Excellent customer service is the key to success for any business, irrespective of size. Making customers feel valued, answering their questions, and generally exceeding their expectations is a surefire way to attract increased profits, a growing client base, and a good company image. Unfortunately, your marketing efforts cannot help you meet the intended goals if potential clients cannot reach a live person when they call your business. This is where a reliable Atlanta Answering service comes in handy. At the Best Call Center, we can help you engage your customers and build strong relationships.
Your in-house receptionist cannot handle all the calls, texts, and emails from your clients. Furthermore, it does not make economic sense for your skilled teams to spend most of their valuable time answering calls. Answering service agents can help with your call overflows, among other forms of communication. This aids in enhancing professionalism, lowering business operation costs, and increasing productivity. Our services will free your in-house teams, allowing them to focus on meeting essential company goals.
Answering Service Defined
Let’s begin with a few examples to help you understand what an answering service is and why it is essential.
Example 1
You wake up at night with a throbbing toothache. All your instant relief remedies are not working, and you call your dentist’s office hoping to schedule an early morning emergency appointment. Even though it is 2 a.m. and past office hours, you will still want to talk to a live person and be assured of seeing your dentist as early as possible. Moreover, you will likely hang up the phone and call the next dental office if your call goes unanswered.
Example 2
You have set up your small business and have invested heavily in marketing campaigns. Calls are pouring in with callers that want to purchase your goods or ask essential questions before placing their orders. But, you are walking down the aisle over the weekend, and you do not want to pick any business calls.
In both cases, an answering service would provide reliable customer service. Your clients deserve personalized attention, irrespective of your schedule or the time of day or night they choose to call. If they cannot reach a live person and receive reliable solutions to their problems, they are likely to seek help from your closest competitor.
An answering service is a company that specializes in taking calls on behalf of businesses. These companies have thoroughly trained agents who can answer business-related questions, help clients book appointments, and even close sales on your behalf. Moreover, the agents can forward urgent calls, take messages, and respond to texts and emails from clients.
Answering service agents provide the same services as an in-house receptionist, PA, or secretary but are not based in your office. Moreover, answering service companies offer a team of experts to attend to your calls. This ensures that even if ten clients call your business simultaneously, someone will be waiting in line to address their concerns.
Understanding How an Answering Service Works
Answering service agents receive all calls to your number and handle them as per your instructions. After evaluating a call, they could opt to forward it to your in-house team, take a message or provide assistance with making an order or booking an appointment. Generally, answering service agents is like having an in-house receptionist department without incurring the overhead costs.
Furthermore, you can choose which calls you want the answering agents to handle. For instance, the experts could only pick calls on your behalf when you are unavailable. You could also opt to have all calls directed to the agents and forward only what is urgent.
At Best Call Center, we understand that each business is unique. We can provide personalized services to ensure we match your specific business needs. Contact our Atlanta team today and discuss what you want from a service and how we can be of assistance.
5 Top Benefits of an Answering Service
When calls to your business go unanswered, they cripple your marketing efforts, taint your company image and reduce overall customer satisfaction. A telephone answering service can provide invaluable help if you cannot attend to all customer calls in person. The professionals will optimize company-customer communications to help boost your profitability.
Here are 5 of the top benefits your business can reap from enlisting an Atlanta answering service:
Maximize On Every Opportunity
A missed business call can calculate into a lost loyal customer or a missed business opportunity. Sometimes, picking one call can mean a whole year of streamlined revenue for your business. Remember that happy clients are your biggest advocates, and they play a crucial role in ensuring the ongoing expansion of your client base.
Enlisting a call center service is a necessary expense for any business that wants to make the most of all its opportunities. Answering agents are so efficient at their work that your clients will think an in-house receptionist answered their call. If missed calls to your business have cost you profitable opportunities, it is time to consider partnering with a reputable telephone answering service.
Increase Productivity
Irrespective of the type of business you run, your in-house team likely understands the value of picking client calls. The experts on the payrolls of skilled personnel will want to provide the best customer service to all their clients and close as many deals as possible. Unfortunately, answering all calls, including spam calls from telemarketers, only disrupts their work schedules and lowers their productivity.
You can enhance the overall productivity levels of your in-house team by allowing them to focus on work-related operations. Reducing the number of calls they receive helps minimize distractions, increase productivity and ultimately expand your overall profitability.
Answering agents can answer basic questions about your company and the services it offers. The experts can also guide your customers to book appointments and even make virtual purchases. Once the calls are filtered, your in-house team will only receive the urgent calls.
It is also important to note that answering agents provide information about each call that your team can go through when not busy. This allows them to filter the calls further, listen to the recorded call if necessary and identify all potential business opportunities.
