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Companies are increasingly seeing the benefits of live answering services.
If there’s one thing a wide range of modern industries have in common, it’s the importance of excellent customer service. In fact, recent data shows that not only do customers prefer to work with companies that are easily accessible, around 90% “would pay more for better customer service.”
Do you want to know something even more alarming? Research shows that…
Think about that for a second—customers want consistent, high-quality customer service and will go so far as to change brands to get it. Companies spend so much time and money on generating brand awareness and improving their products and services to better meet their customers’ needs. Yet, they are seemingly willing to settle for “good enough” when it comes to basic customer service options. This—to put it mildly—is a turnoff, even among otherwise loyal customers or clients.
Fortunately, there’s an answer for companies that are looking to shore up their customer service offerings: a professional answering service. Whether you have three agents in Florida or hundreds of agents across the country, answering services can ensure that customers are well taken care of. In this article, we’re taking a deep dive into the key features, benefits, and use cases of answering services so you can find the best option for your business.
The phrase “professional answering service” refers to a third-party company that provides agents or operators to answer phones for businesses of all sizes. They operate much like an in-house receptionist might, receiving calls on behalf of a company, directing them to the appropriate contact or department, taking messages, and so on.
Businesses that value excellent customer service but don’t have the resources to hire and train more employees can benefit greatly from using a professional answering service. In fact, a call answering service for small business costs just a fraction of the time and resources needed to hire a full-time receptionist. With Answering Service Care, your business can start using an answering service at just $25/month for a Starter Plan—and if you have a higher call volume, our plan with the best value is the Pro Plan at $289/month. With an in-house receptionist, your business could spend upwards of $3,000/month in salary, not to mention benefits and training costs.
Plus, a live phone answering service provides the ability to personalize assistance to the specific needs of each business, making this solution a flexible and cost-effective option for handling customers’ phone calls.
The primary difference between an answering service is the scope of their functionality, with an answering machine offering much less in the way of versatility. Modern businesses typically don’t rely on answering machines in any capacity, preferring instead to use a more comprehensive answering service software. This enables them to not only receive and store messages, but to engage with callers, direct or transfer calls, and more. As such, virtually any answering service will vastly exceed the functionality of an answering machine.
Of course, answering and transferring calls represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the range of features provided by the best professional answering services.
In addition to all of the above, Answering Service Care’s platform was built with versatility and scalability in mind. By providing over 5,000 integrations to extend its functionality and seamlessly connect it with other applications, we’ve built something that’s truly powerful.
As a matter of fact, yes they do! In fact, industry research shows that the U.S. market size for answering services has been steadily increasing each year from 2018 through 2022 (with an average increase of 6.7%). Projections indicate that this growth is expected to continue over the next several years.
This increase is, in part, because many business owners see the value in using an answering service and continue to hire them for business operations. Of course the main reasons businesses are switching from in-house receptionists to an answering service is because they offer round-the-clock call handling, enhance professionalism, and provide a cost-effective solution for managing incoming calls efficiently.
By implementing a well-designed answering service, a business can provide top-tier, 24/7 phone support for its customers. This isn’t just a customer service best practice—it’s something today’s customers have come to expect.
The basic principle behind a virtual answering service is simple: it’s meant to answer calls and take appropriate action without requiring in-house personnel. A third-party virtual answering service provides a wide range of live answering services, including taking messages, answering questions, transferring the caller to a specific individual or department, and so on.
In some cases, companies might even use a virtual phone answering service to resolve certain types of customer issues or collect customer feedback. The best virtual answering service providers deliver exceptional return on investment (ROI) for organizations by enabling users to seamlessly integrate the software with other applications, like company calendars, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and more.
To integrate these systems into your business operations, it’s as simple as forwarding your business phone to the call answering service companies. The best part is there’s no need for fancy equipment, just what you already have in your office—like a phone and your CRM software. This straightforward solution will be connected to all of your systems, so you don’t need to worry about missing any customer communications.
Plus, once you set up your answering service, you know you’re covered 24/7, even outside of operating hours—when no one in-house would be answering calls. That means better and personalized service for your customers with trained operators who know how to help your business succeed—all available to you just by forwarding your phone.
A small business answering service enables companies to provide better customer service—potentially discovering a powerful competitive advantage in the process. For example, the best answering service for a small business enables it to…
Exploring the benefits of an answering service from the customer’s perspective is another good way to gauge its ROI. Understanding and then meeting (or exceeding) customers’ expectations is one of the easiest ways to optimize the customer experience, increase customer satisfaction, and develop loyalty.
Customer expectations aren’t that difficult to understand. When a customer reaches out to your company, they expect you to not only know who they are but to potentially anticipate their needs as well. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of building meaningful relationships. Whether it’s a customer’s first time or 100th time calling, and whether they’re a “big spender” or not, they shouldn’t feel like a stranger.
So how, exactly, do customers benefit when you leverage an answering service? Here are a few examples:
With these two categories of benefits combined, you see the real power of an answering service.
Almost every organization that serves customers can potentially benefit from modern answering services—including medical providers, contractors, and legal professionals.
