It would be great if every single person that called your company could spend an hour speaking with the owner about every one of their questions and concerns. Of course, this isn’t feasible or realistic in the real world, which is why customer calls are delegated and handled by other members of your team.
A call answering service can further improve the efficiency and workflow of your office by providing a number of benefits that are designed to streamline the office and improve the overall workflow of your staff.
Benefits of an answering service
There are a number of significant benefits that an answering service can provide for companies looking to streamline their office workflow. The following are some of the most significant benefits of an answering service for companies looking to improve their office workflow
Let office staff focus on clients and customers in the office
When calls are constantly coming directly into your office, your office staff is compelled to answer those calls. While this might be good for the individuals calling, it probably has a significantly negative impact on clients and customers who are actually in the office – since there will be fewer people available to assist them.
An answering service acts as a “first tier” filter for your company. By answering all calls that are received, the answering service can verify whether the caller needs to speak directly with someone in the office, or whether their inquiry can be answered by a trained member of the answer service team. This benefits both the individual calling and customers and clients in the office since there are more resources available to both.
Streamlines calls to ensure that high priority calls are handled as quickly as possible
While some calls can, in fact, be handled solely by an answering service, many others will require the direct attention of a department or specific individual in your office. An answering service can quickly identify which calls need to be escalated to an appropriate department or individual. In addition, the answering service will help those high-priority calls get the help they need even more quickly since the high-priority calls won’t be stuck in a bottleneck of calls going directly to your office.
If you choose to use an after-house answering service, high-priority, or emergency calls can make it to an appropriate party even if it occurs during off-hours.
Reduce wait time and improve customer service overall
An answering service will significantly cut down on the wait time that incoming callers must deal with. By having a team answering calls, you’ll be able to improve the customer service experience of all callers.
Filters out spam calls
Spam calls and solicitations can be a significant drain on the resources of your company. An answering service that is trained to identify and filter out spam calls can reduce the amount of time that your office staff spends handling spam and unwanted solicitations – ideally bringing the amount of time spent to zero.
At the same time, it is important to avoid “false positives”, and not accidentally filter out calls that should actually make it through to your office staff. The key to eliminating false positives, while still keeping unwanted spam calls away from your office staff is to have an answering service that is highly training and able to quickly and effectively identify the difference between wanted and unwanted calls.
What to look for in an answering service
When choosing an answering service, it’s important to select one that offers a customized service that addresses the specific needs of your company and your industry. MAP Communications has clients that range from small mom and pop shops all the way up to Fortune 500 companies.
If you’re looking for personalized and secure service, or if you are ready to improve your office workflow with an answering service, please contact MAP Communications for your free 7-day trial.
Here’s some related articles you might be interested in:
Make the Most of Your Staff’s Time with an Answering Service
