When you are starting a new business, it is likely that you will be operating with as small of a team as you can function with. You, as the business owner, are probably going to be wearing a lot of hats as you navigate promoting your business, planning for the future, and of course, delivering your products or services.
This can mean that using third party companies to fill in roles that you have no need for full time in house employees to fulfil, and no time to do yourself, can offer a huge boon. One type of service that falls under this category is telephone answering. Here we look at just why having a good telephone answering service can be so helpful during the early phases of your business’ lifecycle:
Customers Appreciate Being Able to Reach a Real Person
Some businesses try to get around their lack of phone answering staff by using online features like contact forms or web chat bots to allow customers to interact with them, perhaps allowing them to send enquiries that you can respond to when you are available, or trying to answer the most common questions via AI. However, while these things are appreciated, in a lot of cases people simply want to be able to phone the company and get the information they want, make an appointment, or even buy something, without having to wait. Phone answering service company TMC Australia says that many people become frustrated when there is no number to call for immediate interaction with a real person at the company, and may move on to competitors who do allow them to get in touch the way they want to.
Professionalism and Branding
How your company responds to incoming calls is a part of your brand, and professional phone answering services will give your brand a professional and responsive feel. Even if you have very few actual staff, a dedicated phone answering service that can greet your customers the way you choose and ensure that a quick response is always available will give the impression that your company is mature, established, and professionally staffed. This reassures customers and helps to establish a good opinion of your brand right from the first contact.
Cost Effective and Scalable
You don’t normally know at the start of a marketing campaign or on launching your business how many calls to expect, and it usually isn’t cost effective to have a full time employee to handle calls, Equally, during busy times, you may be inundated with calls based on a successful ad campaign. With a third party contact centre service your calls can always be handled and responses can be scaled up or down as needed with no disruption to your business.
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why using a call answering service can be a powerful tool when you are first launching your business, and can also remain invaluable as your company starts to grow.