Davinci Virtual Blog

Solopreneurs and small businesses are turning to virtual mailboxes in increasing numbers. But what are virtual mailboxes? They are office locations with impressive, professional addresses that businesses can use for listing their office address. They also often include other services such as mail forwarding, lobby directory listings, and access to fully equipped meeting spaces. 

There are a number of reasons businesses should use a virtual mailbox. Let’s go through some of the most use cases.

1. Stop the Business Mail at Your House.

Having your business mail arriving at your home address can be a real irritant. Sorting through and separating personal and business mail takes time. And sometimes you may have more mail than what can fit in your mailbox. A virtual mailbox stops all of that business mail from coming to your home.

2. Make First Impressions Count—Professional Presence.

Businesses need to make first impressions count. It can happen in any number of ways—your website, initial meeting, email communications, and address. A business address in a subpar location creates a first impression that is almost virtually impossible to erase. Some virtual mailbox solutions like Davinci Virtual Office give businesses a professional address in a location, including a lobby directory listing, that garners respect—one a solopreneur or small business typically cannot afford. 

3. Use for Business Licensing and Registration.

Business licensing and registration requires a physical mailing address for the registered agent. If you’re using your home address for your business, this means it gets published. It also means that your customers have your home address, something many businesses may not want them to know. And in certain cases, you may not be able to use your home address—some home owners’ associations (HOA) prohibit business addresses and some municipalities have zoning regulations that prevent home owners from running a commercial business with their home address. Virtual mailboxes (addresses) solve these issues.

4. Connect with Search Engines and Internet Directories.

Getting recognized is critical for any business, and showing up on digital listings can be the difference between a business failing and one succeeding. There are numerous online business listings that a business must complete to be visible: a) Google My Business, b) Facebook Professional Services, c) Yelp for Business, d) Yahoo Local, e) Bing Places for Business, and f) Foursquare for Business, g) among others. (Note: As a reminder, make sure the information you put into all of these channels is consistent; inconsistency in details will affect your SEO ranking. The business categories you select also play an important role.) 

5. Get Mail Receipt and Forwarding.

For some solopreneurs and small businesses, you’re rarely in one spot for very long. Getting your mail can be a real problem. However, as many virtual mailbox offerings include mail receipt and forwarding such as Davinci Virtual Office, this challenge can be eliminated. You can have your mail follow you wherever you’re at.

6. Have a Location to Meet Customers.

Some virtual mailbox solutions like Davinci Virtual Office also have physical offices available for rent. These are particularly important when you need a day office or coworking space to power through work without an interruption or when you need a conference room—with the presentation and collaboration tools you need, a lobby greeter, and more—for a customer meeting. Hotel rooms are bad ideas; they are often 50 percent more than rented meeting rooms. Coffee shops and cafes are noisy, lack privacy and fail convey the brand experience you want to provide customers. 

7. Expand Your Business Quickly and Cost Effectively.

Expansion into new locations can be expensive if you need a fixed office for an address. Virtual addresses give businesses an alternative; they can expand into new locations by simply securing a virtual address. And if the virtual address provider also offers on-demand meeting day offices, coworking space, and meeting rooms for rent, then you have the option to use those when you are on site and meeting with customers and partners or simply needing to get some work done.

To compete today, solopreneurs and small businesses need tools that help level the playing field. Virtual mailboxes and all of the accoutrements that come with them are one of the tools you need in your back-pocket to do so.

Growing numbers of business owners and entrepreneurs are switching out their permanent, fixed office space for virtual, on-demand office space. Research shows one-quarter of the workforce works at least some of the time away from their offices, a number expected to hit 40 percent in a couple years.

The reasons are myriad. Let’s recount some of the key drivers. First, permanent office space is expensive. Research shows small businesses spend upwards of 10 percent of their revenue on office space. Second, fixed office space is inflexible. You cannot add more offices when you need them, or eliminate them when you no longer need them. And one conference room size and configuration doesn’t fit every meeting requirement. Third, workers want flexibility. They’re even willing to take less pay in exchange for flexible work hours and the ability to work remotely; recruiting and retaining top talent becomes easier. Fourth, over three-quarters of workers indicate they are more productive if they have flexible work schedules—and this includes workplace flexibility. 

