A virtual office can be taken almost literally, it has the address of an office, the telephone numbers of an office and the receptionist service of an office except for one key factor, you are not actually based in the office. It provides a perfect corporate image for your business and a complete virtual presence in your chosen location.

• Who typically uses a virtual office?
  Start-ups benefit from working at home or on the move knowing that their business image is in safe hands. SMEs extend their local appeal with regional offices that get them ‘closer’ to customers and prospects, while overseas organisations address the UK market through virtual offices in prestige locations. If you need to your business to be seen to be somewhere but balk at the cost of opening an office then the virtual office is just for you.
• How can I tell if I need a virtual office?
  Have you ever handed out a business card and worried about losing business because it just doesn’t look slick enough? Want to meet with clients at your business address in real meeting rooms rather than hotel lobbies? Need to send out quotes and invoices that benefit from the confidence inspired by a prestige address? If you feel the need for a corporate image that is just a little bit bigger than your business is right now a virtual office might just be the solution for you.
• What do I get with my virtual office?
  A virtual office from Virtual Office Finder will cost your business less than £4.00 per day and you can look forward to:

  • a prestige office address
  • mail forwarding or collection
  • access to meeting rooms
  • local mainline & direct dial numbers
  • calls answered in your company name
  • configurable call forwarding
  • all calls announced and screened
  • message taking service
  • company voicemail
  • voicemail to email
• Who typically uses a virtual receptionist?
  Consultancy companies with employees working on the move or on site rarely have time to answer phones as and when they ring while larger organisations often prefer to go virtual than employ a full-time receptionist. In many cases companies who already have some physical office space or workshops in noisy environments choose a virtual receptionist as they need a professional telephone image but already have a trading address.
• How can I tell if I need a virtual receptionist?
  Do you ever worry about missed calls from prospects that don’t leave a message; leaving you no way of getting back to them? Ever have customers frustrated with voicemail and upset that they can’t get through to speak to someone real? Find it tough to take calls professionally in a noisy work environment or can’t get to answer because you are tied up in another meeting? If any of these ring a bell then the virtual receptionist might just make sense for you.
• What do I get with my virtual receptionist?
  A virtual receptionist from Virtual Office Finder will cost your business less than £2.30 per day and you can look forward to:

  • local mainline & direct dial numbers
  • calls answered in your company name
  • configurable call forwarding
  • all calls announced and screened
  • message taking service
  • company voicemail
  • voicemail to email

  If you think you also need a prestige office address, mail forwarding or access to meeting rooms then you are probably more suited to a virtual office.
• Who typically uses telephone answering?
  Small companies are often one man operations such as sole traders, independent consultants and trades-people who simply cannot afford to miss an incoming call. More often than not they receive new business enquiries during the day; just when they can’t answer. Knowing that 9 out of 10 people are still averse to leaving voicemail on first contact (and with the missed calls to prove it), they opt for a professional and welcoming real person to answer the phone for them in their company name.
• How can I tell if I need telephone answering?
  Are you reluctant to use a business card with no landline number and wonder whether people are cautious of a business run purely on a mobile? Do you ever worry about missed calls from prospects that don’t leave a message; leaving you no way of getting back to them? When you think about your customers can you see them as resistant to voicemail and with a preference to speak to a real person when they call you? If you have any of these concerns then perhaps you should think about our telephone answering service.
• What do I get with telephone answering?
  Telephone answering works out even cheaper than our virtual receptionist service and you can look forward to:

  • local mainline & direct dial numbers
  • calls answered in your company name
  • configurable call forwarding
  • company voicemail

  If you don’t have a business address yet or you are reluctant to use your home address then you may still be better suited to a virtual office. Either way Virtual Office Finder can supply you with what you need.

Need to understand just how your important calls will be handled and how much you will be charged for the service? It’s all pretty simple but we have pulled together all things phone-related into one place...

