24 Hour Telephone Answering Services Solve Five Common Problems

If people have a bad experience when they call you, they’re not likely to call again. While there are many
issues someone could have during a call, our research shows that they most often result in one of five common problems.

Read the problems, and see if any of them could apply to your call handling system. (If you have to, give your own business a call in disguise and see how you’re treated.) Don’t worry — we’ve also included ways to fix them.

Common problems that could be fixed by 24 hour telephone answering services:

• “It took too long to reach a live person.”
  We hear this one over and over again. No matter how advanced technology gets, people want to talk to a real human being, not an ‘automated agent.’ The longer they have to wait, the more frustrated they get.
  Solution: Use an answering service that connects callers with a live person quickly — no matter when they call.

• “The person I spoke with was unprofessional.”
  Your callers need to know that their call is important, and they want to be treated with respect. A rude or careless representative will quickly drive them away.
  Solution: Make sure that the people talking to your customers are routinely evaluated for their performance, and held accountable if they treat a customer poorly.

• “They didn’t know anything about the company I was calling!”
  The staff at your answering service is no substitute for the staff at your office, but your callers expect to get basic information and answers to simple questions no matter when they call.
  Solution: A good answering service will take the time to get to know your company. Make sure you use one that understands that your callers aren’t calling just any business, they’re calling yours.

• “I didn’t get a callback fast enough.”
  Your callers understand that you may not be available 24/7, but they do expect to have their calls returned in a reasonable amount of time.
  Solution: Have your messages delivered in whatever way makes sense for you, such as via email or text message. That way, you can return calls when you need to, even if you’re not in the office.

• “The person I left a message with got my information wrong.”
  There’s nothing worse than trying to return a call when you have the wrong callback number. Even worse is returning a call and saying the caller’s name wrong or asking about the wrong issue. When your messages aren’t taken accurately, it’s not just embarrassing, it’s bad for business.
  Solution: Many answering services have terrible accuracy rates, often falling to 90% or below. Make sure to use one that’s as accurate as possible — at least 95%.

If you’ve experienced any of these problems at your company, you need to reevaluate your system for handling calls – or risk losing business.  24 hour telephone answering services and after hours answering services are a tremendous asset to organizations that use them correctly.

We would like to know your thoughts!  Please don’t hesitate to comment or provide some feedback on the experiences you have had with your business, or others you have called on.  We’d like to hear from you.

To learn more about Main Line TeleCommunications, please click here.  Or complete our Contact Us form.