Live answering services have come a long way in recent years, perhaps culminating with the advent of virtual receptionist services for small businesses. Many companies might not be able to afford an in-house receptionist; or these days you may run your business from your home or virtually. A virtual receptionist service can help maintain an image of having on-site staff, even if you don't have a brick-and-mortar office. And answering services do one better than an in-house employee: every call is answered by a live person - no breaks, lunches or vacations that could leave clients talking to a cold voicemail box (or worse, your competitor).

You may have used an answering service for your small business for years, but are you taking advantage of all the features available today? Here are just a few you might want to mull over when reevaluating your phone answering service:

Live call transferring. Some call answering services only have the ability to take messages; however, many virtual receptionists are able to transfer calls to you live. They can even let you know who's on the line before transferring so that you can accept or decline the call.

Messaging options. Does your answering service email your messages to you? Do they text them to you? Both? What about voicemail messages? Some services can even email .wav recordings of your voicemail messages so you don't have to dial in to retrieve them. And of course, each employee in your company can personalize their instructions and set what types of information to gather in messages.

Whereabouts updates. A few virtual receptionist services can keep track of your whereabouts, making them sound more like a part of your team. By sending a quick email or making a phone call (or even through an iPhone app!), you can let your virtual receptionist service know when you have a temporary change to your call handling instructions. For example, if you're headed into a meeting or working off your cell for the rest of the day, send a simple note, and your virtual receptionists will keep your callers in the loop.

Outbound calls. Can your live answering service make return calls on your behalf? In addition to handling your incoming calls with care, some services can also place calls on your behalf to relay or gather information or to confirm appointments. These calls can save you time, make you more productive and add even more professionalism to your business.

Detailed call reports. Your answering service may have a customer portal through which you can access your call records. Some services provide lots of information in these portals such as info gathered during the course of the call (whether it was transferred or not), caller ID info, and the ability to look up old messages. There are even a few virtual receptionist services that show you your overall usage for the month so far, a feature where you can download contacts directly into your email client or smartphone as well as different report views and the ability to export your records to Excel.

Friendliness. Of course, the most important feature of any virtual answering service is the human element. Make a few test calls to your service and listen to whether the person representing your business is friendly and professional. The best virtual receptionists will be courteous and kind and sound just like a salaried employee (or better!). Because at the end of the day, your customers will appreciate a warm smile and a helpful offer of assistance more than any of the cool tech specs your service might offer.