Tag: Virtual Offices

Utilising a serviced office provider may leave you pondering the difference between a call answering service and front-of-house staff. And, though in some ways there is a crossover with the tasks each role handles, they’re two completely different dedicated services used to make administrative tasks easier.

At WorkWell, we have front-of-house staff who are there to greet, accept parcels and mail. Our front-of-house staff are even able to do internal call transfers, enabling your customers to connect with you. This allows the reception to warmly greet your customer before transferring the call to your business, meaning you don’t have to worry about the formalities of introductions for your business. 

What is a receptionist?

A receptionist is the first point of contact customers have, whether that’s walking into an establishment or placing a call. Most businesses will have front-of-house staff to handle the administrative tasks like emailing, taking calls, booking appointments and so forth.

Having a receptionist offers many benefits. Here are just a few:

Make a professional and positive impression by having a front-of-house (reception) member of staff greet customers. The front-of-house staff will act as the face of the business, helping to establish your brand’s reputation.

A consistent point of contact rather than rotating your team positively impacts the brand reputation. This is because your customers are almost always likely to communicate with the front-of-house staff first, so having the same staff not only demonstrates an ability to retain staff, but it also helps the client build trust.

Hiring a receptionist can improve efficiency and organisation across the board. Rather than depending on a team of staff to clearly and consistently track administrative jobs, having dedicated staff can alleviate inconsistencies and free up time for more urgent tasks. Having a set team for the front-of-house can make tracking of administrative details that bit simpler, i.e. bookings. If one person/ or two people are consistently taking information, it will be easier to track and retrieve, rather than being scattered between a larger team.

What is a call answering service?

A call answering service is a dedicated line to a business, particularly handling customer service queries. Call answering may act like a receptionist in the sense that they’re the voice of the business.

Utilising a call service can be particularly useful when the business doesn’t need or have a physical address. Instead, staff handling call answering would utilise things like headsets to take calls for the business remotely.

This service is particularly beneficial as it helps improve customer relationships by providing a point of contact to discuss concerns. This demonstrates your business is able to accommodate the needs of the customer, providing a face of the brand to relay information to the customer, or vice versa.

Opting for a call answering service over front-of-house staff may also reduce budget, as the staff won’t need to be physically hired and trained, freeing up some of the costs that are typically associated with hiring.

What sets these services apart?

Choosing between hiring a receptionist or someone to handle calls will depend on your business’s overall needs. Factors you’ll need to consider when weighing up your options include:

• Your budget to hire and train staff
• The facilities of your work environment, i.e. do you have the space to accommodate, or even a physical location
• How often does your business have customers contacting
• Do you need just call handling, or administrative tasks like mail handling, communications via email, and booking systems?

The role front-of-house staff play differs quite a lot from that of a call-answering service. Receptionists are the physical face of the business, they take all the information needed, as well as other tasks which do not require direct customer contact.

Call answering differs because it’s a dedicated role to just communicate with the customers, which means they’re not going to deal with things like taking any packages or physically greeting customers.

Both services offer unique benefits depending on your business’s specific needs. While front-of-house provides a physical presence to greet visitors, handle mail, and manage admin tasks, call answering services focus solely on remote communication with your customers. At WorkWell, we’re proud to offer a flexible combination of both—complete with internal call transfers, professional voicemail services, and a welcoming front-of-house team. If you’re looking for a professional serviced office that supports your operations and elevates customer experience, get in touch with us today to see how we can help your business thrive.

 Starting up or running a business in the cloud at WorkWell provides you with options to collaborate, communicate and grow, which will help you to compete for business on a UK-wide basis.

As a technology service provider, Appamondo help choose the right applications to set your business up in the cloud. We take responsibility for deployment, training and education, and then providing ongoing support to you and your team. In this way, you can combine a bricks and mortar presence with remote tools that mean you are ‘always on’.

We always get asked why people should change to the cloud…

Here are five tips and reasons to work this way.

1. Avoid capital expenditure on computers, servers, software licenses and installation or maintenance costs.

Build a business with low-cost, subscription-based applications to reduce budget spend on software. Similarly, budget can be reduced by operating on a ‘bring your own device’ basis. Avoid buying devices and hardware you don’t need (servers, desktop PCs, etc)

2. Collaborate & communicate wherever you are.

Use business software that can be accessed remotely, such as Google Apps for Business™ for email, calendar, office package and storage. This will allow you to access your work from any location, making flexible working complication-free. Make use of online storage and collaboration tools to interact regularly and remotely with colleagues and customers.

