Answering Service Buyer s Guide

Transcription

1 Answering Service Buyer s Guide I I sales@answerfirst.com

2 Table of Contents 1. What is An Answering Service? The basics: what are answering services and what do they do? 2. Foundational First Choice What are the options for handling your business phone calls? 3. Why Choose an Answering Service? A closer look at what solutions answering services provide and how these services can benefit your business. 4. How Do Answering Services Work? How does an answering service receive your calls? How do you get your messages? 5. The Best & Worst Answering Service Practices Five things to look for when you re shopping for a service and five things to avoid. 6. Choosing the Best Answering Service for Your Business Three steps to help you make the right choice for your business. 7. Call Center Comparison Guide A handy guide that you can utilize to shop & compare up to 3 different services. 8. Learn More About AnswerFirst Ready to get started? Want more info?

3 What Is An Answering Service? Answering services are business communication solution providers that focus on professionally and promptly handling inbound communications; thus, improving revenue and profitability, reducing costs, and increasing availability and customer retention. Answering services give callers the opportunity to talk to a live Customer Service Professional who can meet their particular needs better than an automated voic . Additionally, Customer Service Professionals have the ability to decide whether a call is urgent enough to take actions other than simply taking a message. Professional answering services are able to answer all calls on behalf of a business, allowing callers to be unaware that their calls have been redirected to an answering service. For many companies, live answering services enable them to be more available while simultaneously giving their businesses a professional presence. Additionally, many answering services provide more than just live telephone answering. Dispatching, scheduling, order entry, help desk solutions and social media monitoring are just a few of the other services an answering service can provide. Please note: these rates are based on a call limit of 3 simultaneous inbound calls. If you have questions about this, please ask your Sales Rep. As a true solo lawyer, AnswerFirst has been invaluable to me this year. In large part due to my ability to capture calls and get back to folks quickly, we have doubled our revenue every month this year. - Bill Y. Yanger Law

4 Foundational First Choice Answering service, automated voic , or traditional receptionist? For many businesses, the first decision about handling inbound telephone calls usually hinges on the choice between: (1) an answering service, (2) automated voic , or (3) a traditional receptionist. There are significant differences between these options and shoppers should be informed and prepared to make this fundamental choice Answering Service Automated Voic Traditional Receptionist Availability 24/7 24/7 9-5pm Flexibility Extremely Minimally Moderately Security Monitored 24/7 by Provider Customer Assumes Risk Customer Assumes Risk Updates Automatic Updates Handled by Customer Handled by Customer System Management Web Based User Portal By Appointment By Appointment Implementation Simple & Handsfree Complex & Time Intensive Complex & Time Intensive Cost of Service $150 Monthly Average $100 Monthly Average $3200 Monthly Average

5 Why Choose an Answering Service? Answering Services are more important now than ever because they help businesses gain new customers and retain existing ones in an era when people are less likely to leave voic s. We re excited about the services we offer! Why? Our innovative technology has the capacity to handle almost all business phone systems and phone calls regardless of your location. Our services are flexible and robust! We are constantly improving our service offerings, and implementing new technology to further unify your communications. What solutions do answering services provide? answer calls after-hours answer calls when your office is unattended provide immediate customer care answer calls when your main line is busy/engaged provide services when you wish to work undisturbed cover high call volume or need to cover high call periods phone coverage when you re short-staffed lower overhead and increase profitability enable you to expand availability for customers in other time zones reduce costs improve customer retention and/or satisfaction improve customer service answering calls as they come in because customers are less likely to leave a voic get results for marketing campaigns by asking callers, How did you hear about us? How do answering services benefit my business? An answering service is much more cost-effective and flexible than a traditional receptionist. You can easily and quickly forward and unforward calls to an answering service, anytime and anywhere. An answering service is more personable and professional than automated voic s. Answering Service Customer Service Professionals are trained to deal with irrate callers in a professional and productive manner.

