Although it is a recent innovation which is now gaining popularity, the Virtual Office guarantees companies all of the benefits and services of an office work environment without the cost that renting a physical space can have. Our Virtual Office at Clyde Offices is the ideal set-up for professionals and businesses who want to promote a professional image to customers without having to pay the costs usually associated with the office rental.
Virtual Office packages include a city centre mailing address with your company name, post received and sorted, a unique business telephone line, calls answered in your company name and dealt with by a personal assistant, calls forwarded to your personal line, daily e-mails updating on your companies activities, and an option of renting meeting rooms on an hourly basis.
Here is a short guide of a few steps to help ensure that you are using your Virtual Office to its full potential.
Communication: We ensure that all employees are communicating regularly so that miscommunications are held to a minimum if not completely eliminated. It is also important to hold team meetings to structure the working days. These meetings will also help instill a sense of team spirit and promote productivity.
Sharing: All documents and work-related files should be shared with relevant members of the team. A structured flow of folders, and a staff trained in how to use them properly will insure the work is done properly. At Clyde Offices, we use Dropbox. This way, all members of the team and our clients can have access to all the information and documents they need.
Energy: In any fast-paced business it will be important to keep up energy levels to ensure everyone is completing tasks at the highest level of efficiency. Short breaks to re-energize the group are key.
If you have any questions about the services we offer from our Virtual Office here at Clyde Offices, then get in touch. If you want to find out more about our telephone answering service or virtual assistant service then please visit the relevant pages.
Running a business takes a lot of work, there is no avoiding it, but that does not mean you have to do all of the work yourself.
A Virtual Assistant makes the workload a lot more manageable. But, do not be fooled into thinking there are only two options: Hiring a full-time employee or going without the help.
There are some obvious flaws to both of these options. One leaves you stranded with all of the work and the other can be extremely costly. The good thing is there is a third option. You can get help from a Virtual Assistant. This is the perfect blend between cost efficiency and getting a lot of work done.
A Virtual Assistant can help you tackle the same tasks you would be hiring a full-time support staff member to accomplish such as: friendly and professional off-site telephone answering, reading and responding to e-mails in a quick and professional manner, as well as organizing your day-to-day travel.
If these are the sort of tasks that keep you bogged down and extend your work days then a Virtual Assistant is the right call for you. These are tasks that can be handled off-site by a well-trained and professional part-time assistant rather than a full-time employee who you would have to spend time and money training and setting up with a phone, desk, computer, etc.
A virtual assistant also has the added benefit of being a service employee easily replaceable. This means, unlike a full-time worker you may hire, a Virtual Assistant is bound by the knowledge that if they do not work hard and complete the tasks professionally and to a high standard they can be easily replaced. No long term contracts.
To succeed in business you need to sacrifice a lot of your time and put in a lot of work. There is, of course, the work done during business hours but there is so much more work that goes into a business outside of business hours, such as administrative work, e-mails and phone calls. It is a lot of long hours and exaggerated efforts. All of this, inevitably, eats into your home life, taking time away from the things and people you love. All of which can leave you a little burnt out.
A virtual assistant can help you avoid burnout!
What is burnout? Well, it is a lot more than just feeling a little tired. It may start out as tiredness but it is a build-up of stress, worry and fear brought about by the abundance of responsibilities. Putting all of your time and energy into work and ignoring family and friends can build up until it becomes too much. Contrary to popular belief, pouring this much time and effort into your business is not always a good thing. At a certain point, you begin damaging your own brand.
So, how can a Virtual Assistant help you out? An assistant can help handle some of the simple tasks such as e-mail, call handling, as well as some administrative duties. Some of these tasks may seem small, but a lot of small tasks add up to a big relief of stress. And less stress in the office means more time for home, hobbies and your family.
A question we hear a lot is what can a Virtual Assistant do? Well, here is a list of some of the most common workplace tasks that we usually tackle:
Administrative Support: We help with dealing with email organisation, booking flights or hotels, setting up and coordinating meetings and appointments, handling calls, research and even help with creating and delivering corporate presentations.
Virtual Support: Mail forwarding services, mailing addresses (in the city centre of Glasgow), meeting room rental and hot-desking.
Financial Services Support: Invoicing, account management, help itemising expenses and financial reports.
