Did you know that approximately 543,000 new businesses start up each month in the U.S.? And since more businesses shut down than start up each month, to give yourself a competitive advantage, you will want to provide high quality customer care services that cater to clients at all times while reducing your business expenses. Live answering services may be the answer to your sorrows. This article will focus on explaining what live answering services are, and 3 factors that you should consider before diving in.

What Is a Live Answering Service?

If you own a small business, you may not have a landline or a 0800 number. In addition, you may be short staffed and may not always be available for phone calls. In order to provide higher quality customer care services, you should consider subscribing to live answering services as they do not charge a set-up fee or a monthly fee. Instead, you pay for each phone call that a representative at the call center answers on your behalf.

When you subscribe to a live answering service, you can choose from one of two options. You can either redirect all calls immediately to the call centers or you can redirect calls only after you have not picked up. 7 out of 10 callers will hang up immediately when they have reached the answering machine, so you want to make sure that never happens. The representatives at the call centers will be trained on the specifics and details of your products and services, and will be able to answer inquiries made on the phone or redirect them. After each call, the representatives send you a recording of the call that they answered, along with some details regarding the content.

What Are 3 Factors That You Should Consider?

Live answering calls just may be the answer to your prayers. You are able to continue uninterrupted with your work while ensuring that a professional answers all phone calls in a timely manner. There are numerous call centers offering live answering services. In order to make sure that you make the right choice, here are 3 factors that you should consider before subscribing: 

  • the amount of training that the representatives at the call centers receive in regards to your products and services. There is nothing as unprofessional as having a representative answer the phone, but be unable to provide any information of use. Some call centers will have training sessions for the representatives that are responsible for answering your calls, so that the professionals are familiar with the products and services that your business offers. You should consider how these training sessions are offered and the amount of care that may be put into ensuring that the representatives answering your calls know what they're talking about.
  • the hours that the call center is open for. Some call centers are available to answer phone calls 24 hours of the day and 7 days of the week. This means that a professional will be able to handle your calls even when your business is closed and when you are resting. Depending on the amount of clients that you have and the geographic locations of your clients, these hours can be crucial to the amount of sales that you can make.
  • the rates that are charged. Each call center will offer different rates for the live answering services that they offer. You will want to shop around and compare deals in order to find something that fits your budget.

Conclusion

Live answering services can help your business stand out from the competition and perhaps even grow. You can save a lot of money as you may not have to hire a receptionist to handle the volume of phone calls coming into the office, and you can also prevent your employees from being interrupted from their work. Live answering services are definitely worth subscribing to.

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