Would your small business benefit from utilising a call-answering service? While it might seem ideal to keep the personal touch of answering all calls yourself, this is not always practical. Answer the 5 questions below to see if it’s time for your business to outsource.
Have you ever missed out on a sale or a potential customer, because you were out of the office, on holiday, or on another call?
Chances are you won’t know for sure, but the answer is almost definitely “yes”. Research shows that many people will just hang up if they aren’t able to get through to a real person, so even if you have an answer phone you may still miss out when you’re not able to get to the phone directly.
With an answering service, calls to your small business will always be answered by an actual human being, and what’s more they will answer the call as if they were part of your in-house team.
Is taking calls adversely affecting productivity?
While obviously very important to your business, there are times when answering calls is just not convenient as it takes attention away from other key issues. It can also be very hard to regain momentum after being distracted by calls, which is frustrating enough at any time but especially if the calls are mundane or irrelevant.
With a call answering service you can choose to have calls screened or messages taken, leaving you free to concentrate on what’s important at any given time.
Can you afford a receptionist?
The only other way of making sure calls are never missed while you are busy is to hire a full-time, in-house receptionist. Not only does this mean a full-time salary, but also many hours of training and ongoing support, and even then there will still be times when that person is absent or on holiday and you again find yourself tied up fielding mundane queries.
An answering service is a fraction of the cost of a whole new team member with none of the added pressures of hiring someone new, and will never ask for a holiday or call in sick!
Does answering business calls eat into your family/personal time?
After a hard day’s work, having to spend your evening responding to answer phone messages can take a real toll on your quality of life and the time you get to spend with family and friends.
An answering service will forward any important messages to you throughout the day so you can get back to them whenever is convenient for you, and keep your evenings for yourself.
Are you always able to answer your mobile throughout the day?
If you are out on business throughout the day, chances are there are many times when your mobile rings but you aren’t in a position to answer it because you are with a customer, in the middle of a job, or driving. It’s hard to focus on your work when you are worried that you might be missing out on potential new business, and it’s also hard to give the right professional impression if you are clearly in the middle of something, or driving, when answering calls.
An answering service takes the pressure off by letting you do your job and not worry about missing key phonecalls, or being needlessly distracted by unimportant ones. Messages can be sent to your phone by email or text so that you can return important calls at your earliest opportune moment.
Other advantages
By giving bespoke scripts to the answering service, you can be sure that calls to your business will be answered in a professional manner and give just the right impression for your business. You can also provide access to descriptions of your products or services, FAQs and/or diary software, so they will not only be able to take messages but also answer routine questions and book/cancel/rearrange meetings for you!
If you require any advice about utilising the services of a Virtual Office Assistant, contact one of our team today!