You probably never imagined your company would grow like it has, but now that your small business is moving up in the world, it’s time to make sure your image shines.
There’s only so much you can do yourself as a small business owner, you only have so much time in the day. Hiring professionals like web developers, writers, fulfillment partners and an answering service can keep you going without feeling stretched too thin. Answering services, in particular, are a great boon to small business owners since they can do so much to make you look brilliant with so little investment.
Keep an Eye on the ROI
Return on investment has been a vital key performance indicator for decades and will continue to matter to small businesses as long as humans exchange currency for goods and services.
Some outside services will have a relatively low ROI, others will return massively. An answering service partner is one of the best investments you can make and when used properly, will more than pay for itself.
Here are just three ways that an answering service partner can help your business shine:
- Expanding your customer touch. You’re far too small to hire enough operators to man the phones in-house, but you can still have a 24 hour call center by employing an answering service. Instead of forcing callers to voicemail or running yourself ragged answering the phone all day and night, your answering service can handle things for you after hours.Since you only pay for the calls it answers, if you don’t get any overnight calls for a while it doesn’t cost you anything, but you’re still ready when those night owls do start calling.
- Professionally setting appointments. Companies that rely on appointments will reach a point where doing so can be a full time job in itself. Instead of wasting time you could be dedicating to your law, medical or other practice, an answering service can provide a team of professional appointment setters to help callers choose the best times to see you. The time you save not answering the phone will also give you more time to squeeze in more client appointments.
- Adding the human element. Some business operators choose to go with an interactive telephone tree to sort customers into different voicemail boxes or give them options for self-service. While this can work for the right types of companies, when your callers really need a person right then, nothing else will do.Property managers, tow truck operators, medical professionals and other businesses can increase customer loyalty by simply providing a human who can empathize and help the caller with their inquiry right away.
Answering services can transform your small business from a face in the crowd to a superstar overnight. By providing more ways to reach you and completely professional appointment setting services, your callers will be wowed by how far you’ve come, even if it’s only the appearance of growth. Answering service companies help small businesses like yours stay competitive, even against corporations that are much bigger. They’ll also scale with you so you won’t have to worry about growing too large for your telephone partner.
