Is Your Call Handling Service Growing Your Revenue?

Why do organizations engage a call handling service?  If you said “to answer the phone” you would be wrong.  Anyone can answer a phone, but it is interesting to note that, even in the world of business professionals, only a small percentage actually answer their phones in a manner consistent with best practices for phone etiquette and verbal communications.

The Real Reason for Call Handling  Services

The phone has been around for a long time and is all-too-often taken for granted.  Business organizations assume that employees know how to handle phone calls and little effort is put forth in training or even identifying and correcting issues when it comes to the management of inbound phone calls.  When an organization does recognize the need to improve their process, we try to help them identify their number one priority for making a change.  Obviously there can be many reasons to engage a call handling service, but by far the top three we get on a consistent basis are revenue growth, client retention and management of labor costs.

Handling Revenue Growth

How much business do you lose by poor call management?  Put another way, how many of your prospect, client or patient calls:  A. go through an annoying voice-menu system, B. are answered by a voice-mail prompt, or C. are answered by an employee distracted by his or her numerous daily tasks and deliverables?  We have had a number of clients over the years who were shocked at their jump in revenue after engaging our services simply because they did not realize the extent of opportunities missed because of A, B or C above.  If your product or service offerings are from several hundred to several thousand dollars, correcting even just a few ‘poorly managed’ calls per month can add significantly to your revenue generation efforts.

Client Retention Services

Although connected to revenue, client retention can stand by itself as a primary reason to engage a call handling service.  For many service driven businesses, the cost to acquire a new client is several times that of retaining existing ones.  In this capacity, a call handling service can be an excellent resource in helping to manage client expectations on a 24/7/365 basis.  If you can appear to your clients to ‘always be there for them’ when they need you, they will have much less of a desire to seek a replacement service, or even respond to attempts by your competitors to take their business from you.  When a prospect or client takes the time to pick up the phone and call your office, they simply want their issue addressed, or at least understand the next step in the process to getting their issue addressed.   Engaging a polite, friendly and helpful answering service can help you do just that for your callers no matter when they call.

Better Management of Labor Costs

The third major reason for utilizing call handling services is improving management of labor costs.  Small businesses often reach a point where they need help with the phones, but may not have the resources to hire additional staff.  Growing medical providers may have certified office personnel or even nurses answering the phone, when this may not be the best use of their time, especially in consideration of their pay grade.  Even large businesses that may have their own switchboard or internal call centers can have the need for overflow or after-hours services to manage busier periods or those times when staff for those services are in transition.  The point is every business has its own unique needs when it comes to answering the phone; and in many cases an outsourced communications partner in the form of a quality call handling service can help those companies reduce labor costs or free up existing internal human resources for higher priority tasks.

A Lot Has Changed – Take the Time

When was the last time you took a strategic look at how inbound calls are handled at your offices?  Whether you currently use an answering service or not, social media, smart-phones and new technologies are rapidly changing the ways (and times of day!) in which we communicate.  The companies that focus on providing the best user experience to their clients and prospects will reap continued success; and direct, human-to-human voice communication, at the right times, will continue to be a key part of that experience for the foreseeable future.

To learn more about Main Line TeleCommunications, please download our free guide:
Free: 10 Tips For Choosing a Telephone Answering Service

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Related Links:
Call Handling Service is Integral Part of the New Communications Mix
Improving Operations with a National Answering Service
Smart Businesses Add Call Handling Services to Their Arsenal