Who do you contact if you have a question regarding a product return policy? Booking a clinic or business appointment? Cleaning services, maybe? You make a call, right? Telephone answering services have significantly increased both locally and internationally over the past few years. Particularly for small businesses, services like call answering are increasingly pretty common.
Many people remain doubtful about the advantages a phone answering service delivers to small and large enterprises despite all the success and growth observed after using such a service. Humans prefer to speak to humans. Clients, consumers, and patients often become irritated and hang up when they receive a voicemail or an auto-attendant.
Do you know that missed or unanswered calls result in reduced revenue and even worse overall client satisfaction? In fact, according to surveys, one out of every three business calls is missed. That amounts to a third of your customers' unanswered calls, which can affect your company's reputation, brand, and sales.
With this basis, a phone answering service that accepts incoming calls on your account is an essential tool for improving communications, streamlining processes, and boosting revenue. You're missing out on great opportunities to build relationships with consumers and clients and expand your business if you use an automated system to handle phone calls.
Table of Contents
• What Example Industries Utilize an Answering Service?
• Captures more Business Opportunities
• Boost Productivity
• 24/7 Support
• Make a Positive Impression
• Reduce Business Expenses
• Maintain a Professional Image
What Example Industries Utilize an Answering Service?
Answering services are used by businesses of various shapes and sizes, from little startups with a few staff members to large corporations with thousands of employees. It exists in even one-person offices.
• Product manufacturers
• Realtors
• Event planners
• Physicians
• Dentists
• Veterinarians
• Churches and other religious-based groups
• Legal consultants
• Electricians
• Janitorial/Cleaning services
Think about the following six business perks of live call answering:
Captures more Business Opportunities
You will get a call by working with a phone answering service. Anyone in business is aware that sometimes it takes one phone call to close the deal you've been waiting to make or to delight a loyal client who might become your biggest supporter.
If someone attempts to call your company and no one picks up, it's detrimental to your brand and can suggest that you don't value customer business. On the other hand, it speaks highly of your company if a call is answered by a highly professional, competent receptionist who has years of experience and relevant industry knowledge. You won't ever have to worry about disappointing a customer since you can work in the confidence that a professional receptionist is available to answer your calls.
Boost Productivity
Every call is an opportunity to provide excellent customer service and boost sales, but sometimes picking up the phone can be an unpleasant distraction that you just don't have time for. And interruptions may be a serious challenge for a small business owner or a solopreneur, especially when you're in the middle of a meeting or working on a big project.
A phone answering service takes messages when you're not available, and prevents unpleasant sales calls. This allows you and your team to concentrate on the essential tasks at hand while still meeting the needs of your customers and clients.
24/7 Support
Any business has to provide excellent customer service as it is critical for company growth. Additionally, offering excellent customer service might provide you with a significant competitive advantage.
Keeping a dedicated team of customer service representatives available around the clock can help you provide the customized experience that both new and returning customers so greatly value.
Being accessible outside usual business hours is also very beneficial to your clients. Despite the growing trend of working shifts, many people find it more convenient to get in touch with a company in the evenings or on the weekends.
Make a Positive Impression
Live call answering promotes both word-of-mouth marketing and excellent customer service. Most of the customers say they will tell others about the good customer service they received. The number of potential prospects contacting your company increases for each caller who interacts with a helpful, knowledgeable business person.
Of course, there's a good chance that if someone has a bad experience contacting your business—if they can't get through or get an unhelpful machine—they'll also tell their friends, family, and coworkers about it.
Reduce Business Expenses
You might think that using a live phone answering service will increase your small business's expenses. But in fact, it can enable you to make financial savings. You can save money by not paying for missed calls and lost business by having someone answer your calls. Additionally, you can save money by not paying for additional employees to take care of your phone calls.
Maintain a Professional Image
One of the first things potential clients will take into consideration when choosing you is your business image. You want them to have the best image of your business possible whether they are calling to ask about your services or to place an order. By making sure that every caller is warmly welcomed and instantly assisted, a live phone answering service may assist you in creating a professional image. You can also include details about your company in your greeting, including your operating hours or a brief description of what you do.
The bottom line is that it's important to remember that calls are also an extension of the business. There are millions of people who want to speak with someone in charge, but they're not getting through. You need to demonstrate that you're ready to take care of them and make them feel valued the same way that you build confidence in managing your business well from calls to strategy, operations, and customer service.
Hopefully, this article has helped you decide if a live call answering service is the right choice for your small business if you're still undecided. There are plenty of advantages to using one of these services, and with the market's increasing competitiveness, it's more vital than ever to deliver good customer service if you want to maintain a competitive advantage.
