Merits and demerits of having a virtual office by your side.

• business , virtual office
• virtual office

Technology has changed the way businesses used to conduct operations. Using cloud telephony, businesses are moving out of office space and still working perfectly. Instead of having a fixed office space, which is not possible in every case, businesses have virtual offices by their side.

Without keeping you tied-up with a certain location, a virtual office allows you to make/receive calls, create reports, arrange meetings, and do whatever is demanded by the business. This functionality has bought much of the name and fame for virtual offices. But, the legit question here is:

Is it a viable option for every business environment?

Can anyone use it without having any qualms?

Well, all these questions will be answered in this post as we will enlighten you about the possible merits and demerits of the virtual office system.

Merits of having a virtual office

● No location dependency

In the world of globalization, you can’t limit your operations just because of location. Using a virtual office phone system, you can ditch the location boundaries and expand your business in every nook and corner without bearing the wrath of heavy investment involved in the process. You can buy a VoIP-based phone number and operate it from anywhere.

As it can get connected with any of the Wi-Fi or public connection networks, you can easily move out from your office or local network coverage area and perform business actions.

● Enormous cost saving

With a virtual office, you are not paying office rent, spending on furnishing, and burning funds on making it presentable. All of this saves a huge fortune for you.
If you are taking a hosted phone system onboard, more savings are on your way. You will not be bearing the regular system set-up and maintenance cost. Hence, there is no need to have a fully functional IT team for this. Your service provider will take care of it all. Your job is to avail a subscription, which is also quite affordable, and make regular payments. That’s it.

● The flexibility which will empower you

With an on-site PSTN-based office phone system, you are forced to conduct operations with a particular type of device only. If it is not working or having some technical flaws, your entire business communication system will come to a halt.

This is not the case with virtual phone systems as they are device-independent. You can start a data-rich business communication from any of the data-driven devices like mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and PC. Also, you can work from any location. This sort of flexibility supports your business and helps you grow unconditionally.

Demerits of having a virtual office

Though the merits seem quite impressive, that doesn’t imply you must overlook the demerits of a virtual office. There are some areas where you may get disappointed. Thus, being aware of them is essential before you make up your mind to become a part of your business. Here are some disadvantages of virtual offices.

● Connectivity issue.

The key player in the virtual office is internet connectivity. You transmit voice signals using your data connection. Now, certain situations like interior areas, any natural calamity, or poor signal can lead to failed successful connections. Due to this, you are likely to face issues like latency, data loss, voice break, or no connectivity.

If it’s happening often, you are going to lose many business opportunities and have high customer churn. Both are things that no business would like to face.

● Reduced personal interaction

Some of the businesses think that with a virtual office, they fail to monitor the employees’ performance. The lack of face-to-face team interaction hampers employees’ performance. However, this seems not a big issue as you can arrange a real-time video conferencing with your virtual phone system.

Though these issues are real and exist for sure, you can easily overcome them by choosing the virtual phone system from the trusted service provider. Also, ensure that you never make the final decision without having the test-network process. These two steps will surely help you curb the demerits of the virtual office system once and for all.

Which industries will benefit the most from the virtual office?

The viability of a virtual office phone system is most commendable in industries like healthcare, e-commerce, banking, and education, where a lot of customer-agent interactions are involved.

The switching of a hosted phone system will help you save a lot of time, money, and effort. It will empower your operations in every sector by bringing everything you require for hassle-free operations under one roof. However, if you are a business dealing with production and transporting, it may not be that much fruitful.

The final take

Having a virtual office by your side is the ideal thing to thrive in today’s competitive world. Without exerting high costing and maintenance burden, it allows you to expand globally. However, you must hire the trusted service provider to have hassle-free operations that are device and location independent.