Use video calling to increase frequency of face-to-face time, which in turn can help save money and time spent of commuting.

3. Automate administrative processes.

Automation means less time on admin, more time to grow the business!Use applications which integrate and streamline processes to bring efficiency to your workflow.

Mission-critical tasks like accounting can be automated using Xero, thus improving cash flow.

4. Go paperless.

Cut your costs and wastage by adopting sustainable practices like going paperless. Online storage tools allow creation, storage, sharing and collaboration in the cloud, removing the need for multiple copies and paper revisions.

Make sure applications match your business needs – there is a paperless solution for most processes.

5. Buy your technology as a service – lowest cost to operate

Technology can be purchased on a subscription basis without capital costs. Beware! Support from setup through to ongoing support is relatively non-existent (important if you are migrating data!)

Look for a technology provider who can meet all your business requirements – deployment (including migration of existing data), education in the form of training and ongoing support on a per-user (not company basis) should be mandatory for you!

Don’t just stop at these tips. If you want to ask more questions, contact the Appamondo team on 0843 224 9088 or social@appamondo.com. We are happy to help!

Michael Smith

Appamondo

WorkWell runs a professional office space that works around your business. We produce the highest quality space with complete monthly flexibility so that you can have a fluid workflow with minimal hassle. We are happy to work with Appomondo. They have a great service that will benefit a wide range of companies looking for easier management tools.

    

It’s no secret, the number of people working at home and from remote locations is rapidly escalating.

As the Office for National Statistics (ONS) prove, in the first three months of 2013, approximately 13.9% of the UK workforce worked from home offices, the highest number since records began in 1998.

As our blog about how technology is changing the way we work specifies, technology such as Cloud has made homeworking a reality. Despite the unprecedented growth of home working, an office within a home-based setting has limitations.

A Virtual Office is designed to combat the limitations of a home office. Whilst the advantages of a virtual office are fairly blatant and undisputed – namely giving a business a professional address and subsequently a more specialised image – it is safe to say there are several features of virtual offices that remain significantly less recognised and celebrated.

If you are deliberating joining the thousands of SMEs and professionals in their pursuit to take their company and working ventures to new elevated levels by getting a virtual office, take a look at some features of this increasingly popular working practice, you may not realise you need.

So, what do you need in a Virtual Office?

Unlimited post

A company’s post piling up at home isn’t particularly conducive to professionalism. Nor is failing to be in to collect an important parcel or letter. A Virtual Office immediately eradicates such potential problems.

Virtual Offices, such as WorkWell’s Virtual Office, include unlimited post as part of the package. Ensuring all letters and parcels are picked up and collected in a professional manner will not only mean a crucial company letter isn’t chewed up by the family dog never to be seen again, but will also be collected in a professional manner, heightening the credibility of your company.

Unlimited phone calls

How many times do you get interrupted, your trail of though lost, by the phone ringing? You might not realise it but when you have your own Virtual Office you will have the privilege of having a professional receptionist answer your calls.

Delegating the essential, if not mundane, task of having someone else pick up your phone calls will mean you can enjoy an uninterrupted day’s work and concentrate on elements that will ultimately make your business grow.

The same ‘professional enhancing’ principle of having a receptionist professional deal with your post can be applied to the unlimited phone calls that users of Virtual Offices can take advantage of. With a receptionist answering your calls and either forwarding them to you or to your answering machine will not only mean you can get on with more pressing components of running a business but it will also mean you never miss a call.

Use of a desk

Whilst Virtual Offices are predominantly centred on giving businesses the professionalism of having a glamorous address, as well as phone call and mail forwarding services, it can be equally as beneficial to many SMEs and freelancers to have a desk they can use.

For example, Carrwood Park’s co-working spaces enable workers to reap the benefits of having a professional office desk, namely access to fast Wi-Fi, IT support, and the buzz, banter and networking opportunities life in an office offers.

Such vital modern working elements are essential in driving a business forward and nurturing success.

Use of a meeting room

So business is picking up and whilst it was once sufficient to conduct client meetings in a local Starbuck’s, with your company rapidly progressing, you require a more professional, well-facilitated and easy-to-access meeting room.

Once upon a time you might not have realised you would be needing a meeting room but as your business grows so does the need to hire a professional, well-facilitated meeting room.

Take advantage of Carrwood Park’s meeting rooms, which being just 15 minutes from Leeds City Centre and two minutes from the M1, means your guests can show up and enjoy a professional meeting in the most stylish of environments.

