Davinci Virtual Blog

The concept of a permanent office space is something to which many solopreneurs and small businesses understood to be a critical component to their business. And while that may be true for some, it is no longer a valid requisite for many. The explosion of mobile devices, smart apps, and cloud services make it possible to work from virtually anywhere and at any time. 

For solopreneurs and small businesses that are just launching, you may want to think twice before signing an expensive lease that locks you into a fixed location. In the case of startups that erroneously secured a permanent office space, you may want to start planning your exit strategy. Virtual office space offers most startups a more compelling office strategy than the permanent leased office space. So, why is a virtual office better? What advantages does it afford a startup?

1. Lower Cost.

Startups can spend upwards of 10% of their total budgets on office space. Your lease is just the start of the costs. You also must cover high-speed Internet, security, janitorial services, a receptionist, utilities … the list can go on and on. In the case of a virtual office, you pay for shared, on-demand office space (pay for when you need it), and you don’t need to pay for these extra expenses.

2. Great Address.

Few startups can afford permanent office space that comes with a professional address in a great location. The age-old adage, “location, location, location” extends far beyond a person’s private residence; it also applies to your office address that is closely tethered to your brand. Setting up your virtual address should be relatively easy, since virtual address services come with most virtual office solutions (or are an additional option in the case of Davinci Virtual Office Addresses and Davinci Meeting Rooms). 

3. Office Greeter/Receptionist.

Hiring a full-time receptionist and office greeter is beyond the realm of possibilities for many startups. This means employees take turns juggling incoming calls and handling visitors, answering their questions, routing them to the right person within your organization, and more. This not only consumes valuable time, but these are disruptive, diminishing worker productivity. In the case of virtual offices, they come with a lobby greeter who serves as the interface for visitors. And for startups that require more than a lobby greeter, you may want to look to live receptionist services such as Davinci Live Receptionists. These on-demand live receptionist services cost a fraction of a full-time employee while making your business look and act much larger than it is. 

4. Peer Startup Business Interactions.

On-demand office space—particularly coworking—affords you with a chance to network with other startups. In addition to sharing ideas and innovating, startups may find there are substantial business synergies that add value to both parties—from customer referrals to partnerships. 

5. Professional Office Space.

With on-demand virtual office solutions, startups have access to highly professional office space—from day offices, to coworking space, to rented conference rooms—that comes with everything you need such as wireless internet, presentation and audio technology, food and beverage catering, and much more.

6. Attracting and Retaining Talent.

Many workers prefer flexibility when it comes to where they work. Few professionals abide by the 9-to-5 workday, and flexibility around time in the office and work ranks high on the list of priorities for many workers. Many will take a lower paying job over one with higher pay in exchange for a more flexible work model. Note: Ironically, remote coworkers were cited two-thirds of the time by employees as their favorite coworkers in a recent study. 

7. Flexibility.

Leases and permanent offices lock startups into contractual agreements and a finite office space. As often occurs with startups, scaling up and down isn’t an option; fixed office space results in a fixed cost and office configuration. On the one hand, as is too often the case, startups pay for unused office space. On the other hand, they also have fixed space constraints that will only scale to the boundaries of the four surrounding walls. 

8. Results, Not Time in Office.

Businesses are tempted to measure performance based on time spent in the office when they maintain a permanent office environment. In those situations, some businesses may require workers to come to the office every day and to work from 9 to 5. This myopic approach kills worker productivity while obfuscating meaningful business results. (Reminds me of a Silicon Valley company that implemented a daily 9-to-5 mandatory work policy for its technology workers. They literally took “roll” every morning at 9 and every evening at 5 to confirm that their employees were at their desks working at the beginning and end of their workday. Not surprisingly, the company has huge issues when it comes to worker productivity, recruitment, and retention.)

9. Better Meetings.

Internal and external meetings have different requirements, and a one-size-fits-all meeting room doesn’t always suffice. Virtual meeting rooms come with the technologies such as web conferencing and whiteboards and business services such as catering and administrative support that can be the difference between a highly productive meeting and one that was a waste of time. 

10. Easier, Faster Expansion.

When startups expand into new regions, locating and securing a permanent office space and address should be one of the last things on the mind of the business leaders. Rather, with virtual offices, startups can secure a local address and on-demand office space—including meeting rooms—quickly and easily. 

11. Work-Life Balance.

Depending on where a startup is located, its employees can spend hours each day in their cars and riding trains and buses to and from the physical office location. In addition to impacting the work-life balance of each employee, which reduces their productivity and their job-hopping tendencies, a mandatory work-from-the-office policy impacts the communities in which startups are based—from environmental factors such as more pollution, to unhealthier workers who lack the time to exercise and detach themselves from work, to social issues such as traffic congestion.

