Who’s the backbone of your business?

A recent survey conducted by Hays Recruitment revealed that 80 per cent of employers believe their office support workers are the mainstay of the business.  For someone like me, coming from an admin background, this is obviously good to hear.

But what does this imply for those small business owners who have no support staff and therefore  do everything themselves?  It must be true that they are without the vital backup that could make all the difference to the way they operate their working lives.

It could be that they acknowledge the need for some help but are holding off employing support staff out of the fear of HR implications; if that be the case, maybe they need to explore the possibilities of a virtual assistant or remote admin support team.  A VA can be employed on a temporary ad hoc basis, or over a longer period under contract, but there are no employment law implications – the service can simply be cancelled within the contract terms whenever the help is no longer needed.

A remote admin service is more than just a typist or receptionist, however.  A professional virtual back up team can help you develop and grow your business in a dozen different ways.  Being on the outside looking in gives us a slightly different (and somewhat broader) viewpoint, and we can often spot ideas and opportunities that our clients may not have seen. 
By making occasional suggestions and supplying information we have researched on what the competition is doing, we can often help our clients develop their activities in really useful and constructive ways.  We know this for a fact – we’ve been helping businesses flourish since 1983.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678. 

We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.

Is your marketing 'hit and miss'?

More to the point, are you actually managing to do any marketing? 

Many small businesses can’t justify having a full time marketing bod on the team and, even if they have a marketing strategy in place, they frequently can't find the time to implement it.

Are you one of those people who have a mailing list but haven’t done anything with it for years? 

Many of the contacts on it will have probably changed their email address, moved on or passed away.  This significantly decreases the value of the list as a marketing resource; it really needs to be cleansed and updated regularly, with new contacts added.  Then it can be used productively as part of your marketing plan, but have you got the time to do this groundwork?  Probably not. 

And isn’t there something more urgent that you should be doing instead?  Probably.

That’s where delegation and outsourcing come into their own.  If you haven’t got an in-house team of admin people behind you who can take tasks like these off your hands, don’t despair - you can pass the burden over to a remote admin support service.   But how do you evaluate who would be the right people for the job?

Tip: Choose a quality accountable service with whom you feel comfortable working

Let’s look at a case study: 

A personal development coach, a sole trader, delivers inspirational training sessions by telephone to clients around the world.  To grow her business in the UK, she occasionally hosts development workshops in various locations across Britain, for which she needs to select venues on the basis of location, facilities available and cost.

She outsources this aspect of her activities to her remote admin support provider, because she recognises the massive financial benefits of doing so.  Up to a point, her workshops are classified as marketing activity but the only part of this that she wants to get involved in herself is the delivery of the workshops themselves.

Her hourly rate for delivering coaching is in the hundreds of pounds, whereas her admin support team charges her a fraction of this for their services.  It makes sound economic sense to concentrate on what she does best; she really loves her work but loathes spending time doing back office tasks, so not only is her business far more successful and profitable these days, but she is far happier.

How could a remote admin service provider be of use in developing your marketing strategy?

Well, they could be making outgoing calls on your behalf, to establish or follow up new leads.  They could also make ‘touch’ calls to re-establish contact with a client you haven’t spoken to in a while.  These are all part of ‘marketing’ activity.

They could be doing internet research to see what your competitors are offering that you could add to your services, or they could carry out some market research to establish what your potential customers are seeking from your business sector.

They could collate and proof read the text, and source the images, that are to be used in your information brochures or on your website, and they could obtain quotes for printing and other similar services, all of which would take up hours of your precious time.  All these activities directly or indirectly form part of your marketing strategy but few of them really need to be resting on your shoulders alone.

So there you have it: a professional and intelligent admin support service is more than just a typist – it can help you develop and grow your business in a dozen different ways.  We know this for a fact – we’ve been helping businesses flourish since 1983.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678. 

We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.

How many balls can you keep in the air?

I was really fortunate recently - I participated in two massive, very popular and hugely enjoyable events that I would have been proud to take credit for, had my team at Standby been responsible for organising them.

One of these activities was the ever popular Abergavenny Food Festival, now in its thirteenth year, and a significant draw for a vast numbers of visitors, which results in a huge spend in the area that really boosts the local economy.

The other event was the MSA Euroclassic Road Rally in Italy, a truly memorable 8-day experience involving dozens of gorgeous classic sports cars.  It’s an annual event in which I was unexpectedly invited to take part this year for the first time, and which I enjoyed enormously.  There were loads of fabulous shiny cars, wonderful Italian cities and endless hot sunshine – what’s not to like?!

Despite the obvious differences between them, each of these events involved logistical challenges of mega proportions, requiring intelligent and committed planning and management throughout.  In both cases it would have taken months (maybe even years) of detailed research, careful organisation and a military-standard attention to detail, in order to get everyone in the right place at the right time, and all doing the right things.

