For anyone involved in sales, a phone answering service saves you a great deal of time; whether you are the one taking care of the sales yourself or you leave them to a sales professional team. When someone who is interested in your product/service calls in and they get greeted with an automated voice mail response it is highly likely that they will hang up and move on to the next competitor, one who will actually answer the call. This is not the case when their call is answered by a phone answering service given that they know that an actual person has taken their message and somebody will action their request. the phone answering service will capture the lead for you, process sales and even go to an extent of scheduling appointments on your behalf. This helps you to gather prospects at a faster rate and keep your sales team busy closing deals and answering relevant customer queries as opposed to looking for prospects.

When a customer leaves a voice mail or sends an email to a customer experience team, it is very easy for the details of their request to be overlooked or explained to them in an unclear manner. This can lead to lots of time wastage trying to guess the client’s exact needs and address their issues accurately and to the best of their satisfaction. With a 24-hour phone answering service, you’re able to probe allowing you to get to the core of the customers’ requests and your customer service team will have all the info they need to take prompt and decisive action in resolving the clients’ queries. If you are having a challenge in handling all the calls that come in into your business, that right there is a good problem to have as it shows that people are interested in what you have to offer. However, keeping up with all these calls can be overwhelmingly necessitating a Call Answering Service since you don’t want your clients to get frustrated every time their call goes unanswered. Getting it right when it comes to your choice of a Phone Answering Service can be tricky; here are some five helpful tips to guide you on how to choose one:

  • Put into consideration the kind of call answering services you need.
  • Consider a call centre whose team has training and experience in your specific industry.
  • Consider the call answering service providers’ availability
  • Factor in true partnership in your search.
  • Consider Simple pricing for your Call Answering Service.

Having sated these helpful tips, let us delve into each one of them expounding them in an easy to understand manner. 

  1. Put into consideration the kind of call answering services you need-

Even before you start shopping around for your call answering service provider, it is important that you identify what kind of service you need. There are many different options available depending on what you need the company to do. Their kind of services includes; bilingual answering, after hour answering, online answering services, appointment setting, order taking answering or even RSVP registrations. The answering service provider you choose, ideally, should be in a position to provide all these and probably more. It is there for a good thing to identify your exact needs since it makes your search go more smoothly 

  1. Consider a call centre whose team has training and experience in your specific industry-

You might be a lawyer who needs somebody to pick calls from some anxious clients whenever you’re in court or the owner of a property management company who needs a 24-hour call answering service to manage the numerous calls from your tenant. Whatever the case is, not only should you find a virtual receptionist but you should also find one that has experience in working with law offices or in property management respectively. This gives you peace of mind and confidence because you are sure that they will be able to handle the client’s queries as they come. In your quest, ask about the agents who will be answering the calls; do they have adequate training on the specifics of your business? Who trains them? Do they have enough training in telephone etiquette skills? Are they trained to solve problems readily? All these are questions that you need to answer and it is an easy guide on visiting how to make your choice of a call answering service provider. You can read more up on articles like the one from Zoe Training & Consulting who explains the cause of low customer satisfaction in the workplace. They can provide some insight into what you can look for in a call centre to help your company out.

  1. Consider the call answering service providers’ availability

Using a company that has at least more than one location is an aspect that many small businesses don’t consider, it is an important one nonetheless. If you partner with a virtual receptionist with only one central location, there is a high probability that your customers won’t reach your company in an incident of a power outage or any other problem that leads to a communication cut-off. It is better to work with one with multiple locations or at least one that has a clear plan on how they will continue to communicate in cases when such challenges occur. This availability guarantees that your customers are able to get in touch with your services no matter what. 

  1. Factor in true partnership in your search

At the heart of any phone answering service, lies privacy and confidentiality. Your customers are placing their trust in your business’s professionalism. This trust is hard-earned and requires that you proceed with utmost discretion. A useful tip on how to make a choice of partner is to consider if the phone answering service provider treats you as a partner and whether you can trust them to be your voice in adding value to your business. 

  1. Consider Simple pricing for your Call Answering Service-

This does not translate to cheap; what you pay for is what you get. The service provider pricing structure ought to be upfront without any surprises and easy to interpret. Let them be clear about any hidden fees, cancellation fees or extra fees when it comes to after hours and holidays. When you understand how you will be building, you will have a clear idea on how to choose the right partner.

When you hire the right phone answering service for your business, it can turn out to be one of the best decisions that you’ll make and it’s a step in the right direction towards business growth. However, before you do this, do your homework thoroughly and get equipped with as many tips as you can on how to make the right choice in your quest for a phone answering provider.