Virtual offices are a true paradigm change when it comes to workspace and workstyle. Digital technologies such as mobile devices, smart apps, and cloud services make this transformation possible. For startups that embrace virtual offices, the future holds promise. For those that remain attached to the past and refuse to understand the value proposition virtual offices offer, success may be increasingly difficult to achieve.

With the number of digital nomads on a steady increase, it’s not surprising that virtual office adoption has increased as well. However, the switch to a virtual office is not an easy one, especially when it comes to former traditional office workers that now find themselves working from home. 

Whether you are a one person company or the manager of a team using a virtual office, here are some tips that can help you ease into the transition and get the best out of this offering. 

Use different communication channels

Communication is key to the success of any project or business. The traditional office setting allows for workers to interact face to face with one another, which makes communication easier and more natural. To maintain this dynamic, you need to think about different channels that can aid in your communications; think about email, collaboration tools like Slack, messaging apps like WhatsApp or messenger, and the like. 

Conference Calling

The right conference calling platform can make or break your communications. Whether you are thinking about doing just audio or video, you need to make sure that the platform you choose can host several individuals at the same time. Additional aspects you should consider include recording options and screen sharing. 

“Off time”

Working from home and having a virtual office service means that you will be connected 24/7. In order to keep yourself from burning out and to help you  maintain a healthy work-life balance, you should establish off times for yourself and/or team members. 

Embrace the services of a virtual office

Most virtual office providers typically offer services like live receptionists, VoIP, and mail handling. Make sure you get the most of your remote work by taking advantage of these services, as they can help you manage the administrative side of business and help you maintain the line between work and life. These services also help in providing you with an extra layer of privacy, especially if you’re starting a new business venture or project and need to share your address and number with a several individuals or institutions. 

Last but not least, don’t forget the human side of virtual offices. Though technology and these types of services have made it easy for people to work anywhere, any time, it’s important to always keep in mind that face to face meetings are always beneficial and can go a long way. Luckily, virtual offices allow you to use physical meeting and work space as part of the service offering. 

Looking for a Virtual Office? Davinci offers Virtual Office rentals across the globe! 

Technology is transforming the healthcare sector. New Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices enable healthcare providers to diagnose patient issues faster and more accurately. They can also monitor patients and deliver care remotely using IoMT.  In the case of patients, they can monitor and manage their own health using wearables. These and other technologies are critical facilitators of telemedicine, which gives doctors and other healthcare providers the ability to diagnose issues, prescribe medications, and monitor patient status without ever seeing them in-person.

With upwards of 20% of the world’s population—or 1.2 billion people—expected to be over the age of 65 by 2025, the importance of delivering healthcare solutions through new mechanisms such as IoMT and telemedicine will continue to increase. Additionally, research shows consultations with healthcare providers for minor ailments are more convenient and less expensive than office or emergency room visits. This technological revolution in healthcare will be critical in closing the anticipated gap between patients needing care and the number of providers, particularly in the face of a looming 400,000-physician shortage within a decade.

Telemedicine Transforms the Visible to the Doctor’s Office

The concept of telemedicine changes the dynamics of the typical doctor’s office or even hospital. Doctors are embracing virtual office visits that make it possible for patients to receive medical care anytime, anywhere. Patients access doctors and healthcare providers any time of the day or night regardless of their location using their smartphones, video conferencing, and other technologies. With the typical doctor’s visit taking 2.6 weeks on average to schedule and two hours of travel and waiting, it’s very little wonder why patients rate telemedicine very highly. 

While many states prohibited most facets of telemedicine in the past (e.g., physicians could not write a prescription without first seeing a patient in person), many have changed their laws. Further, recognizing the fact that telemedicine can reduce the overall cost of delivering healthcare, three-quarters of healthcare insurers require some form of telemedicine. Thus, it is no wonder that healthcare providers are increasingly turning to telemedicine when delivering care to their patients.

Due to these technological changes, patients no longer need to come into physical offices when seeking diagnosis of certain ailments and the ongoing monitoring of issues. Rather, healthcare providers can see patients without having them come into the office. This also means doctors and nurses do not need to be in the office when dispensing diagnoses, prescribing medications, and monitoring ongoing issues. 

Implications of Telemedicine

So, what are some of the core takeaways when it comes to virtual offices in healthcare?

1. Mobile Explosion—from Doctors to Patients

It is hard to believe, but there are over 165,000 healthcare-related apps in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores. Care providers and patients download these apps and use them for an array of different healthcare-related purposes. Whenever I see my doctor, the first thing he does when deciding what prescription to give me is look up the diagnoses on his mobile device and sort through the different pharmaceutical options. Concurrently, Patients are just as interested in mobile apps or mobility in general—from conducting their own medical research to monitoring their health.

2. Time Spent in the Office

With the advent of telemedicine, doctors and nurses aren’t tied to a physical office to deliver care to their patients. This means they can spend less time in the “doctor’s office” and more time providing care to patients from virtually anywhere. 