• What types of calls can I expect?
  Inbound calls fall into three categories. Firstly, a call made to your main number which will be answered by our operators before forwarding to the contact requested by the caller (according to your call forwarding definitions). Secondly, a call made to one of your direct dial numbers (DDI) which will automatically be forwarded according to those same call forwarding definitions. It is worth noting that most of our customers set up call forwarding to their mobiles and that is why we have included the final category for completeness. Although Virtual Office Finder has no role in handling this type of call, an inbound call can be made directly to your mobile and that will behave just the same way as it does right now.
• How is a call to my main number handled and charged?
  Our operator will answer the call with your personal company greeting before transferring the call according to the caller’s request. The original call to your main number is free to you and is billed to the caller by their operator. You will however be billed for the time that our operators spend handling your call at a rate of 1.2p per second and also for the call forward leg according to our call forward tariffs (based on BT Business standard rates). Operator time will be billed from the point at which our operator answers the call to the point at which they release the call and therefore there will never be an overlap between operator time and call forward time.
• How can I tell if I need a virtual office?
  Have you ever handed out a business card and worried about losing business because it just doesn’t look slick enough? Want to meet with clients at your business address in real meeting rooms rather than hotel lobbies? Need to send out quotes and invoices that benefit from the confidence inspired by a prestige address? If you feel the need for a corporate image that is just a little bit bigger than your business is right now the virtual office might just be the solution for you.
• How is a call to one of my DDIs handled and charged?
  Any calls to your DDI number will be directed automatically by our systems to the telephone number you have configured in the management portal. Obviously the original call to your DDI is free to you and is billed to the caller. You will therefore only be billed for the call forward leg according to our call forwarding tariffs (based on BT Business standard rates).
• How about calls to my mobile?
  Any call made directly to your mobile is free to you and is billed to the caller by their operator. This type of call never touches your virtual office so we have no involvement in handling or managing it.
• What service level can I expect?
  Our delivery partner TVOC has invested heavily in processes and procedures that ensure the best service levels in the business. We are set up to answer all incoming calls within 3 rings and will commit to answering 95% of your incoming calls in any one month within that target time.
• What about cold calls and marketing calls?
  Any call made to your main number and answered by us will be subject to intelligent screening. In an attempt to shield you from unwanted marketing calls, operators will first of all determine if the caller is able to ask for an individual or department at your company and listed within your call forwarding definitions. If the caller cannot make that connection the operator will attempt further qualification by asking the caller whether they have an established business relationship with your organisation (either as a customer or supplier or partner) or whether this is an unsolicited marketing / exploratory call. If the call is deemed to be a marketing call then the operator will inform the caller that there is no one available to take the call at this time before inviting them to leave a voicemail and directing them to your dedicated company voicemail number. This approach has been proven to dramatically reduce the level of potential intrusion created by cold callers and is very popular.
• How do I recognise a call forwarded from my virtual office?
  All calls handled by our operators will be forwarded from 0845 005 8862 so you should enter this number into your phone directory, ideally as ‘Virtual Office transfer’. If you recognise this name/number calling you then you simply answer with a personal greeting as you can be assured that the caller will already have been greeted in your company’s name. All calls received via your DDI will present the originating caller’s number (assuming the call was not originally placed with number withheld).
• Can I get information on call forward tariffs?
  We endeavour to keep call forward rates for mainland UK and mobile networks in line with BT Business standard rates. However, to support the volume of overseas businesses using virtual offices to establish a UK presence, international rates have been aggressively discounted to than less 50% of the equivalent BT rate. More detailed information our partner TVOC’s call forwarding tariffs can be found here.
• How do I minimise my call charges?
  We publish a number of tips for getting the best from our service including some focussed on minimising call charges. That said, the key tip is to publish your phone numbers selectively. Remember that calls answered by our operator and then forwarded to you are more expensive than those to your DDI which forward automatically and both of these are more expensive than someone calling you directly on your mobile. Good advice would be to put all three numbers on your business card for maximum effect but to restrict your email signature to your DDI and your mobile. Experience suggests that people tend to call your DDI and mobile more often than they call reception anyway so this has a way of naturally limiting your costs.
• What can I reasonably expect to pay in call charges each month?
  So if you find all of the detailed call forwarding information a little confusing, you have probably got to the bottom line question of how much can I expect to pay? Well, experience suggests that call forwarding charges rarely exceed £10.00 per month for a typical virtual office.

Although mail management is a lot simpler than call management you are probably just as keen to know how we will handle mail to your virtual office? With that in mind we have pulled together all the post related questions and answers into one place...

