Some virtual assistants embrace this niche area and some do not. Some wish to focus on their sit down at their desk role and get on with their task at hand and do not wish to be interrupted by the phone constantly ringing, but as I said others embrace this service.
To be a virtual assistant to answer phones as a virtual receptionist you need to see assess the following:
Will I need to set up a separate business phone line or set up Skype
?
What is Skype
Skype is a little piece of software that lets you make free calls over the Internet. It allows users to make superior quality voice calls to other Skype users for free and to landlines and mobiles worldwide for the price of a local call. You can also add on a voicemail feature for a small fee.
And then there is also Ring Central - A virtual PBX system with voicemail and Internet Fax. Try it free today.
Your client may instruct you to sms or email or call him direct with details of the calls you took down. They may wish you to do this periodically throughout the day, as the calls come in or at the end of the day.
Think about your availability during the day to be around to answer incoming calls. When do you as a virtual assistant do most of your work? If your kids are in school then you are basically around all day (well at least during school hours) to answer calls. If you have children at home you may not have the time to dedicate to answering phones all day, or you may have commitments out of the home, shopping, etc. Do you want to divert these calls to your mobile/cell?
If the calls are few and far between then this may be ok in your general day to day work schedule, but if they are frequent you must have the dedicated time to be there to answer those calls.
Also, a small business owner may go away on holidays for a few days or a few weeks and may need his phone answered by a virtual receptionist for that period of time and you may consider taking on this job around your normal work schedule and on your normal phone line.
If you wish to offer this service a lot then a separate phone line or Skype and Ring Central type set ups may be recommended in your work from home space/office. Then you are separated from the background noise of your home and family life and straight away you can identify work calls.
If choosing the additonal phone line set up, speak to your phone provider where you live and see what is the best way for you to proceed in this area. They have information of packages, prices, suggestions that you may not have known existed.
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What rate to charge for a virtual assistant to answer phones?
This issue has to be sorted out before you agree to take on the job. Some virtual assistants prefer to agree to everything in writing first, some are ok with verbal agreements only.
A virtual assistant to answer phones can charge the client by the call received. It may only be a quick call where you take some details down and that's it. If there are not many calls coming in, it may actually work out better to charge per call. Check with what other VAs are doing in your area, it could be $1 or $2 per call or more.
A virtual assistant to answer phones can charge by the time it took to deal with the call, so based on pro rata of your hourly rate, as calls can take up large chunks of your time.
Then don't forget that all your time as a virtual assistant is billable time, so don't forget to charge the client for the time it took for you to draft the email to him with messages or the time it took for you to talk to him over the phone when he checked in for messages, etc.
You may also be required to call your client in his mobile/cell to relay messages to him. Again you can charge for your cost of making that call to him. (Have all your phone calls itemised by your phone provider as it's easy to charge back to clients this way - and provide proof if they need it).
Go to virtual assistant jobs from home
Go to the virtual customer assistant
page that lists some companies for US virtual assistants (and one company that uses worldwide contractors) for customer service agent work from home, answering client calls, etc..
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