Build Better Business with an After Hours Answering Service

Posted October 3, 2012 in after hours answering service, small business by admin

Your clients and prospects want one thing more than anything else – they want you to be there when they really need you. For many decades the previous statement applied only to ‘normal business hours’ for a large majority of businesses. However, in the last decade there has been such a significant upsurge in digital and mobile communications methods, that ‘normal business hours’ has really lost its meaning, regardless of the size of your business.

Work More vs. Work Smarter

To stay competitive, many business owners and executives end up working longer hours, using their mobile devices and cell phones to keep working well into the evening and over weekends. Unfortunately, this practice usually has adverse consequences: 1. You end up getting overworked, without proper time to recharge your batteries and your performance, attitude and quality of service begin to suffer. 2. The more clients and associates that realize you are personally available at all hours, the more they will engage you, until it reaches a breaking point and important client issues are missed, causing lost revenues.

It’s Okay to Outsource This

A properly structured after hours answering service can address these issues and help you communicate more effectively with your clients and prospects, even if they don’t always talk directly to your you or your employees. When a client has an issue significant enough to warrant a phone call, they simply want immediate assurance that their issue will be addressed, and they want to know with certainty what the next step will be (your voice-mail gives them neither of these). When a prospect calls, they have likely visited your website or have been referred to you, and they want a live person to give them assurance they called the right organization as well as what the next step(s) would be to address their inquiry (again, your voice-mail does neither of these).

Customize to Your Specific Needs

A customized after hours answering service provides live operators that understand your business, know the right questions to assist your callers, and can prioritize those calls to ensure urgent situations are properly addressed. When clients are forced to leave a voice-mail, they receive no assurance and their uncertainty can lead to anxiety while awaiting your return call. When prospects reach voice-mail, they feel frustration and might not leave a message at all – so missing those calls can often mean missing new revenue opportunities. Using live operators after hours give your business the ability to ‘always be there’ for your clients and prospects, even if no one is physically in the office. This enhanced communications model significantly reduces the potential to create uncertainty in the minds of clients and prospects, and gives the business owners and executives the confidence that all calls will be handled appropriately even when the office is closed.

Okay, Now What?

The ‘upsurge in digital and mobile communications’ as mentioned above has really garnered a lot of attention lately and many companies are scrambling to establish a better social media plan, digital communication strategy or other headline grabbing project. Because of this, after hours answering services are often overlooked as part of a comprehensive communications plan. However, for many service driven businesses, live answering services offer a strong competitive advantage for a minimal investment compared to many of those headline grabbing projects. If you have not seriously considered an after-hours service in the past, or if the service you used was not customized to your unique business needs, it may be time for further investigation.

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