A Phone Answering Service Reduces Your Time Spent On The Phone And Improves Customer Service

Whether you have a small business or run a large operation, you'll benefit from having a phone answering service. If you're tied to a phone all day, it cuts into your productivity. A phone answering service makes sure important calls are never missed and provides your clients and customers with a live person to contact for an improved customer service experience. Here are some ways to use a phone answering service.

Take Messages

The simplest way to use an answering service is for them to answer all of your incoming calls. They can take a short message along with a return phone number and then forward that information by email so you can return the call at your convenience. This alerts you to all calls so you can return important calls right away, and it increases your productivity since you can make all of your calls at the end of the day and stay off of the phone the rest of the time.

Forward Calls

Another option is to have the service answer your phone and then forward the calls to you if you're free and able to field calls. Doing this makes your company seem more professional since you don't answer the phone yourself. The answering service works in the same way a receptionist would and that gives your company the appearance of being in a traditional office even though you might work from home.

Set Up Appointments

If your business involves meeting clients in their homes or elsewhere on an appointment basis, you can hire an answering service to set the appointments for you. Run an ad for your company and when interested people call the number, they reach the answering service who can then schedule the appointment for you. This gives the caller instant gratification and makes them feel valued because they get immediate service as opposed to leaving a voice mail and waiting on a call back. Plus, by having the service set the appointments, this keeps you from being drawn into long conversations that eat up your time.

Read From A Script

It's also possible for an answering service to read from a script. You may want to do this if you provide a phone number for more information. The caller is then read from material that you supply that might give your location, hours of operation, and a short bit about the services you provide. Since the answering service won't know anything about your business, they will only say what is in the script that you supply.

Phone answering services are usually quite affordable, especially when compared to what you would have to pay an employee. The services they provide make you seem more professional while freeing up your time, and the service improves the experience for your callers as well.