In a small firm, there was no receptionist to take the firm’s mainline calls. Instead calls were answered by a small back office team.  This presented a problem due to the pressures of people’s workloads, lunches and absences etc.  An unanswered call is potentially lost business from a prospective new client and can create a poor impression for clients and third parties.  I worked with the firm’s management, recommending they outsource the firm’s mainline calls to a virtual reception company.  Outsourcing the calls to the service provider improved the response time of answering of calls and caller perception tremendously.  The firm also went from only being able to answer calls during core business hours each working day, to 24 hours a day 365 days a year.  The cost of outsourcing was low, freed up the admin team and improved the service provided to clients and staff.  This is a great example of a low-cost solution to a service problem resulting in significant operational improvements.