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Brits spend an average eight days of their lives hanging on the telephone listening to hold music.

The total time wasted on unanswered calls in a year adds up to a huge 12,808 years – with banks and phone companies the main culprits, a study says.

It found we each spend 15 minutes a month on hold, totalling up to eight days in a lifetime.

Call centre firm Heart Communications, which conducted the study, said: “No-one should be left listening to bad Muzak .”

It’s worst tunes were: Greensleeves, Nessun Dorma, Tina Turner’s Simply the Best, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music and The Entertainer.

More than one in three businesses masquerade as having a presence in a city they are not actually located in – by having a different dialling code.

Research shows that 38% of numbers sold in 2009 by telephone answering service, Heart Communications had no relation to the actual location the company operates in. It sold 960 geographic numbers, with 364 having no relation to the actual relation of the company.

Heart said overseas businesses set up a UK telephone number but have no physical presence in the country. Other businesses also buy geographic numbers to test demand in other cities, without the risk or cost.

Its findings also found that many start-up businesses ask for a London ‘020’ dialling code, to give their brands credibility. 
 


Bradley Vincent, Heart Communications operations director said: ‘We supply lots of 0207 numbers to small businesses that have set up in the countryside. As far as their customers are concerned, they’re dealing with an established company in the middle of the capital.

‘It sounds like a small thing, but having a central London telephone number inspires a great deal of confidence. For an increasing number of businesses the telephone number is merely another marketing tool.’

Rapid growth in popularity of remote virtual receptionist services like Heart Communications (www.heartcommunications.co.uk) suggests in-house switchboard operators are a thing of the past.

The recession is being blamed for thousands of receptionists across the country being replaced by companies that provide remote ‘virtual assistant’ services, which have seen a huge spike in business as a result.

For example, Heart Communications – which operates from several locations across the UK – has grown rapidly over the past year, as demand for their virtual receptionist service has soared. Established in 2002, Heart had its biggest-ever sales year in 2009. On average, Heart has signed-up twenty new clients per month and has seen its staff of call handlers swell to over one hundred.

When a company joins Heart, their inbound calls are routed to a team of highly-trained professional call handlers who will answer in the client’s company name and transfer calls or take messages. As far as the caller is concerned, the call is handled by an in-house receptionist.

The cost savings of outsourcing receptionist services can be huge. Heart charges £0.99 for every call received, which means a business would need to receive over 60 calls per day to match the £15000 average salary of an in-house receptionist. Other than the direct cost savings, there are no associated office infrastructure overheads, no sick pay, no holidays, no maternity cover and no lunch breaks – there is always a receptionist on hand to answer calls.

With businesses looking to cut costs and operate more efficiently, it’s little wonder Heart has proven one of the recession’s few success stories. Their growth is symptomatic of the increasing adoption of virtual business practices in the UK, fuelled by technology and economic pragmatism. Companies are increasingly choosing to outsource those roles not considered essential to the operation of their core business.

Heart founder Bradley Vincent believes virtual receptionists are here to stay. “The recession forced many businesses to look at ways of cutting costs – and we directly benefitted from that,” he says. “However, many companies who joined us as a temporary measure are now committing to us for the long-term. Virtual receptionists make sense from a business perspective, whether we’re in recession or not.”

For the thousands of receptionists who have been made redundant over the past eighteen months, Vincent has a positive message. “Businesses will always need their calls answering, so there is always demand for efficient professional receptionists,” he says. “It’s just that increasingly these receptionists will operate virtually, for several clients.”

Rapid growth in popularity of remote virtual receptionist services like Heart Communications (www.heartcommunications.co.uk) suggests in-house switchboard operators are a thing of the past.

The recession is being blamed for thousands of receptionists across the country being replaced by companies that provide remote ‘virtual assistant’ services, which have seen a huge spike in business as a result.
 
Sales Professionals have had a love-hate relationship with receptionists in the past, sometimes as gatekeepers, then as worthy adversaries, and finally acting as their own support against unwanted sales calls!
 
The growth of the outsourced receptionist service could either act for or against the sales professional looking to target key decision makers within their target. Will there be more or less chance of getting through to key personnel?
 
For the thousands of receptionists who have been made redundant over the past eighteen months, Heart founder Bradley Vincent has a positive message. “Businesses will always need their calls answering, so there is always demand for efficient professional receptionists,” he says. “It’s just that increasingly these receptionists will operate virtually, for several clients.”

Heart in Metro

For further information, call 0844 745 1915

BBC Essex – Monday, 8th March 2010
BBC Northampton – Wednesday, 10th March 2010
BBC Surrey – Saturday, 13th March 2010

The Telephone Reminder Service is helping elderly people who live alone all over the UK to maintain independence by reminding them of vital things, such as taking medication and eating lunch.

The service costs from as little as 99p per call.

For further information, call 0844 745 1915