It made a nice change for me to sit back and watch someone else doing all that hard work to such a high standard – usually it’s me and my team that are keeping a dozen or more balls in the air on behalf of our clients and getting everything to slot into place at the correct moment.  Whether they’re running a business exhibition, calling a simple client meeting or delivering a training event, our clients don’t want the hassle of organising all the nitty gritty. They just want to turn up and do their thing, so they leave all the aggravating planning aspects to us. 

That's fine with us - they tell us we’re rather good at it, which is a relief to me; we should be - we’ve been helping businesses flourish since 1983.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678. 

We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.

Does interruption stall your creative flow?

Creative inspiration is a fairly nebulous concept which can be difficult to define.  Individual stimuli work for different people in a variety of ways, although no-one is quite sure why.

What we do know, however, is that in order to be productive there has to be a sense of flow, a little like fung shui, perhaps.  So how do creative types cope, when that flow is interrupted?

Case study: the web designers

A small web design company has two directors; one is the creative type, the other a techie wizard.

Their work is part artistic, part science, and they have no admin staff on site.  Most of the time, this isn’t a problem, but when they're in the thick of a new project they need to be able to concentrate and make progress in order to meet the client’s expectations and deadlines.  At times like this they simply take ‘time out’ and from interruptions by diverting their calls to their remote admin service, who deal with the caller’s query and pass any messages to the web designers by email.

Some callers’ queries can be answered immediately by the support service, and others are left reassured that their enquiry will be dealt with on the same day, as soon as one of the web design team is available.  The designers can then return the call when they have reached a natural breaking off point in their work, and they find that this arrangement enables them to finish projects more quickly, with fewer interruptions and with better results.

The remote admin service keeps a record of all the messages they take and any follow up actions that they put in train, so everything is accessible and accountable, and nothing gets lost or forgotten. 

The web designers’ clients frequently remark how much better their service has become since the admin support team got involved, and some clients are even disappointed that, when they visit the web designers’ office, ‘the nice lady who answers the phone’ isn’t there!

So there you have it - a professional and intelligent telephone answering service is more than just a call centre, and can be an immeasurable bonus to a small company that's trying to grow.  We know this for a fact – we’ve been helping businesses like this flourish since 1983.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678. 

We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.

How’s your concentration today?

Many people find that contant interruptions are the enemy of productivity, but there is a solution.  If you put in place an 'disruption minimisation strategy' you'll be amazed at the difference it could make.

Case study: The distracted consultant

A certain industrial technology consultant has many complex reports to write for his clients, and finds the telephone a disruptive distraction.  However, he doesn’t want to miss potential new enquiries, or disappoint existing clients when they ring him, by not picking up their calls.

He noticed that he was particularly productive if he could get all his report writing done before lunch, so he started diverting his calls to his remote admin support office every day until 2pm.  His part time telephone answering team simply records the details of his callers, and passes his messages to him by email.

After lunch he returns their calls, secure in the knowledge that he has completed his more demanding work within deadline, and fully confident that his clients have been well looked after while he did so.  Interestingly, he has noticed a significant increase in his productivity and a very welcome reduction in his stress levels. He also finds that, by the time he calls his clients back, the admin team have answered most of the enquiries for him, which saves him even more time and effort.

So there you have it – diverting your calls for even part of the day can deliver more than just the obvious benefits, and could be an immeasurable bonus to a small company.  We know this for a fact – we’ve been helping businesses flourish since 1983.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678.
 
We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.

Who answers the calls when you’re away?

Somebody should - or who knows what you might miss?  But if yours is a small company, maybe even a one-man organisation, who will field those all-important enquiries?

A machine?

You could put an answer machine in place so at least there'll be some response for the caller.  The machine could take messages for you but that would leave the enquiry hanging in the air until your return.  By that time, you could well have lost the lead to someone else, and anyway, it’s well known that about 70% of callers won’t leave a message on a machine.  They want to talk to somebody.

A pal?

Alternatively you could ask a colleague, family member or friend to field enquiries while you’re away, but do they understand your business sufficiently well?  Will they give your calls the dedicated and professional attention they deserve?  Haven’t they got other things to do that will distract them?

A call centre?

You could get the calls fielded by an impersonal answering service where your caller will be told that you’re away and will have to return the call on your return.  That won’t give a terribly good impression of your business and, again, might lead to you losing that lead.  It sounds bleak, doesn’t it?  You might ask yourself, can you actually take the risk of going away at all?  Of course you can.  You simply need to put in place a professional remote administrative service with all day cover.

Tip: Choose a quality personalised admin support provider

A team offering a service of this type will make a point of familiarising themselves with your business and your client base, and will provide a reliable means of keeping your clients reassured and satisfied until you get back from your break.

Case study: The training company owner

One client who regularly uses a remote admin assistant is the owner of a busy London-based training company.  She prefers actually delivering the actual courses to chasing people for pre-course questionnaires and payments, and sending out handbooks and feedback forms.  So her virtual admin assistance service does all the tedious stuff for her, along with answering her telephone enquiries, updating her website and database, and booking course venues.

