what's the main advantage of a live phone answering service
When callers phone a business they expect their call to be answered in person. Diverting calls to voicemail when you're not available to answer them yourself can give the impression that your business is a small or unprofessional, especially if a caller is using your main business contact number. Not only can this give a poor impression, voicemail may be so off putting that they simply hang-up, try one of your competitors instead.A poor or automated answering service equals lost business, especially on numbers displayed in competitive advertising and used in first-contact sales. Avoid the risk of losing business with our live call answering service.
won't live answering
confuse my caller?
No one is as expert on your business as you are, and
in an ideal world you would always be available to
field enquiries. Our live phone answering service
comes to the rescue when you are not available, and
our operators are highly skilled at deflecting
requests for information and professionally adept at
requesting call-back details.
So rather than slowing down or complicating the
sales process, live answering can help you respond
quickly to enquiries, while avoiding the risk of
losing new leads.
isn’t a
24/7 live answering service expensive?
Not really, lost calls equal lost business,
especially on numbers displayed in competitive
advertising or used for 'first-contact'
sales. What did you pay for that great ad with your contact
number displayed prominently? Does it make viable
business sense to your company to pay £1.25 to
ensure you get the lead? Ask
yourself whether you can afford not to ensure that
callers are answered professionally at all times.
For this reason many live answering service subscribers prefer to budget as part of their marketing costs, rather that their operational costs.
Can customers call my Answering Service number
directly?
No. you divert your
'normal' number to live answering whenever you need
to. When you signup for live answering we allocate a
central London 0207 number,
to which you can divert calls using any standard
divert options. For operational reasons your
answering service number may be changed in the
future, so we advise you not to use it in
advertising, on your stationary, or give it out
publicly.
Can I use Live Answering with BT Call Divert
or my mobile phone?
You can divert calls to your
phone answering service from any other phone number
which has a divert feature. This means the service can be used with
BT's Call Diversion (automatic call divert)
feature, as well as with the flexible
call-forwarding features built in as standard to
UK mobile numbers.
How can I make sure only sales calls go through
to Live Answering?
There are 2 methods.
(1) Use a dedicated
sales number in advertising, and set up diverts to your
phone answering service to handle times when you're
not available.
(2) Combine our phone
answering service with the power of
our
free Switchboard. Simply set up a sales
department with
our
free Switchboard, and make sure that the last
number tried when a caller is put through is
your Live Answering number.
If I get a call I don’t want to take can I divert it to
Live Answering at the
touch of a button?
If you are using
our
free Switchboard, the answer is yes - as long
as you set up
the
free Switchboard so that your
phone answering number is the 'catch-all' divert
destination. If you are not using
our
free Switchboard
it will depend on
whether your telephone service allows you to
specify the number that unanswered calls are
diverted to.
I run a small business. How can Phone Answering help me when I’m away on holiday?
Our Phone Answering service will ensure your
calls are answered professionally, even when
you're on the beach. Your customers won't even
know that you're on holiday, (or a small business or
sole trader!)
Can I
specify scripts so that the live answering
operators answer how I want them to?
You can, but we strongly advise you not to. Each
caller is unique, meaning that each call is best
handled flexibly. Our operators
are experts in answering calls professionally,
familiar with dealing with different
personalities, and extremely good at getting
callers to leave their contact details and a
message - even when the caller is reluctant or
difficult to deal with.
Since each caller is unique, we recommend that
you let our operators answer them with
flexibility, as this tends to produce far better
results than sticking to a rigid script. Therein
lies the advantage of a personal human answering
service over voicemail.
Do I have any control over the details
live answering operators
collect from a
caller?
No. Our phone
answering service is
designed to do one thing ... very well.
The operator collects the callers name, contact
number, and a message, which are then
forwarded to you by SMS Text and/or email.
How quickly do I get messages left with the live
phone answering service?
The message is
sent immediately the call has finished, by your
choice of text, email, or both. You receive any
messages whenever you check your email, or check
your mobile for new text messages.
Can the answering operators be briefed to give out
company details or information about the
products and services we supply?
Our answering operators are experts and handling
your calls and taking messages, we are unable to
train them to understand your business or service in
enough detail to ensure complete accuracy. We're expert at
answering calls, you are the expert for your
particular business!
Are there any
hidden costs?
Absolutely not! the table below gives you our
total cost for the service.
Phone
Answering
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