Put yourself in your customers’ position: they have a problem and they need it fixed, ASAP. Are you more likely to sign on with the company that answered your call the first time, or the one you had to call back more than once?

common questions about answering services

You may be the expert in your field, but your next potential customer doesn’t know that yet! And if you don’t get the chance to prove your worth; or why it makes sense to work with you, versus the competition, you don’t even know what sales you’re missing out on. Hiring a professional answering service not only sends the message that you take your business seriously, but that you’ll take your customer’s business seriously as well.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of employing a professional call center, is the ability to ensure that every single customer feels valued by having their call answered. Because sometimes when it rains, it pours (quite literally) and even the most dedicated receptionist can’t take more than one call at once. Overflow call centers won’t leave your customers looking for an email or another phone number to try and get ahold of you.

The hidden benefits of outsourcing inbound calls

Hiring an inbound answering service call center for weekends, holidays and overflow calls delivers benefits you may not otherwise have considered, such as:

  1. Streamlined Operations: Just like in a restaurant, there’s a person who is dedicated to seating guests, another one for cooking their meal, and another one for serving them. Each role is important, and they all work together, but one person can’t perform all three, at least not at once, or well.
  2. Record-Keeping: Ever get off the phone with someone and then realize two hours later you completely forgot what you spoke about? That simply doesn’t happen when you have a dedicated resource answering inbound calls. All the important details of every call received will be recorded for you to look back on days, months, even years after the initial call was made.
  3. Consistency: It’s no secret that humans are creatures of habit. Having your customer’s call answered in a consistent format every time they contact your organization helps them know what to expect, which will help get things off to a good start

These are all important factors to consider when deciding whether to hire a professional answering service. Although the cost of not hiring an answering service is one that should also be considered: Being put on hold, or just having calls unanswered all eventually lead to loss of interest, bad reviews, or even a tarnished image of your company’s name (not to mention, lost revenue).

answering service benefits

Reduce missed calls during and after business hours

Do you have an inbound call center? What happens after hours? Here are a few strategies from Toky, and others, for keeping your incoming calls flowing smoothly and your customers feeling satisfied:

  1. Extend your service hours: Analyze when most of your missed calls are occurring and adjust your service hours accordingly.
  2. Enable customers to contact you through WhatsApp Business or SMS: This not only enables you to cut down on call volume, but it also gives customers the option to interact with your business via a written format, which may make some customers feel more comfortable.
  3. Dedicate specific numbers for some customers or services: If time is money, then getting your customers in touch with the correct person from the very start is a worthwhile investment.
  4. Hire an after-hours call answering service that operates outside of your normal business hours to ensure customers reach a live agent. You control the script and responses so your branding and client interface would feel seamless.

When it comes to the challenges and opportunities of missed calls, consider how important each call is to your business. Are they from long-time customers or potential new customers? Do they often leave a message for you to call them back? How quickly are you able to return their call? And what about those who don’t have the time to leave a message? Do they frequently call back or are you potentially missing out on future opportunities?

If you think your missed calls are impeding your business’s ability to grow and provide excellent customer service, reach out today. We’d love to learn more about your challenges and goals for improvement. Additionally, we recommend reading this article on the opportunity cost of missed calls if you would like to learn more about this topic.