Small Business

Three Reasons Your Small Business Might Need a Call Answering Service

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Owning and operating a small business is full of both challenges and rewards. If you are successful, you will eventually reach a point where you will need to grow – and you can grow your business either by hiring more employees, or by contracting out services. One of the services you may wish to contract out are answering services. But how do you know if you really need them?

small business growth

There are lots of reasons and why a small business owner would choose to hire an answering service, but here are three of the most popular ones.

You’ve got more work than your team can handle but not enough to hire additional staff

If your team is overloaded, it not only makes for a stressful work environment but it can mean things start to fall through the cracks. Quality and customer service can eventually become compromised – or you simply have to turn customers away.

You could hire a full-time receptionist, but if the extra calls coming in don’t amount to high enough revenues for the company, then it’s difficult to justify the extra salary.

Hiring an answering service is often the ideal solution. The costs are significantly lower than that of hiring another employee, and it takes pressure off your existing team.

You want to offer emergency or off-hours service

Depending on the industry you are operating in, it may be necessary or desirable to offer emergency or off-hours service to stay competitive. For example, many contractors such as plumbers and electricians offer emergency 24/7 services. To stay competitive in these types of industries, this is becoming increasingly common.

Even if you don’t want to offer emergency services, you may wish to offer your callers the convenience of 24/7 availability to make appointments, place orders, etc.

While it would be impractical – and exhausting – to have your own phone turned on all the time, it is a simple matter for a professional answering service to ensure that the call is answered whenever anyone wants to contact your business.

You need to make more time for yourself

Especially in the early stages, small business owners need to hustle. To become successful, you likely had to network, work long hours, and live on a limited budget. Perhaps now though, you’ve reached a point where the money is flowing in fairly well, but you’re still working long hours and always seem to be pressed for time.

If that’s the case, then hiring an answering service may be the solution. By hiring an answering service, you can let the bulk of your calls go to the call centre. If you are expecting certain important calls you can have them transferred to you or another person in your company.

Having an answering service allows you to take more time for yourself and not have to worry that you might be missing an important call.

Growing a small business can be a challenge – but for many this challenge is made easier when they hire a call answering service. If you think that this solution might be right for you, we invite you to contact Touch Communications today to find out more!  Or view Touch Communications on our Facebook page!

Call Answering Services aren’t Just for Big Businesses

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Woman on Phone

When your customers call your company, it’s always better if they can talk to a real person rather than voice mail. But if you run a small business, it might be outside of your budget to hire someone just to sit at a desk and wait for customers to call. This is where outsourcing might make sense for your company. While many people have the impression that call answering services are just for big business, the fact is that hiring a live answering service can be extremely beneficial for your small business – and here’s why.

Your customers get the best service

Your customers come back to you because they have received service they were satisfied with previously, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t extend that phenomenal service to all interactions. Your customers don’t want to have to deal with a voice mail and will probably hang up if they aren’t able to speak to someone to resolve their concern.

What’s more, is that potential customers are impressionable, so by having a live person answer the phone the first impression they have will be one they remember for a long time. Having a live answering service will provide excellent customer service and will ensure your customers, and potential customers, remain loyal to your business for years to come.

Generate business at any time

When you run a small business you can’t be working 24/7 but if you don’t have sufficient staff to cover off the hours you can’t be there then you may be at risk of losing business. By hiring an answering service, you can have someone answering the phone for your business at any time and this could even lead to generate more business than you could have on your own.

Since new customers will likely hang up and try another business if they can’t get through to you, an answering service will help to ensure you capture any potential customers.

Save on office space

If you don’t have customers actually coming into your place of business, then it doesn’t really make sense to pay someone to sit behind a desk. If you hire an employee whose sole job is to sit and wait for the phone to ring you might be paying out unnecessary money.

By hiring an answering service, the phone will still always be answered but likely for a lesser cost than paying a full-time employee. You will also save on office space because you don’t have to find room for another employee. This is especially important if you run a business that doesn’t have a traditional office, or you are constantly moving between different job sites.

Having a conversation with a live person when calling a business is vital, and it will leave a lasting impression on your customers. Potential customers are more likely to hang up and try another business if they can’t reach you on the first try. By hiring an answering service you can ensure there’s always someone to provide answers to your customers and. generate potential business. So if you’ve been holding on to the impression that call answering services are just for big business, think again! The benefits to your small business are many.

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