Working from home has gained a lot of acceptance in the last decade, and that acceptance has recently accelerated due to the coronavirus outbreak.
What started as a very rare option that was available to only a select few workers is now something that is mandatory for most knowledge-workers as cities go on lockdown and organizations implement social distancing protocols.
While working from home offers a variety of benefits, it can be challenging at first as people figure out how to juggle home distractions with getting work done. Something that is even more challenging now as entire families are staying home. Being productive while ensuring kids are doing homework, entertaining pets, and while family members or roommates are also on meetings is no easy task.
As more organizations and individuals continue working from home, it becomes crucial that people have access to the right tools and resources. Tools and resources that are conducive to productivity and, in some cases, can prevent unnecessary distractions.
One such tool is a live receptionist.
How a Live Receptionist Reduces DistractionsÂ
A live receptionist is a remote, third party worker that performs the exact same duties that an in-house receptionist does. Additionally, a live receptionist is usually a more cost-effective solution for most businesses and a great option for businesses that operate fully remotely.
Here are 6 ways a live receptionist can help reduce the number of distractions when you are working from home:
- Live Call Answering
A ringing phone can be a very distracting thing. Research has shown that not only is this sound able to interrupt your flow, it also makes you perform poorly on whatever task you are busy with at that moment.
A live receptionist service completely eliminates this annoyance by answering each and every call that is made to your business phone number in your company name and with a scripted response.
On top of that you can ask your live receptionist service provider to hold all your calls for as long as you need to concentrate, take messages and send them to you via email, and filter calls as strictly as you like so you only take the calls that are important to you.
- Appointment Scheduling
Your live receptionist can also schedule meetings and appointments right into your calendar. This excellent feature frees up your time and gives you the opportunity to use it for focused work.
- Call Forwarding
You can also instruct your live receptionist to forward calls to the right person. This ensures that you and each of your coworkers only receive the calls that are relevant to your job and, as an added bonus, you will have better customer service because you are more likely to be able to solve the caller’s queries or problems in just one call instead of having to go through multiple transfers.
- TransfersÂ
This brings us right to the next feature that helps reduce distractions: transfers. A live receptionist is a highly trained individual when it comes to transferring calls not only to the appropriate number but also, and more importantly, in the right way.
They know when a cold transfer is appropriate so callers can be dealt with efficiently and without delay. They also know when an attended transfer is needed to get you right up to speed with your customers’ more complex issues.
This also has a beneficial impact on the perceived quality of your company’s customer service. A live receptionist can also forward your calls to your voicemail in case you don’t want to be distracted at all and prefer to let the machine record your messages.
- Keep Your Business Spam Free
All those annoying robocalls, persistent solicitors and spam calls in general can be very distracting. A live receptionist acts as your first line of defense against these threats to your productivity by filtering every single call that your company gets and forwarding only those that are valuable to your business.
- Personal, Professional Touch
As you can see, getting a live receptionist is a tremendous help when it comes to lowering distractions to a minimum while still maintaining a high standard of customer service, professionalism, and efficiency.
