As the ever-changing market dynamics make the transportation industry advance, customer expectations have also progressed. Customers want to change orders anytime, track their merchandise while in transit, and get real-time updates from live customer service. Considering how demanding transportation services are, it becomes impossible to balance quality customer service and daily work challenges.

Fortunately, at the Best Call Center, we are here to streamline your inbound customer service and free you up to concentrate on your demanding work. Our well trained virtual receptionists are willing to handle all your customer problems and deliver quality customer service.

What is Transportation Answering Service?

A transportation answering service manages inbound and outbound customer communication like cold calls, responding to emails, answering phone calls, and replying to messages in the transportation industry. If you run an airline, logistics service, mass transit company, leisure transportation company, or car dealership, prompt answering customer calls is a prerequisite. Transportation answering services will help customers book ride services, provide roadside assistance, or schedule rental cars. By handling most or all your customer service, your employees can focus on assisting walk-in customers and managing other daily activities.

What Types of Businesses Does Transportation Answering Service Partner With?

Answering services partners with different businesses in the transportation industry. Some of the different types of companies include:

  1. Car Dealership

If you own a car dealership business, then you understand how hectic a showroom floor can be. Your employees are trying close deals, responding to customer complaints, or strategizing to enhance sales. All these activities usually result in chaos. When a customer calls, he or she will be put on hold or call almost four times without a response. The likelihood of losing customers to your competitors because of the low response rate is high.

Providing quality services to customers in person is essential but not enough. You must balance between the walk-in customers and those who call text or email. The best way to do that is by getting a car dealership answering service. At the Best Call Center, we partner with car dealerships that want to place a higher value on customers.

The main reason you should consider investing in an answering service is that customers have changed how they buy cars. Today, if a person wants to purchase a vehicle, he or she will visit several websites and look for a car model with all the features they want. By the time these customers are calling your company, they have already decided on the car they want. If they choose to buy the vehicle from your dealership, but after calling or emailing gets no response, they will buy the car from your competitor. Fortunately, with an answering service working with your dealership, all customers who call will find a friendly virtual receptionist to talk to, thus increasing sales and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, you can be guaranteed that the virtual receptionist will provide bespoke services that match your customer needs. Best Call Center will sit with your employees from the sales or any other relevant department and come up with a tailored script that our team of operators will use to respond to calls, messages, or emails. By doing this, we increase customer satisfaction and sales.

On top of this, if you are tired of bouncing calls or missing customer calls after business hours, we provide after-hour services. We also capture leads, schedule test drives, and service appointments, giving you a decisive advantage that will help you stay ahead of your competitors.

  1. Car Rental Companies

The majority of clients for car rentals are the elite class, and the last thing you want to do to such customers is to keep them waiting. Delivering anything less than perfect will result in them choosing to hire vehicles from your competitors. Keep in mind that before a customer visits, he or she might call to inquire about a few things before visiting your physical address. Therefore, if you are in the business of renting out cars, limos, or private jets, you will need a car rental answering service to keep your customers happy.

Virtual receptionists are highly trained people, and if they work with your team of employees to develop a script, all of your callers will think that they are speaking to someone from the car dealership office. For your business to achieve this, you need to partner with the Best Call Center for the best car rental answering services.

  1. Car Repair Shops

Mechanics, auto service firms, and car repair outlets get a lot of incoming calls and messages from customers with broken-down vehicles. The majority of these callers have a flat tire, overheated engine, or any other mechanical problems that they have no clue how to go about. Fortunately, by partnering with an answering service, you are assured that all customers who reach out to you with various car problems will have someone to respond to them and provide guidance. 

With the tight schedule and coordination required in the automobile repair business, pulling out a mechanic who is working on a vehicle to respond to calls will result in more chaos. However, with mechanic answering services from Best Call Center, all calls from clients will be handled by our team as your mechanics focus on resolving car problems.

  1. Trucking Businesses

Trucking companies usually work around the clock with customers contacting to get updates or change orders. Although with the current change in customer needs, trucking companies have been forced to hire employees to address customer issues, getting support from a trucking answering service can reduce your workload and increase customer satisfaction.

Remember that if you are not flexible enough to change client orders on time or update the products’ status on transit, customers will leave you for your competitor. A virtual receptionist company will rise to the occasion regardless of the surge in calls. All customers who need updates on their merchandise will get real-time updates from friendly operators, increasing customer satisfaction and trust. This, in turn, gives you an edge over your competitors, enabling your business to grow.