• How frequently is mail forwarded to my address?
  When you purchase your virtual office you will make a selection of mail forwarding frequency with the option to select next day forwarding, weekly forwarding or collection only. If you choose collection only you will be required to collect your mail from your selected address on a regular basis. Whatever choice you made on purchase can be updated at any time through your management portal.
• What about charges for mail forwarding?
  Mail charges are calculated according to the policy accepted when you purchase your virtual office. However, for your guidance, all policies are based on business post rates with some locations opting to apply a handling surcharge (on either a percentage or per package basis).
• What is junk mail screening?
  Junk mail screening is an optional free service that authorises our mailrooms to scan your mail and discard any items that are obviously junk e.g. catalogues, promotional flyers and directories. This service is enabled by default and we recommend that you leave it enabled to reduce mail forwarding costs. If you need to switch it on or off at any time you can of course make that change through your management portal.
• How do I reduce mail volumes and therefore charges?
  Other than ensuring that junk mail screening is always enabled, we suggest that you try to limit office postal deliveries to business post only. For example, subscriptions to industry publications, stationery suppliers etc. are best routed to your actual address directly as they are typically weighty and don’t need to be sent via your virtual office address.
• What can I expect to pay for mail forwarding each month?
  Experience suggests that mail forwarding charges rarely exceed £10.00 per month for a typical virtual office. Clearly there are no mail forwarding charges associated with the telephone answering or virtual receptionist options.

The question of what you will pay, when you will pay it and how payment will be taken is probably right at the top of your list? When it comes to your cash the bottom line is...

• What do I pay when I make my purchase?
  When you make your initial purchase, you will be asked to pay the £99.00 set up fee. This setup charge is the same irrespective of whether you select a full virtual office, virtual receptionist or a telephone answering service. We do not take any deposits and ask for no long term commitment (with only 30 days notice of cancellation required) so this charge covers the reservation of numbers and immediate provisioning of the service onto our infrastructure.
• What do I pay for on a month by month basis?
  Each month you will be charged a fixed monthly service charge. This will be either £69.00, if you have opted for our virtual receptionist or telephone answering service, or the monthly virtual office charge (which varies from location to location). If you have requested additional DDIs (over and above the one supplied as standard), these will be charged at £9.75 per DDI per month. In addition to these fixed charges you will be billed on a consumption basis for operator time, forwarded calls and forwarded mail.
• When do I pay my monthly bill?
  An invoice detailing all of your charges for the preceding month will be emailed to you and also available for review in the management portal by 6th of the month. The total monthly charge as set out in that invoice will automatically be deducted from your credit card on or after 12th of the month. All payments are monthly in arrears; supporting our pay-as-you-go principle of only paying for what you use and only paying once you have used it.
• How will my operator charges be calculated?
  Operator time is charged at 1.2p per second for the time that an operator is actually handling your calls i.e. from call pick up to call release. Experience suggests that operator charges for telephone answering rarely exceed £10.00 per month.
• How will my call charges be calculated?
  The only call charges that apply are for forwarded calls i.e. the period of time that the inbound caller is connected. Charges are calculated based on BT business standard rates for calls to mainland UK and mobile networks. However, to support the volume of overseas businesses using our virtual offices to establish a UK presence, international rates have been aggressively discounted to less than half the equivalent BT rate.
• How will my mail charges be calculated?
  Mail charges are calculated according to the policy accepted when you purchase your virtual office. However, for your guidance all policies are based on business post rates with some locations opting to apply a handling surcharge (on either a percentage or per package basis). Once again, experience suggests that mail forwarding charges rarely exceed £10.00 per month for a typical office.
• What about charges for additional services?
  Right now there is only one service that will incur an additional charge and that is if you choose to expand your configuration by adding DDIs. These can be used to provide direct dials to other staff / departments with each additional DDI being charged at £9.75 per month.
• How are international currencies handled?
  All payments are made using your credit card and are handled by RBS Worldpay on our behalf. We do not quote prices in international currencies or apply any exchange rate conversions ourselves. If you are purchasing on a non-UK credit card, the conversion to your local currency will be made by your credit card company at the rate that they chose to apply at the time the payment is taken.

So why is our virtual office, virtual receptionist or telephone answering delivered in partnership with TVOC a great choice for your business? In our opinion you should always bear in mind that...