Event Planning Support: Organizing announcements, invitations and even thank you letters, booking venues, managing guest lists, receiving and tracking responses and overseeing events.
Social Media Support: Creating an online presence for your business, creating a company website, writing blogs, and managing accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Are you considering hiring a new or first employee?
If you are a start-up or a small business you know that you’re not just a boss or a manager, you wear many hats all simultaneously. You’re juggling paying rent, utilities, office supplies and wages for the few employees you have. And, depending on the work load, some of these employees are probably spending most of their time on Facebook, or personal emails.
With Clyde Offices you can cut out a lot of the cost and still be as, if not more, efficient. After all, we are experienced in many different businesses and industries.
Our team of independent professionals work from offices which are fully stocked and come at no extra expense to you the business owner. More so, the staff are all trained and ready to carry out your required tasks to the highest possible standard. All of this training is done before hand, so you are hiring a ready-made employee. Saving the money on insurance, wages, and training allows you to invest more into the business, getting more bang for your business’ buck.
Let’s take a look at the cost analysis of a Virtual Assistant versus hiring an employee:
Training Cost: An employee must be properly trained to meet their full potential. This means investing time and money. But, not just their time, it is your own, or another employee’s. However, with our highly skilled team members you are getting pre-trained hard working assistants right out of the box.
Wasted time/Loss of Productivity: National surveys show that the average employee takes nearly five months to be fully capable at a new position. A Virtual Assistant does not need that five month gestation period. They come in fully baked and ready to roll!
It is pretty clear that the cost benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant, a fully trained and prepared employee right out of the box, far outweigh that of hiring, training and fully paying to bring up to speed a new or first employee.
Before launching into business you’re going to want to make sure it is worthwhile.
This includes making sure you aren’t going to be spending unnecessary money, there is a good chance your budget is not unlimited, it’s probably going to be rather small.
Hiring a virtual assistant is a pretty sound investment for your business because it is not just an investment in one area of your office, it is an all-encompassing hire. The following are a few areas in which a virtual assistant can help your start-up out:
An Overwhelming Schedule: Running a business takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, nearly all of your time and effort, actually. Instead of allowing your schedule to become overwhelming you can hire a virtual assistant to help take some work off your plate. An assistant can help make your office life a lot easier.
Work Was No Longer Fun: Work isn’t always going to be fun. Sometimes you are not going to enjoy what you’re doing at all. But, work should never hit a point where you find it to be unbearable. Bringing someone on board , even just for a few hours a week, can help lighten your load and reignite the passion you need to deliver your best work.
Important Tasks Getting Missed: Keeping on task and on schedule is a skill not a lot of people can master. Everyone knows that you have to make sure the very important tasks get done, but when responsibilities pile up, it can be hard to make sure every detail gets the attention is needs. When this happens important jobs and deadlines can be missed. This is not a good situation for anyone. A virtual assistant can help manage your tasks and make sure some of the smaller stuff doesn’t get missed.
The main asset to hiring a virtual assistant is to help lighten the load and improve the time you spend in the office.
The importance of time is often underestimated
Time is always running out. As such, we try to save it wherever we can. We grab meals from drive-through windows and eat in our cars, we shop for gifts online during the holidays and we even record television shows so we can fast forward the adverts. We all do it, so wouldn’t it just make sense to apply time saving techniques to your business life, as well?
Virtual Assistants can help you do just that!
Saving our clients’ time is the very foundation of our business. Based in the city centre of Glasgow, our office-based team of virtual assistants enthusiastically and efficiently help businesses save time and improve the flow of day-to-day activities.
By handling some of the more tedious elements of a business, we allow our clients to focus on tasks that will help their business. Some of the services we provide are:
Virtual Assistance: The very core of what we do is communication. Dealing with people is our business. A virtual assistant can help with booking appointments, scheduling conference calls or business meetings, as well as acting like an intermediary between clients and customers.
Call Answering: Need a hand with all your calls? Our team is available as required to offer reliable handling of calls, incoming and outgoing, diverts and transfers.
Diary Management: Travelling for business, or even pleasure? Time Assistant can help you out with arrangements. We have established contacts which will ensure your trip is planned and executed to a high standard. Not travelling? We can help you organize and plan your events, everything from picking a venue to helping with guests.