24/7 Operations
Whether you run a law firm, a dental practice, or a medical practice, you likely have limited business hours each week. Depending on the nature of your business, you probably open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and remain closed over the weekends and during public holidays. On the other hand, telephone answering companies are open for business 24/7/365.
We live in an instant-access world thanks to the internet. Even your loyal customers will not hesitate to go online, find your competitor’s contact details and take their business elsewhere if they cannot reach you. Ensuring that your company is available round the clock, all year round, is a surefire way to give your operations a competitive advantage.
Reduce Business Operation Costs
Enlisting a call center can help you reduce your overhead costs of having an entirely in-house team of receptionists. The experts will need office space, not to mention a monthly salary with all benefits. You can save a lot of money by outsourcing telephone-handling services.
Call centers are flexible and can increase or reduce the number of agents picking calls for your company, depending on your needs. For instance, right after marketing campaigns, you do not have to worry about reduced service quality because your in-house receptionists cannot handle all your calls. The best part is that even if the answering service increases the agents working on your campaigns, this will not affect your expenses.
Spruce Up Your Business Image
A telephone answering service can help you enhance the quality of your customer service. Picking all client calls, addressing their concerns promptly, and even doing timely follow-ups can reinforce your client relationships while enabling you to maintain a professional image.
Bad reviews spread fast, and nothing is more frustrating to your clients than their inability to reach you when they need help the most. On the other hand, reaching a real person within the first three rings can make all the difference in how you will relate with a client right from the start.
At the Best Call Center, we can help you retain your existing clients and earn new ones by providing enhanced customer service. Apart from inbound calls and live chat, we also provide outbound call services for customer retention, sales, and marketing campaigns. Let us partner with you in enhancing your client base, company image, and overall profitability.
Understanding the Pricing & Billing of an Answering Service
Each company has unique needs that call for a personalized service plan. Well-established call centers are flexible and can provide services that match your needs and budget perfectly.
Generally, no hard rules govern the pricing and billing of an answering service. However, there are three main pricing plans you can choose from:
Billing Per Minute
Billing per minute allows an answering service to charge per the duration of each call. The company will consider the number of minutes spent on call each month before sending you your bill. This arrangement ensures that you only pay for the time agents actively communicate with your company clients.
Usually, the package will contain an allotted number of minutes. If your company exceeds the minutes for the package you choose, you must pay an additional fee. This plan works best when you can predict the average number of minutes your business requires monthly.
Billing Per Call
Billing per call involves being charged per the number of calls received each month. This plan has its pros and cons. The main advantage is that your bill will not increase even if the answering agents spend extended durations on a single call. You will be billed even for wrong number calls and bad connections.
Billing Per Unit
There are numerous types of communications that a telephone answering service can handle. This includes inbound and outbound calls, text messages, email messages, call transfers or live chats. Each type of communication is classified as a unit, and it attracts a fixed fee. You can find this billing style ideal if your company handles all types of communications from a considerable number of clients monthly.
What Is Covered In The Pricing Structure Of An Answering Service?
Any informed business person will want to know what they are paying for. Apart from the cost of a telephone answering plan, various other elements are covered in any pricing structure. These elements include:
Account Setup and Activation Fees
If you are a new client, you can expect your first bill to be slightly higher than subsequent bills. It will contain a setup fee for starting your account and preparing the customer service scripts. A reliable company will not bill you for costs related to providing the agents with personalized training to handle your company calls better.
Special Holiday Fees
Answering service companies work round the clock, all year round. Someone will be on the line, ready to receive the calls of your clients, even during major holiday seasons.
Answering agents work in shifts and enjoy a decent number of holidays each year. However, they sometimes have to report to work during holidays and weekends. These untraditional workdays attract a holiday bonus or increased commissions as compensation. The extra charge is just a small way of saying thank you for their work during special seasons like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s.
Extra Features
Call handling add-ons like 24/7 operations and bilingual receptionists will also attract an extra fee. Telephone answering companies can provide all-rounded services, including help with extras like lead generation, sales, and setting up web chat platforms. Special features will always attract additional costs.
At the Best Call Center, we keep our billing information as transparent as possible. This ensures that our Atlanta clients understand what their money is doing for them. Also, we pride ourselves on informing our customers about services that attract extra fees. The idea is to give them the choice of opting into or out of a service.
Find a Telephone Answering Service Near Me
Partnering with an Atlanta answering service is easy, fast, and highly beneficial. At the Best Call Center, we can provide a service package that suits your needs and budget. Irrespective of the type of business you operate, call us today at 800-385-4656 for a 100% free consultation. We want to know more about your operations, your call volume, and current challenges so that we can provide the best possible assistance.