What is a phone answering service?
Did you know that 89% of customers are more likely to buy from you again after a positive customer experience? This is where having a phone answering service for call handling comes in.
A phone answering service is an office that runs your phone calls while you run your business. In an ideal situation, you would always be available to answer or pick up the business phone. But think of it like a virtual receptionist who handles all incoming calls and outgoing calls for your company—except without the actual in-house receptionist.
Phone answering services have been around for some time, but with advances in technology, they’ve become more efficient and less expensive than ever before. If you’re serious about growing your business, a phone answering service is a must-have tool for keeping your communications flowing smoothly. While some companies set this up through their landline service provider, others integrate it into their voicemail system.
In this article, we will take you through the important features you should look for in a phone answering service before settling for one answering service company.
8 Features to Look For in Your Phone Answering Service
Now that you know what a phone answering service is, it’s also important to know the key features to look for in your call answering service when you choose one.
1. Unlimited Live Call Answering
When you run a business, you can’t always be there to answer the phone. However, if you own a business that deals with customer service, you know that sometimes having someone to talk to on the spot can make all the difference.
With unlimited live call answering, however, your office phone number is never busy. If someone needs to get in touch with you about an order or some other issue, they can do so 24/7—on nights and weekends too. All of our plans also include unlimited SMS messaging as well as voicemail transcriptions.
2. Call Routing
Call routing is a feature that is unbelievably important for businesses in all industries. It’s not just about having the right department answering your calls, but also about being able to keep track of where each call is coming from and what department it’s going to.
This ensures that you have complete knowledge of each customer’s interaction with your business, which will help you determine how well your company is serving them. This will also allow you to get back in touch with callers in a more timely manner than ever before.
3. Outbound Calling
If you’ve ever had a business call and were greeted by a recorded message, you’ve experienced what’s called an outbound calling service. An outbound calling service is basically a phone answering service that works on the opposite end of the line that you do. Instead of you dialing in to get through to your bank, your doctor’s office, or your grocery store, these companies make it easy for you by having an automated phone system already set up.
Outbound calling services are important for businesses because they can save them money on staffing and equipment cost. By outsourcing their inbound calls to an answering service, companies can free up their staff to handle more pressing matters that don’t involve spending time with irate customers or dealing with technical issues.
4. Accurate Message Taking
Accurate message taking is the cornerstone of effective customer support. For businesses in all industries, if you want to be taken seriously, it is imperative that your messages are handled by a professional who can transcribe the information quickly and accurately.
With this feature, your customers can receive the best service and rest assured that you stay on top of their business needs.
5. Appointment Scheduling
Scheduling appointments is at the heart of business, whether your company is a restaurant, a medical office, a veterinary clinic, a law firm, or a one-person operation. While it’s easy to take down a general idea of someone’s needs when they call to schedule an appointment, being able to accurately record the information you’ve gathered lets you provide better service and have a more complete record of what was said.
This also gives you the opportunity to use this information later on when serving them so that you can be sure that your service is exactly what they need.
6. Professionalism and Specialized Training
When you think of a business, customer service or the service provider may not be the first thing you think about, but it cannot be separated from the product or service itself.
Professionalism and specialized training can be the difference between a good business and an exceptional one. A good business is one that has a quality product or service. But an exceptional business is one that offers exceptional customer experience on top of that. First impressions are long lasting, afterall.
7. Personalized Greetings
One of the most important things to establish when a company opens is an effective live answering service. In fact, scripted voicemails can actually increase response rates from customers by 22%. A phone answering service can set you apart from your competition with just a simple greeting. Imagine calling several different companies and hearing the same generic, unimpressive answers to your questions or even worse, no answer at all!
With personalized greetings, you will have a real person answer on the first ring every time and that person will help you with whatever you need, whether it be information about products, services or even scheduling a meeting. This way, businesses don’t have to worry about overloading their employees with phone calls as well as giving customers what they want in terms of service.
8. Real-time Status Updates
The best way a telephone answering service can benefit businesses is by providing real-time status updates for your customers. Your customers can call and ask questions or express concerns about your company’s products or services and receive an immediate response when you have 24/7 live operators who are trained professionals to answer their questions and address their needs.
One example of how cell phone answering services benefit businesses is when answering calls from customers who need assistance with your products or would like to know more about your company’s services.
Gabbyville’s Phone Answering Service is Your Solution
No matter your service offering, Gabbyville’s professional phone answering service is ready to answer your calls. With Gabbyville at your side, you can feel comfortable that your customers are spending their time with a friendly and knowledgeable representative who can answer their questions and provide the help they need. Our dedicated agents can deliver solutions for after-hours answering, scheduling, and so on. Don’t miss out on your potential clients!
Gabbyville’s virtual receptionist service can be used by both retail and office environments. Retailers will find no downside to using Gabbyville’s phone answering service. When you’re busy with customers, you don’t want to spend valuable time away from the register or from helping customers in the back room answering business phones. If you wish to enable call forwarding for all calls, we’ll guide you through the procedure for doing so on an iPhone or an Android phone.
With our professional answering service, you can feel confident that customers are receiving great customer service, being helped right away, and spending more money because they aren’t on hold or waiting for help.
Get started with Gabbyville today!
