Do you think hiring a virtual receptionist is a bit of an overkill for your small business? Well, before you rule it out, consider this real example of a spam voicemail one of our pros received.

Behold, the “Robocall”

When our virtual receptionist answered a late afternoon call, she wasn’t surprised to hear an automated voice on the other line. For her, it was pretty standard to receive a 1-2 minute recorded call at least once a week. However this was no ordinary robotic phone call – it was an army of robot messages, each one repeating after the other. In the first two minutes, it advertised an insurance company, a Caribbean resort, and a radio station, as well as delivering multiple political messages.

You may be thinking, “what’s the harm if I can simply hang up?” If you are unlucky enough to answer the call, you could hang up. However, if you are like most busy professionals and allow it to go to voicemail, it could potentially fill your inbox and make it impossible for other callers to leave messages.

Our marathon message ended up being 60 minutes long. That’s 60 minutes of spam that our busy professional didn’t have to deal with.

Protection via Answering Services

Technology has done wonders for mankind, but it has not protected us from the productivity-draining assault of spam. Spam has been a part of our society long before the Internet. In fact, Western Union reported a spam telegraph in 1864 for a dentistry shop. The next generation figured out a way to record conversations, and by 1934, we had our first answering machine. If your business still has a fax machine today (or you remember the 90s), you’re all too familiar with having to sort out actual incoming faxes from all the spam. More than 100 years later, we are still searching for ways to prevent being hassled by unsolicited sales attempts. Smith.ai answering services are this generation’s solution.

The first line of defense is the Smith.ai virtual receptionist. He or she is able to identify sales attempts and prevent them from reaching your ear, 24/7. Your small business is now thoroughly protected from spammers – real and robotic.

Other Options for your Small Business

While using a virtual receptionist to filter out spam calls is the best way to prevent spam from ruining your productivity, there are other options. You can register your Smith.ai number with the National Do Not Call Registry, although doing so may prevent you from receiving the calls you want to know about. It’s much easier to let us handle it for you.