7 Ways An Answering Service Puts Money Back Into Your Pocket

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Answering services get dismissed by business owners due to the initial cost. Yet, partnering with one is an investment that will pay for itself repeatedly.

One huge benefit of answering services: they provide all your customers with a live person on every call. But there’s more.

Answering service agents help with tasks like event registration, order processing, and appointment scheduling.

The best part: they offer all these incredible benefits while actively saving you money in several different ways. Here are seven ways an answering service will put more money back into your pocket.

1. Drive Down (or Eliminate) Training Costs

Plenty of businesses hire a receptionist to handle the bulk of incoming calls. These employees require significant amounts of training.

This takes time out of your day, and costs a big chunk of cash— the average cost of training an employee is estimated to fall between $1200-$1800 for small businesses.

Hiring an answering service allows you to forget about the time and money you would have spent on recruiting, interviewing, and hiring a new receptionist.

2. Helps Cut Back on Customer Service Costs

Your customer service department can be downsized, as answering services handle many basic customer needs, including booking appointments, providing help desk support, and addressing customer emergencies.

As your business grows, it’s only natural that your needs for more customer service support will increase. With an answering service, your team remains the same size while meeting all your customers’ needs effortlessly.

3. 24/7 Accessibility Means No Missed Customers

Thanks to the internet and advanced in mobility, customers not only expect but demand immediacy.

Answering services provide customers with 24/7 accessibility to your business, allowing you to meet all you’re their needs at any hour.

This constant accessibility means that you’ll never miss a single phone call. You’ll be more likely to get business from new clients, and to improve your client retention rates.

4. You’ll Out-Perform Your Competition

The professionalism a high-quality answering service gives your business will make your business stand out, earning you more business.

Answering services don’t only take messages, after all; they process orders and collect lead information. Here’s another fun fact: answering services answer calls fast.

And when we say fast, we mean it: 90 percent of calls that come in to PATLive are answered in 20 seconds or less.

5. Never Pay Overtime or Holiday Hours

We weren’t kidding when we said “every hour of every day.” Our answering services are available to your business every second of the year, including late hours and holidays.

Not only does this mean you can give your employees time off, it means you never have to worry about paying time and a half for overtime or holiday pay—at least not for keeping someone in the office to answer calls.

Answering services take care of that for you, at no added expense.

6. Reduces Technology & Equipment Costs

When you outsource your incoming calls to answering services, you significantly reduce technology and equipment costs.

This means you won’t have to pay for new phone systems, or systems to store, log, and distribute messages to your team.

Great answering services integrate with the business tools and software you already use, like your favorite CRM or payment processing software.

7. Improve Employee Productivity

How many times are you interrupted by questions that customers could find on your website, like your return policies or basic product questions?

When our workflow is jarred, it can take an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back into the swing of things.

Answering services buffer your calls, passing someone along to you only when it’s necessary, reducing interruptions for your team during the workday while improving your focus and productivity.

Finding the Right Answering Service for You

Before you invest in an answering service, you need to find the right one for your business. The best features that all quality answering services should include are:

• Customization. The best answering services offer custom scripts to ensure that their agents are always representing your brand and your business seamlessly.
• Integration with the software of your choice. Look for an answering service that integrates with the tools and software that you’re already using; it will save you money, and you won’t have to learn anything new.
• Expansive services. The more services and features an answering service offers, the better. Can they transfer calls to your employees, relay messages, process orders, and schedule appointments? Will they capture lead or caller information for you? The more your answering service can do, the more they’ll help you.
• Extremely responsive. Look for a service that values fast answering times to ensure that your business never misses a call—or a potential customer. The service you hire should site specific data about their answering time policies.
• Script consultants on staff. The best answering services have script consultants on hand to help you create the perfect call script that will elevate your business to its optimum potential.
• Easy setup. We pride ourselves on making the process virtually painless; in many cases, we start answering calls within 24 hours of a signed contract.Ready to start saving money and outperforming your competition? Contact us to schedule a demo or start your free trial today!

Answering Service Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "7 Ways An Answering Service Puts Money Back Into Your Pocket" was first published on Small Business Trends