3. Physical Permanent Offices

Virtual offices may allow some healthcare providers to downsize their physical permanent office space. New scheduling applications and telemedicine reduce or even eliminate the need for waiting rooms. With real estate and leases sky high in some metropolitan areas, this can have a dramatic impact on profit margins. For those that require conference room space for larger meetings, rented meeting rooms are a great alternative. Healthcare providers can rent these on demand based on meeting requirements—from staff meetings, to patient consultations, to other non-health-related meetings.

4. Apps Available Anytime, Anywhere, and Any Device

With virtual offices, healthcare providers need access to the critical applications such as electronic medical records (EMR). These must be available 24x7, highly available and reliable, and can be accessed on all types of devices. When these apps aren’t available, healthcare providers are unable to deliver the care their patients require.

5. Video Conferencing and Smartphones

For a proper diagnosis of a medical issue, healthcare providers require more than a phone conversation. Rather, they need to see the patient. But this doesn’t mean they must see them in person. With many video conferencing services, it is possible for physicians to examine a patient virtually. Combined with smartphone technologies and attachments that take vital signs, listen to heart sounds, and visualize ear drums, doctors can conduct a medical assessment as if they were with the patient in person.

Patients Embrace Telemedicine

Not only is the digital era overturning traditional business models (e.g., retail, banking, taxis, etc.), but it is changing the face of healthcare. Virtual offices enable healthcare providers to optimize the time spent with patients—delivering better care while reducing costs. At the same time, the convenience of virtual offices is seen by patients as a much welcome change—nearly three-quarters express satisfaction in telemedicine.

Small businesses leaders and solopreneurs who have their smartphone tethered to their hip envision it as their lifeline to prospects and customers. But you may soon discover the lifeline is an actual albatross that constantly sucks your energy from you and interrupts important conversations and work. At the same time, offering only traditional engagement channels such as phone or email can prove inconvenient and frustrating to customers, who want to engage with business providers through an engagement channel of their choice.

Benefits of Live Web Chat

Wondering how live web chat might benefit your business? I’ve written about the value of live web chat for sales and customer service in past posts. Let’s take a quick trip through some of the scenarios.

1. Customers Want Live Web Chat Options

Customers want to use the engagement channel that fits their circumstances and nature of their inquiry best. Live web chat ranks at the top of the list when it comes to engagement preferences, with more than half of customers indicating they prefer live web chat over other channels. 

2. Expect Live Web Chat on Your Website

Nearly one-third of customers expect to find live web chat on your website and become quickly frustrated (or worse, they simply leave) if you force them to use other engagement channels. For those visiting your website on mobile devices, the expectation for live web chat doubles. The takeaway is that while businesses could forego offering live web chat a few years ago, that is no longer the case. 

3. Gain Engagement Efficiencies

Unlike phone engagement where a sales or customer service agent can field on engagement at a time, live web chat enables multiple concurrent engagement sessions—up to five or six depending on the nature of your business and customer inquiries.

4. Better Web “Returns”

Failing to offer live web chat on your website diminishes the likelihood that a visitor will come back. Nearly two-thirds of customers indicate they are more likely to return if a website offers live web chat.

5. Real-Time Engagement (“seconds count”)

Seconds literally count (viz., 60 seconds or less) when it comes customer engagement. Phone channels can quickly clog, forcing customers into lengthy wait queues. The majority hang up after 60 seconds. Worse yet, most of them never call back again. For sales inquiries, these directly translate into lost revenues. For customer service calls, phone wait queues result in customers leaving you for competitors who provide more engagement options. 

6. Close the Sale

Studies show that three-quarters of customers will not make a purchase on a website unless live web chat is offered. Without live web chat, they walk out your digital storefront, never to return. 

7. Pile Up the Shopping Cart

In addition to being more likely to make a purchase, customers who use live web chat buy more over the long run—upwards of 4.5x. Average order value goes up as well—by as much as 10%. 

8. Conversion Rates

Studies show customers are 40% more likely to purchase online when they engage with the business over live web chat. This makes a lot of sense; live human-to-human engagement builds an emotional connection that cannot occur over a website only. 

9. Customer Loyalty

Frustrated customers translate into dissatisfaction and what is frequently deemed detractors—customers who feel no attachment and passively or actively seek alternative consumer or business relationships. In contrast, those who are engaged, not only are loyal but willing to advocate on your behalf. With live web chat topping all engagement channels when it comes to customer satisfaction, the case for it is compelling. 

10. Faster Problem Resolution

In many instances, customers who use live web chat for help in resolving problems see faster problem resolution than those who use other engagement channels such as phone, social media, and email. Specifically, the ability to share screens over live web chat sessions enables customer service agents to hone in on a problem quickly and efficiently.

