The purpose for identifying who a customer is weighs heavily on how your company can benefit from virtual assistance. Telephone automation provided a fast growing business a way to receive their customer calls without having to hire more and more operators to answer the telephones. As the idea of automation grew so did the annoyance of customers because of no live person answering calls, long wait times after multiple touch-tone options and ineffective resolution to their issue that they were calling about in the first place.



Virtual assistants do not typically spend their day answering your calls but what they can provide you in administrative services can free up your receptionist, better yet, they can return those telephone calls left on your voice mail or email and prioritize maybe even resolve customer issues.

An assistant that checks your voice mail several times a day; checking your emails and then responding to these messages that same day letting your customer know that they have been heard and assistance is on the way. That is what I want as a customer; how about you?

Trying out this kind of system while you are away on a business trip or vacation could be ideal. Having the peace of mind that your customers are being addressed and taken care of by a professional has to make your trip less stressful as well as returning from your trip and not having to look forward to an overflowing message box.

Hiring a full time assistant on site to answer the calls may be an answer for some businesses but not necessarily a good fit if you are not anticipating a large, ongoing volume of calls and/or emails. Contracting with a virtual assistant for specific blocks of time per day, per week and month can be an answer to improve your customer service and grow your business.

Okay now face it; customer service today is not what it was in the past. Automation was not created for the customer as much as it was to advance the business owner with handling the volume of customer calls and emails. Getting back to providing personal customer service is achievable and affordable with a virtual assistant.

Considering your last experience as the customer and dealing with a vendor or even a merchant business, other than the sales staff how was the customer service? Did you get the service you were requesting on the first request? Were you greeted the way that you felt appreciated as a valued customer? Did you have a long wait due to lack of staffing or high volume of other customers?

Either of the answers to the above questions leads to the next question. In the customer service systems that you currently have in place, how do they compare with what you experienced as a customer and how could the service you received as a customer have exceeded your expectations? If you value your customers and recognize how they benefit you also considering how you would like to be valued by your vendors or businesses then it should provide you with a clear picture of how you can get loyal customers who feel valued and not only return for services but also refer friends and acquaintances! That is what builds your business. It is all about customer service!