Are you and the boss tired of losing valuable new customers and dealing with the headache of inefficient communication caused by an overwhelming number of phone calls coming into the business every day? Worse, a missed call is a missed opportunity that will never likely resurface again. Most potential clients who don’t get their calls answered instantly and efficiently won’t call back, won’t leave a message, and definitely won’t recommend you to their friends!
In fact, the only people who will call back is those who have a bone to pick, and trust me, every call they have to make – every number they call – every rep they have to speak to is doing nothing toward resolving their issue! All in all, to be competitive in our current market, businesses simply cannot afford to let the phone ring, even when office hours are over.
Here’s a few solid facts to help convince the boss that it’s time to hire a phone answering service to handle all your incoming calls.
They’re VERY cost effective
Consider how your boss will react when you tell her about the tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands a year they’ll save in salaries when the company outsources their call answering. Breaking down the hiring process, it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 – 4,000 to recruit and train an employee, plus upwards of $30,000 in yearly salary to keep them on. You also have to pay them extra for working overtime, holidays, and offer other kushy benefits to be competitive and keep them around.
There’s just no way to compare this cost with that of a monthly subscription to a telephone answering service, some starting in the double digits for 24/7 – 365 days a year call answering!
Answering the phone is their actual profession
Ever called a business and spoke with someone who was obviously overwhelmed and flustered? Pretty much everyone in the free world has experienced this and it can be avoided. There’s only so many minutes in the day for you and your employees to get work done, and one phone call after another seriously depletes that time!
Employees who work for call answering services are trained to do one specific job, and do it well. Answer phones, filter calls, and take messages. Not run around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to balance a dozen different things while answering customer inquiries.
A call answering service offers multiple lines of communication
Many of us still remember, and perhaps continue to use the old multi-line office phone. The trouble is, you still have to have someone in the office to answer and direct those calls. Not only is this costly, but you still need to have a poor overworked receptionist on hand to deal with this problem. Or worse, rely on whomever is closest to the phone at any given time to answer calls professionally, then direct them to the right employee while ensuring the customer doesn’t wait a second longer on hold than they should.
This is no easy task for budget and efficiency minded startups and growing SMEs in the digital era. A call answering service can have as many lines of communication as you want – in a fully mobile global format – so no matter where you are or who’s in the office at any given time, calls are dealt with instantly.
Call answering services offer “intrusion-free” notifications
Consider this age-old office scenario: The boss is neck deep in work – he has two hours left at the end of an 18-hour day to catch up on all the expense reports for the month, before leaving on a much deserved two-day weekend. He ‘might’ just have enough time to get it done and meet the wife and kids at the cottage before the sun goes down – only calls are coming in fast and furious and the intern keeps forwarding those calls to him as “each call is important.”
With a live answering service, the boss can have messages taken, transcribed and emailed or texted directly to their phone without the interruption of having to take a call or talk to the office receptionist. Calls can be filtered by number, contact name, and message priority so the boss can get their work done and get home in time for supper.
Digital answering services are push-button – no extra equipment required!
One of the worst things about an in-office phone answering queue is all the wires and clunky answering machines, etc. With the invention of the cloud and ever-improving call management dashboards, there’s no need to go out and buy a bunch of electronic junk that clutters up your office. You also don’t need to go out and purchase additional phone numbers for the sales, fulfillment, customer service, or accounting department.
With a digital phone answering service, calls are routed according to the client’s input via an automated menu, meaning in most cases they’ll get to the department they need faster and calls will be handled much quicker, with zero need for more infrastructure on your end. Call diversion is also a cakewalk: You can forward incoming calls to any local phone numbers that you set-up.
Call answering services actually improve customer acquisition and retention
There are a thousand-and-one examples of customers voicing how fed up they are with automated call answering systems. So, it’s easy to be disillusioned into thinking automating the actual answering process might be a disservice to them. However, 78% of customers polled in an American Express survey from a few years ago claimed to have abandoned a transaction due to poor service – generally related to increased handling time and poor call resolution.
Ten to twenty minutes on hold may not seem like much, but it adds up quickly to a whopping 13 hours of lost time every year for the average consumer. Fact is, when calls are answered right away, routed to the right person, and the customer gets off the phone more quickly, service levels go WAY up.
Parting Thoughts
Let’s face it, your company already wastes enough time and money as it is. Considering the value of each phone call coming into your business, from answering presales inquiries, to problem solving and many others; a digital phone answering service can solve a lot of logistical problems quickly and at a reduced cost of hiring a physical employee.
