Over the year’s there’s probably several things you’ve adopted into your business to make it more efficient. When you look back you probably think “how did we ever manage without that?”. Look at the nature of those things and usually it was when you adopted some form of technology or you outsourced a function to another company. So, can a phone answering service really be the next big step to help your business become more efficient?
What is a Phone Answering Service?
First of all its good to understand what we’re talking about here, what exactly is a phone answering service? Its not a piece of software that receives incoming phone calls and then asks people to press one for sale, two for customer service and three for another endless menu. Instead it’s an outsourced call center, where actual people answer your incoming phone calls professionally and deal with the large majority of enquiries accurately.
The staff who work for phone answering services are trained to deal with customer enquiries in a very professional manner, and when a phone call comes into them they know which company the customer is calling and also have a resource guide ready to help them answer the large majority of enquiries, or forward the call onto the right person within your business who can respond to their enquiry accurately.
The Benefits of a Phone Answering Service
If you are considering the hiring of a phone answering service, the first thing to consider is who currently answers the phone in your business? Are they trained to high standards on dealing with customers over the phone? And what if they’re busy, who answers the phone then? What are incoming non-customer calls such as sales calls preventing your employees from doing? How long does it take for the phone to get answered during peak times? What happens when a phone call comes in out of hours?
A phone answering service provides a team of highly trained individuals, who are all available to answer a call for your business in hours, or out of hours. A customer will ring your number and now get someone professional answer there call every time within a few rings and deal with their enquiry. Sales and marketing calls will be filtered out, no longer disturbing your work day.
The call experience for your customer and prospective customers will be greatly enhances because they will no hit an answer machine after ring for thirty seconds, and they won’t be met with another annoying automated system. Instead, unlike your competitors, they will be greeted by a human being who is equipped to respond to them.
Meanwhile your employees will be overjoyed that they are no longer disturbed by unnecessary phone calls, the only ones that will come through to them are customers who they have given their direct line number to, the most important ones, and any genuine enquiries which are within their area of speciality.
The benefits to your business’ efficiency are obvious.
