Whatever your small business specializes in, you will no doubt have the need for a phone. Whether you have customers getting in touch to find out your opening hours or to chase up and order, or you have clients that you need to spend a long time talking to about the various aspects of your bespoke service, allowing customers the ability to get in touch via the phone is essential.
People like to get in touch with businesses when it suits them best. Everyone leads busy lives, and often finding a convenient time to make a phone call can be tough for some people.
Having a range of different contact options is also important to businesses. Some people will like to use quick messaging apps and social media to fire off a message to a business that they are interested in using the services of, while other people will still prefer to use an email or get on the phone and speak with someone.
Meeting the needs and preferences of your customers is vital and you will need to do everything that you can to provide as many options as possible that will suit them.
What Is A Live Answering Service?
A live answering service is a handy way of meeting the customer service demands of your business in a very cost-effective manner.
If you run a small business, your time is no doubt very precious, and the more of it that you spend answering phone calls, the less productive you may end up being. It may be that you are also missing out on calls because they come through so quick and fast that your line ends up constantly engaged.
Where small businesses may not be able to spend out for additional full-time employees to staff the phones, outsourcing your call handling to an external company that specializes in providing friendly and helpful customer service is a way of solving this problem.
By using a U.S based call answering service you will have a native English speaking live receptionist who is trained to deal with your clients professionally and politely.
A live answering service or a Virtual Receptionist is an outsourced customer service solution that offers flexibility while saving your business both time and money. You will only pay for the service and the calls that are answered on your behalf. This saves you the entire cost of an employees salary, which can be a considerable amount when it comes to the budget of a small business.
Giving Your Customers The Chance To Get In Touch
By outsourcing your customer support and using a live answering service, you will be allowing your customers the chance to get in touch. Your customers will be able to speak with someone about their query if they call up during business hours. Outside of this time, they will be able to leave messages and contact details so that they are able to get a callback as soon as someone is able to do so.
When your customers speak with a virtual receptionist through the live answering service, they will be able to ask some basic questions and get specific information which you will have supplied. For anything else, all of the customer’s details will be passed onto you so that you can get back in touch with them as soon as it is convenient.
How A Live Answering Service Helps Your Business Run Smoothly
Time is money, and there is never a case when this is more so than when you run a small to medium-sized business.
As a business leader in this situation, you may have your fingers in many pies and you will probably be very hands-on. Getting caught up on phone calls all of the time will keep you away from all of the other business-critical jobs that need to be carried out. And if the phone rings often, this can get quite frustrating and your productivity will drop as a result.
Using a live answering service to help you manage the incoming phonecalls means that you can keep yourself away from the phone. This will allow you the opportunity to get stuck into the kind of jobs that you should be doing in order to drive your business forward in a more productive fashion.
It not only removes you from the equation but other members of staff as well. If your employees are fielding unimportant phone calls rather than working on the tasks that they are supposed to it can affect both their productivity and morale. Dealing with phone calls can be a distraction and each time you are your staff take a call it will take time to refocus on the work at hand.
This increased productivity will not only lead to a more efficient and smoother run company, it will also allow you to become more profitable and ultimately to grow and develop the size and scale of your operations.
How A Live Answering Service Can Help Your Business In Other Ways
There are many other ways that a live answering service will help your business, but one of the most significant benefits that it will offer you will be in creating a lasting impression with your customers and demonstrating that you are able to deliver high-quality customer service.
The reputation of a business often hangs on its ability to handle customer service queries. If customers are left hanging on the phone line for a prolonged period of time while they wait to connect with an operator, then they will grow frustrated.
Bad experiences will get shared more than good ones. If your customers feel neglected in any way then you may find that they can be vocal about this, leading to complaints to friends and family, and across social media.
In order to minimize these complaints, you could use a live answering service. Having a virtual receptionist service to help you with all of your call handling needs will mean that you get access to highly-trained customer service agents who will be able to handle your customers with professionalism and in a friendly and helpful manner.
Using a professional live answering service will mean that you have access to call handlers who are equipped with the skills needed to speak with your customers in a calm and polite manner. They will receive regular training and their performance on calls can be monitored for improvement purposes.
Developing a long lasting connection with your customers can be a very achievable goal, particularly if you use a live answering service to assist with your customer service requirements.
In this Internet age keeping up with your competition is tougher than ever with customers and clients expecting instant gratification at all times but few businesses can afford to staff their business 24-7. Luckily the internet has also provided us with some great benefits in this case 24/7 answering service so that even when you are sleeping your calls are answered by a professional live receptionist.
As your business grows it can be difficult to maintain the same service levels as you did when you first started out. By teaming up with a live phone answering service every call your business receives will be treated in the same professional and high-quality manner.
In Conclusion
In this modern age making use of virtual receptionists or live answer services is the perfect solution for those who want to both run and grow a business while keeping overheads down and customer service quality high. A Live phone answering service will provide you with specially trained staff who you can rely on to answer all your calls in a professional manner. This means that you not only will never miss a potential business opportunity but your company will give a great first impression to new clients.
