Why People Are More Likely to Trust a Business That Answers the Phone

Phone calls are a critical touchpoint between your business and your current or prospective customers. Unanswered calls frustrate the people making them and negatively impact your brand perception. Missed calls also represent missed opportunities for your company, affecting both short-term and long-term success potential.

AnswerHero™ provides call answering services that reduce these risks. Learn more about the bottom-line value of prompt phone answering and how working with AnswerHero™ can increase customer trust and build credibility.

The Psychology of Trust and Unanswered Calls

Trust is a complex combination of perceptions, expectations and emotions. Unanswered phone calls directly contribute to an erosion of trust between a business and its existing or potential customers, since not answering the phone creates:

• Feelings of neglect: When a caller reaches out to your company without success, it can lead to feelings of frustration and the assumption that your company doesn’t value their time or needs.
• A perception of incompetence: If you can’t answer all your incoming calls, you run the risk of callers forming the impression that your business is disorganized or lacks integrity.
• A diminishing sense of confidence: Unanswered calls may cause current or potential customers to lose confidence in your business’s ability to deliver on its promises.
• An increase in perceived risks: Customers weigh the risks of every transaction they make. Being unable to reach you when they need your services or support could increase the perceived risk of doing business with you.

Prompt Responses Build Credibility

While missed-call rates vary widely by industry, recent research found that 26% of all calls to businesses go unanswered. With an average phone conversion rate of 41%, these missed calls can result in significant revenue loss for your company.

Plus, callers have a growing expectation for fast or immediate service. In fact, as much as 66% of consumers expect a response within five minutes. A failure to deliver on those expectations creates poor experiences that damage credibility and future business. Research also indicates that more than half of customers with a bad support experience will move on to a competitor. 

What’s more, those callers may spread the word to others. Studies found that 24% will write a negative review on a third-party website, 45% will tell friends and family, and 21% will post it on social media.

Callers with an emergency have even more reason to expect a prompt response. They are already experiencing fear and uncertainty, and they’re looking to your business for help. This sense of urgency will drive them to the next phone number on the list — one of your competitors — if their calls go unanswered.

With professional call answering services, you can ensure phone coverage 24/7. Existing and potential customers grow to understand you care about them enough to be there when needed, delivering better experiences that can be shared with others. This social proof helps establish your business’s credibility, creates a positive first impression and reinforces your brand’s core value — service.

Professional Call Answering Enhances Brand Reputation

Ensuring you can answer every call is an excellent way to improve your business reputation and enhance your company’s image. Professional call answering helps you achieve that goal by:

• Creating a positive first impression: It takes consumers only about 7 seconds to form a perception of your business. Answering their calls is ideal for starting the interaction off on the right foot.
• Making a human connection: Humans are, by nature, social creatures who crave interactions with others. Answered calls satisfy this basic need, generating positive emotions that callers associate with your brand.
• Mitigating negative feedback: Answering calls helps ensure customers and leads get prompt service and support when they need it. As a result, callers are less likely to experience frustration due to an inability to reach you and are less motivated to share negative feedback with others.

How AnswerHero™ Solves the Trust Equation

AnswerHero™ is the ideal solution for establishing credibility with callers and gaining and keeping your customers’ trust.

We Build Human Connections

When callers contact your business, interacting with an actual human being creates a superior experience versus reaching an automated system or answering machine. Recent research found that 75% of those surveyed preferred speaking with a human when they needed support. The same study revealed that AI-powered solutions frustrate 56% of callers, and 48% distrust the information they receive.

The reason behind these preferences is clear — the human voice is a powerful business tool. Engaging with a human enables more personalized interactions and creates a positive impression through the power of connection. These touchpoints also help improve customer satisfaction and foster trust and rapport, leading to longer-term, loyal customers.

Our Agents Are Available 24/7

With AnswerHero™ as your partner, your business gains the confidence of knowing you’re answering every call, every time. Our trained agents offer around-the-clock availability at no extra cost, so your customers and leads can reach you no matter when they call. You’ll have a fully dedicated team for overflow and after-hours answering to help reinforce the perception of your brand as trustworthy and professional.

In addition, our agents assist day or night with key operational tasks like appointment setting and lead capture. They can also immediately forward calls to the right person — perfect for urgent calls requiring prompt assistance from your experts.

We Speak Your Customers’ Language

Your customer base is likely becoming more diverse. For example, there are 41.3 million native Spanish speakers in the United States alone. Callers who encounter a language barrier when they’re already experiencing a support issue are more likely to grow frustrated and form negative perceptions about your business and its values.

When you partner with AnswerHero™, you get 100% bilingual agents to eliminate communication barriers and gain a competitive edge. Our team members converse in whichever language your callers prefer, boosting their trust in your company to meet their needs.

Maintain Credibility and Improve Caller Trust With AnswerHero™

AnswerHero™ is the most flexible way to improve brand reliability and maintain credibility and caller trust for your business. We have a proven history of success and decades of experience serving numerous industries. Plus, we offer multiple plans with transparent pricing and no contracts, so your business can adjust your call answering features and strategies as necessary.

Get started today in four simple steps or connect with our experts in a free consultation for help designing your ideal call answering plan.

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