Frequently Asked Questions
Telephone Answering
How do I divert my calls?
Firstly you need to have the ‘Call Divert Feature’ from your telecoms supplier that allows you to divert your phone. Once this is set up it is simply a matter of dialling a code and the number you want to divert your calls to. We will provide you with the number to divert to.
Do I have to divert all my calls all of the time?
BT’s Business Feature Line allows you to divert your calls when you are already on a call or when you do not answer after so many rings. You can therefore use this service as an overflow answer-service rather than customers getting an engaged tone.
You may choose to divert all your calls but only when you are unavailable—a day here, an hour there—the choice is yours.
If you are going away you can divert your office and mobile calls for that period so you can get a well earned holiday.
You may wish to have a permanent answered line either for your office phone or for a specific task, ie. taking course bookings.
Click here for a diagrammatic explanation.
Do you use a call-centre to answer my calls?
Some Virtual Assistants outsource their telephone answering to dedicated telephone answering companies who have a large number of receptionists answering calls.
Mosaic Virtual Office is a small team of receptionist/secretaries who provide a full tailor-made support service to small business owners from our own office in Huddersfield.
How do you know to answer the call in my business name?
Each customer is given a unique number to divert their phones to. This number is tagged with their business name and when it rings the name is displayed on our 'phones and computer screens.
During what hours do you answer our calls?
Calls are answered between the hours of 9.00am and 5.30pm, Monday-Friday. Outside of these hours calls diverted to us get transferred to a personalised voice-mail system. Messages are dealt with at the start of the next working day.
What happens if I forget to un-divert my phone at the end of the day?
Each unique number has a voice-mail attached to it which gives the appropriate company name in the greeting. All calls out of hours go through to the voice-mail and these messages will be collected and passed on at the start of the next working day.
If I have a lot of calls your pricing package will be expensive. Do you have a price for high-volume of calls?
We have a tiered pricing structure which reduces the cost per minute for calls received if your monthly level of calls is over 400 minutes and again over 600 minutes.
Can you put calls through to us and will it cost more?
We are able to forward calls to any number you require unless it is set up on a full divert to us. When you accept the call the charge for us answering the call finishes and you are then charged for the length of time you are on the call at 1p/minute (10p/minute if the call is forwarded to a mobile) - so it will cost you no more than if you return the call yourself.
Does a caller hear an engaged tone if you’re already dealing with another call?
There is no limit to the number of calls that can be accepted at one time. If all the Receptionists are busy on other calls the call is answered giving your company name and the caller is told that all the Receptionists are engaged on other calls and their call will be returned within 10 minutes if they leave their name and number. As soon as a Receptionist becomes available they will return the call.
Secretarial Support
Do I have to have a contract with a set amount of hours?
Our service is flexible and tailor-made so if you only need a few hours support on a one-off basis we can cater for that right through to on-going regular support.
How do I get the work to you?
Work can be faxed, posted, emailed, instructions given over the phone or if you are local you can call into the office.
Do we have to provide materials?
If we need your letterhead, literature, etc we are happy to keep a stock of them in our office so we have them to hand. However, general materials such as paper, envelopes, etc can be provided by us and charged to you at cost.
Can you deal with our emails?
If you give us access to your web-mail (which is behind the scenes on many email addresses) we can access your incoming emails and send emails from your address. Alternatively you can give us your account details so we can download your emails to our computers and reply on your behalf. Otherwise we are only able to send emails from our own account which will show to the recipient as “on behalf of …”