When it comes to industry segments, the use cases for virtual offices are quite compelling. Let’s take a look some of the more prominent ones.

Finance and Real Estate.

Finance and real estate professionals are busy and regularly on the go between different client meetings. Sometimes, you need a place to focus on work for a day; think day offices or even coworking spaces. In other instances, you need conference rooms for client meetings—in professional locations convenient to your clients. At the same time, rather than using your home address, a post office box, or a subpar address for a permanent office location you can afford.

Legal Firms.

Legal professionals have packed, fast-paced schedules—everything from defending a client in a courtroom, to researching and preparing a case, to taking a disposition, to meeting with a client. Law firms that lock themselves into permanent offices may find themselves spending valuable time running between meeting locations and their office—adding up to hours each week or weeks each year. For an organization that literally counts minutes when it comes to billable time, this can add up to a lot of lost revenue. Virtual offices give legal professionals the ability to use day offices, coworking spaces, and conference rooms with state-of-the-art features in professional locations close to courthouses, public transit, your clients. 

Media & Advertising.

Advertising and marketing professionals need to spend focused time working on client deliverables. But they also spend time in brainstorming sessions with other colleagues and clients. And as clients have high expectations when it comes to the offices and their locations, permanent office space can quickly add up. Plus, with clients in geographically dispersed locations, media and advertising professionals need professional offices on-demand. Virtual offices give them all of the above, with benefits that range from lower cost, to improved efficiencies, to greater flexibility.  

Entrepreneurs.

Cost is a critical driver for any entrepreneur who is just starting her or his business. Jettison the overhead of a permanent office and use virtual offices when you need them. Coworking spaces give you a chance to network with other entrepreneurs and small businesses, while conference rooms give you a private, professional space for meetings with customers and partners.

Healthcare.

Healthcare professionals have busy professional lives—going from one medical center to another and series of meetings with staff, physicians, and insurance companies. Having one physical office space may not make sense, whether focused time by yourself or those nonstop meetings you attend. This is where virtual offices can be especially useful. For that focused time working on projects or paperwork, day offices or coworking spaces are great places to land. For all of those meetings, virtual offices allow you to review and select the one that best meets your meeting requirements—from room size, to location, to configuration, to presentation tools. 

The list of potential industries could go on, but you get my point. The benefits of virtual offices are vast. Even for the business with a permanent office location, virtual offices provide them with a great opportunity to expand to new locations without adding expensive overhead, have a place to work and meet when traveling or meeting with customers and partners, and host meetings when their own facility isn’t the best/right venue

Whether you are running a home-based business or whether your are in the early stages of a startup, a virtual office address can greatly help your prospects. 

First impressions matter, and today the first thing people do when they hear of a new business or product is to look them up on Google or another search engine. Having a home or foreign address can turn many people away as it looks unprofessional and it doesn’t create a feeling of trust. 

Having a local and a well-known address can greatly help with SEO purposes, especially if you operate a business at a local level. A virtual office address can also help you setup your business in areas where having a home address is not legally acceptable. 

A virtual office address can help your business by helping you give a stronger, trustworthy first impression. Additionally, it can help you keep your privacy as you won’t need to list your home address to conduct business or receive business mail and packages. 

Other than providing you with a well-known physical address, virtual offices also offer services like mail handling and forwarding--among the greatest perks of this service is that you won’t have to deal with all the spam mail that people typically receive today.

Since a virtual office provides you with a real, physical address, it also means that you can visit this location should you need meeting space, conference rooms, or a desk to work for the day.

Last but not least, virtual office addresses are low-cost, meaning that they are a viable solution for freelancers, home workers, entrepreneurs, and startups in the early stages of development. They are also a great choice for established businesses seeking to enter a new market outside of their current location.

In conclusion, here’s how a virtual office address can help your business:

  • Professional image to potential clients and customers

  • Helps with SEO purposes

  • Helps establish a business and avoid legal fees

  • They provide add-on services like mail handling, live receptionists, and live web chat

  • They offer you access to a physical workspace

  • They offer limited hours for meeting space use

  • They are cost-effective

Want to learn more about what a Virtual Office can do for you? Click here to find out!

On the surface, virtual receptionist and answering services are fairly similar. With both services, an offsite, external agent will answer calls on your behalf and forward them as need be. However, virtual receptionists and answering services are different, each delivering on its service promise differently. 

