Hello All,
I have used a Telephone Answering company for several years now, and I have been very happy with them, they have been good value for money, even though they have increased their prices a bit recently. My usage with them goes up and down. But now it may go up quite a lot as I am making changes within the business. I now have a bit more of a need and I am not sure if they can accommodate.
I am trying to do some research in terms of what it would cost me to get a Virtual PA, or PA to work from home for me.
I need a person or a business, that can answer calls, book appointments in the diary, take card payments over the phone, send emails or text messages to customers, and follow up with the odd customer. I can give them the card payment login details, so I would need to feel comfortable that they are 100% trustable. Now, I am either looking to find one person who already does this from home, and for other customers, to add me as a customer, or I would even consider a more established business. I would also consider keeping my existing Telephone Answering company to answer the calls and patch the calls through and maybe even get a separate company for the PA service/admin bit. Cost is a factor because this is a tiny business.
I am a small business, and I would prefer to work with a one/woman man band like me, who I can create a long term relationship with. I have used my current Telephone Answering Service company for about 3 years or more now.
I would like to hear from people who have used Virtual PA services, and I wanted to know if the experience was good, bad, and what to watch out for? Virtual PA service companies are welcome to PM me. Please feel free to email me how you work and charge.
Thank you.
Ryan
We've used a few virtual office and call handling firms over the years. Never had a bad experience and the last we used www.moneypenny.com I thought were superb. Very slick, nice handy app on the phone, and if the need arose I'd certainly use them again, albeit we only used them for overflow call handling. But I'm not sure about having a VA/remote PA having the ability to take card transactions. It could open up a lot of possible security issues, PCI compliance maybe? Will the PA dispose of any manually written down credit card transaction slips by cross shredding them or let little Johnny use them for colouring in? I like having people in the office where process and procedure can be controlled and instilled with the flexibility of allowing home working, but if that's not viable then it could work well if you can find that reliable person who is a home based PA. I guess I'd be comfortable with everything apart from card payments which would scare the life out of me having that done remotely
I was of the opinion you are not supposed to write down card details at all in the first place? indizine indizine
“I was of the opinion you are not supposed to write down card details at all in the first place?”
I think you can, (although I'm rusty on the war in peace PCI declaration) my understanding is that as long as they are used immediately and cross shredded. You are not allowed to store or hold card details and have taken all reasonable security precautions blah blah.
But I'll put money on it (see what I did there?) that plenty of people will write a number down and process it, rather than process it while the caller is on the phone, especially in the comfort in their own home and using a virtual terminal. Having remote workers potentially do that would terrify me.
Clive will know when he gets back off his hols, he loves all that stuff
Hi Ryan
We can offer your PA Service remotely AT Clear Results Office Solutions. Please feel free to go on the website.
Thanks Kate Beckingham
Clear Results
I used to be a virtual PA for a company in aus. And then moved on to working as an exec PA for an English company(after working with Steve and Clive here :P). To the point where I would arrange their regatta functions, arrange family holidays and trips etc. With credit card payments, hed skype call me and complete the transaction by screen sharing. It worked well for us. There are a lot of really good pa's out there. And they're easy to find and would be better than a company. But then im biased :D i'm not sure how companies do it, but you might end up having different people working for you at the same time. If you do decide to take on one person, try them out first for a probationary trial of sorts. See if the two if you gel, and if you think you might be able to trust that person before working with credit card transactions etc.
Thanks, Dreamraven |
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