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How virtual offices can transform your business

Pay for what you need, never loose your cool. Answer phone calls from the beach and meet with clients in a downtown boardroom. Whether you are on the way to the grocery store or watching the game at your friends' - you will never miss a call, you will never keep your clients waiting.

Virtual Offices became a reality with the rapid advances in technology that we have seen over the last decade. Even as little as 15 years ago cell phones were a luxury item and too large to be conveniently put in your pocket. Now you will see people walking and talking with a wireless Bluetooth device or using their cell phone as their car phone. The increased penetration of broadband internet connections has also ushered a new era in communications as the internet now is the medium for everything.

Once just a dessert of html tagged text, now it is sprawling with videos, podcasts, webcasts and a myriad of new possibilities.

The virtual office is essentially a focus point for your business. You have an address and at that address you can receive mail and clients. If you need to meet with a client you can arrange for boardroom space or office space, or just a meeting room space depending on what you need. When the client comes in the receptionist will take your client to the boardroom - or wherever you ask your client to be taken. Your clients will feel that they are dealing with a professional, courteous company with solid foundations. The boardroom is equipped with the latest technology and ready for you to marvel your clients.

This is just the beginning. You can have a phone number that your clients call - that phone number is their second point of contact (the first being your address). This call then can be seamlessly relayed to any device that can receive phone calls. Whether you have a phone at home that you use for all your business needs, or if you are always on the move and use your cell phone - it doesn't matter. The system can even be programmed to use the "Digital Receptionist". When your client calls it will answer "You have reached [your company name]. Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Technical support..." This menu can be multi-dimensional, so that once they press 1, another menu can be programmed into it - "Press 1 for pre-sales support, press 2 for after sales customer service..." And each one of these choices in turn can be relayed to a different number. You could have a technician who is always on the move fixing things on site - he will never miss a call. You sales manager can be traveling all around town, he too, will never miss a call.

On the other side your clients see a company that is focused on customer satisfaction. They see that you are always able to reach a person or at least a personal voicemail. They feel that your company takes care of its clients, that they are service oriented, trustworthy and reliable.

All of this was unthinkable a decade ago, and the few companies that did have such a level of service were huge corporations with 100s of people on their payroll just to handle phone calls.

This level of service is now available at a ridiculously fraction of the price to small businesses. At OFFICEEXEC we offer a standard all inclusive Virtual Office package priced @ $149/month + $50 for each additional line. For example, if you have a business with 3 employees, each needed a separate phone with its own number, it would cost you $249/month.

If you look around you will find some prices as low as $49/month - and that might be the right choice for you. However, take a moment to discuss the features - and the hidden costs that may apply. Most companies offer a $49/month deal but this implies all calls are automatically transferred to voice mail. To talk to customers live they will ask for an additional fee. Also, these packages wouldn't include mail service, nor the option to obtain meeting room space. In the end you have to do some planning and calculate the real cost of signing up for this package. There is also other providers that charge as much $495/month. These all inclusive packages are in line with our package, but most are not backed by a telecommunications company so they accrue considerable amount of costs when offering all inclusive packages. $495/month is often as low as they can go. OFFICEEXEC is owned by a telecommunications company and uses its own network. As a result our operation costs for phone and internet access is considerably lower. At $149/month our price for service far surpasses the competition. As always at OFFICEEXEC we try to meet our clients' needs. We could have easily charged $300-$400 and still be more affordable than most providers - but we don't believe in that type of economics. We believe that if we give our clients a good deal, we will have them coming back for more.

So far we have been right.