Answering Service Blog

Hurricane season is officially upon us. Whether or not your business is in an area prone to hurricanes, it’s wise to be prepared for the unexpected. Though the threats vary by location, no business is immune to some sort of hazard.

The best telephone answering services charge by the minute. It's the most fair and accurate way to account for the work they do for you. In the answering service industry, this is known as work time. Think of them as your staff on demand where you are only paying someone when they are actually working.

There are many reasons for business owners to consider hiring a

Using a virtual phone receptionist is a great way to impress your callers. On top of that it helps you take control of your calendar and focus on the things that matter. Here are 12 reasons why using a virtual answering service will help your business.

Leading answering service companies share several key characteristics. Business owners considering hiring an answering service should deliberate over these seven qualities that the best answering service companies have in common.

Businesses and organizations hire an after-hours answering service for multiple reasons. One common reason is to avoid the need to hire, schedule, and manage staff outside of regular business hours to answer phone calls and handle customer communication.

While few people are happy with the current state of healthcare in the United States, one ray of sunshine comes from the growing role medical answering services and healthcare call centers play in providing professional, personal care and attention to patients and their caregivers.

An answering service is a professional services provider that can make a difference in how your organization communicates with your stakeholders. If you view an answering service as a commodity solution, you misunderstand their true value, and you’ll likely end up selecting the wrong provider for the wrong reasons.

Will a doctors answering service help you better serve your patients? If you’re not sure, learn what a doctors’ answering service can do for you. And if it looks like these are the outcomes that will provide a difference for your organization, you can begin by taking your first step to select the ideal answering service.

Have you ever had conversations with prospects and realized they didn’t have a true understanding of what your business can do for them and how you’d do it? Some prospects may not know the best ways to shop for services in your industry. Answering services aren’t rocket science, but they too are more complex than they first appear.

Companies have varying levels of answering service needs, often extending beyond the sheer need to have a professional answer customer calls. Add in the competition in today’s marketplace for answering services, virtual receptionists, and call centers, it’s no surprise that the range of partners that provide such services is quite large – from big, corporate juggernauts to small startups.

With advances in technology and inexpensive telephone communications, it no longer matters where an answering service is located. Right? It’s true that answering service location ceases to be the key consideration it once was. However, location still plays a factor. To be more correct locations play a factor. This is because today’s best answering services operate out of many locations. Why does it matter for an answering service to have more than one location? In a perfect world, it doesn’t. However, problems can arise from any number of factors. Having a multilocation answering service provides a way to address these issues, whatever they may be.

Though they have their own, unique terms, answering services and virtual receptionists aren’t wildly different on a fundamental level. They may have been entirely separate in the past, but growing companies have started to provide a wide range of services that blur the line between them.

Business owners put their sweat and tears into their companies. You invest so much of your time and energy to help your business grow – hopefully to the point when it makes sense to outsource part of your operations. Though it may be gratifying to know you can afford to outsource, it can still be terrifying to put part of your business in the hands of someone else.

Many years ago, to save money, companies began to automate their incoming telephone calls. Though this reduced expenses, it also upset customers. In response to the backlash of frustrated callers, companies are now switching back to having real people talk to their customers.

'Please', 'Thank You', 'May I' and 'You’re Welcome'... these are all very familiar terms of speech to all of us, yet they are words that we seem to hear less and less.

When you hire a full-time in-house receptionist, the cost of your new hire adds up quickly. And it’s not just the hourly rate, which inches steadily higher each year.

We're all trying to produce better results with less resources these days. Whether the resources are time, energy or money we are always on the lookout for ways to improve. The same holds true for telephone answering services. Leveraging new technologies and techniques can pay dividends for you with increased efficiencies and reduced costs.

If you aren't standing by to assist when a potential buyer needs your help, you could lose the deal. Yet for many real estate agents, spending more time on the phone simply is not possible.

"Which answering service plan should I choose?" It’s a question that we’re often asked. The short answer is it depends on how you will use the telephone answering service. Here are some tips on how to make an informed decision on what plan is right for you when signing up for using an answering service.