• Virtual Office Finder and TVOC are 100% dedicated to delivering virtual offices
  Nothing more to say really. Delivering a quality virtual office experience requires specialised skills, systems and processes and does not work well as a side-line or add-on business. Both Virtual Office Finder and TVOC are 100% focussed on providing outstanding customer service and making the process of finding, buying and managing your virtual office as simple and reliable as possible. Put simply, our success depends on it.
• Genuine pay-as-you-go model
  At Virtual Office Finder and TVOC we believe that you only want to pay for something once you have used it. Our only up-front charge is £99.00 for the service set-up and we think that is great value when you can be up and running in a matter of minutes. Apart from this, all charges become due at the end of the month and only for the services actually used.
• No deposit and no long-term commitment
  Virtual Office Finder and TVOC understand that your business is likely to change quickly and you will never be 100% sure what is around the corner. With that in mind, we don’t ask you to make a 3, 6 or 12 month commitment to us. In line with our pay-as-you-go philosophy, you can cancel your service simply by giving us 30 days notice at any time.
• Securing and protecting your information
  Virtual Office Finder recognises that while online purchase has become commonplace, identity theft is a matter of concern to everyone. That is why we went to such lengths to find a delivery partner in TVOC who would go to such lengths to secure your personal data. Rather than ask for bank account information TVOC proceses all payments through RBS WorldPay and does not store your credit card information anywhere. Any identity information that you supply is stored in encrypted form and all data transfer is made over a highly secure connection using HTTPS.
• On-shore, on-shore and on-shore again
  Virtual Office Finder knows that you want your company calls answered crisply and clearly. Once again, in choosing TVOC as our delivery partner, we ensured that we picked a company that shared our values and would commit to what we believe you need. You can rest assured that no call handling is out-sourced or pushed off-shore and our operators enjoy working in an excellent and rewarding environment – actually based in our operations centre in central London.
• Commitment to quality and service
  Virtual Office Finder and TVOC value the trust that you put in us jointly to represent your business and know that we need to excel to retain that trust. That is why we have invested heavily in processes and procedures that enable us to offer the best service levels in the business. We are set up to answer all incoming calls within 3 rings and will commit to answering 95% of your incoming calls in any one month within that target time.
• Total transparency at all times
  Virtual Office Finder and TVOC know that any business will want to know what is happening and where money is being spent at any time. Our management dashboard enables you to review charges online and print detailed reports. If you need to you will be able to track costs at the call level and understand what pieces of post were forwarded when.

So you might be interested in a few tips on how to get the best out of your virtual office, virtual receptionist or telephone answering service? Our top tips are...

• Manage postal deliveries to your office
  Avoid unnecessary mail forwarding charges by making sure that you try to limit office postal deliveries to business post only. For example, subscriptions to industry publications, stationery suppliers etc. are best routed to your home address directly as they are typically weighty and don’t need to be sent to your office. Don’t forget that you can also enable mail screening which permits mail room staff to remove obvious marketing materials and bulky items e.g. telephone directories and yellow pages before forwarding.
• Publish your phone numbers selectively
  Remember that calls answered we answer on your main line and then forwarded to you are more expensive than those to your direct line (DDI) which forward automatically and both of these are more expensive than someone calling you directly on your mobile. Good advice would be to put all three numbers on your business card for maximum effect but to restrict your email signature to your DDI and your mobile. Experience suggests that people tend to call your DDI and mobile more often than they call reception anyway so this has a way of naturally limiting your costs.
• Take time to record your mobile voicemail
  In most cases clients set up their direct line (DDI) to forward to their mobile, so treat your mobile phone just the way you would your desk phone and record a voicemail greeting that is personal. There is no need to include your company name as that will already have been announced by our operator. A simple “Hello, you have the voicemail of [INSERT NAME], I am unable to take your call right now so please leave your name, number and a short message and I will get back to you as soon as possible” is probably best.
• Take time to set up your company voicemail
  Always record a company voicemail greeting. Main line calls will be routed to voicemail out of business hours (08:30 to 18:00) or when our operator has determined that a call is a ‘cold call’. Once again a simple “You have reached the voicemail box for [INSERT COMPANY NAME]. Unfortunately no one is available to take your call right now so please leave your name, number and a short message and we will get back to you as soon as possible” will do perfectly. Also consider setting up voicemail to email within your portal as pushes voicemails to your email devices (including iPhones and Blackberries).
• Set up your mobile to recognise virtual office forwarded calls
  All calls handled by our operators will be forwarded from 0845 005 8862 so you should enter this number into your phone directory, ideally as ‘Virtual Office transfer’. If you recognise this name/number calling you then you simply answer with a personal greeting as you can be assured that the caller will already have been greeted in your company’s name. All calls received via your DDI will present the originating caller’s number (assuming the call was not originally placed with number withheld).