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How to Create a Personal Answering Service in 5 Steps

Even if using an answering service is important to the successes of any small business because of the financial benefit, 24/7 live customer service needed, and all the other awesome stuff; there is another important aspect that you should be focusing on.

Building your account to create a more personal interaction between you and your customers is what’s going to lead you to the most beneficial outsourcing experience. For a small business that has never hired an answering service, it is important that you get the right mix of knowledge to the business that can determine whether your experience will be successful or not. This is why it is absolutely essential that we develop a script that fits your business model and chooses the right way to operate that will represent your brand and business the best way possible.

Step 1: Understand your options

The way you handle your scripting should vary depending on whether you are using an answering service or a call center. A standard answering service is typically in a non-scripted environment, meaning the operators handle your calls with a general outline of questions to ask or information you need, but they do not follow a script per the letter whereas a call center service is set in a very scripted environment and the operators are fully required to follow that script from you.

When you get a clear idea of your options and you have decided on the type of service you are looking for that you think will work best for your company, the next step is creating a personal answering service to avoid script mishaps. When businesses sign up for an answering service, they try to create their script the same exact way they handle their calls in-house and while it is important that we ensure the synergy of both operations, it may not always work out that you set them up the exact same way. Here are some tips to avoid these mishaps:

• Provide 5-10 frequently asked questions for the answering service to study and understand
• Create guided questions in the beginning of the call to help drive the conversation to a way where the answering service will get the information they need
• For complicated calls, set up a warm transfer to you or your in-house support team

Step 2: Get to know who is answering your calls

Find an answering service that offers a free trial. A free trial is a great way to get to know who is answering your calls before you start to direct all your call traffic to them. It gives you and your team the time to make test calls where it is as if you are an actual caller so that you have an idea of how the operators answer your calls and pinpoint which areas to improve. Other than the mechanics of the call, you want to ensure that the operators answering your calls represent your brand perfectly. The more you work with your answering service, the more you can express your ideas and share your goals so that they can customize the service to your account to fit all your specific needs and requirements.

Step 3: Adjust the process to remove interactions that don’t work

It is a consistent learning process, once you get your initial process set up, there will still be some processes in place that will just not work naturally. Processes or specific questions that may have been important in the beginning might not be necessary to include in the process now if your callers are having a hard time understanding or the calls are getting lengthy.

The most important thing to consider when working with an answering service is how your customers are responding to their experience. When you keep asking questions that can feel monotonous and redundant may make your customers feel frustrated rather than feeling assisted. If your callers are becoming hesitant to reach out to you when they need you then you need to take that as a learning curve that something needs to change.

Step 4: Review your data

Your outsourcing experience requires you to monitor the quality of service you are getting and here are some ways for you to be able to do that effectively:

• Listen to your recording – When you are able to listen to how your calls are being handled is a great way to see how your operators are handling things and how your customers are responding. If operators are consistently struggling in a specific area, consider a workaround in delivering that message. If your customers are getting confused about who they are talking to, consider adjusting the call flow to where the operators say that they are from the answering service when they initially answer the calls.
• Monitor hold times – No one likes being on hold, but it is unavoidable. You can monitor your hold times by placing test calls yourself or requesting a report from your account manager. These reports should show you how many calls come in a specific time frame and how long each caller waited. You can either add a custom hold message that may help stop the callers from dropping their place in the queue.
• Run reports – Reports and collecting data will always help you determine different metrics that help improve your customer support or change your script in a very specific way that helps the operators be efficient in their calls.

Step 5: Be Personal

Eliminate an automated response, make your customers feel a personal connection to your company and the people that represent your business. Allow your customers to talk to a warm person rather than a robot helps show that your business is dedicated enough to have a team that is available to take care of them and cater to their needs.

1. Set Goals

Like keeping track of who’s winning, defining objectives and targets is a basic piece of your business achievement. Utilize the objectives you set as a continuous planning strategy to guarantee that you keep on pushing forward with your small business. For example, attempt an always reachable customer service, this helps in establishing that your customers can always reach you at any time. Whether it is an online business or a professional service, having a great answering service is a great addition to your operations.

