The ability to easily connect with your customers is a crucial part of anyone’s business. Reliably answering a call should be at the core of any operation. Automating your phone operating systems or hiring a live answering service are some of the most common ways to scale an abundance of incoming calls. Let’s discuss some pros and cons.
Automation
Pro: Personalizing your voice campaign
Con: Negative customer perspective
Having the ability to create a voice campaign will allow you to customize a script for your incoming callers. Although this may seem like a time-saver, on the other end you can’t be too dependent on the automation. Your system may fail one day, and poor setup can result in an agitated caller. Not only could callers become upset, but they may also judge your company initially by not personalizing the experience from the beginning.
Pro: Manage a large volume of incoming calls
Con: Longer hold times
Automating your phone systems allows your business to answer every call and with the best IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition), funnel your calls to the right representatives. Having the capability to answer every call may also result in longer wait times. Remember, not every caller is patient nor willing to wait. You don’t want to lose a customer because it takes a long time for them to be connected to a live representative.
Live Answering Service
Pro: Increases efficiency
Con: Replace an in-house employee
When hiring a live answering service company, readily available receptionists are at your disposal. This advantage will increase your business’s overall customer efficiency because when a customer calls in, the receptionist will be able to move through the process when given a clearly stated reason for calling. This approach is ideal, but some businesses prefer an in-house employee who can do more than answer a call. It may not seem practical to expect a hired live answering service receptionist to do 100% of the job an employee can do onsite.
Pro: Specialized customer service
Con: Missing out on having an admin
Specializing the customer experience can happen when you hire a properly trained live answering service company. Receptionists are trained to speak intelligently, funnel calls to correct departments, register attendees for events and seminars, complete catalog orders and more. Some businesses prefer to hire an admin who can do all the above while also working on projects, updating websites and other miscellaneous tasks.
Pro: Never miss a call
Con: Not being able to manage problems right away
Never missing a call is a benefit many live answering services offer to their clients. But what happens when a unique issue arises, and you are not available to resolve it? If your live answering service doesn’t provide a subject matter expert then when an issue arises, you will not be able to provide the comprehensive coverage that customer needs.
Why companies choose Live Answering Services?
