Coming up with new strategies to grow your business is a never-ending process. To gain a competitive edge and grow your company in 2023, it is vital to stay on top of the latest industry trends, provide amazing customer service, and find ways to work smarter, not harder.
Many small and medium-sized businesses partner with live call answering services to accomplish all these things. Below we will answer and discuss the following questions to give you an idea of what an answering service does, and how partnering with one can help you grow your business in 2023:
- What services can an answering service provide?
- Who needs an answering service?
- How can an answering service grow my business?
What services can an answering service provide?
Before we get into how an answering service can help you grow your business in 2023, let’s start with the basics. Answering services can provide a variety of services that benefit businesses large and small. Here are some of the things a call answering service can do on a 24/7 basis:
- Pick up calls on your behalf.
- Answer your clients’ and prospective clients’ questions.
- Help to resolve problems by taking action themselves or by transferring calls to appropriate staff members.
- Screen your calls so that you and your staff do not have to waste your valuable time dealing with wrong numbers, telemarketers, and other spam calls.
- Provide bilingual support in both English and Spanish.
- Schedule and modify appointments.
- Take messages.
- Qualify leads.
- Respond to incoming SMS text messages.
- Monitor email accounts for important messages and alerts.
Who needs an answering service?
All types of businesses can benefit by using an answering service including (but not limited to) medical practices, service contractors, law firms, real estate agents, brokerage firms and consulting services. Answering services can also provide critical support to finance and insurance companies, educational institutions, and funeral homes.
Here are some of the top reasons why business leaders choose to partner with call answering services:
- Your business looks more professional and appears to be fully staffed by outsourcing the handling of your phone calls.
- An answering service ensures that more calls are answered quickly by a live, fully trained operator and that fewer calls are sent to voicemail.
- By not having to constantly stop what you are doing in order to answer the phone, you have more time to devote to other issues.
- Answering services come in handy if you get phone calls after hours or require bilingual support.
How can an answering service grow my business?
An answering service can help grow your business by decreasing costs and increasing productivity. Your business can answer more calls and provide superior customer service without having to hire additional staff. This will save you in equipment costs, salaries, overtime expenses and employee benefits like paid time off and retirement plans. This frees up funds that you can better use elsewhere.
You will also not have to worry about recruiting and training new staff or finding a temp if your receptionist calls in sick or suddenly quits. Additionally, you will only have to pay for the call answering services you need at the time, but you will have the ability to quickly scale up as your business grows. Then, during slow periods you can cut back.
You and your staff will also be more productive if you do not have to constantly stop what you’re doing to answer the phone. Turning that responsibility over to an answering service will ensure that less things fall through the cracks, and you will no longer miss calls that might have led to additional business.
