Answering Services can be highly helpful for many small businesses, especially those who don’t have the staffing power to have 24/7 coverage or an in-house receptionist.
But if answering services were perfect for everyone, well, then everyone would utilize them, right? So, why doesn’t every business with a phone line have answering services?
Because there are pros and cons to every decision in life.
Check out our list of common benefits and pitfalls for answering services to see if they may be right for you and your business.
3 Pros of Hiring an Answering Service
Save Money
Of course, this is a big one for most of our clients.
And contrary to popular belief, working with a live answering service company instead of having an in-house receptionist or having your floor employees stop working to answer the phones each time they ring actually saves you money.
Check out our services for free here, or request pricing for more information.
Stretch Your Hours
This is a close second in popularity when it comes to why our clients choose live answering services from Always Answer.
Why?
Because we’re always up, always on, and always ready for your calls.
Whether you get a call just five minutes after closing up shop, or five hours later in the middle of the night, we can take the call, talk to your potential customer, and give them the information they need right then and there.
Customers expect you to be available when they are, and we make that possible.
Improve Quality
If you have your floor employees answering phones whenever a call comes in, then your customers might not be getting the best information, experience, or customer service.
This isn’t to say that your employees aren’t great at what they do, but simply that they have to be splitting their time.
Either they are giving their full attention to the customer in front of them (and ignoring the phone), giving their full attention to the customer on the phone (and ignoring the one in-store), or giving half of their attention to each.
Essentially, having your employees try to juggle the phones plus their in-store responsibilities is a no-win situation for them, your customers, and ultimately, your business.
3 Cons of Hiring an Answering Service
Loss of an In-House Receptionist or Secretary
If you do have a current receptionist, then choosing answering services (unless only during your closing hours) would result in the loss of that position.
Even if it saves you money, it can be hard to let someone go and instead outsource the job.
Always Answer has had many of our clients choose a happy medium instead, such as changing their in-house receptionist hours to shorten them slightly, and then choosing answering services for their closing hours.
This way you keep your employee and also extend your available hours for calls.
Less Visual Management & Micromanagement
Many managers like to ‘walk around and see how things are going’ however, with an answering service, they can’t do this.
Some of our clients don’t mind not visually managing their calls, but some do.
Luckily, we offer detailed reporting, so you can see who called, when, for how long, and more. This eases the minds of some visual manager, but still, there are some who prefer to be able to see their receptionist or employees answering calls.
Lower Expertise in Certain Subject Matters
This is a con that is fairly rare – but still does exist in the answering service business.
Some companies are incredibly technical or need subject matter experts to be the ones answering their phones. And though Always Answer has highly trained technicians to answer your calls – it isn’t always enough, especially for technical businesses that require years of experience to be able to answer questions accurately.
Consider a website design company, answering services for them might not always be the best option, especially if most of the calls and questions coming in are about technical computer codes or design features.
Luckily, most business calls and inquiries aren’t about specific coding or technical manuals, but instead, knowledge that our answering services excel at providing.
Let Always Answer Be the Answering Service for Your Small Business
If the cost-saving, hour-extending, quality-improving benefits of answering services seem like the perfect addition to your business, then contact Always Answer today to learn more.
Or start your 7-day free trial now and see the difference we can bring to your industry.
