Additional Services of a Professional Call Answering Firm

Sometimes, people tend to think of an answering service as essentially a glorified answering machine. While an answering service certainly excels at taking down and relaying messages, many firms also offer value-added services that can further contribute to the smooth operation of your business.

Scheduling Assistance

Some answering services are set up to integrate with the calendars of your team. This is perfect if they are answering calls for sales or support personnel. Instead of simply taking down a message and making a verbal promise that the caller will be contacted when time permits, they can actually look and see when the correct party has an availability opening in their schedule.

Sometimes, an answering service can even book a tentative appointment to have the correct party call the customer back at a specified time. This provides your customer with the feeling of a much more concrete resolution to the reason for their call.

Your Answering Service Delviers Exceptional Customer Service

An answering service should NOT be used as a customer service agency. For that, you need to contract an inbound call center that specializes in customer service. However, you can integrate elements of superior customer service into the services that your answering service does offer.

For instance, pay special attention to how you write your answering service’s scripts, and the directions that you provide to them. If you can ensure that all agents are providing callers with a sense that their concerns are being listened and attended to, you create a positive impression of your company. Essentially, you get marketing value from a service that is primarily designed to aid the administrative side of your operation, which is always an added bonus.

Call Center Agents Are Like Trained Employees

The cost of training employees can be one of the most onerous costs a company has to carry, especially when it comes to positions where there is a typically high turnover rate, like reception. When you utilize an answering service, you essentially get pre-trained employees. This is especially valuable if you work in a profession involving healthcare, legal, or the financial sector. Specialized answering services have agents who are already trained in all the applicable privacy laws and regulations, saving you the time and money of having to instruct a new employee on how to properly handle client information under these very specific circumstances.