If you have a start-up or small business, then you may not have enough money in your budget to hire employees whose only responsibility is to answer telephone calls. However, it is important that your company’s telephones are answered when other people are busy with other tasks or speaking with clients. To keep from missing calls because no one is available to answer the telephone, you should hire a live answering service.
Why Hire an Answering Service?
If calls to your business are not answered within a few seconds, most callers will hang up and move onto the next business that provides the services or products they want. Even if the calls go to voicemail, over 80% of callers will not leave a message, but will hang up instead. Missing phone calls can mean missing out on sales and losing loyal customers for your business.
Answered by Live People
Instead of allowing your calls to roll over to voicemail when no one is available to answer the telephones, live agents will answer those calls when you hire a telephone answering service. The agents can be trained to answer simple questions about your business, or they can take messages from your clients and other callers. By having live people answering your calls, clients will be more likely to leave a message and their reason for calling, so you will lose fewer sales.
Answered at Any Time
Not only will you not miss calls during your normal business hours, but your telephones will also be answered on holidays and after hours. The answering service can either take messages for you to deal with the next day, or it can direct calls to another number of your choosing. If your business handles emergency calls, then the agent can direct the call to your mobile phone so you can respond to the emergency.
Resolves Staffing Issues
If you don’t have the budget to hire additional staff or if you’ve had people call in sick, then the answering service can help prevent a loss of productivity by ensuring that your telephones are promptly answered. You won’t miss any important phone calls, and messages can be forwarded to you when your attention is needed. The service can send calls to your landline, your mobile or your company’s voicemail as you request.
Fits Budgets
With many answering services, you can either sign a contract for yearly services or you can hire the service on a monthly basis. This allows you to hire the service when you need the extra help with answering telephone calls. Or you can use it year round instead of hiring personnel to answer your telephones. By hiring an answering service, you can use the capital you would have spent on equipment, furniture and hiring personnel on other aspects of your business.
When you hire an answering service, the agents are ready to go to work right away answering your telephones. They can direct your calls to you or take messages so you never miss any calls.
