The complete guide to hiring a virtual phone assistant

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Today, many enterprise house owners face a dilemma — do you have to prioritize core duties or reply buyer calls?

Fortunately, by hiring a virtual phone assistant, you’ll be able to guarantee you might have sufficient time to deal with core actions whereas nonetheless attending necessary enterprise calls. 

It may be IVR (Interactive Voice Response) or actual folks taking calls in your firm’s behalf so you’ll be able to deal with crucial actions.

In this text, we’ll cowl what a virtual phone assistant is, what they do, and why you must rent them. We’ll additionally spotlight the highest 5 virtual assistant service suppliers you’ll be able to rent VAs from and the way to handle the VA as soon as they’re employed. 

Table of Contents

Let’s get began.

What is a virtual phone assistant?

A virtual phone assistant (or a virtual receptionist) may be an impartial skilled or software program that gives a virtual name answering service to purchasers. 

You might have interaction the companies of a freelancer or a virtual assistant firm for this goal. They usually present a virtual service from a distant location however can entry the required planning paperwork, similar to shared calendars. 

How does it work?

You direct your organization’s incoming calls to your virtual phone assistant. They reply your organization’s inbound calls and route calls to the appropriate individual inside the firm, or they take a message.  

In addition to fielding incoming calls, virtual phone assistants can even make outbound calls to your purchasers and potential prospects. 

They can even reply FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and social media inquiries, arrange appointments, dwell chat, handle your schedule, and so forth – all from a distant location. 

Your virtual phone assistant can even operate as a virtual private assistant. 

They can deal with buyer help, private assistant duties, and administrative duties for a big selection of industries together with actual property, healthcare, name facilities, and many others.

Which companies would profit from a virtual phone assistant?

These are the kind of corporations that will largely profit from a virtual phone assistant:

1. Startups and small companies

A virtual phone assistant is a nice alternative for startups and small enterprise house owners. It’s the commonest approach to begin your skilled enterprise phone system.

Moreover, there isn’t a {hardware} tools or workplace house required, which is able to assist reduce down in your operational bills.

2. E-commerce companies

If your online business operates nearly and has no bodily handle, hiring a virtual phone assistant is a sensible alternative. 

Why?

With an e-commerce enterprise, it’s a number of prospects will name with an inquiry. If a virtual assistant service attends to your incoming calls and emails, you’ll be able to serve a increased variety of prospects. 

You can even reduce down ready instances for purchasers on maintain, which helps enhance buyer satisfaction.  

3. Serve purchasers in all geographic places

If your online business operates nationally or globally, virtual assistant companies may help you cater to your prospects in different time zones. 

These virtual assistants are sometimes additionally situated in numerous areas. 

This approach, your online business can function 24/7. 

5 causes to rent a virtual phone assistant

Here are a few causes you must rent a virtual phone assistant.

We’ve divided the advantages into two classes — one coping with the professionals of organising a virtual phone system and the opposite coping with the advantages of hiring virtual phone assistant professionals:

A. Benefits of virtual phone assistant techniques

Here are the advantages of using a digital virtual phone assistant:

1. You can work from wherever

Remember, these are virtual phone techniques.

As a consequence, they’re utterly managed on-line and might work along with your current phone numbers.

This approach, once you’re on the go, you’ll be able to run your online business utilizing your cell phone. 

2. You’ll get monetary savings

A virtual phone system possesses all the ability of conventional phone techniques, albeit in a  extra cost-efficient bundle.

For instance, you’ll be able to arrange a virtual phone quantity and division extensions that work along with your current phone system. You additionally don’t want to purchase costly telecommunications tools that wants to be put in on-site.

3. You’ll look extra credible

Getting a virtual enterprise phone system is a cheap approach to arrange a toll-free quantity that can impress prospects after they name you.

Having your individual 1-800 quantity or toll-free self-importance quantity makes your organization appear extra established. 

