There is nothing more valuable in business than the satisfaction of your customers. Thus, it is paramount that you take the necessary steps to ensure that you are always delivering the highest standard of service. But of course, this extends far beyond the quality of your products, or the reliability of your services; what about after-care? What about those potential customers who are calling up with a few questions that if answered promptly and professionally, could convert to another loyal customer?

Handling high volumes of calls and enquiries can be incredibly taxing on your time, especially if you’re trying to focus on growing your business. The question is, how valuable is your time? You need to quantify it properly in order to understand that investing in a live answering service for your business, could just be the key to taking your growth to the next level.

In this post, we’re going to explore live answering services in-depth and identify the key benefits that can help you solidify your relationship with your customers. Let’s get started!

1 – Save Valuable Time

We’ve lightly touched on this already, but we cannot overstate just how valuable your time is. By implementing a live answering service, you’ll be able to focus your precious time on other ‘revenue-generating’ areas. Certainly, for the more complex enquiries, your expertise will likely be required—however, for the routine calls that would otherwise be a waste of your time, you’re better off delegating.

As a business owner, your attention should be focused on what matters. Just as you don’t want to spend all day pouring over the books, so you hire an accountant; or you’d sooner leave your digital marketing to the professionals who can afford to dedicate their time to the nitty-gritty—you should leave the general enquiries to a live answering service.

2 – 24/7 Coverage

As your business grows, so too will your client base. This could mean that as your brand gains popularity, you attract customers from all over the world (in different time zones), which is why 24/7 coverage is so valuable. Can you imagine how much it would cost you to employ enough staff to manage the phones 24 hours a day? It simply isn’t viable for smaller businesses, which is why a live answering service is perfect. And of course, if you’re attracting customers from all over the globe, then you could certainly benefit from having bilingual staff as well—which takes us to our next point.

3 – Multiple Languages

Between you and your employees, how many different languages do you speak? That’s not a “my cat is blacker than yours” statement, it’s simply important to identify how much you can achieve in-house. If you wish to target a wider market, you need to have a live answering service in place, with bilingual representatives who can interact with customers from all walks of life. When investing in a live answering service, you can choose from a number of different languages to offer, so it’s definitely something to consider.

4 – Usage-Based Options

For young businesses that don’t receive a huge number of enquiries, or rather, they are more sporadic depending on the time of year, there are various usage-based options for you to explore. For example: rather than paying a flat rate and not getting your money’s worth, you could explore a productivity-based proposal instead.

5 – Branded Scripting To Match Your Business Model

If you’re concerned with upholding your brand image and worry about other people representing you, there’s no need to worry. If you find the right business who offer a top-quality live answering service, you can put forward specific branded scripts for them to adhere to. If you choose an Australian based company, it will be as though your customers are speaking with a direct representative of your business, as opposed to a generic call centre employee. You can customise this as much as you like so that your brand image will be maintained with the highest level of professionalism and integrity.

6 – An Integrated CRM System

Another huge benefit of using a live answering service is the fact that the most reputable companies will provide you with a CRM system of sorts, where data and information can be uploaded for each account, for your perusal. This means that you can track every enquiry and outcome and contact various clients on an urgency /value/likelihood to convert into business, basis.

7 – Exceptional Agents

When choosing a company to handle your live answering service, be sure to do your research. You want to find a company that prides themselves on their professionalism and hires & trains only the finest candidates. Naturally, these agents are going to be representing your business, so you want to ensure that they are up to standard. Fortunately, in such a competitive market, there are plenty of companies with the most exceptional agents that will meet and exceed your expectations—you just have to shop around a little!

8 – Cost Saving

Take a moment to think about how much it would cost you to otherwise employee enough staff to handle your incoming calls in your stead. Even if you were to hire only the one receptionist, the average salary for a receptionist in Australia is $53,767. That’s without benefits, holidays and sick days, not to mention the cost of getting them equipped with everything that they need. By outsourcing this to an Australian based live answering service, you’ll be saving an awful lot of money.

Conclusion

These are just a handful of ways in which a live answering service can benefit your business. Make sure that you are answering every call that comes through to your business so that they’re not going to your competitors instead. Bolster their loyalty by being there for them 24/7 and offering a wholesome and thorough customer service. If you’re interested in exploring these services further, feel free to contact OracleCMS today. We will gladly answer all of your questions. We look forward to hearing from you.