Do you know how an efficient and affordable cheap answering service level up your business?
An after-hours call answering service can be costly, leaving business owners to wonder if it is worth it! A cheap answering service can level up your business growth. Depending on the nature of your business, this service may be able to increase revenue or reduce costs sufficiently to pay for itself several times over. Or it could be a poor fit for your business model and provide you with no return on investment.
Here are a few questions if you’re considering paying for an after-hours call answering service.
Missed calls make their way to your competitors:
How much business are you losing by not returning calls after hours? People can call for certain types of businesses, such as contractors. In general, they are busy during normal office hours and only have time to call after work.
Those individuals may contact you first. However, if they do not receive a response, they will contact your competitor. They understand they don’t need work right away, but they don’t have all day to call various professionals, and they certainly won’t wait until you’re open.
Customers may be willing to wait longer than you think for service if they receive a response. They are frequently surprised to learn that emergency services come at a high cost. They may not mind that it’s a few days away as long as they have a reservation with you. Having an after hours call answering service does not imply that you must be available to work at all times—only that you must be able to assist customers at all times.
Capturing otherwise lost leads can more than offset the cost of an after-hours call answering service, and converting emergency service leads into regularly scheduled leads is a bonus.
Customers can be reached during unusual hours :
You should also consider missing out on shift workers’ business. If your office opens at 10 a.m. but your competitors open at 7 a.m., those who get home from work in the morning and then do some housework before going to bed may call your competitors rather than you.
Business hours are less consistent than they used to be. You can change the order in which you open and close, but nothing works perfectly. Potential customers who work unusual hours may feel compelled to work with a company that is open longer. You can capture more of that business without increasing costs by using an after-hours call answering service.
You may also be unaware of how many of these customers you overlook. You can advertise and capture these customers if you have an after hours call answering service. Potential customers may look you up, look at your hours, decide your hours are inconvenient for their schedule, and then call your competition.
Increase the viability of emergency services:
Could you provide emergency services if you could answer the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Making these types of calls allows you to charge a higher rate. Having a staff member or two available at all times, on the other hand, isn’t always worth the emergency fee. It will take some time for calls to start coming in, especially if you have only recently started providing emergency services. A cheap answering service can help businesses in this regard.
Defining the Virtual Receptionist:
A virtual receptionist is a kind of software that ensures that a business never misses any customer calls. Virtual receptionists answer incoming calls and handle basic customer needs. Such requirements include appointment scheduling, call routing, and account information. Canada’s top virtual receptionist services can be tailored to specific businesses or industries and are available in multiple languages. The most advanced solutions can quickly collect customer information and simulate a live conversation.
The advantages and benefits of virtual receptionists:
- Installing virtual receptionist software has numerous advantages. Virtual receptionists can handle basic customer service issues, giving human operators more time to focus on complex tasks. You can reduce the customers’ wait times, as is the workload of call centre employees. These solutions are also cost-effective, as they provide service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Customers will not have to wait for assistance with routine issues. While human operators are still required, virtual receptionists can provide increasingly sophisticated support, freeing up human agents for more complex issue resolution.
- Virtual receptionists assist large corporations in reducing call centre spending and small businesses in rapidly scaling their customer support infrastructure. Hiring and training call centre employees can be a time-consuming and costly process. Organizations can quickly deploy the top virtual receptionist services in Toronto to supplement their existing staff or serve as the foundation of their customer service efforts.
What is a Call Center for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?
- A BPO call centre is simply a third-party call centre that a company uses to reduce operational costs. Suppose you are a professional in charge of contracting out your company’s communication functions. In that case, you should probably go with a call centre rather than an answering service in case you need more robust support in the future.
- You may initially require only an in-house receptionist. Still, as your communications partner becomes acquainted with your company brand, you may want to use the same 3rd party company to handle communication for other departments.
- Your Help Desk support team may be swamped with password reset requests, and your Marketing department may be experiencing greater success than expected. At the same time, you may require someone to be available to answer questions via web chat on your company website.
Verify and develop relationships with key stakeholders:
Whichever communications partner you choose must have a business culture that is relationship-building by nature. Consider how accessible those key employees respond to your questions or concerns.
Does the salesperson, for example, thoroughly answer all of your questions about opening an account? Do you have the ability to speak directly to those in charge of your account without jumping through hoops? 24H Virtual provides professional chat experts who can help you run your business seamlessly.
When should you outsource vs. keep it in-House?
Whether hiring a call centre, answering service or bringing your call centre in-house should be based on your budget and whether you have the necessary staff. Outsourcing to a call centre means you’ll have a fully-trained team that understands your business inside and out, so you’ll only have to pay for the service rather than the employees.
24H Virtual is one of the few call centres that can provide more comprehensive call centre features. When scaling your communication solution up or down, we can easily implement complex solutions for your business. Our cheap answering service is affordable and efficient. You may try our services for your business’s smooth workflow.
