Category: Telecommunications

There are several benefits of partnering with an answering service. If you are already convinced of the various benefits of 24-hour answering services and are now looking to choose one, here is a list of some of the essential parameters you need to consider to make the right choice. Remember that there are several answering services, but not everyone is the right fit for you. Pay attention to these tips to choose the right partner for your business.

Training of Staff

The most important thing you need to look at is the training they offer to the staff who will answer the phone. You need to make sure that the team is trained in the specifics of your business. You’d also want to find out whether they take bilingual calls and their knowledge about your industry. For example, healthcare answering services require different knowledge than an HVAC answering service, regarding being HIPAA compliant.

Needless to say, they need to have adequate telephone etiquette skills and they should be problem solvers. The place also needs to have clearly defined quality assurance practices to ensure that all the agents adhere to standard procedures.

Types of Services Offered

It is recommended to choose a service provider that offers a variety of services and the answering service. For instance, you might want to use them for call screening, appointment setting, call forwarding, as a virtual receptionist, and other applications. In short, do not choose an answering service that only offers a particular service. Instead, choose a provider that also offers a variety of other services in addition to the answering service. It will make it easy for you to use the same provider if you need other services in the future.

You also need to make sure that they are flexible and offer variable coverage, 24-hour coverage, overage coverage, or seasonal answering assistance, among other things. In short, they should match your business requirements.

Transparent Pricing

Transparent does not mean cheap. You are always going to get what you pay for. If you opt for a cheap service, your customers might not remain happy, which means you will lose out on business. Therefore, it’s essential to make sure that you partner with a service with adequately trained agents and transparent pricing.

The pricing should be clear about setup fees, cancellation fees, or any other fees you are required to pay. It would be best if you also considered how you’re going to be billed. For instance, some service providers charge per call, whereas others charge by the minute. The definition of a call also differs with different service providers. Find out the charges for overage minutes and any other features you have to pay for in addition to the standard pricing. All these should be clear right initially and should not be buried somewhere deep in the fine print.

Conclusion

These are some of the essential parameters you need to look at carefully in order to make the right choice when it comes to partnering with a 24-hour answering service. Ensure they have backup procedures, emergency processes, and redundancy plans to ensure that they can deliver their services at all times. After all, you depend on them to keep your business steady.

If you’re looking for an answering service that you can count on and trust, but you’re not predicting a massive volume of calls to be coming in, then choosing a pay per call answering service could be the perfect option for you.

In this guide, we’re going to show you some of the unique advantages that using a pay per call answering service can provide for you and your company, so you will soon understand whether this is the right solution.

First of all, it’s easy to see that different companies are likely to have vastly different needs when it comes to receiving phone calls, so if you’re only expected to have the occasional inquiry from a customer, then choosing a pay per call option is the best move to make.

Of course, many of the best companies who provide these services will offer you some degree of flexibility, so if your needs are likely to change as your company grows, then you can always upgrade your package at a reasonable rate. But if you’re only expecting a small volume of calls, then a pay per call service is often a fantastic way to give your customers the impeccable service they need without sacrificing too much on your customer service budget.

Just as you’d expect, it’s wise to pick a company that offers availability that suits your customers. In many cases, a pay per call answering service will still be able to provide you with 24/7 coverage, and this is ideal for companies who may be receiving calls at any time of the night or day from their customers. It also gives your customer a great deal of convenience, too.

But even though you will be using an answering service, it’s wise to make sure that the service operators still give you a high level of availability, as you don’t want your caller to be left waiting for too long.

Fortunately, many of the best companies will give you a guaranteed answering time which offers you some degree of assurance to know your customers won’t be disappointed when they call you. In general, it’s best to ensure nobody is waiting for more than 1 to 2 minutes, and the faster the call is answered, the better it reflects on your own company. Overall, it’s worth paying a little extra to ensure your calls get picked up in a timely manner.

Furthermore, you may want to examine whether the company is available on a multilingual basis, especially if you have international customers who may not be comfortable using English as their primary language. Not only can having a multilingual option keep your customers happy, but it can also ensure the answered phone calls are more accurate, with fewer language discrepancies throughout the call. Ultimately, this may be an absolute prerequisite if you’re dealing with an international client base.

It’s often the case that pay-per-call answering services will include some form of recording, and this allows you to check up on what has been said as well as get a better understanding for particular customer issues that may need to be solved by your company itself. It’s wise to check how long the answering service will keep these messages for, and what kind of access they can provide to you when it comes to playing them back.

Conclusion

In summary, choosing a pay per call answering service is often a wise move for any company that’s looking to provide unparalleled customer service to their customers, but without running up a massive customer service bill. The pay per call support solution offers an excellent, cost-effective method for giving customers what they need and many small businesses often use it to significant effect.