2. Use High-Impact Strategies

Create low-budget, high-impact marketing strategies, and operational improvements. Test one or two new tactics and observe which ones perform the best before adding them to your final marketing and operational mix. A specific improvement can make a big impact if implemented completely. If you are a professional service provider, every call count because every call can be your customer. When you have an answering service in place, you can ensure that all your calls will be answered and there won’t be any missed opportunities.

3. Master Business Presentations

An amazing business introduction can help improve your small business’ presentation. Start by learning the fundamentals of a significant business introduction. These can incorporate conveying a message your audience cannot ignore. It does not necessarily have to be in a business presentation set up but can be something as simple as your brand presence online. With that being said, do not overload your audience with a presentation of heavy data, keep everything short and relevant.

4. Monitor Trends

No business works in a straight line. How to start a small business when occasions and changes in the worldwide scene affect your business? Remain current on trends and issues occurring in your industry and local communities. Even things that don’t appear to be relevant on the surface level may affect what you do, so think about all other angles of the business and current trends.

5. Find Best Practices

That means breaking down silos, communicating effectively, testing, and monitoring and approving your processes in order to keep everything running smoothly. Implement processes and solutions that have proven effective. Find a cost-efficient solution to your problem and maximize opportunities from different service providers for your business.

The Perfect Answer has an answering service pricing plan for every company’s needs. We will make every effort to provide your business with a high-quality answering service you expect. In order to see first-hand the difference between The Perfect Answer and other answering services, please accept our No Obligation FREE trial now!

When businesses look at outsourcing their call handling, or any service for that matter, it’s only normal to want the best. But what constitutes the best exactly? Well, it depends on the service you need, when you need it and how will it impact your business.

When it comes to looking for an answering service, don’t just look for an answering machine type of service, the first line of interaction you have with your customers will define your reputation and the quality of service you give out. Make sure your answering service partner has these five qualities you should look for in an answering service.

#1 Availability – If you are a service that offers 24/7 emergency dispatch services, these include plumbers, pest control, hospitals, medical centers, apartment complexes, locksmiths – any service that needs to be available for urgent contingencies. You need an answering service that can send out notices to the team in whatever form to relay the message while filtering out those that may not be emergency-related.

The Perfect Answer offers a 24/7, 365 days service, whether it’s at 1:34 pm or 3:01 am. Every single phone call gets a response after only one or two rings, which means that zero calls are missed.

#2 Flexible Pricing – The best isn’t always expensive, but it should be able to offer you flexible package plans according to the exact needs your business has. Ideally, answering services that offer by the minute or by the call options are the most cost-effective for small to medium-sized businesses. Every business model is different and the best answering service will respect and understand that.

Even if you have someone full-time to handle calls, an answering service will make sure there are no phone calls missed without requiring you to hire additional staff to work 24 hours around the clock that adds to your expenses. Here at The Perfect Answer, we offer reasonably priced packages that depend on your minute consumption.

#3 Professional Operators – Although a great answering service is not just based on its phone system and service, it should still be a top priority to look for a good and professional phone operator. Well versed and properly trained operators are crucial in partnering with an answering service.

We partner with you to grow with confidence, The Perfect Answer is a US-based virtual answering service with live agents located right here in the United States. Desirable for your credibility, we bear a resemblance as an extension of your company. Our phone operators have been with us for years and they always go the extra mile for all of our partners.

#4 Dedicated Customer Support – Like all businesses, an awesome customer support team will always make or break a partnership. No matter how expensive a service may be, if they provide a dedicated and committed customer support team, you are more likely to stay with them than with anyone else.

The Perfect Answer has professionals working with you from your free trial up to customer support! We are not just a business phone service; our entire staff is available to you so that you can also call us any time when there is something you need from the team.

#5 Offers Free Trial – Confidence is hard to come across these days, and a business that is confident enough in their product or service will always offer you a free trial. The best answering service will be committed to working with you during this time frame so they can better assist and tailor-fit your package for your business requirement.

The Perfect Answer offers you a 7-day free trial, an obligation free and completely customizable package that fits your business needs. Simply fill out a form and our professional and reliable U.S based receptionists will get started answering your calls.