Medical providers, including healthcare, dental, and veterinarian practices, use answering services to assist patients whenever they have questions or need assistance. Leveraging an answering service helps these providers to manage inbound communications, especially during times with high call volumes or off-hours. Answering Service Care offers virtual medical answering service operators trained to handle inbound calls from patients. Whether patients have a simple need (like confirming an appointment) or are experiencing an emergency, you can rest assured that their calls will be answered promptly and professionally.
Answering services enable various types of home services, like contractors, to provide more timely and thorough customer service. For example, when customers work with service contractors for their construction, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or similar needs, they don’t want to feel like “just another job.” When it’s difficult for them to reach their contractors with questions or updates, they quickly lose trust and grow frustrated. An answering service can improve these relationships by ensuring timely, knowledgeable responses when they do reach out.
Clients often work with legal professionals when they’re in the midst of a stressful situation, one that can feel unpredictable, with high stakes. While they certainly understand that lawyers work for multiple clients, they also expect their counsel to be accessible and responsive. Law firm answering services help to ensure that clients’ calls don’t go unanswered, even during periods with higher call volume. Clients might be reaching out with a routine-type question or meeting request, or they may have a complex, urgent issue to discuss. Either way, an answering service can receive their call, greet them professionally, and take the appropriate action based on the client and context.
It’s clear that medical practices, home care businesses, and law offices all benefit considerably from partnering with an answering service. These services are key to sustaining the level of professionalism and efficiency essential to these industries, as well as for providing consistent and empathetic communication with customers. But these aren’t the only industries that use answering services. In fact, many companies—no matter what product or service they offer to their customers—will find success using a business phone answering service. Let’s look at more below.
There are countless industries that benefit from professional answering services. Others include:
Real estate companies can use answering services to answer clients’ questions, schedule showings, discuss strategies, and more.
Answering services can help consulting firms establish a reputation for being knowledgeable, professional, and proactive.
Help clients feel great about themselves—as well as your business—with answering services for beauty salons, massage therapists, and more.
Clients expect accounting firms, banks, and financial advisors to be accessible, responsive, knowledgeable, and trustworthy—an answering service can help you meet or exceed these expectations and grow your reputation.
Dealing with insurance providers can be stressful, and clients often want informative answers in a timely manner—an ideal use for a professional answering service.
The point is that virtually any organization that deals with customers or clients is likely to benefit from an answering service. Professional answering services can also benefit funeral homes, construction companies, veterinary offices, business services, and more.
Explore our industries to learn more about the companies we work with regularly!
One of the major perks of using an answering service is that you do not need an app to answer calls or utilize any of the other services offered, like taking messages and setting appointments. However, an answering service can integrate with the applications that you already use, like your CRM or scheduling software. That means a live answering service for small businesses will handle your business calls without the need to add any expensive software.
Like any impactful business decision, choosing the best answering service starts with determining your needs and priorities. Only then can you truly weigh the pros and cons of different services to zero in on the perfect system for your organization.
At Answering Service Care, you’ll find it easy to get started. Read on to learn more about selecting a service!
If you simply type something like “telephone answering services near me” into Google, you may find a few niche providers that are linked to a specific geographic area. You’re more likely to get results for third-party answering services that operate across the United States, however. These services provide increased versatility through a comprehensive approach. The best—like Answering Service Care—offering specialized, live answering services for specific industries (like we covered above).
For example, do they call in to confirm appointment details? Ask technical questions? Request (or provide) project updates? Receive emergency or after-hours services? To get started, create a list of the types of inbound calls you receive. Then, prioritize them according to call volume or urgency. This will leave you with an ordered list of “must-haves” for any answering service you might work with.
Whether you already pride yourself on the type of support and service you offer, there’s always room to improve. Customers’ expectations are ever-increasing, so a professional answering service that is versatile and scalable—like Answering Service Care—can help ensure consistently high levels of customer satisfaction. You might consider soliciting feedback from existing customers in order to identify other areas for improvement.
The last thing you want to do is invest in a solution only to find that it’s missing at least one key feature that you really need. As you evaluate potential answering service providers, be sure to ask specific questions about any features that you’re not sure whether they provide.
As customer expectations continue to evolve over time, the best answering services will be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs. They will also make it easy to fine-tune how you use their services—making quick tweaks to IVR menus, for example, or introducing new features.
Just like your customers or clients expect you to be available, professional, and responsive, you should expect the same from any answering service provider you rely on.
Companies rely on professional answering services to strengthen their reputation as an organization that truly cares about its customers or clients. Similarly, you should seek out an answering service provider that has an excellent reputation for working with companies to deliver effective and impactful solutions. You can learn more about how Answering Service Care can enhance your company’s reputation as an accessible and professional organization here.
Of course, answering service pricing is important to any business that’s exploring its options. This is another area where it’s not always easy to compare providers, but the best providers will make their pricing easy to understand. For example, Answering Service Care offers a few different plan types, and makes it easy to compare their monthly cost, included features, and other details. You can review and compare our plan types here.
You probably came to this blog wondering, “What is the best virtual assistant phone answering service?” Hopefully, by this point we’ve made it clear that Answering Service Care is a unique virtual answering service that’s designed to become an extension of your business—one that streamlines operations and elevates the customer experience. Schedule a meeting to discuss your needs and learn more about how Answering Service Care can take your organization to the next level, or get started today for as little as $25 a month!
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