Taking a Closer Look at Today’s Telephone Answering Services: The Advantages of Outsourcing Your Call Handling Department

By Lyla Valli On Sep 9, 2017

If you have any doubts or misgivings about the importance of your call-handling department in today’s day and age, take a brief moment to peruse some of the edifying facts and figures shown below:

Over 60% of present-day consumers will stop doing business with a particular firm after receiving less-than-stellar customer service.
Three out of every four clients believe that the quality of customer service is directly correlated to “how much the company cares”.
Almost 50% of customers think that the “most vital element” of modern day commerce is how quickly a firm responds to phone enquiries.
Two out of every three corporate executives believe that a general lack of training and proper in-house expertise are the biggest hang-ups in terms of being able to field customer calls adequately.
Over 80% of today’s customer service employees believe that their current onsite system won’t be able to meet future demand.
One in every two online shoppers would rather call a dedicated hotline as opposed to placing orders through an internet portal.
Eight in every 10 customers will transition to a rival firm if their queries and calls remain unanswered for more than 24 hours.

As you might imagine by now, the telephone is still an integral part of any successful business enterprise, even when taking into account the rapid expansion of the digital sector and next-gen technology. But as any reputable business owner will tell you, the time, money, and resources spent on training, remunerating, and maintaining an in-house call handling department represents a huge drain on anyone’s bottom line, which is why the recent rise of professional phone answering services, such as Message Direct, makes perfect sense in today’s climate.

With this notion in mind, let’s take a closer look at why these third party call-handling services are so advantageous nowadays.

Comprehensive Support

Even though your squad of virtual receptionists will be offsite in a remote location, these highly trained professionals will be able to handle all of the following day-to-day tasks with the utmost professionalism:

Appointment setting
Information requests
Order entry
Technical help desk
Live chat support services
Call and message forwarding
Email responses
Multilingual support
Data management and database oversight
Overflow handling and emergency response
Sales and marketing assistance
Lead generation and targeted negotiations

Best of all, these remote operators will be fully versed on all of your in-house tactics and methodologies, which means they’ll be indistinguishable from a traditional onsite customer service department.

Minimal Overhead

Since you’ll be paying a pre-established monthly rate for your specific suite of services, you’ll also be able to avoid the exorbitant expenses associated with maintaining an onsite team of receptionists. As such, you’ll be able to circumvent everything from employee benefits and hourly wages to vacation time, sick pay, and training programs, which will allow you to redirect your most precious resources towards infrastructure development, expansion, and other value-added ventures.

A Tailor-Made Service

Regardless of whether you need temporary holiday coverage, additional support during the busy seasons, or a top-to-bottom call-handling outsource, you’ll be able to augment your suite of services to account for the ever-changing cycle in your specific niche. This ensures you’ll never be paying for superfluous or unwarranted provisions throughout the year, something that is impossible to do with integrated onsite employees.