If you run a small or medium-sized business, you and your employees are probably juggling a million things every single day. Here’s one thing you should take off your plate: answering the phones. There are two compelling reasons to outsource this task to a professional telephone answering service.
#1: It Keeps Your Customers Happy
Customers are a picky bunch (you probably already knew that). One recent survey found that people expect business phones to be answered after three rings — and once the call has been answered, about a third think that absolutely any hold time at all is unacceptable. That can be a tough standard to meet, especially if you don’t have a big staff to handle natural surges of calls. But when you hire a telephone answering service, it’s an easily scalable arrangement. Plus, you can rest easy knowing that all of your customers will be taken care of by trained agents. That guarantees great service on every single call.
#2: It Keeps Your Employees Happy
Hiring out call answering is good for your employees, too, especially if you have people answering customer service-related calls when they ought to be focusing on other kinds of work. When an employee has to take a phone call about store hours or company policies, for example, they don’t just lose the time they actually spend on the call. They also lose time because they’ve been thrown off their groove. You should see significantly improved productivity by removing that burden.
Conclusion: a Bonus
If that’s still not enough to convince you, here’s one more thing to consider: hiring an outside call answering service can often keep your accountant happy, too. The costs associated with contracting out this task are going to be lower, in most cases, than keeping a full-time, in-house team of receptionists or customer service agents. That’s a win all around.
Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts on answering services and their role in small businesses in the comments.
