What Are Answering Services and Why Do Businesses Need Them?

Excellent customer service can lead to a more powerful sales funnel, which means more customers and business revenue. But not all businesses provide a fantastic job in this area. Everyone can share a horror story about poor customer service. 

According to Salesforce Research, 89 percent of consumers said that they’re more likely to become repeat buyers after a positive customer service experience. HubSpot Research also reported that 93 percent of customers would likely make repeat purchases with brands offering excellent customer service. But providing top-notch customer service can be challenging, especially for startups and businesses with limited support staff, communication infrastructure, and technology. 

The best solution to bridge the customer and business communication gap is outsourcing answering services. In this article, you’ll learn more about answering services and why your business needs them so you can check your options and make a more informed decision when choosing customer support options for your company. 

What Are Answering Services? 

Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies offer answering services, which involve contracting experienced live agents to answer business inquiries through phone calls, email, chat, and other preferred communication channels. 

Answering services provide a vast range of customer support services, helping startups, small businesses, and even big companies deliver excellent customer service. 

Different Types Of Answering Services For Businesses

Here’s a quick guide to the specific types and features of answering services:

• Live Answering

Live incoming call answering is one of the core features of answering services. A live operator answers incoming calls on your business’s behalf to maintain good customer relationships and improve loyalty. 

• Call Forwarding and Message Taking

Live answering agents can take caller messages and forward them to the appropriate employee or department. Live answering service receptionists can forward calls to a designated phone number or department.

• Appointment Scheduling

Your customers will never miss important scheduled appointments with a reliable answering service. They can call in and set up dental, medical, legal, or business appointments anytime. 

• Order Taking

Live operators can take orders from your customers and process them on behalf of your food business, flower shop, meal delivery, or other business types. 

• Emergency Dispatch

If you have a medical clinic or a property management company, you can hire operators for dispatching emergency services.

• Bilingual Answering Services

Grow your business by providing bilingual answering customer support to serve diverse customers worldwide.

Why Do Businesses Need Answering Services?

Check the top reasons businesses need answering services below:

1. Improve Business Reputation

Outsourcing answering services can help boost your business reputation by providing a professional, consistent, and efficient way to manage customer calls. Customers shouldn’t wait for a couple of hours or days just to get answers to their inquiries and concerns. Live agents are trained to answer incoming calls following specific scripts that they can tweak to ensure callers receive the correct information with a personalized approach every time. Doing so can build customer trust and loyalty and boost your business image.

2. Reduce Overhead Costs 

Startups and small businesses usually deal with increasing overhead costs. By outsourcing your answering services, your business can save on overhead costs while providing excellent customer support. Hiring additional employees to handle phone calls and reducing staffing costs like training expenses, salaries, and benefits is no longer needed. Furthermore, you don’t need to invest in expensive business phone systems, telecommunications software, and other equipment to handle your phone lines.

3. Scale Business Efficiently 

Is your business seasonal? Do you need more people to answer your calls during weekends? Or maybe, you plan to expand your business in another city, state, or country? Expect a higher call volume as your startup business grows because people want to inquire about your products and services. They also contact you to resolve their concerns. 

An answering service can help scale your business efficiently by scaling its services to match your business needs, ensuring that all your business calls are answered promptly. In addition, outsourcing allows your business to scale phone answering capacity up or down as necessary, ensuring you only pay for the type of answering service you require.

4. Enhance Customer Relationships

BPO companies that offer answering services can help businesses ensure prompt customer responses, providing them with a positive experience. With 24/7 answering service, your business can provide round-the-clock customer service availability, increasing customer satisfaction.

5. Focus On Other Business Core Functions

Focus on your production, marketing, sales, and other core business activities with the help of a reputable answering service. That way, you can improve employee productivity, save time, generate leads, provide customer feedback, customize, and provide multichannel support to your customers. 

How To Choose The Right Answering Service 

Check these tips to help you choose the right answering service for your business needs:

• Take Advantage Of Free Trials

You don’t have to pay anything when comparing answering services. Find an answering service provider that offers a free trial to determine its compatibility with your business needs. 

• Check Types of Answering Services 

It’s best to choose a service provider that offers a vast range of answering services, including 24/7 live answering and bilingual answering services. A one-stop shop go-to BPO company can help save you time, effort, and resources from hiring different service providers. 

• Look For ISO Certification

The most reputable answering services are certified by International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Dealing with an ISO-certified answering service ensures you deal with a legitimate company following the highest standards. Magellan Solutions is ISO certified with almost two decades of service, assisting countless businesses.

Conclusion

Answering services can help businesses drive growth, build stronger customer relationships, and increase revenue. Choosing the right answering service provider can give you peace of mind that customer service experts handle your calls following your business requirements. 

Magellan Solutions is your Top Provider of Quality Answering Services!

If you’re new to outsourcing and are still finding a reliable outsourcing company, try out Magellan-Solution’s free trial answering services. Get a free 60-minute online consultation or seven days of calls that can be used after business hours and overflow call operations, perfect for small and medium enterprises. 

With over 17 years of experience in the field, we have helped various businesses to scale up guided by our mission towards client satisfaction. Let us show you how we can assist in achieving maximum efficiency. Contact us today to learn more!

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