Besides, a trucking answering service will help you save money that would be used to hire employees to handle customer calls.

  1. Taxi and Shuttle Companies

Ridesharing companies have increased, resulting in cut-throat competition with taxi and shuttle businesses. To stay competitive in the market, every call, email, or text taxi and shuttle companies receive from customers should get a response right away. If the call or text goes unanswered, the person will call your competitors since there is an array of options to choose from. To maintain a good reputation and be reliable, you must improve your customer services. The best way to do so is by retaining the services of a taxi answering service.

The reason you need a virtual receptionist in the taxi or shuttle business is communication. Most of the time, when a customer calls or emails a driver, he or she is usually behind the wheel, and answering the call at such a time is illegal and dangerous. Therefore, the caller will not get any response, which means they will turn to your competitors because your taxi services are unreliable. Fortunately, with a team of virtual receptionists from Best Call Center, you can enhance your customer services and build a reputable business. Our operators will handle all inbound and outbound customer services increasing customer satisfaction and allowing your drivers to focus on the road ahead.

Also, because your clients might need to travel at any time of the day, we provide 24/7 services. Even if a customer calls in the middle of the night, our virtual receptionists will answer the call and securely link the customer with a driver.

Remember that in this business, reliability is what counts. You will retain customers if they know that every time they call for a taxi or shuttle, someone will be there to answer the call. Best Call Center employs passionate and well-trained virtual receptionists. They will handle all your customer communications while focusing on your business’s essential aspect, which is management.

  1. Parking Lots and Garages

If you are in the parking industry, whether a small or large company, you understand that competition is high. The best way to gain a competitive advantage over your peers is by hiring a parking answering service. With our virtual receptionists handling all your callers, Best Call Center will provide customer assistance around the clock. We offer cost-effective administrative support to your business to ensure your customers are satisfied.

The good thing with our parking answering services is that we give your customers the response you want. We rely on the script created by your team, thus making sure that while the response customers get from our team represents your brand, it also makes them feel as if they are speaking to the parking lot or Garage Company.

Before choosing a garage or parking lot, most people visit various websites for reviews. If a client comes across multiple negative reviews from your prior customers, it will be a red flag, and they are not likely to choose your services. However, if the reviews are positive, it is a sign of reliability and happy customers, which means you will attract new customers and retain the existing one. Quality customer service is what results in satisfied customers and positive reviews. Therefore, to prioritize your customer services, you should consider a parking answering service from Best Call Center.

We partner with other businesses in the transportation industry are limo and jet rental companies and towing companies.

Signs your Transportation Business Needs an Answering Service

Receptionists act as a link between your business and customers. They are the people who create the first impression, and they determine the growth of an entity. As a business owner, it’s vital to ensure everything is running smoothly, and part of the smooth running of the business is maintaining happy customers. If you realize most calls in your business are going unanswered, it is a sign that you should outsource virtual receptionists. Some of the warning signs that will tell your business needs a transportation answering service include:

Callers Reaching Voicemail

If a client has an urgent need to travel to a particular destination at a given time, it will be frustrating for the caller to get a voicemail. Most of them even hang up before leaving a message, which means if you rely on voicemail, you will lose many clients to your competitors. If your callers are greeted by an automated message most of the time, it is time to consider hiring an answering service.

Lost Time

As mentioned earlier, the transportation sector is highly demanding. Employees are ever busy, and to drop whatever they are doing to answer a ringing phone will be a waste of time. Time wastage reduces business productivity. So, if you notice a lot of time is being wasted, you need a transportation answering service to free up you and your employees to focus on critical tasks. With an answering service, all your callers will get a timely response regardless of whether it’s at night, weekend, or holiday.

Your Staff are Distracted by Calls

Only call centers hire staff to answer customer calls. Transportation companies hire employees to address walk-in clients’ needs, transport customers or merchandise to different destinations, and perform other tasks. Although answering phone calls might be part of the job, it is not the most valuable aspect. It will be frustrating to see your employees talk to customers almost all day instead of focusing on their primary responsibilities. If ringing phones are disturbing your employees, you should consider partnering with an answering service. Virtual receptionists will handle all calls and allow employees to focus on their work.

Limited Budget

Not all transportation companies have budgets that can stretch to accommodate in-house receptionists. These professionals provide a lot of benefits to your business, but unfortunately, they are costly. Hiring full-time receptionists will increase the cost of operations, which might not be possible if you are on a tight budget. Luckily, you can enjoy having physical receptionists at a low cost by hiring the Best Call Center. We will do all the work of a conventional receptionist but at a fraction of the cost.