6 How Do Answering Services Work? Forward your lines to your unique forwarding number. We answer your calls as your company. Calls are handled according to your account instructions. Routing your calls to us is easy! We provide you with a unique forwarding number. You forward your calls to that number and when the number rings at our contact center, a Customer Service Professional answers in your company name and follows your account instructions for handling your callers. Nervous about forwarding your calls? Phone carriers provide several options for you to forward your calls. The most common forwarding method is known as manual call forwarding. Manual call forwarding requires you to select the line you want to forward and dial an access code followed by the number to which you wish to forward. Some phone companies offer Busy No Answer forwarding, which allows your line to ring to us if it is tied up or if it s not answered by a predetermined number of rings. There is also remote call forwarding, which allows you to forward your calls from anywhere. Curious of how you would receive your messages? Most providers deliver messages via fax, , text messaging (SMS), alpha pager, digital pager, verbally over the phone and via the web. You can usually select any of these options in any combination. For example, you can request to receive a text message to your cell phone, and then later retrieve or review that same message on the web, and then via a summary the next morning. Also, based on your account setup, you can have different dispatch protocols for different types of messages (e.g. emergencies sent via text message and then called to confirm receipt but all routine calls held for the next morning.)

7 5 Best & Worst Answering Service Practices Not all answering services are created equal. Many answering services are more interested in overhead and profits than providing clients with genuine and flexible customer service. Best Practices per second billing instead of paying for a full minute worth of time pay as you go pricing so you don t pay for time you don t end up using charging the same rate for nights, weekends, and holidays being available any and all holidays, 24/7/365 charging a siginificantly lower rate for services that aren t performed by a live person Worst Practices billing a full minute for calls that do not last seconds charging higher rates for weekends and holidays charging for calls that land in a hold queue because they weren t answered by a live professional not providing full transparency including unscreened access to call recordings not offering 24/7/365 live support and account updates

8 Choosing the Best Answering Service for Your Business How Do You Know Which Service Is Right for You? There s a lot to consider when choosing an answering service. There are numerous service providers all with different service options, vastly different features and various pricing structures. To make the correct choice for your business, consider your goals, the capabilities of each service you re evaluating, the bottom line cost and business value. 1. Define what you want to achieve Ask yourself what challenge you are trying to solve. Example: lower costs from traditional receptionist, increase availability, provide better customer service, etc. 2. Define your requirements Put together a list detailing your current systems to help you understand what may or may not need to be integrated with your new answering service. Example: phone system, phone service provider, scheduling software, CRM solution, etc. 3. Consider your budget and expectations Of course, budgetary objectives play a role in which service you choose. Some businesses are constrained by current business conditions/budgets, while other businesses have more fiscal flexibility. It s crucial to consider if there are any cost savings benefits or increased revenue potential associated with utilizing a service so you can look at the bottom line cost of hiring an answering service.

9 Call Center Comparison Guide AnswerFirst 2nd 3rd 4th 1. Does the normal rate include answering phone calls and s any time, holidays, weekend or nights? 2. Does the rate plan guarantee you pay only for the services you use? 3. Does the service bill only after work is performed (no packages & no flat rates)? 4. Does the service record all calls and make them available to you at no charge? 5. Can the service patch callers to you in the continental U.S. without long distance fees? 6. Does the service bill in true one second increments? (no one minute rounding up) 7. Is your account assigned a unique phone number not used by other clients? 8. Does the service include a local forwarding number at no additional charge? 9. Can you take your forwarding number with you if you leave the service? 10. Does the service offer various billing & payment methods? 11. Does the service maintain a supervisor on staff 24/7 for issues or problems? 12. Are all your calls answered by agents in the U.S.? 13. Does the service provide 24/7 free web access to all account data (complete transparency)? 14. Does the service offer a HIPAA compliant mobile app that works on Apple, Android and Blackberry? 15. Can you make real-time on-call status changes via the web? 16. Can your data be exported in.csv format for import into your database? 17. Are your calls never interrupted to answer other calls (callers not put on hold)? 18. Does the service utilize separate dispatch operators to minimize mistakes? 19. Does the service offer customized hold announcements? 20. Can the service bring your inbound s into the operator queue for processing? 21. Can voice mail services be included as part of your live operator account? 22. If using voice mail services, can messages be ed to you in.wav format? 23. In the event of a power, telephone or internet outage, will the service continue to function? 24. Can you Tweet or Facebook your service for support?

10 Learn More About AnswerFirst s 5-Star Rated Answering Service AnswerFirst brings together all of the essentials you need to get your calls answered with a live Customer Service Professional all while attracting, converting, and delighting customers. Learn more about how AnswerFirst s Answering Services can help your business save time and money. Learn more about answering services Talk to a specialist