Achieve Winning Business Communications: Play Seven

You have achieved a Super Bowl championship with the choosing of your best answering service partner. Now, we must look at how to maintain this success and keep it going season after season.

The two primary items to examine are ONGOING COMMUNICATIONS with your services and understanding PRACTICES that will help your partnership grow and improve. We will examine some of the most important items to maintain success.

1. Understand the billing period of your answering service. Most services bill based on a calendar month (12 periods per year) or on a 28-day cycle (13 periods per year). For most companies, there is very little variance in the annual billing, but smaller companies should consider their cash flow, especially if their business is seasonal. If you are billed monthly the invoices may be a little higher to account for more days in the billing cycle. With the 28-day billing cycle your company will have 1 month where 2 invoices are received during the calendar year. 
2. Know the type of contract you are signing. Most services offer a month-to-month type of contract, but there are a few answering services that require longer commitments. The advantage of month to month commitments allows your company the freedom and flexibility to make service changes as needed. However, the benefit of a longer service commitment is a guarantee of your current rate plan and resulting in fewer rate increases over time.
3. Offer price packages based on volume. Review your call volume at least once a quarter to be certain you are on the most economical package for your business. Find out how many times you are allowed to update your pricing plan without penalty. Seasonal businesses, such as HVAC and lawn care services, need the flexibility to have one plan for your busy season and one plan for your off-season.
4. Ongoing dialogue with your answering service partner. Monthly or quarterly dialog with your account representative gives you the opportunity to review procedures, reassess your price plan, and verify that company information is accurate and up to date. It may also be appropriate to schedule annual re-training sessions either in person or through online meetings.
5. All answering services are going to have errors. Know who and how to immediately report any errors so your answering service partner can address the issue in a most expedient manner. Timely reporting the service error to make immediate determinations on how to address the issue is very helpful to both parties. Reporting issues weeks and months later and letting animosity build up is not the way to develop a good business partnership. Keep the communication line open!

We hope this blog has been a good playbook to helping you find and choose the best answering service partner for your business. The Achieve Winning Business Communications series will become a Whitepaper that you can use or share with business associates. If you have any questions, or would like our assistance with any of these plays, please contact our Business Communications Consultant, Byron Bordelon at (225) 766-1111 or byron@anser.com .