The Cheapest After Hours Answering Service

The Cheapest After Hours Answering Service

It happened again.  Someone called in for after hours answering services and the first wordsafter hours answering service pricing out of their mouth were ‘I just want to know your pricing’.  Of course my first thought was to reply  ‘Why? Is what you do really cheap?’  But instead, I opted for the safer route and let them know I would be happy to provide pricing information, I just needed to ask some questions first.

Me: “Do you currently use an answering service?”

Caller:Yes.”

Me:What is the reason you are looking at other services?”

Caller:Well, they just make too many mistakes. Also, we’ve gotten complaints from
our clients about how the phones are answered.  Finally, we spend too much time
trying to address their errors.”

Me:  “Have you talked about these issues with them?”

Caller:Yes.  They say they will fix it but the issues don’t get better…”

I have conversations that start this way on a regular basis.  Obviously the price is going to be an important part of any transaction, but when you are engaging a service that will interact directly with your clients and prospects, you better be asking about a lot more than just price.

The Oversimplification of Service

As humans, we tend to oversimplify those things in which we are not directly involved.  To help my kids understand some of the different professions out there, I will ask them what a person’s role is whenever we are about to utilize their service.  For example, we had a scheduled doctor’s visit and I asked my son what a doctor does.  His reply “They make people better when they are sick”.  I asked a similar question when we needed some plumbing work done at our home.  His reply “they fix broken pipes and stuff”.

This oversimplification of services helps our brain to easily categorize things into different groups, but it is not helpful in a decision making process when you may be looking at very different prices from seemingly similar service providers.  I did have two different plumbers look at our home project, and my son was very confused when I went with the plumber with the higher price.  He asked me why I paid more for the same service and I said “Because I want it done right – and I don’t want to have to worry about it after it was done.”

Value vs. Price

A lot of organizations fall victim to this oversimplification when they look at business services; and especially answering services.  I have heard on multiple occasions comments like “it’s just answering phones, how hard can it be?”  Of course, being directly involved in it, we look at very differently.  We are providing mission critical, 24/7/365 support to several hundred businesses and we regularly invest in our people, processes and technology to ensure we can provide the best possible service for our clients.  Like in most businesses, there are a great number of shortcuts we could take to cut costs and offer lower prices, but we don’t take them because those cuts would cause a decrease in service levels.

Cheap Prices Cost You More

In the call example above, the caller wanted all of his issues fixed, but he didn’t want to pay any more money for the service.  I told him he wouldn’t be, he would actually be saving money.  He said “but your prices are higher – how would I be saving money?”  I then asked him how many new business opportunities he thinks he might have missed because of inaccurate messages or caller frustration.  “A few”, he said.  I asked him how much time he and his employees spent addressing errors caused by his current service.  “Too much” was his reply.  In my next question, I asked him what his best lead source was. “Referrals”, he proudly said.  I then asked, if he had an answering service that did NOT cause several customer complaints, would it be safe to assume more referrals would come in?  “Yeah, probably” he said.

The conversation went on with more questions along the same line, then I asked him to add up all of those items and let me know if he would be saving and/or making more money by using a higher quality service.  Begrudgingly, he said “Okay, probably a good bit more”.   The oversimplification phenomena, as noted above, makes us want to fit everything in a nice neat box, but if we are able to look outside of the basic pricing/budget boxes that we use in our daily business efforts – we can make some of those connections that help us run a stronger organization.

We Try Harder

In regards to answering services, it is not possible to guarantee 100% accuracy on every message, or that each call can be answered by the first ring.  But we try harder than most to do just that. We work well with other businesses that also try harder and recognize the value of striving for quality service on a consistent basis.  The next time you’re faced with having to choose between two service providers (whatever those services may be) don’t forget to ask the lower priced provider why they have a cheaper price – it may just be they don’t try as hard.

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

Or visit our Contact Us page.

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