What are Professional Answering Services?

What are Professional Answering Services?

Life happens regardless of whether you’re best uses for professional answering services in the office. People need information, whether it’s sales inquiries, product support, or directions. Making sure they have the ability to contact your organization when they need your services is extremely important. At first, it’s easy to keep up with all of the incoming calls, but as time goes on and the volume of calls increases, it can get harder to keep up. That’s where a professional answering service comes in. Answering services aren’t new, but the capabilities have evolved in recent years. Answering services can be beneficial in just about any industry where good quality customer service is a vital part of the business model.

What are professional answering services?

A professional answering service allows your customers to reach a live representative of your organization at any time, day or night. Professional answering services can take and screen calls, provide basic information and pass on prospect or customer messages. Good answering services also have the ability to streamline your inbound call processes, provide product/service support or assist in managing appointment schedules. In general, an answering service helps your organization stay in contact with prospects, clients and associates when you or your staff are not available.

Professional answering services let your customers know that you really care about them. Any business can use automated voice-mail systems to take and route messages. Unfortunately, automated answering services often end up frustrating callers; and a large percentage of callers these days won’t even bother to leave a recorded message.

A live answering service allows callers to talk to somebody who can help them with their specific needs or at least manage their expectations as to next steps. A person is always better at meeting someone’s particular needs, which is why more businesses are opting for live professional answering services. Customers really appreciate the option to talk to a live representative, even if they don’t always take advantage of it.

What are the benefits?

Quality answering services are a tremendous help to service driven businesses. Answering services can give customers what they’re looking for without having to staff in-house customer service representatives 24/7 or obligating other staff members to rush to the phone if they’re busy doing something else.

Having a good professional answering service in place can help put an end to problems such as disorganization and constant interruptions. This service allows calls to be answered at any time, which means that customers feel that your organization really does care about their needs. In addition, call answering can be tailored to fit the specific needs of your business. You can opt for after-hours, overflow, holiday support, or full-time 24/7/365 answering. The call scripting, dispatch methods, and call reporting are all set up to provide optimal support to your unique requirements.

If you’re considering using a professional answering service, it’s important to consider your business’ needs and which of these fits those needs the best.

How do I know if my business needs an answering service?

If you’re considering using a professional answering service, here are some questions to ask yourself:

  • Does your business have trouble keeping up with the phone calls coming in?
  • Is answering the phone getting in the way of important work?
  • Does your office handle messages appropriately?
  • Do you and/or your staff travel frequently?
  • Are you missing potential revenue opportunities by not answering the phones after-hours?
  • Would messages dispatched via e-mail or text be more efficient than dialing into your voice-mail box several times a day?
  • Does your company recieve a large number of inbound phone calls on a daily basis?

Answering these questions can help you determine if you’re able to keep up with your phone calls appropriately or if you may need some help from a professional answering service. If you do need assistance, hiring a quality answering service may be your best option.

By outsourcing your calls to an answering service, you can minimize costs while maintaining your business’ quality customer care. Using an answering service means never missing a call and never missing an opportunity to better serve your clients.

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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Using A Quality Answering Service to Improve User Experience
Service Businesses: 24/7 Answering May be Just What You Need