Australian Enterprise Awards 2019

23 APAC / Australian Enterprise Awards 2019 , Immediate Reception Your Virtual Office Best Live Answering & Messaging Service 2019 - New South Wales Jan19242 Immediate Reception Your Virtual Office aims to offer its clients a professional image without the overheads this usually incurs. We spoke to Barbara Gosper to find out more. Established in 1997 Immediate Reception is designed to enhance the customer service of every business, creating employment, business strength and prosperity call by call. Barbara discusses the firm’s journey and how it has grown into the internationally renowned virtual office specialist that it is currently. “Commencing as a home-based business, at Immediate Reception our journey has always been focused on the end goal: to bring clients excellence in call management, taking and passing on messages, transferring calls and making bookings in our clients’ diary. “Today, we operate 24 hours per day from our purpose-built commercial centre in the Northern Rivers of NSW with expanded services including dispatch of technical staff, checking on the welfare of staff working alone, dispatching of emergency agencies and answering and directing emergency calls or alarms. Our services can be and are used nationally and internationally by clients who range from one-person operators to multinational corporations. We are ‘building bigger business call by call’.” It is the firm’s personal approach and collabo- ration with their clients that has helped lead it to the success it enjoys today, as Barbara highlights. “Operating in such a competitive market, at Immediate Reception we differentiate our- selves in a number of ways. Our first point of difference from our competitors is our desire and willingness to solve a problem for our clients. It’s about relationships supported by technology. We consult with our clients about exactly what they are trying to achieve, be it someone to manage their phones while they have a staff meeting or to dispatch an on-call tech after-hours. It may be to take over-flow calls during peak times or ensure an injury report/emergency line is always answered. “Fundamentally, it is our flexibility to win work with every business to help them achieve their goals. We follow procedures and protocols, however we’re not “scripted” to sound automated or disconnected. We are a team of people who think about the best possible outcome for our clients and their callers.” We’re strong in our values that can be relied upon, honesty, integrity, continual improve- ment, professionalism and respect. Looking ahead, Barbara foresees many developments within the communication and virtual office market, which her firm will be adapting around over the months and years ahead. “Overall, the way in which we communicate with each other is certainly changing with the increased use of web-chat, faster response to SMS rather than voicemail and our require- ment to communicate while “on the run”. The trend maybe moving to the use of chat- bots and although this is the evolution of technology, people like to deal with people so it’s about using technology to enhance the customer service experience not avoid cus- tomer contact. The ability for business to offer various mediums of communications whether it is via social media, automated selection, web-chat or chat-bots is important however businesses also need to ensure they have the ability to offer the support to the contact using the technology. If not, the customer experience is damaged rather than enhanced. It is in that support role that there is a need for real people in centres such as ours, and as such this will remain Immediate Reception’s ongoing focus as we look towards a bright and exciting future. Contact Details: Name: Barbara Gosper Address: P O Box 4136, GOONELLABAH NSW 2480 Telephone Number: +61 2 66266999 Web Address: www.virtualoffice.net.au