Are you wondering how to increase your customers’ satisfaction? Perhaps you’ve assigned the role of customer support to some of your employees, but there’s not improvement yet. This happens because in order to be an operator you need more than just a nice voice and saying hello; you actually need a good training.

And who is better for this job than a professional answering service?

Instead of making your employees struggle with customer calls, use them in a more productive way and hire an answering service to do the mundane task of communicating with your clients.

The operators are fully trained to deal with any type of situation, ranging from answering questions of interested buyers, to handling angry clients who shout at them over the phone. They know how to solve each problem in a calm and polite manner.

These agents are helping you to build a good reputation and increase the number of loyal customers. However, before you decide to team-up with such a company, read more about their types and services in order to see if this is the right move for your business.

How does it work?

Answering services take calls during and after the working hours of your business. So, even if all of the employee have already gone home, all the calls are redirected to the operators and they either answer them or take a message. You are the one who decides how much the operators are going to be involved in your business.

If you want a complete service for your customers, you should provide the agents with all the knowledge regarding your company and its goals, so that they are prepared to answer all the incoming questions. If not, they’ll be trained to answer only the most common questions and take messages which are going to be delivered to you later. Click here to see how they normally handle the calls.

Types of answering services

You can choose from two types of services, virtual assistants or call centers. The former refers to people who are specially trained to perform the job of a receptionist, doing more than just answering phone calls. These virtual assistants know a great deal of information about your company and your everyday schedule. They are like your secretaries, just not physically present.

On the other hand, call centers offer the same services as virtual assistants but they are suitable for serving a bigger number of customers. The number of operators is flexible and it can change according to your needs. Call center agents answer all the questions related to your business and also filter the calls, by assessing which calls are beneficial for your company and which are not.

Their features

Answering services do much more for your business, than simply picking up the phone. They usually charge for their additional services, but they can be of great benefit for your success.

Scheduling appointments is perhaps one of the best features as it makes sure that all customers are provided with an appointment and reminded couple of times before they are due to come. Imagine what would be like if several of your employees were in charge of this task? They will waste a lot of time and still not be able to schedule everything or remind everyone.

This is especially beneficial for medical companies which make numerous appointments on a daily basis. Visit this link: https://www.westparkcom.net/call-center-solutions/medical-call-center, to see how medical centers benefit from this service.

Delivering messages is yet another important feature, as it enables being constantly up-to-date with all clients requests or issues. You can arrange the way in which you want the agents to handle the messages, by using voicemail or directing them to a special number.

Keeping track on employees’ absences is very significant feature for the productiveness and punctuality of your whole business. Whenever some of your employees wants to report his/her absence, they can call a special line and report it to one of the operators. Afterwards, the operator transfers this information to the supervisors or managers.

Maintaining an online platform is a great way of tracking the number of all calls, their place of origin and the most common reason why clients call your operators. This customer information can help you get to know them better and adapt to their preferences.

This call center platform is also beneficial for listening to all phone calls as they are recorded, review the schedule or update information of clients or employees.

Wrap up

We hope that this guide on answering services will help you decide whether your business is ready for this step.

Virtual assistants are suitable for small firms, while call centers for the bigger companies with more clients.

Whichever you decide to choose, you won’t make a mistake!