11. Customer Convenience

Often, it isn’t possible for your customers to engage over phone. For example, while at work, a customer has limited—or sometimes no—time to place a call. But in the case of live web chat, they can multitask, continuing to work or fulfill personal obligations. Over half of your customers cite this as a key reason why they use live web chat.

12. Competitive Advantage

While the numbers of businesses offering live web chat on their websites has growing exponentially in recent years, there remain numerous outliers and variances across industry segments. Businesses that offer live web chat have an advantage over competitors that do not.

13. Proactive Engagement

Live web chat enables you to proactively engage with website visitors based on their identity and behaviors. This helps you hone with whom you engage and with whom you don’t engage. 

14. Harvest Data

Live web chat captures valuable data used to gain deeper customer insights such as top service issues, webpages that generate the most live web chat engagements, and customer service agents who generate the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Use of natural language processing (NLP) moves analysis beyond numerical data to the actual language used—both by customers and your customer service agents.

15. Quality Control

You can quickly and easily pinpoint product and service issues identify process breakdowns with customer service and sales agents using both numerical and NLP analytics. 

Evaluating Your Live Web Chat Options

With the above in mind, there are a few considerations to keep in mind when vetting live web chat options:

1. No Resources, No Problem

Many small businesses lack the resources—and expertise—to offer live web chat engagement. But outsourcing live web chat to third-party providers like Davinci Live Web Chat services provides them with a cost-efficient, scalable option. 

2. From Static to Proactive Engagement

Look for a live web chat solution that offers static and proactive engagement. The latter needs to be based on both the identity of the visitor (viz., account-based marketing) and their behavior. 

3. Live Web Chat Interface

Brand experience is critically important in the digital era. Thus, it is pivotal to customize the color, size, text, shape, and image of your chat button. 

4. Integrations

Customers want integrated engagement experiences. You require live web chat that integrates with your web analytics, social media sites, customer relationship management system, and helpdesk and ticketing systems. 

5. Reporting and Analytics

Understand what data analytics are required to generate the business insights you need. Some of the outputs to consider include transcription, numerical and natural language data, and reporting. 

6. Security Protocols

Protecting customer data is a nonnegotiable. But it has never been more difficult to protect against malicious intrusions and data breaches. Here, it is important that you confirm that your live web chat provider prevents unauthorized data access, has the right network security protocols in place, and maintains a data backup plan and disaster recovery mechanism.

I could mention other factors such as reliability and availability (amount of permissible downtime), customer support and service level agreements (SLAs), and elasticity (viz., ability to accommodate seasonal fluctuations, etc.). But the above will provide you with a solid foundation on which to build your digital engagement strategy. 

Customer service is a key component of the healthcare industry. Given the nature of the industry, a person’s health, it comes as no surprise that patients and family members often have various questions for their medical providers; whether it is about making an appointment, scheduling treatment, dealing with insurance, or renewing a prescription. 

Answering phone calls in the healthcare industry is no small, nor easy task. And because sometimes the topic of conversation is sensitive, doctors and medical organizations often need to rely on highly trained and qualified individuals. Additionally, some clinics tend to offer after hours call services; which meant that hiring the right staff is a tough challenge. 

Luckily, Live Virtual Receptionists have made a splash in the healthcare industry; making it easier and cost friendly for medical practitioners and organizations to offer excellent customer service, at all times of the day.

Live virtual receptionists can seamlessly merge with the healthcare industry by becoming an integral part of a company or practitioners’ customer relations team. The nature of virtual receptionists will allow those in the healthcare industry to handle a higher volume of calls and respond to these calls 24/7 without compromising the quality of the of customer care. 

When people are sick or not feeling their best, they want to make sure that their questions are being taken seriously and that someone is actively engaged in catering to their requests. For this reason, virtual receptionists are a strategic operations solution for those in healthcare. Additionally, virtual receptionists are trained to answer phone calls professionally and with a personalized brand message- and schedule appointments on behalf of the patient when appropriate.

It’s also worth noting that live virtual receptionists decrease the amount of time that callers spend on hold, which translates into added-value for patients; especially in a world were nationally 80% of calls are answered within 20 seconds. 

Virtual receptionist services can be hired to answer calls with personalized greetings, messages, and scheduling. They decrease the amount of time callers spend on hold, and more importantly, callers won’t be greeted by automated machines. Moreover, virtual receptionists make it easier to do quality control and monitor the state of your customer care, as all phone calls are recorded and those hiring the service can make sure that their calls are being handled in the best manner possible and that requests are followed-up with by the right person. 

Davinci Virtual Office Solutions strives to be #1 in providing our clients with a professional team of dedicated receptionits. We know every call is important, especially to a patient inquiring or needing to schedule an appointement. Let Davinci help you! Check out or benefits for Live Receptionist Services.