For a long time now, we have been able to work remotely, all our systems were online, our phones were diverted or answered by an outside source. When Covid struck and we were asked to “Lockdown” we had no issue with that.
However, a large number of companies found it difficult at first to adjust out of the office, but I think it was safe to say that the majority of businesses found a way to work away from the office. There has always been platforms such as Teams and Zoom as well as many more but all of a sudden we realised we had a new way of corresponding with our work colleagues.
Now we are being encouraged to get back to the office and trying to create a safe environment to work in for our colleagues, but do we really need to be back in the office and what is the value of the office?
It would be so easy for us to say we don’t need an office, nobody is bothered as we work nationally and internationally recovering debt for businesses. We have operatives all over the UK as well as all over the globe but who cares that we have an office in South Manchester?
For one we are proud to have worked from South Manchester for the last twenty years and created an international business though at times it has been frowned upon that we were not based in London, but we fought to keep our northern roots and proved that there is no reason why you can’t be based in Manchester and work for companies all over the UK.
However, there is another reason we don’t want to relinquish our office, business address and our land-based phone line. For us it shows we have do have roots, we are a solid company with base for our identity, we have a landline so our clients feel secure that they are dealing with a legitimate business that plans to be around for a while. We believe it is important for us to be visible and transparent.
But the real question is how do your potential clients feel when they are doing their due diligence on you to see whether they should deal with you. So often nowadays when we are looking for a business we find that there is no address on their web site and the phone number is a mobile one. For us that is no problem as we trace people and businesses each and every day but if you are thinking of using a business for the first time what does that say to you?
Is there an answer to this?
Yes there is, if you still want to work from home there are lots of virtual addresses locally at co-working spaces and similar that can be used and you can set up a network of offices across the UK but that can be costly.
There is also no reason why a business can does not have a landline with either a local number or a national number. VOIP phone systems can be as small as one line sat on your desk and diverted to either a call handler or your mobile number for a small amount each month.
These very small and cost-effective measures can show your clients and prospective clients that you are showing a commitment you have a base with a land line no one ever needs to know that you work from home using your mobile.
Though this blog is there to create comment what are your thoughts?
