Answering Service - Sending Your Customers to Voice Mail is Like Sending Them to Your Competition - By: Daljeet Sidhu

Does your business need to answer customer calls 24 hours a day? Do you find yourself answering too many calls and not have enough time to focus on your work? Are you a small business that does not need a full time receptionist or cannot afford to hire one? Do you want an assistant who can transfer important calls to you even when you are on the golf course? Is voice mail an insufficient option for your company? If you answer yes to any of the above questions, you can benefit greatly from a call answering service.

Benefits of Call Answering Services:

24-hour service: Several professionals like doctors and plumbers need to respond to calls round the clock. A call answering service is highly beneficial for such businesses. It allows you to receive and respond to calls 24 hours a day, even when your employees are out of the office. It takes down messages for you or calls you based on the criteria specified by you.

Call Screening: A call answering service helps to screen or filter calls, transferring the complicated or important calls to your employees. Service staff performs simple tasks like taking messages or providing your customers with basic information.

Business Expansion: Sudden business growth can greatly increase the number of customer calls. A call answering service can be quite useful in such situations and facilitates further expansion by saving valuable employee time that would otherwise be spent in answering calls. This time can be used to perform more important work operations.

Tips regarding hiring a phone call answering service:

Experience: A call answering service will be interacting with your customers on your behalf. Your customer satisfaction will directly be affected by the quality of the service. Therefore, always look for experience and a satisfied client list before selecting a call answering service provider.

Type of service: Answering service providers offer facilities for handling different call types from taking messages to full-fledged customer service and technical support. Carefully evaluate your requirements to select the right provider for your business.

Call Volume Estimate: Approximate estimates of call volume can help you choose the right service. Your call volume should comprise more than 5 percent and less than 50 percent of the vendor's traffic for the most effective business relationship. Seasonal changes in call volume should be a part of the estimate.

Location: Call answering service providers may have call centers all around the world. They might outsource your calls to different locations. For specific location requirements, ask your vendor about where your calls will be sent.

Pricing: Different vendors offer different pricing options like charging per minute, per call, per assignment, or per representative. Prices for basic call answering services usually vary between $0.25 and $1 per minute. Additional costs like setup fees and monthly minimums may also be a part of your contract. Analyze all the costs involved and select the best pricing for your business.

Blended Teams: When you hire a basic call answering service, your calls will usually be handled by shared agents, or people who are handling calls for different businesses at a time. These agents are also known as blended teams. For specialized requirements, you can ask for dedicated agents or representatives.

A missed call could result in a lost sale or an unhappy customer. You just cannot depend on voice mail anymore to take those important phone calls. Hire a call answering service to give your business a professional and credible appearance, and to make sure you do not miss another phone call. Make an informed decision. Before you hire a vendor, compare price quote from multiple answering services. For further information, please refer to detailed buying guide to hiring a phone answering service.

About the Author

Daljeet Sidhu is Co-founder at TradeSeam. Please see our guide to hiring an answering service. Compare telephone answering service quotes. Sellers JOIN us for sales leads.

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