The Most Important Factors When Choosing An Answering Service
One of the common reasons why customers stop doing business with a company is that they have a bad customer service experience. A prevalent reason for a bad customer service experience is a business that is not available frequently enough to address customer concerns because of limited hours. Fortunately, an answering service can solve this problem by taking phone calls for you.
Make sure that you do not choose your answering service based only on price. Your customer will simply assume that whoever answers the phone is you, so if the customer service representative is rude, this will reflect poorly on your business. Most customers will not call unless they really need to and if the customer service representative is unhelpful or if the service has a slow response time, this will increase the likelihood that your customers will go elsewhere.
Here are some important factors to consider when choosing an answering service:
Learn About Pricing
Answering services often charge per minute or per call. Per minute is usually the best option because if someone calls and hangs up, you'll be charged for a full call when you are charged for each call. However, if you expect a large number of your calls to be very long, it may be better to choose a plan that charges per call.
Understand How the Answering Service Works
When hiring an answering service, you will need to make sure that it is designed to meet your specific needs. For example, if you would like them to take calls after hours, you will need an answering service that operates after hours. If you need them to handle calls when you have an excess call volume, you may need an on-demand answering service that you can use to redirect calls.
You will need to consider whether you will need an answering service that is tailored to the specific type of business that you are running. For example, if you are a medical practitioner, you will need an answering service that is capable of routing emergency medical calls.
Don't Have Your Customers Put On Hold
Ask the answering service about whether they are a one call environment. With one call environments, after the phone is answered, the caller remains on the line until the call has been completed. In contrast, with this method, some answering services will place the customer on hold and wait until the customer can be transferred to a live representative. This can be frustrating and should not be what the answering service does to your customers.
When you need a reliable answering service, call Tel-Us Call Center.