Location, location, location

Estate agents love to say it but the popular phrase ‘location, location, location’ is being adopted by virtual offices.

The location of an office, virtual or not, is important for several reasons. With a desirable and professional-sounding business address, clients, potential clients, outsourced and others are likely to view your business venture with greater credibility.

What’s more, using an office that is located in a stylish building, on the outskirts of a large city or town with convenient access and free parking, will not only be more convenient for you to use but will be easier for clients to visit.

If you have any further questions or would like to arrange a viewing or book a Virtual Office at WorkWell, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

You may not realise it, but many of your business contacts, colleagues and associates are making use of virtual offices.

The reason you may not realise this is actually one of their main benefits – because virtual offices give you a physical address for people to contact, even if you can’t afford or don’t need office space.

But what exactly is a virtual office?

This is a question that is often asked about virtual offices, and not everyone has the correct answer to what a virtual office actually is. This type of office space is not just a post box, but access to a full range of facilities – from a manned reception and call answering service to desk space and access to fully equipped conference and meeting spaces. In a normal leased office, you would need to pay for all of these services all of the time, even if you only needed them occasionally. One of the main reasons to choose a virtual office is that it gives you access to these services when you need them, and you only pay for what you use.

Exploring the SEO benefits of a virtual office address

However, there is another very important benefit of using virtual offices – improved search engine optimisation (SEO). You may have a fantastic website, optimised for high rankings in Google and other search engines, as well as investing in many other ways to improve your SEO, but there are some parts of Google that you simply can’t access without a physical address.

A key example of this is Google Local, a service designed to help users search within their local area. This localised service makes it difficult for search engine users to find businesses that don’t have a physical address, which, of course, shows up on other services such as Google Maps. Google Local relies on maps in order to place your business, and it gives priority to listings with a physical address that can easily be read.

So, what does this ultimately mean for businesses without a fixed and permanent office address? Without a virtual office from a provider such as WorkWell, which gives you an all-important address and one in a central location near a large city, you may not even be able to reach potential customers in your local area, never mind being able to extend your reach to the rest of the country. A local listing is an essential building block, helping to establish a strong presence in your area before reaching further afield.

5 businesses that could find virtual offices very useful 

As we mentioned in a blog about who should use a virtual office, there are a few obvious candidates. For example:

1. Businesses wanting to expand and test the market in a new region might want a virtual office for the reasons already listed – namely, getting a Google Local listing.

2. Growing SMEs want to keep their finances flexible while getting their business off the ground.

3. E-commerce websites often find that virtual offices are great alternatives to regional call centres, with the added benefit of extra credibility.

4. Sole traders and freelancers needing to keep on top of all calls, correspondence and orders, but without committing to full-time office space, as self-employed business owners can never be sure where their next business is coming from.

5. Start-up companies wanting a prestigious physical address in a strong business location (i.e. near a big business hub such as Leeds or London) that lends them credibility and a highly professional image.

To find out more about virtual offices at WorkWell, see our range of virtual office packages.

For more advice and tips on finding the ideal office space solution to suit your business, subscribe to our blog.

Did you know that in 2025, Britons were found to spend up to 8.8% of their annual income, which works out at approximately £64 per week. An analysis conducted by Public Desire found the average spend per year is £3,328. With more and more of us reaching to the geographically boundary-free world of the internet to do our shopping, read reviews, read the news, book flights, watch television, download music, chat to friends, conduct business, and the myriad of other tasks you can carry out conveniently and leisurely online, it stands to reason that every business needs a website, right? Not necessarily.

In the final part of this series, we will ask… Do you even need a website? It sounds controversial, but in our last article about consistency across the web, we listed a host of channels that any business seeking success is likely to need to set up and populate. That takes time – a lot more time than you think. So, before you rush to add your website to the to-do list, it’s good to take a moment and ask… Do you really need one?

It sounds shocking, doesn’t it? And depending on your industry, it might be a non-starter, but more and more often I’m sitting down with SME’s, who think their websites are doing well and bringing in new business, but when I look at the analytics, it tells a different story.

‘What? You mean they are not reading the lengthy pages of copy and images that I have painstakingly prepared? No, sorry.

Google is more than a Search Engine.

Google is changing, and more and more information is being served to the searcher in the Google results page rather than requiring another click to a website. Try searching for trains from one city to another, and the results appear right there in front of you in the search results. Now try finding out the exchange rate for ‘$500’ – same results again.