They also cover her holiday absences, continuing to take course bookings and answer enquiries, sending out invoices and receipts, and answering questions about costs, venue locations and course content.  Just before each course begins, the volume of enquiries increases dramatically and telephone calls tend to come in thick and fast.  Happily, the admin support office has numerous phone lines and plenty of people available to answer them, so nobody gets an engaged signal or a voicemail message when they call.

The business owner can go on holiday with a clear conscience and a light heart, knowing that her business will not suffer as a result of her being away.  When she gets back to work, instead of feeling stressed within hours, the benefits of her break stay with her and she works all the more productively as a result.

The remote service is actually located 150 miles away from her and she has only met with them once or twice but the set up works perfectly.  This is because the admin team have worked hard to gain a thorough grasp of what she does and how she herself likes to interact with her clients.  It should be noted that her clients have no idea that her support team are so far away, or that they are not direct employees of her company.  This is Standby.  This is remote admin support at its best.

So there you have it - a professional and intelligent telephone answering service is more than just a call centre, and can be an immeasurable bonus to a small company.  At Standby we know this for a fact – we’ve been helping businesses flourish since 1983. See this webpage for details.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, you need to call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678.

We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.

Who can help sort out the day from hell?

Every smart business owner knows that those non-profitable time consuming back office tasks that nobody loves are best delegated to someone else. Invoice raising, database cleansing, credit control, internet research for accommodation, venues or products - all these are necessary but they really eat into your day and keep you from getting on with what you do best – seeing clients and making money. And what about the practical day-to-day things that go wrong now and then?  They can really thrust a spanner in the works.

If you haven’t got an in-house team of admin people behind you to take tasks like these off your hands, you can pass them across to a remote admin support service. But they would be dealing with your business affairs and your clients – so how do you evaluate who would be the right people for the job?

Referral – to save time, the preferred route is to seek an introduction from someone you know who has used such a service, and who has high standards and expects professional and reliable delivery from suppliers.

Recommendation – the second possibility is to look for an admin support firm with a long pedigree and plenty of testimonials from satisfied customers. Anyone who can’t satisfy these criteria is unlikely to be able to support your business adequately – you need to be confident that your own clients and contacts will get from this team the sort of service you yourself would provide.

Interview – this involves checking out personally all the virtual office teams you can find to reassure yourself that they can deliver on their promises. This could be time-consuming but meeting them should answer most of your questions – if they appear knowledgeable, professional and reliable, this is a good sign. They should be able to provide a free trial of their services for a limited period – if not, ask them how they intend to prove their abilities.

The ideal remote admin support team, however, will be found through a combination of all these routes. Preferably, they will be known to at least one person you know professionally, would be able to provide ample glowing references and would be willing to meet you and demonstrate delivery of their support offering.

Tip: Choose a quality provider with whom you feel comfortable working

A team offering a meaningful admin support service will think for itself and anticipate your problems, rather than simply being reactive.  Things can change quickly in business and you need to be sure your back up team can stay one step ahead.

Case study: The stranded architect

An architect is en route to a site meeting in a field somewhere out in the sticks but develops car trouble along the way. He calls his remote admin assistance service and asks if someone can notify the client and the contractors that he will be late for the meeting. He then calls his motoring rescue service, and even though they arrive quickly, they can’t repair the car at the roadside so they must ferry him and his car to their regional depot.

The depot is in the opposite direction to the appointment and the rescue service won’t leave the poor man wandering about on the dual carriageway, so he asks them to take him to the nearest roadside services. Meanwhile, back at base, the remote admin service team have called a minicab firm and arranged for the architect to be collected from the drop off point and taken to his appointment, and they have also informed the client of his estimated time of arrival.

The client tells the admin support team that it’s starting to rain so he and the contractor are going to take a break at a nearby restaurant and will wait for the architect there. They’ve tried to ring him, but his mobile phone appears to be dead. The admin assistant tries to ring him too, but she can't get a connection either.

She then telephones the mini cab company and asks them to relay the message to their driver so that he can take the architect straight to the lunch venue. The architect arrives there at the same time as his client and the contractor, and they eat lunch together before moving back to the development site.

Meanwhile the virtual admin support team have located a hire car for the architect to use on his way back, and booked a cab to collect him from site and deliver him at the car hire depot. That’s quite a comprehensive service!

So there you have it – the right admin support team will think ahead on your behalf and come up with practical solutions to your every business problem. At Standby we know this for a fact – we’ve been helping businesses flourish since 1983. See this webpage for details.

If you’re not getting this sort of service from your admin support team, or if you’ve never used remote admin support and would like to know more about how doing so could significantly help your business, call Standby for a no-obligation chat on 08456 838 678.

We’ll work with you to deliver just what you’re looking for.