Why is that this necessary?

Just like a skilled web site, a skilled desk phone quantity performs a massive position in shaping your prospects’ first impression. And a dangerous first impression will harm your credibility and fame.

B. Benefits of hiring virtual phone assistant professionals

Here are the advantages of hiring a devoted skilled to deal with your phone calls:

1. You’ll make extra gross sales

A virtual workplace phone system prices subsequent to nothing to arrange, and when it’s coupled with an ready skilled, it may well additionally enable you to enhance gross sales.

How?

With a virtual phone assistant, virtually each buyer question may be answered and resolved. You’ll have a decrease variety of missed calls going to voicemail. 

Additionally, because it’s an precise human coping with prospects, you’ll have the ability to ship a much more customized expertise – bettering shopper satisfaction and growing gross sales.

2. You can scale your staff shortly

Since your virtual assistant receptionist works in a utterly virtual location, you’ll be able to simply add new assistants to your staff. 

This will enable you to scale your staff with out worrying about further overheads, house, and excessive salaries with worker advantages. 

Additionally, hiring a virtual assistant normally prices lower than a conventional full-time worker. 

What can a virtual phone assistant do for you?

Here are among the duties you’ll be able to outsource:

1. Let another person display your calls

With the assistance of a skilled virtual receptionist, you don’t have to decide up each name your self. 

Your virtual phone assistant can deal with name routing and ahead necessary calls to you. 

2. Acknowledge after-work calls

If you’re a enterprise proprietor and take calls lengthy after work, you’ll be able to disrupt your work-life steadiness. However, with the assistance of a virtual receptionist service, it’s doable to acknowledge after-hour buyer calls. 

Your virtual phone assistant can at all times display calls and provide you with a warning in the event that they want your assist.

3. Focus on your online business objectives

By outsourcing phone companies to a phone answering service or distant skilled, you’ll be able to deal with core enterprise actions like digital advertising and marketing and monetary administration.

Just go away name dealing with to your virtual answering service or dwell virtual receptionist, and you may focus on rising your online business!

Top 5 virtual phone assistant suppliers in 2025

Below is a checklist of the very best virtual phone assistant companies: 

1. Abby Connect

Abby Connect provides extra than simply a phone answering service. Their virtual receptionists can deal with duties like appointment scheduling and doing background analysis on potential prospects.

Key options

• Offers 24/7 answering companies day by day of the yr — you too can customise the hours you require. 
• When name quantity is excessive, assistants take messages and switch solely the crucial calls to you. 
• Bilingual answering companies – fluent in each English and Spanish. 
• Appointment scheduling utilizing a software that integrates along with your Google and Outlook calendars. 

Pricing

Paid plans begin at $2.79 per minute. 

2. Virtual Headquarters

Virtual Headquarters supply skilled and skilled virtual phone assistants and receptionists to reply your calls once you’re busy. 

Key options

• Incoming calls may be redirected to a virtual phone assistant who can ask callers to go away a message. 
• Shares enterprise data like postal handle, companies supplied, parking data, and many others. with new callers.
• Redirect workplace landline calls to your private cell phone.
• Transfer calls to colleagues or a division.

Pricing

Paid plans begin at $20 per thirty days.

3. Ruby

Ruby is a dwell virtual receptionist and chat firm geared in direction of small companies. All of their virtual phone assistants are primarily based within the United States.

Key options

• Share customized name dealing with directions (routing, taking a message, and many others.) along with your virtual phone assistant.
• Offer customized greetings for every of your purchasers.
• In-house chat software to configure whether or not your purchasers need a dwell chat with you or the virtual assistant.
• Record your calls and analyze them to enhance customer support abilities.

Pricing

Paid plans begin at $319/month for up to 100 virtual assistant minutes.

4. Grasshopper

Grasshopper gives a virtual phone system at a cheap fee with numerous enterprise phone system options. You don’t have to buy one other cell phone or costly tools as a result of the software can combine along with your current gadgets.

