After Hours Answering Services How They Can Improve Customer Satisfaction
The fact is that few businesses can afford to keep full-time employees on hand 24 hours a day. For the kinds of businesses that don?t or can?t provide services during evening hours ? like many healthcare providers and trade providers ? having people on hand during the off-hours doesn?t seem to be necessary. In fact, it is: not to provide services, but to answer phones. An after hours answering service provides employees available to answer phones for clients whenever full-time employees are unavailable. The advantages to using a service like this are numerous, after hours answering perhaps being one of the most advantageous services a business can employ.
What Does A Live Telephone Answering Service Offer?
An after hours answering service is a part of the worldwide telecommunications industry, worth an estimated $2.1 trillion as of 2012. What a quality answering provides is friendly and professional employees ready to answer the phone at whichever hours the client requests. These employees, while not performing the services the business offers, are informed and highly trainable. As such, they can handle customer complaints, questions and concerns with finesse. At its heart, what employees of a live telephone answering service offer is quality customer service. They ensure that no calls will go to an answering machine, and no customer will feel ?shafted? because their problems occurred after hours.
Why Do Customers Prefer An After Hours Answering Service?
Some small business owners take calls going to answering machines for granted. The fact is that many customers don?t wait to leave a message. After all, about 59% of Americans would rather try a different brand or company than stick with one that provides bad customer service. Many would say that not having a 24 hours answering service on hand qualifies as bad customer service. An answering service can increase customer satisfaction simply because someone is on hand at all times to answer questions and help customers work through issues. Having a live person to talk to also makes customers feel more appreciated than an automated telephone answering service.
How Can An After Hours Answering Service Help Business Owners On A Basic Level?
Customer satisfaction aside, there are other important reasons why small business owners should consider using a call handling service. Employees of call handling services can take messages reliably in a way that mechanical answering machines can?t. Answering machines are subject to technological errors and user confusion, sometimes resulting in vital messages being missed. A call handling service can also forward important questions and concerns to upper-level management, with real people being able to differentiate between what?s important and what is not. It?s efficient and certain in a way that automated answering machines aren?t.
Ultimately, the choice of whether or not to use after hours answering services is up to the small business owner in question. But what is offered by an after hours answering service offers all reward, with no risk.