptionists across the country being replaced by companies that provide remote ‘virtual assistant’ services, which have seen a huge spike in business as a result.
For example, Heart Communications – which operates from several locations across the UK – has grown rapidly over the past year, as demand for their virtual receptionist service has soared. Established in 2002, Heart had its biggest-ever sales year in 2009. On average, Heart has signed-up twenty new clients per month and has seen its staff of call handlers swell to over one hundred.
When a company joins Heart, their inbound calls are routed to a team of highly-trained professional call handlers who will answer in the client’s company name and transfer calls or take messages. As far as the caller is concerned, the call is handled by an in-house receptionist.
The cost savings of outsourcing receptionist services can be huge. Heart charges £0.99 for every call received, which means a business would need to receive over 60 calls per day to match the £15000 average salary of an in-house receptionist. Other than the direct cost savings, there are no associated office infrastructure overheads, no sick pay, no holidays, no maternity cover and no lunch breaks – there is always a receptionist on hand to answer calls.
With businesses looking to cut costs and operate more efficiently, it’s little wonder Heart has proven one of the recession’s few success stories. Their growth is symptomatic of the increasing adoption of virtual business practices in the UK, fuelled by technology and economic pragmatism. Companies are increasingly choosing to outsource those roles not considered essential to the operation of their core business.
Heart founder Bradley Vincent believes virtual receptionists are here to stay. “The recession forced many businesses to look at ways of cutting costs – and we directly benefitted from that,” he says. “However, many companies who joined us as a temporary measure are now committing to us for the long-term. Virtual receptionists make sense from a business perspective, whether we’re in recession or not.”
For the thousands of receptionists who have been made redundant over the past eighteen months, Vincent has a positive message. “Businesses will always need their calls answering, so there is always demand for efficient professional receptionists,” he says. “It’s just that increasingly these receptionists will operate virtually, for several clients.”
