This is part two in a two-part series. You can read part one here.
In part one of this two-part series, we looked at many basic services that an answering service could use to help give a nonprofit some real polish and shine. In part two, we’ll look at other services that can help a nonprofit raise even more money and improve marketing efforts across the board.
Additional Offerings from Answering Service Companies
Many companies are surprised to learn that answering services do more than just answer the phone and relay messages or take inbound caller orders.
The most advanced answering services, in fact, have a number of additional options to help companies of all types and sizes improve upon their already well-oiled business. Nonprofits can take advantage of these same options, too, if they think to ask about them.
Before you hire your new answering service, see if it can offer you the following services:
Outbound calling. One of the hardest parts of running a nonprofit is keeping the donations flowing. When you’ve built up a list of past donors, it can pay to retarget them for new donations from time to time. If you don’t have the personnel to do it internally, that’s not a problem because your answering service can handle the job. You simply provide the script you’d like your operators to follow and the list of people to call and one more vital, but low priority, chore is handled on your behalf.
Chat support. Not everyone will want to call with questions, even though it’s still among the most common ways to connect with a business. When your website visitors have questions, it’s good to have someone around who can handle them via chat support. This service was once rare, but is now quite common to see online, so much so that many online visitors expect to see it as an option. Customer service chat is a quick way to get questions answered without having to make a phone call, so works great for people who checking in from work or in a public place.
Bilingual answering services. Just like you should be giving your donors lots of ways to connect to you, offering them alternative languages in which to speak can increase your reach. Depending on your charity and your location, you may find that a significant portion of your target demographic happens to speak a language other than English. Instead of turning these donors away because you can’t understand them, why not bridge the communications gap and work on building your donor base in two languages? After all, charity doesn’t know language barriers.
Being in charge of a nonprofit organization can be the hardest job that you’ll ever have, but it can also be the most rewarding. Increasing your professional appearance might seem like a small thing in the grand scheme of your work, but it makes a huge difference to how willing donors are to contribute to your cause. That first impression can make all the difference between expanding your charity efforts and folding entirely. Turning part of your business operations over to an answering service partner could be the best move you’ll make for your nonprofit.