Back Office Support: Maybe the help you need is more behind the scenes; we have you covered there, too. Offering a variety of back office support, we help customers complete research, and create and deliver presentations. We can also provide assistance with day-to-day office work such as itemising expenses, creating invoices and managing accounts.
Social Media: We help clients network with customers and prospective customers over several forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter and our own company website.
These are just a few of our most popular services. However, our team of highly skilled assistants are committed to helping your company and prioritising your workload.
So, I guess the real question is: How can Clyde Offices help you manage your time?
Missed calls are missed opportunities.
If you ever worry about losing out on business due to missed calls, or are you are trapped in the office, too scared to leave the phones unattended? Is the frustration from sales calls wasting your time and tying up your phone lines getting to you?
There is a simple solution to all of your worries and it is Clyde Offices call answering service.
With U.K. based offices, we offer professional and friendly assistance with answering and organising all of your company’s calls. We provide a free trial of our services and if you decide to join the Clyde Offices team, there are no set-up fees or contracts for your business. You simply use the services when you need to. We are here for you and your business needs.
Diverting your calls to Clyde Offices can free up your time to focus on your business’ requirements.
Here is a quick guide on setting up the divert service; you can see how simple it really is.
Clyde Offices will provide you with a local or national phone number, you choose. You can either use this number or keep your own number and divert your calls to Clyde Offices.
First thing first, you will need to contact your service provider to set up the call divert function, this normally takes a few hours to kick in, and costs £5 per quarter.
This will give you three options: Diverting your calls to us in the first instance, divert calls while you are engaged or divert calls when you are unable to answer.
Do not underestimate the power of a telephone number.
A sample of 10,000 e-commerce websites in the U.K. showed that 60 per cent of online retailers from the U.K. did not provide a telephone number on their website. If people cannot find how to reach you, they probably won’t. By simply providing a visible telephone number on your business website you will increase sales and encourage repeat business.
Today’s customer is in search of answers as quick as possible. Offering high quality customer service is something that many online retailers overlook, however with the inclusion of a telephone number on your site is a great way to provide your customers with quick access to the information they need, when they need it.
It is really very simple, when an e-commerce site neglects to include the business’ phone number it is at serious risk of losing nearly half of its potential customers. A recent survey showed that 50 per cent of potential customers would never purchase from a site that does not provide a contact number. This, essentially, makes a clearly stated phone number a requirement of your business if is going to gain customer trust.
The problem is many retailers may not have the time or resources to fully run a customer service team who can handle the telephone calls. Never fear, Clyde Offices can help.
Clyde Offices telephone-answering service goes a step further than most answering services by offering businesses a complete e-customer service experience. This means your calls are not just handled; they also help take orders, deal with questions over e-mail, as well as online chat requests. All of this frees up the business’ time by focus on their product and not have to worry about covering all their bases when they do not have the resources.
Currently, we work with numerous e-commerce sites handling their customer service solutions. We mainly deal with customers who prefer to make orders over the phone. We also help with IT issues such as customer password resetting, general shipping inquiries and returns.
The services start at £1 a call and include a free telephone number, a cost that is more than offset by the potential of loss income do to unsatisfied customers.
Never underestimate the power of a number.
When your business joins the Clyde Offices call answering service they are provided with a free telephone number. This gives the business two options. The first is the business can advertise the number Clyde Offices gives them, or if the business already has a number advertised they can divert calls from their current number to the one Clyde Offices provides.
The following is a guide to help you with diverting calls through to Clyde Offices team of receptionists.
How to divert calls: First off, contact your businesses telephone service provider to set up the call divert function. This process usually takes a few hours to implement and costs £5 per quarter.
Once the function is set up, you will have three options when handling incoming calls: You could either divert your calls to us, divert your calls to us when your line is engaged or divert your calls to us when you’re unable to answer, normally after fifteen seconds.
When you join the Clyde Offices family you get the telephone answering service as well as a few other benefits that include: No charge for calls under 20 seconds (sales calls or wrong numbers,) no long-term contracts (we operate on month-to-month deals,) there are no set-up fees, we also provide you with a free trial of our call answering service.
Above and beyond, we are a U.K. based service and with a small team of three staff we answer your calls in an efficient and friendly manner to help build professional and personal rapport with your callers.
