We’ve outlined some of the benefits of using professional call handling and forwarding as a freelancer and how this can help scale your business.
Scaling and growing your business as a freelancer can be, well, tricky. With multiple hats to wear, from bookkeeper to HR to administrator, concentrating on the important stuff can be difficult. Add on top of that the various phone calls you receive from both clients and cold-callers throughout the day, it pulls your focus away from your business.
Call handling can help alleviate at least some of these problems. Below, we’ve outlined some of the benefits of using professional call handling and forwarding as a freelancer and how this can help scale your business.
Professional call handling is the process of someone answering calls on behalf of your business. They don’t necessarily work for your company, but are able to field any calls and either take messages or forward them to you.
Your remote receptionist will answer the phone on your behalf, in a way which suits you, giving an instant professional first impression. That call is then forwarded on to you, or a message is taken and passed on for you to call back at a convenient time.
Your customers and clients are your bread and butter – but when you have so much to do throughout the day, missing calls probably happens more times than you’d care to admit. This can be frustrating, and may lead to lost business or extra admin time returning missed calls.
With professional call handling, an experienced receptionist or call handler can answer those enquiries for you, ensuring you don’t miss any important client messages (or potential new business). This helps maintain those relationships and potentially grow them too.
It also limits your own burnout too. Trying to keep on top of calls (and everything else you have to contend with) might feel impossible. Making life a little bit easier with call handling and lessening your guilt of missing calls can feel like a massive relief.
Look, we all know how annoying it can be to receive spam calls, especially when you’re trying to work on your business. Having a trained receptionist simply take and relay a message means that you can decide whether to follow up, and limits the time wasters.
Reducing the number of spam and cold calls means you can concentrate on your clients and the growth of your business.
With professional call handling, you might even invest in a local or national number. This stops the need to share your personal number with the general public. Instead, your business number is the only thing you need to share, and you can dictate when you want calls to come in to you and when you want messages taken.
Seeing a local number can help increase your presence in a location you’re trying to target, as well as giving the impression that your business is larger than it is.
Even if it’s not you answering the call, a client will feel as if they’re being heard and reassured that their message will be passed on. This can give you a little more breathing space when returning their call.
With a professional call handler, who can answer the phone as you require, clients will be impressed with the fact they’re being dealt with instantly, rather than reaching your voicemail.
Customer service is essential, even if you’re a freelancer. You want to maintain those relationships, so you can grow your business further. It can be easy for a client to become frustrated, alleviate that risk with professional, prompt call handling.
Professional call handling is just one element of helping you succeed in business. It allows you to free up your time a little and focus on growing your company when you’re working. It also means no more 9pm phone calls. Those late night calls can be handled on your behalf, and a message sent to you to return during your working hours. Which means you might be able to switch off on an evening (even if it is just occasionally).
If you’re struggling with missing client calls and want a simple solution, it might be time to explore telephone answering and see how it can impact your growing freelance business. You can also contact us today for more information.
Francesca's knowledge of the industry and business support is second to none. She's personally handpicked each one of our virtual office locations.
