Although more companies today are doing business via email, social media, and apps, there is still a need for high quality, reliable telephone customer service. Even with the internet drawing and retaining more of the business-to-consumer traffic, as many as 80% of customers and potential customers still prefer to engage with a company’s customer service via telephone. And those interactions are rated higher for satisfaction than online customer service engagements such as email and chat.

Many businesses rely on their online channels to field customer service requests to such a degree that their telephone numbers divert to nothing more than voicemail during off hours, an option that eighty percent of consumers say they decline to engage with. The telephone is still valid for businesses, and something better than an outgoing message needs to greet customers and potential customers when they contact. The answer is a professional and dedicated answering service. But not all commercial answering service companies are the same. Following find four things to look for when choosing an answering service for your business.

The Right Options for Your Business

When choosing an answering service for your business, you will have the advantage of knowing exactly what you need. Find a live answering service company whose service can be tailored to your needs. A number of different service levels should be offered, with options for varied budgets. Options that can be personalized to your business are important as well. Be sure to consider whether the call answering service you choose is able to meet higher demands at different times of day: off hours service is vital, of course, but often a phone answering service will be necessary for overflow calls during your business’s busiest hours. Other things to consider include pricing and billing transparency and agreement terms and length.

Partnership

Try to find an answering service for your business that values and partners with you as a customer. A professional and experienced 24 hour answering service will understand that their representatives do a great deal more than just answering your calls. They should consider themselves to among your company’s most important representatives, often the initial contact that many customers and potential customers will have, and will be prepared to engage accordingly. Each call the answering service fields for your business should be as important as the calls they field for their own business. And they should be able to engage seamlessly, as though their representatives were your very own employees.

Continuous Service

The primary reason for using an answering service for your business is to field calls during off hours, including weekends and holidays. Some after hours call answering service companies will have restricted, limited, or no service on holidays and other occasions. You will likely need coverage during these times. Be sure to find an answering service for your business that will represent you with the same seamless professionalism twenty-four hours per day and 365 days per year, giving your customers and potential customers the service and attention they expect no matter when they call.

Training

Perhaps the most important element you should consider when choosing an answering service for your business is how and how well their representatives are trained. All of the operators working with a 24 hour live answering service should have received extensive and in-depth training that has prepared them for a variety of often shifting demands. They should be skilled customer service representatives, well-versed in the needs and functions of your business, and prepared to solve problems both by protocol and with appropriate creativity.

The Right Answering Service for Your Business

Your business needs to be available to customers and potential customers 24 hours per day. And needs to field customer service calls with a team that is virtually indistinguishable from your own team, and cares about your business and your customers as much as your own team does. An answering service for your business should be well-trained and continuously available, and they should offer a service that is tailored to the exact needs of your business. Find the very best answering service for your business today.