Key options

• Make your online business look skilled with customized greetings or an auto attendant to welcome callers.
• Make calls out of your cell phone, desktop, and cell app.
• Respond shortly utilizing the Grasshopper’s virtual quantity.
• Easily examine enterprise messages and voicemail by accessing Grasshopper’s voicemail field.

Pricing

Grasshopper’s month-to-month plans begin at $29/month per consumer.

5. Unitel Voice

Unitel Voice is a cloud-based virtual PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system specifically designed for startups and small-scale companies.

With Unitel Voice, you’ll be able to add your online business phone quantity as a second line to your present cell phone or workplace phone. Moreover, you don’t want to obtain any software program – all of its cloud-based elements may be managed on-line.

Key options

• Forward your online business calls to a colleague when you’re busy.
• Get notifications on e mail or Unitel’s smartphone app when new faxes or voicemails arrive.
• Automatic voicemail transcriptions. 
• Set your caller ID to show the caller’s quantity or your virtual phone techniques quantity.

Pricing

Unitel’s month-to-month plans begin at $9.99/month per consumer. They additionally supply a free 30-day trial.

How to handle a virtual phone assistant skilled in 2025

Once you’ve employed a virtual phone assistant skilled, you’ll want to observe their work hours.

Fortunately, you should use a software like Time Doctor to calculate the productiveness of your staff members.

What’s Time Doctor?

Time Doctor is a workforce analytics software utilized by massive corporations and small companies. 

If your virtual receptionist is aware of that you just’re monitoring them throughout work hours, they’re extra probably to be targeted and productive.

Here are a few of Time Doctor’s finest options:

A. Interactive time monitoring

With Time Doctor, the VA can observe time manually or robotically after they begin their work. This helps you perceive how lengthy the duty took them to complete. 

Here’s how simple it’s to observe time manually:

• Click ‘Start’ to start monitoring time. 
• Click ‘Stop’ to cease monitoring time. 

Note: Time Doctor provides computerized time monitoring as effectively for elevated flexibility. It will begin monitoring time robotically once you flip in your laptop.

B. Assign duties and initiatives

Create duties to your virtual phone assistants primarily based on initiatives and purchasers. This approach, you’ll be able to observe the time they spend on every activity.

You can assign duties to a particular assistant or a group in a few clicks utilizing Time Doctor.

Here’s how:

• Go to ‘Add Task’ and create a new activity.
• Click on ‘People’ and select the staff member you need to assign the duty to.

C. In-depth reviews

With Time Doctor, you’ll be able to generate a number of reviews to enable you to analyze your virtual phone assistants’ productiveness, exercise, net and app utilization, and many others.

Reports supplied by Time Doctor embody:

• Hours tracked report: Indicates how lengthy your workers labored over a particular time-frame.
• Activity abstract report: Indicates how your staff spends their work time.
• Project and duties report: Reveals how a lot time your workers spend on every activity.
• Timeline report: This exhibits you the time your virtual phone assistants check-in and out on a day or over a week. These reviews can even point out how lengthy they spent working and taking breaks.
• Attendance report: See whether or not your virtual assistant is current, absent, or late.
• Custom eport: You can even customise what data you need to embody within the report. So, you don’t have to obtain a number of particular person reviews.
• Web and app utilization report: Reveals the web sites and apps your virtual phone assistants used throughout a particular interval.

Final ideas

If you need to deal with necessary issues, like scaling your online business – a virtual assistant may very well be a useful asset to your organization.

We’ve supplied a helpful checklist of phone answering companies and highlighted their finest qualities to enable you to select the appropriate one.

Once you’ve employed a skilled virtual assistant, Time Doctor is the perfect resolution to monitor your new worker’s efficiency. With its easy consumer interface and productiveness options, you’ll be able to simply handle your virtual assistant.
So why not join Time Doctor at the moment?