How Can an Answering Service Help Modernize Your Company?

When you think of call answering services, you may not associate them with modern, high-tech operations. While these critical services are not new, modern call answering has come a long way from its somewhat low-tech origin story. Call answering services use various modern systems to serve their clients better, and they can even help bring your business into the 21st century.

If you need a way to help present a more up-to-date and professional image to your customers, hire an answering service. Learn three ways that these services can help businesses of any size modernize their approach to customer service and relations.

1. Around-the-Clock Availability

No matter what industry you are a part of, your customers likely expect 24/7 access to support and service. The prevalence of technology in every aspect of modern life means that consumers are never far from an internet-connected device that can quickly pull up your company's phone number and information.

While most people do not expect every small business to remain open at all hours, most people will still want to speak with a representative or leave a message. If customers cannot reach you, they may instead turn to a competitor or try to solve their problem on their own. If you provide a phone number so that customers can reach you at all times, you are less likely to lose these customers to alternative options.

These advantages are even more essential if you operate in a competitive field. Around-the-clock customer service and scheduling can help set you apart from your competitors. When a customer uses a search engine to look for your company in the middle of the night, small advantages like this can make all the difference.

2. More Consistent Customer and Lead Data

Modern answering services use various computer tools to track calls, schedule appointments, and integrate their systems with the ones you may already be using. If you enter customer data or schedule appointments by hand, you may already be falling behind the curve. Even worse, you may suffer from data consistency issues if employees enter this information inaccurately.

A professional answering service will uniformly record customer contact information and create consistent records for leads, service appointments, or anything else your company requires. You can then directly transfer this information to your company's databases or internal customer relationship management (CRM) system.

In addition to streamlining your data-entry process and enforcing consistency in customer data, this service can free up your employees' time. You won't need to worry about training your workers on data entry procedures or how to get the correct information from a customer on the phone. Instead, your employees can focus on supporting your core business operations.

3. Better Analytics

Do you know when your customers are most likely to call? Do you have detailed statistics on how many calls you miss when your office is closed or your phone is off? This information may seem trivial at first glance, but analyzing data such as this can allow you to find ways to serve your customers more efficiently.

A call answering service can provide you with the tools you need to generate reports on call volume at different times, scheduling, and other information necessary to identify patterns and trends with your customers. For example, you may find that you're most likely to receive emergency calls between certain hours, indicating that this might be a good time to have extra staff on-call.

While big data is a buzzword in large-scale corporate organizations, businesses of any size can benefit from more information and better analytics. The reports provided by your answering service can offer fresh insights on ways to improve your business, generate more revenue, and ultimately create happier and more satisfied customers.

If you want to take your company into the future, AnSer is here to help. Give us a call to discuss the ways our high-tech call centers can help your company find new ways to stand out from the competition.