Implementing an Answering Service to Accommodate Business Growth
As your business grows, you need the right customer communication solutions. If your customer communication strategy falls low on your priority list, you miss out on more opportunities for growth. With answering services from a trusted partner like AnswerHero™, you can respond to your customers’ needs and keep your team’s workload manageable.
Assess Your Current Needs
A business needs to grow to stay afloat, especially when there is competition. The number of businesses established each year is steadily climbing, with more than 5.4 million created in 2023. Your business must evolve to meet your consumers’ demands more than your competitors do. This evolution is what helps you turn a profit and increase business value.
Scaling a business looks different for every organization. Ultimately, it comes down to the resources you’re using and how you can adjust this usage to better meet your goals. For example, you might integrate purpose-built technologies to streamline tedious manual processes. Another common practice in scaling is allocating a budget for new hires, allowing your team to keep up with consumer demand.
Before you take those first steps to accommodate business growth, assess your needs. Ask yourself, “Where is my team experiencing the most strain right now?” Talk to your employees to learn more about what’s slowing them down.
A huge hurdle in business growth is responding to more and more customers and leads. Ensuring your customers are happy and their needs are taken care of is a big part of running a successful business. As your customer base grows, you’ll need to answer more inquiries, take on more appointments and field more phone calls. If your team isn’t equipped to handle this influx, you can stifle your business growth.
Managing customer communication can be complex. Between the cost of hiring new employees, limited availability and communication inefficiencies, finding a solution is a must. If these challenges are holding you back, you may benefit from a call answering service.
Signs You Need an Answering Service
Call answering services can be an excellent way to improve customer communication at your business. You could benefit from this service if any of the following apply to you.
You’re Overwhelmed With Calls
One of the most immediate signs you can benefit from call answering services is being overwhelmed with calls. If your staff is answering the phone all day long and still missing calls, you need additional support. With virtual receptionist services, you have a dedicated team for fielding phone calls to ensure every call is answered — even when your staff is occupied.
You Receive More Inquiries Than You Can Manage
Certain industries involve a lot of questions before, during and after the sales process. As a result, your team might have to field hundreds of inquiries per day. You might handle these inquiries over the phone or email — and when you have more than you can manage, customers’ questions are left unanswered. An answering service can help you field the most common questions you receive to ensure your customers are happy and your team is not overloaded.
You Want to Boost Your Professional Reputation
Your current phone setup likely involves a voicemail where your callers can leave a message. While this approach might have been enough at one point, frequent missed calls mean more callers are getting directed to voicemail. Voicemail can be perceived as less professional and not helpful — many callers might choose to take their business elsewhere as a result. A call agent gives your caller a person to talk with the moment they call, encouraging them to stick around.
You Need After-Hours Support
Many businesses have customers calling around the clock, like IT help desks and home service providers. When your callers have an emergency, they need support the moment it happens. Answering services can provide after-hours support to make your business more accessible.
The Benefits of Call Answering Services for Your Growing Business
With call answering services, your team has the support it needs to handle an increased call volume effectively.
Turn Leads into Customers
Your leads are a powerful metric for your growing business, but they only mean something if you convert them into customers. Call answering services ensure you answer every call and follow through with every lead. While call answering agents may not be the ones who close the sale, they help you build rapport with potential customers and showcase that their needs are meaningful.
For example, a call agent takes a call from a lead who asks a question about a service. Based on the script you provide, the agent may be able to answer this question and leave the potential buyer satisfied at the end of the call. If they can’t answer the question, the agent can take a message, route the call to someone who can answer it or set up an appointment for the lead to talk with a member of your team.
By the end of the call, the prospect feels taken care of and more inclined to stay engaged with your business. From there, your team can turn them into a customer.
Increase Availability
Whether your customers call with emergencies or live in different time zones, their needs may not always fall within standard operating hours. Call agents can answer your phone 24/7 to ensure every call is handled. This increase in availability can be a huge trust-builder for your customers. It shows them you’re interested in solving their problems and showcases your commitment to partnership.
Home service providers are an excellent example of the benefits of increased availability. A roof repair company may only have standard working hours during the week, but roof emergencies can happen at any time. Call answering agents can field these emergency calls and contact on-call repair teams to initiate service immediately.
Reduce Administrative Strain
Your staff plays a key role in helping your business grow, but overworking them can affect performance and productivity. Take the administrative burden of answering the phone off your team’s shoulders so they can focus on other responsibilities. For instance, you might have call agents take calls from new leads, giving your team the time to build relationships with current customers.
Scale Without Hiring
Call answering services are a cost-effective customer communication option for growing businesses. You may have reached a point where a high call volume is putting strain on your current team — but you don’t have the budget for hiring a new employee. Call answering services allow you to reap the benefits of a new hire without the onboarding and payroll costs.
Implement Scalable Answering Service Solutions With AnswerHero™
AnswerHero™ is a 100% bilingual answering service that helps your company manage a high call volume. Our flexible pricing and contract-free model make it easy to adjust our services as your needs change. Keep up with your growing business with a committed team of call agents who handle tasks like appointment setting, message taking and beyond. Get in touch with us today to get started.