You Can’t Afford New Phone Systems

To stay competitive in today’s transportation sector, you need to invest in the latest phone systems to improve customer service efficiency. But the technology comes with a lot of costs that small businesses might not afford. You need a sound telephone system to enhance communication between your employees and customers.

Best Call Center has invested in the latest telephone systems, and we provide answering services at affordable prices. Your business can enjoy state of the art telephone systems as if they are your own at little costs.

Customer Complaints

You can tell if your customers are happy or not by checking reviews. In case you realize that most of your customer reviews are negative, it means something is wrong with your customer service. The best way to address an issue like that is by partnering with a virtual receptionist service. We have well-trained operators who know how to handle customer complaints and will be available whenever they call or inquire.

Your Transportation Company is Mostly Online

Most people who want to book flights, order merchandise, or wish to book a ride do it online. It means for you to stay competitive in this industry, you must take your services online. However, doing so comes with its challenges because of phone traffic and unavailability after working hours. If you are facing these issues, an answering service will be your solution. We are equipped to handle a surge in calls and are available around the clock, which makes your business trustworthy and reliable.

How Transportation Answering Service Work

Telephone answering services work by way of call forwarding. Just like an email forwarder, when you activate call forwarding, all your phone traffic automatically bounces to the virtual receptionist service you enlist. What happens is that the answering service provides you with a number unique to your account. All your incoming calls will be forwarded to the new number such that when a customer calls, instead of the phone ringing to your office, it will ring in the call center office where a virtual receptionist will pick up.

Some answering services even allow for bespoke services. Suppose you only need their services after operating hours. In that case, they will provide you with a call forwarding system that activates call forwarding when you close the business and deactivates it when you resume operations.

It’s worth noting that getting the new service up to speed with your protocols is not an easy task, and it requires adequate planning and coordination between the two companies. The answering service needs to understand your business. To do that, they might ask you about the kind of calls you want them to answer, how you want the calls handled, the calls you wish to transfer or the emails and messages you want to be forwarded,  and the things you would like them to tell the callers. The answers you give to these questions will determine how your calls will be handled.

Answering Service Features

There are multiple features apart from around the clock services that a call answering service may or may not provide. These features include:

  • Texting and emailing
  • On-call dispatching
  • CRM integration
  • Online portal access or mobile application
  • Bilingual support
  • Text response

When hiring a transportation answering service, you check the features that the service provides so that you can get what your business needs.

The Cost of a Transportation Answering Service

Virtual receptionist companies are not the same, which means they charge varying prices for their services. Their prices are based on the extent you are using the service. A business that gets thousands of calls a month will pay more than the one that receives fewer calls.

The cost also varies with the features being provided by a telephone answering service. The more the additional or advanced features, the higher the price. The bottom line is that while rates by these services can vary greatly, they are more affordable than hiring full-time physical receptionists.

Most answering services offer monthly services, so they send you an invoice at the end of the month. Others work on a contractual basis where you commit to an agreement for months or years. It is up to you to decide what is right for your business.

Some companies charge flat rates while others have a base price plus additional charges. It is up to you to determine which payment model is suitable for your business.

Potential Problems with Answering Services

Enlisting a virtual receptionist service in your business is an excellent asset, although it has its challenges too. Some of the challenges include:

  • Low response rate
  • Higher prices than expected
  • Mistakes by operators
  • Scripting mistakes

If the problem is a low response rate, you can check the answer rate report by the service to know why calls are not being answered promptly. If it’s because of a spike in the number of callers, you can move your account to different distributors so that many operators can handle the calls.

You can avoid unexpected high costs by setting a limit on the amount you are willing to spend. If the amount is exceeded, the system should send you an alert. You could also explore systems that help save money if they are available in the company.

If the operators are making many errors when speaking to your clients, you can have the calls recorded for review and feedback. If the feedback is positive, it is a sign they are doing a good job. But if it’s negative, you will need to coordinate with them so that they can receive further coaching on how to handle customer calls.

Find a Transportation Answering Service Near Me

If you run a business in the transportation industry, then you understand how demanding your customers can be. They need their calls and inquiries responded to promptly, and the best way to achieve that is by enlisting the services of the Best Call Center. We have well trained professional receptionists and the latest call center technology to provide the best transportation answering services to businesses nationwide. Call us today at 800-385-4656 to schedule an appointment or for a free trial.