Nowadays, the method of answering the phone has become diverse, albeit complicated. The benefit of using a live telephone answering service versus voicemail, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), is something that businesses contemplate and weigh very carefully every day. A lot of people are still split in the middle as to the advantages and disadvantages. Hence, they remain to be examined rather closely.

Voicemail has become an option for many offices. It’s inexpensive. Readily available and flexible. While many companies have gone the easy way of automated answering, there are still others who value customer service over automation and still stick to old fashioned live operators answering. The answering service industry has seen a steady decline in market share as many businesses have opted to use voicemail. But due to unfavorable responses from using voicemail technology, the answering service industry is steadily gaining its foothold back.

It would seem that the only victim from the automated answering process is the answering service call center industry. The businesses themselves suffer as well seeing that customer calling-in really favor talking to a live person on the other end. Customers would rather vent out their frustrations on real human beings as answering machines wouldn’t really care much. No matter how much voicemail companies try to personalize or ‘humanize’ their services, nothing still comes close to a human being who can respond properly, empathize at times and just be human for whatever it’s worth it.

Voicemail Does Not Work

Callers who reach the voicemail rarely leave messages nowadays. Let’s say seven out of ten that is a drop off rate of seventy percent. Very few businesses can afford to survive losing seventy percent of their business. There are really not a lot of chances to turn phone calls into business opportunities when you’re not getting that much calls.

Saving a Few But Losing A Lot

It may seem that you’re saving hundreds of dollars on the technology but you’re actually losing thousands on lost business opportunities. A live answering service operator will capture messages and relay them real-time. This is where voicemail fails. More messages mean more business. This should be reason enough why voicemail, quite simply, does not work.

Immeasurable Benefits For Your Business

Answering service benefits are plentiful. Though there are many to list, following are a few of the major benefits:

Saves Money: With a more focused answering service you can save on time and investment and it eliminates costs associated with providing a physical workplace for the agents, hiring and maintaining additional employees including vacation planning, hiring and training, benefits spending, and paid overtime.

Create an aura of professionalism: Customers will often criticize your company by the very first phone call. Using an outsourced inbound call center specializing in answering and order taking presents a whole new caller interface where all calls are greeted with a smile and treated with respect.

Never Miss an Important Call: Answering service staff handles calls 24/7. Any time your customer places an order, makes a reservation or books any of your function rooms for any event, someone will always be there to take that call. What’s even better is that your customer’s requests, complaints, questions and whatnot are handled real time by your call specialist who are more than qualified, up to speed and competent.

Absolute Customer Satisfaction. This is the eventuality, the inevitable and the end result of combining all of the listed benefits above.

Still, the first step to having these advantages work for your business is not to choose the first answering service call center that happens to present itself, but by carefully researching before choosing on who you think can provide you with the best service your company deserves. There’s a myriad of choices to choose from, let’s be clear on that.

But in the end, the choice is still yours. Using an answering service benefits both small and large businesses alike. If you are looking to help your customer retention and strengthen your customer service, contact a service provider today.

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