Why you can trust virtual administrative support
For people who’ve never used it before, outsourcing some of your most important tasks to a virtual secretary service might sound like a risk. But don’t forget that, even if the service is called ‘virtual’, there’s an experienced professional – or more than one, if you use an agency – who has the skills and knowledge to take on your day-to-day administrative tasks and get them done efficiently and cost-effectively. Here are our top 5 reasons why it’s worth looking into virtual office support:
1. Saving you money
Employing people is costly. Not only do you have to guarantee a wage every month; you are also paying National Insurance contributions, pension contributions and increased overheads at your premises. You’ll also have to make sure you meet other legal obligations as an employer. Working with a virtual assistance company means you only pay for the hours you use – no expensive recruitment costs, no worries about holiday cover; just someone you can trust to do your day-to-day admin without any hassle.
2. Saving you time
Paperwork, file management, invoice-chasing – it all takes up a lot of your time. And your time is more valuably spent with your patients. More than that – you need to have time to spend with your family or on the things you want to do with your non-working life. Why spend hours on a Sunday sorting things out for the week ahead when someone could be doing it for you?
3. Better customer service
It’s particularly important when you’re starting a new practice, or taking over from someone else, that you pay attention to your patients. You want people to return to you, to feel welcome and well-treated and to refer your practice to others. Part of building that reputation is how your patients feel when you contact them – and that they feel you contact them often enough. If they think you’ve forgotten about them, they could go elsewhere.
4. Better back-office systems
In order to run a smooth practice, back-office support needs to be efficient and effective. From managing a GDPR-compliant patient database to chasing payments, handling bookkeeping and making sure supplies are ordered in time, a virtual assistant business can keep everything running in the background so that you can get on with patient care. Making use of the skills and knowledge of a good administrator can make the difference between a business that’s a headache and one that makes you feel on top of the world.
5. Full flexibility
Businesses and medical practices that establish a good working relationship with a virtual provider find that the flexibility really helps as the practice grows and changes. That’s because you can use as many or as few hours as you like, and you can bring new skills on board. So where you might start out with someone handling your bookkeeping and basic finances for you, you might move onto a diary management service, marketing support or social media management. And all without having to hire a permanent member of staff, with all that entails.
Time to think about a virtual office manager?
Whatever stage you’re at in your dentistry or orthodontic business, you might be considering the merits of outsourcing some of your administrative and support tasks. If that’s the case, feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.