How To Start An Answering Service Business – An answering service is an off-site service hired by an individual or business to answer their telephone calls instead of (or in addition to) an on-site receptionist. The service has remote agents dedicated to answering customer questions, directing calls, scheduling appointments, taking messages and providing customer service so you and your staff can focus on running your business. Now that you know what an answering service is, it’s time to consider whether your business would benefit from it.
At , we know that making personal connections with customers is more important than ever, and we’ve helped companies across a wide spectrum of industries improve their customer relationships. Choosing the right answering service for your business is no easy task, so we cover the basics below.
How To Start An Answering Service Business
There are several types of call answering services with clear pros and cons that you should consider before signing up.
How Does An Answering Service Work? [infographic]
A digital answering service handles customer communication through Internet channels such as emails, live chat and/or social media. Live chat services have become increasingly popular, with more than half of customers preferring a chat interaction with a business to a phone call.
An automated answering service, sometimes called an interactive voice response (IVR) system, is fully automated. The caller hears an automated voice or recorded greeting prompting them to press or say a number that matches their needs, and the call is routed accordingly.
They’re easy to scale as your company’s call volume grows, but they often cause headaches for callers, who can find themselves stuck in an “I didn’t get it” loop.
In a way, a virtual receptionist does the job of an internet answering service while also working as a receptionist and making outbound calls like a call center.
Trending Telephone Answering Service Businesses [2023]
With a great virtual receptionist, callers won’t know they’re not talking to someone in your office. They answer the phone in a professional and friendly manner. As a result, they are often better at developing a relationship with customers than other answering services, which builds loyalty.
Given that 61% of customers will stop doing business with a company because of poor customer service, specialized virtual receptionist branding training is paramount.
They efficiently handle high-volume call loads, but often rely on scripts rather than in-depth training to learn about your brand.
Many people mistakenly believe that an answering service is too expensive or too complicated for a small business, but that is not the case. There is a perfect call answering service to streamline your customer service and increase your productivity, whether you are a small and medium business, an enterprise, a consultancy or an agency.
Choose The Best Live Answering Service For Small Business
You will decide how you want the answering service to work for you. For example, are you looking for 24-hour answering service or after-hours answering service? How do you want them to answer calls? Establishing the details of your partnership can take time, but it is key to a successful partnership.
When you sign up for an answering service, the service may provide you with a dedicated number. If you already have a number that customers know, you can set up call forwarding to redirect calls to the answering service. What happens from there depends on the type of answering service you hire.
If you opt for a virtual receptionist service as your answering service, they will respond with a greeting script customized to your business. They’ll spend time talking with your customer to determine the best way to handle the call, whether it’s answering their questions directly, scheduling an appointment, taking a message, or transferring the call to you.
In the United States, a full-time receptionist earns about $14.96 an hour. When you factor in wages and benefits (about 30% of a worker’s pay), that total rises to $21.23 an hour. That’s about $3,397 a month or about $40,000 a year. An answering service usually costs much less than that, and that’s before you factor in the added value of 24/7/365 service, no sick days, no management headaches, etc.
Start A Telephone Answering Service Business
Take the money you save by hiring an answering service and invest it in helping you grow your business.
No matter how great the receptionist at the place you hire, they have to take a break to eat. They will have days when they are sick or their child has a field trip they want to go with. On those days, what will you do?
With an answering service, you’ll have plenty of qualified and well-trained people at your disposal, so there’s never a time when your calls go unanswered.
Research shows that every time you’re interrupted, it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus. On average, business owners lose two hours a day to interruptions alone, and each one costs valuable work time and distractions that can lead you to make mistakes.
Answering Machine Panasonic: How To Set Yours (instructions+videos)
If you never miss a phone call, your business captures more leads, which leads to more conversions. Once you’ve captured those leads, an answering service can help you nurture those leads into qualified leads that your sales team can convert into paying customers, improving your marketing ROI.
When a customer calls you, they need something from you, and they need it fast. Friendly and knowledgeable virtual receptionists understand what your customers need and are able to get them the help they need quickly, making your customers feel important and cared for, building customer loyalty and, in turn, improving your sales
If you think your business could benefit from an answering service, explore virtual receptionist services from . Our agents are highly trained to handle phone calls from new and existing customers in a way that feels “in-house”, leaving your customers convinced they are talking to someone in your office. With our technology integrations and AI-assisted call management workflows, we offer the advanced features of a world-class call center only accessible at enterprise costs, but at a fraction of the expense, so that you get all the features you need at a price that’s right for a small business. Schedule a call with us to find out how we can help you with your unique business needs and goals.
Maddy Martin is the vice president of marketing for. Over the past 15 years, Maddy has built her expertise and reputation in small business communications, lead conversion, email marketing, partnerships and SEO.
How Much Does An Answering Service Cost?
Get 3 months of FREE Live Chat when you sign up for a Receptionist Plan – now through June 30, 2022 Are you thinking of building an easy-to-run home business with very little start-up money? Then consider starting one of the most lucrative and in-demand businesses: a home telephone answering service.
A home business like this is relatively cheap to start. Plus, you can easily use it from a spare bedroom or from your home office. So you won’t have any expensive overhead to rent office space outside your home.
Do you have a phone line and internet service at home? If so, you can easily install a call answering software that uses a Windows-based platform. In most cases, you won’t need to install a separate phone line to use for your business. This is because the software will tell you who the incoming call is from. So you will know how to answer the call.
Your call answering service can be a valuable tool for many people. For example, there are a growing number of entrepreneurs and sole traders who may not be able to answer all incoming business calls. It is important that your business has a responsive call handling service. You can provide this point of contact when they are otherwise engaged. For example, they may need you to take their calls during a business meeting or while they are visiting clients. Also, they may need your services while traveling or unable to receive phone calls.
How Can Your Business Benefit From A 24/7 Live Answering Service?
Therefore, your home phone answering service can be a real lifesaver for many small businesses. Many small business owners don’t have time to answer incoming calls, but those calls could be the lifeblood of their business. You can provide a reliable and affordable answering service that they will really value and appreciate.
It’s ironic that technological advances have allowed you to set up a home service like this. Automated answering and calling services have left many customers frustrated. They miss being able to talk to a real human. They long for the days when their calls were acknowledged and handled by a real person. In many cases, calls and messages have been lost in the system. Or people just hang up because they don’t like talking to a machine. That’s a lot of lost business right there!
Whether you decide to set up your business from your home office or a spare bedroom, make sure you set up your workspace with a purpose. Don’t let your office become a dumping ground for laundry or household clutter. These distractions will distract you from your work. So, keep your work area clutter-free.
Set up your desk near a window to get plenty of natural light. Learn to pause your eyes frequently by looking outward
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