So, for the business above, if they allow their contact details to be served in the search results, then do they even need a website? It’s this realisation that can save a business a lot of money (and time) – especially when starting up.

Still think you need a Website?

Maybe not having a web presence is too radical for you, and I can understand why you feel this way. However, if you’re planning on a new website or update to your existing website then take this opportunity to at least simplify your website requirements and consider that every page needs a purpose, this approach alone will save you time and money.

Look at the Analytics

If you already have a site, then take a look at the analytics to help you figure out and learn more about how people are using your site.

Analytics is the data to shows how people are using your website. Google Analytics is a free tool – hopefully you know exactly what this is and you’re using it – if not, and you have a website, get it installed ASAP.

When you start to look at this data, you can learn so much. It can inform you about where your visitors are coming from:

• Organic – being found in search engines
• Direct – people typing the URL in the browser
• Social – people coming from your social media channels
• Paid – visitors who have clicked a link or adverts that you have paid for.

Organic and Direct

Let’s concentrate on the first two in that list; organic is actually direct. Organic is usually the biggest driver of traffic; therefore, the business owner often thinks that their website is vital for them and is doing really well in search.

However, when we look into it further, the organic traffic that is coming to the site is mainly searching for the business name, which isn’t actually organic traffic as such, but direct traffic. We are changing the way we use browsers, and Google and co are playing a massive role in this. Just typing a name in the URL area causes a search. For example, I visit the BBC website probably every day and yet I still search on Google ‘BBC’. And I’m not alone in doing this, as the stats show.

Pages being Viewed

If we take a closer look at the pages actually being viewed chances are you will fall into the category of most non-ecommerce websites where actually the pages being viewed are the homepage, the about us page (or pricing page) and then the contact us page, and that’s if your website is working for you.

This tells me, and the business owners, that all the visitor wants is to find out how to contact your business. More than that the the visitor is actually finding the website by searching the business name – hence the website isn’t actually attracting new customers, but just helping those who already know you.

How do you use the Web?

If you go through the same process as above, don’t worry. Like the preferred end of any relationship, ‘it’s not you, it’s them’. Things have changed. Search is still changing. If you think about how you are using the web, you are probably changing too. Excluding buying a product online, when was the last time you spent any time on the website of a business you want something from – price, trust, contact, and you’re done!

Ensure your Website doesn’t encourage people to leave as soon as they’ve clicked on it!

It’s all very well saying if a website doesn’t appear on page one of Google it might not well exist, but if it is bursting with elements that make visitors leave in a hurry before they have even had a chance to digest what the site is all about, you may as well not have one, right?

There are plenty of reasons people hastily leave a website, such as being bombarded with highly annoying auto-sound that can drive us nuts, being faced with popups – the sooner we see them the sooner we leave -, slow load times, if it doesn’t load up almost instantly, the impatient digital generation are likely to look elsewhere! And finally, if a website is difficult to navigate, prioritises ads over content, is laden with typos and poorly written content, and is cluttered with cookies, ask yourself – if people are likely to leave it no sooner have they arrived, is it really worth the bother of having a website in the first place?

Key points to consider

So, if at this point you still strongly believe that you need a website, then please at least take the following from reading this article:

• Get something that meets your needs, as less is more
• Evolve it along with your business over time.
• Ensure it is designed and written to a high quality and does not include any annoying traits that make visitors hurriedly click on the cross to get rid of it!

I’m a digital marketing consultant and I’m yet to sort my own website out – a bit like a plumber with a leaky tap at home – however I don’t need more clients right now – but in the future I will and my website could be vital – I too will fall into the trap of over thinking it, over engineering it and I will most probably end up with something taking much longer and costing much more than what I actually needed.

I will make a note now to re-read this again when I come to the planning stage.

Thanks for listening, I hope you found this useful. If you missed any of my other blogs in this series, read them here…

One Voice: Consistency of your branding online

The Impact of Branding in Business: Colours and Symbols

Creating a brand within a budget: Professional doesn’t always mean expensive

 About the author:

      Simon McCaskill is a digital marketing specialist and the man behind ‘Bear and Fly’. Simon also works for Google as part of their dedicated digital outreach team.

Digital marketing can be confusing and frustrating, and it shouldn’t be. Bear and Fly’s approach is all about working with you, the client, taking you step by step through the processes so you feel more comfortable with how you are marketing your business online.

@bearflydigitallinkedin.com/in/simonmccaskill