If you are deciding between the two options, let us give you 10 reasons why virtual receptionists are better than an answering service. 

1. Less is More

Virtual receptionists handle a set number of accounts, which equates to better customer service and better attention.  

2. Personalized Attention

Because virtual receptionists handle a set number of accounts, it means that you will always have the same people answering your calls. This is especially good when you receive a lot of customer and client calls, as you can be sure that they will always be greeted by the same person, in a professional, friendly manner. Plus, services like these offer customizable greetings and call flows, so each client can be treated with the same professional tone set by you. 

3. Culture

Since you will be working with the same virtual receptionists, it gives them the chance to get to know your brand and your culture, and embodying them while they pick up and handle your calls. 

4. Your Right Arm

Virtual receptionists have the capacity to help you schedule appointments, book meeting rooms, set reminders, screen junk calls, and answers questions related to your business. 

5. Sales Orders

Since virtual receptionists get to know your brand and company, they can also help you in taking sales orders and making sure they are fulfilled. 

6. Frictionless

Virtual receptionists can transfer calls to you or a specific team member. If you know you will be busy, you can easily reach out to your virtual receptionists and let them know so that they can take messages for you instead of transferring the calls. 

7. Industry-Specific

Virtual receptionists are able to provide industry specific support, like medical, legal, service industries, and many more. Call flows are easily customizable for any business venture. 

8. Additional Amenities and Perks

Virtual receptionist services often come bundled with limited access to workspace or meeting rooms, providing you with a more robust service-offering. 

9. Cost-Effective

Virtual receptionists fulfill the same duties that in-house receptionists. However, they are much more cost-effective. You can purchase a specific minute plan for your business needs and not worry about the in-house cost of a full time employee. 

10. Complex call flows

With a team of dedicated virtual receptionists, they can handle more difficult calls and assure that your customer, client, or even patient is getting the care and help they need for a successfull call.  

Virtual receptionists offer businesses the ability to run a seamless, professional operation at a low cost. Want to learn more about the benefits of a Davinci Virtual Receptionist? Click here to check out our features and benefits!

Providing some of the most specialized virtual receptionist and virtual office services since 2006, our team has been supporting over 40,000 clients across the world. It’s this wide-spread, long-lasting impact that has placed us as a figurehead in the voice services industry. To increase transparency and highlight our success, we’ve teamed up with Clutch to put a spotlight on some of our customers’ stories and overall experience with us.

The world of answering may not seem the most exciting. But, actually, this fast-growing industry is a catching trend. One tip: you’ll want a highly ranked firm on your side.  

Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews platform on a mission to provide buyers with the most transparent look into a business’s operations via in-depth, verified customer feedback. Covering over 7,000 companies across 500+ industry verticals ranging from digital agencies to answering services, Clutch is an established resource when it comes to buying decisions. At the root of their company analysis lie client interviews, where Clutch speaks to a company’s references on the challenges, solutions, and results of their time working together. Coupling this, Clutch utilizes a multi-faceted scoring methodology to rank firms based on factors such as market presence, clientele, and industry recognition. They are thereby able to identify the firms that deliver from those that do not and construct a Leaders Matrix.

Evaluating our team’s prowess in a variety of voice services, from virtual receptionist to appointment setting, Clutch has begun gathering client feedback and performing their company analysis. Taking a look at some of our reviews, here are what our customers have had to say about us so far:

“They save us around $5,000 per month…their strength is their experience in this area.”

“They have done a lot for my company. They have helped us become better at communicating and explaining. They have also taught us how to work as a team.”

“DaVinci Virtual provides excellent feedback in real cases. The level of knowledge and service was on point. They made my customer feel like they were cared about and important…each campaign was effective and with great turnaround times.”

Already, Clutch has placed us as the sixth best company in the world when it comes to virtual receptionist services.

Additionally, our team was featured by The Manifest on their report of the most highly-ranked virtual receptionists from around the world. The Manifest is Clutch’s sister website, highlighting insights on business news and industry lists.

We hope to continue this run of great work for our clients in everything we do. It’s been a pleasure, from the start, to support our customers’ in starting-up, maintaining, or expanding their businesses. To read more about clients’ experiences, stay up-to-date with our Clutch profile here.