Do you want to increase your customers? If so, then you need to ensure you engage with them in a better way. Using a telephone answering service like https://www.rubyreceptionist.com.au can help you in this. A telephone answering service ensures you don’t miss out on any valuable calls from prospective customers.
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If you are interested to use a telephone answering service for your business, you need to know how it works. This guide explains all you want to know about telephone answering services.
How a Telephone Answering Service can help you
1. Helps you get leads 24/7
Your office may work only for a few hours each day. If customers call at other times, there would be no one to receive their call. This is a missed opportunity since the lead could go to a competitor. When you use a telephone answering service, they would offer their services 24/7.
There would be a trained operator to receive calls at all times. This ensures any potential customer who calls can be given the information they need. Since the call is handled by a professional, it becomes easy to get new leads. You can get leads not only during office hours but at all times.
2. Effective and Cost-Efficient Service
When you hire a receptionist, she can handle phones only during office hours. If the receptionist is on leave, then there is no one to handle calls. If you use a telephone answering service, you don’t need a receptionist. You can save on the salary and this works out to be cost-efficient.
The answering service would work just like your receptionist. The only difference is there would be someone to receive calls on all days of the week at all times. There are no limitations in terms of working hours.
3. Helps you focus on your core activities
If you have to set up a telephone answering service in-house, you will need to hire a receptionist or telephone operator. You may need to have more than one person and provide them with the proper infrastructure. Their work needs to be monitored, which calls for both time and effort.
By using a telephone answering service, you save not only money but also time. You can leave it to professionals to manage the telephone calls. You can then focus more on your core work without worrying about how calls are handled.
4. Helps to increase customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction does not come only if the customer likes your product. There are many other factors involved, including how telephone calls are handled. When the customer calls, they would expect someone to pick up their call. They would also want the person on the other side to patiently hear them out and help them.
If this doesn’t happen, it can make your customer unhappy. Using a professional telephone answering service ensures your customers are handled in the best possible way. Every call would be received and care is taken to ensure the customer gets the information they need or a solution for their problems. This can help in improving your customer satisfaction, which is vital for your business growth.
5. It is a professional and friendly service
The people who work at telephone answering service companies are professional. They are trained in handling phone calls and are experienced. They know exactly how to manage any type of customer who calls your number. This professional approach can be very helpful as it helps to project a good image of your company.
Apart from professionalism, they are also friendly. When a customer calls, they expect to hear a friendly voice at the other end willing to help them. You can automate your calls, but this lacks a personal touch. A friendly voice at the other end reassures customers and helps them trust you better.
6. Helps you get key information
The trained people manning the telephone answering service will collect key information you need. Whenever a call is received, complete information about the call is recorded. The name of the caller, purpose of calling, contact number, email, etc. is collected. This will help you in your lead generation process. Your sales team can then follow up with the lead to convert them into a customer.
7. Helps you pre-qualify leads
Apart from collecting information, the executives handling your phone calls can even help in pre-qualifying the leads. They can find out how interested the caller is in your service. They can even find out if the caller intends to buy your product in the next 6 months. This pre-qualification will help your sales team.
When the executive feels that this is a valuable lead, they will immediately inform you. Your sales team members can then get in touch with the lead and try to convert them. This approach helps you get better quality leads, which in turn helps improve conversions.
8. You get a virtual personal assistant
Using a telephone answering service helps you get a virtual personal assistant. This is valuable for small companies and single-person ventures for whom hiring a full-time receptionist would be expensive. The executive handling your calls would be seated at some other physical location but would virtually handle all your calls.
Apart from receiving calls, they can also make calls. It all depends on the service your need. They can make your appointment bookings. This will help you in your sales closure, so your sales team can close more deals. Apart from managing calls, they can even help in other services like managing your emails, doing research work, etc.
Their charges would be lesser than hiring full-time staff. They would work as your personal assistant with the only difference being they are not physically in front of you. If you are keen on increasing your leads, then using a telephone answering service is a great idea.
Conclusion
Ensuring that every call is attended to can help you increase leads. This can lead to improved conversion and enhanced customer acquisition. It is possible to double, even triple your customers when you use the best telephone answering service.