Small Business Virtual Answering Services
Why Should Your Small Business Be Using Virtual Answering Service like USAnswer? Anyone who has ever owned a business knows and understands that there are only a certain number of hours every day and even fewer hours within a workday. Keeping to the task is important when you are doing your best to get work done within your business. This concept goes for both a business owner and an employee who works for any given business. One of the ways to get more done during your workday is to avoid unplanned disruptions, for some people, this means to close the door to your office and eliminate the background noise of the chitter-chatter of others around your work area. This is not always possible, for example, if you work from a cubicle in a large room and have no office door. However, there are other things you can do to eliminate distractions and things that tie up your time.
It may come as no surprise that so much of a companies time can be tied up in answering questions or dealing with customer service issues on an ongoing basis. We all understand that these things need to be handled and are just part of doing business; however, more and more companies are cutting down their time on the phone by simply using a virtual answering service to handle their calls in a number of ways. We are not suggesting that you step away from your business and just hand all your phone calls to another company to deal with, what we are suggesting is that you use a virtual answering service to run your business so that your business doesn’t run you. Let’s say that you get into the office at nine o’clock in the morning, and you have a project that you want to have finished by noon. Do you really have time to be on the phone with Mr. Brown, who simply doesn’t understand how to use the product he bought three months ago and decided to move to his new office? First, we understand every customer’s needs are important, but now is not the time to handle this customer service issue. You need to spend this allotted time doing the project you need to finish to stick to your deadline. So, by sending Mr. Brown’s customer service call to a virtual answering service who handles it or takes a message, you are free to finish your project in the required time and get back to Mr. Brown, your loyal customer in a timely fashion.
Setting time aside for your customer’s return call is a great way to do business because it tells the customer that you have set aside this time to talk to them and solve their problems. It assures the customer that you care and that you have the time for them and will not have to rush them off the phone to get onto your next project. Using a service to help with calls is a great way to build customer relations on so many levels because it tells the customer that you care about their needs, even when you can not answer their call in person.
If you take some time and research the numbers, you will see that more and more business people are using these virtual services to answer their calls. This applies to both the small business and the large fortune 500 companies. Please don’t think that you have to be a corporate giant to use a service to help with your phone calls; nothing is further from the truth. Small business is the heart and soul of every community, and using a service like this allows you to serve your community both on a local and global level. You’ll be able to get much more done because you have freed up your time.
Because the call service is highly trained to take the calls and gather information, you will save time in the long run. When you return the call to your client or prospective prospect, you will have much of the information you need to help that person. You will know, Mr. Brown called about the product he bought three months ago. It worked fine at his old office, but he needs help with it now because it is not working correctly. You’ll be able to troubleshoot his issue quickly and see if he has it hooked up wrong or if he needs a new part or something else. This will save both you and Mr. Brown in this example a lot of time, stress and perhaps even money. Your small business is almost always guaranteed to gain the respect and trust of that company you are doing business with because you cared about handling their needs, you took time for them when you were busy by providing them an answering service to get the needed information, and you set aside time to return their call and work on their important needs. At the same time, you are able to keep to your set schedule and do your important work and get home to your family on time too. The idea of using an answering service goes so much deeper than just answering a few calls.
Using a virtual answering service with professional and well-trained staff can also save your business money in the long run. Think of it like this, because these service operators are not in your direct employee, you do not have to pay for their phone lines or desks and valuable office space. You don’t have to worry if they call out sick or take a personal day or vacation. Regardless of what happens, your business will have their calls answered without dealing with the financial pressure or other stress of having that same group of employees in your own office. Above all else, you will get the highly skilled operators to handle your calls in the best possible way, quickly and professionally. What could be better? There are so many reasons and benefits to using a service like this to handle your calls, and you’ll be happy you took the time to bring them on to your team.
