2020 pushed every company and business out of its comfort zone into electronic tools and digital environments whether wanted or not. The mandated social distancing most communities were under forced companies to get creative or lose business. And at a time when markets were shrinking across the board, that was not a tolerable option. So, online everyone went.
However, after about 1,000 or so odd digital meetings, each of which would end up spending at least 5 to 10 minutes starting out with technical glitches and getting everyone connected properly, it became obvious that something better than just connecting with one odd browser video tool or another was needed. And that’s where virtual meeting tools have now come into the fold, providing a professional environment that runs smoothly and allows attendees to focus on the meeting versus which icon to press to talk to.
What’s the Fundamental Difference?
Most will ask what the difference is between a basic web meeting and a professional virtual meeting, and it comes down to guided experience. With the basic web meeting, the attendee is expected to have figured out the client software, connection, and configuration on his or her computer. With the professional virtual meeting, the connection process is seamless. There is no stress connecting; attendees simply engage by link and the meeting background technicalities are already taken care of. Further, unlike the generic online meeting, virtual professional meetings come with dedicated help support, specifically staff dedicated to helping administer the meeting, recordings, transcripts, experience, and engagement.
Virtual office services have definitely come into vogue as back-end support for what many assumed or took for granted when people could be in the offices. Virtual professional meetings have become key for communications, especially when engagements require multiple parties far beyond a handful of folks, multiple time zones, and the meetings also need to have a public face. With a professional approach, audiences are managed smoothly while the client business is able to focus on the presentation itself versus last-minute technical challenges.
There’s More Available Than Just Meeting Management Too
Of course, meeting management is not the only option available for businesses needing new approaches to work and organization. Virtual office services can encompass meeting management, customer and consumer front-end engagement, customer support, digital response, and contact tracking, and more. Ideally, a comprehensive package is a better way to go. Think of it like handling a construction site. If you have 50 different contractors on-site, you will need a foreman to keep them all on track, on schedule, and managing deliverables. Having a comprehensive package gives a company one point of contact for all the assigned virtual office services needed instead of dealing with four or five different services and accounts.
Transition Results Can Be Worth the Work
Getting started with a virtual office service can be a bit awkward, especially when current staff starts feeling like they might be replaced by the outsourcing of the functions they were supposed to be in charge of. One of the best ways to address this concern is to already have a working plan on how affected staff will be shifted to new needs and functions. By addressing how staff will be pivoted, there is no unknown ambiguity when the new services come online and become present.
Given that most companies have now had a year’s worth of working differently, it’s unlikely anyone will be going back to the way things were prior to 2020. There’s been too much experience working with alternative digital methods to completely drop everything. In fact, many channels have opened up new opportunities as well as clients who expect to meet digitally to avoid travel costs and get more done in the day. In all of these changes, virtual office services can be leveraged to smooth out the uncomfortable glitches and make an integrated office system run smoother. The digital world is here and not going away; take advantage of it in full capacity.
