Big companies feel more stable. There's something about them that screams "reliable". This is exactly what you want to be, but you're actually a small business. Don't fret. You can punch above your weight with a few simple changes in your business. None of these changes cost a lot of money, but they will make you look more professional and will streamline your operations.

Use Automated Tel Services

Large corporations always have an 800-number. Toll-free numbers mean that you accept phone calls from all over the country. This is a good image to project - especially if you really want to receive calls from all over the U.S.

While there are many expensive services out there, with gobs of features, you shouldn't have to pay more than $10 or $20 per month for a good toll-free number. Get a bona-fide "1-800" number if you can. There's technically nothing wrong with an "888" or "877" number, but "800" is the oldest toll-free prefix and it looks like you've been around for a while.

A good toll-free service should be paired with an automated attendant. Most toll-free service providers offer this as part of the phone service package. The phone attendant will take your call and route it to any number you choose. This means you can keep your existing local number and have all calls routed there, or have them routed to your cell phone.

Those automated phone attendants have another great feature: they let your callers choose what extension they want to be routed to. If you have several employees, each one handling a different aspect of the business, then the automated attendant can route calls to the appropriate person without hiring a front-desk person.

The automated service also takes calls after hours and will record messages for you when you're out of the office. Finally, many of these services are paired with a voice-to-fax service that will re-route incoming faxes to your email so you can print them out as needed or file them electronically.

Outsource Customer Service

Big companies always have a large customer service department. You might not be able to afford to hire in-house staff of that size. It's OK. Outsource your customer service or sales department. Coupled with an automated attendant, this can make you look like an international corporation. A lot of big companies actually do outsource at least some of their customer service to places like India. You don't have to do that, but any outsourcing would be following in the footsteps of some of the largest companies out there.

Use Automated Scheduling

Companies like TimeTrade have built an entire business out of automated scheduling. With an automated scheduler, your customers and prospects can go right to your website, schedule a meeting with any of your staff, and receive an email confirmation of the appointment. It looks like a pretty savvy server-based calender program that a larger, sophisticated, company would have. In actuality, many small businesses use automated scheduling to improve work flow and manage appointments so that there aren't any embarrassing overlaps in scheduling.

Regardless of the solutions you decide on, one key thing to remember is that large companies often employ technology to improve some process. Study big-name competitors in your industry. What are they doing? Model your processes after them, and you'll look as big as they are.

Author Bio:
Scott Quinlan is a business branding consultant. His articles mainly appear on small business and upstart blogs where he loves sharing his knowledge. For more branding ideas, check out the impact bronze signage, visit the link.