subject: Business Answering Services Are Growing Extremely Popular Again Since They Make Clients Happy [print this page] Not very many years ago the term "telephone answering service" meant that someone somewhere would take your business call, write down a message, and forward it to the appropriate party. Over time, this process was automated. Automation made taking calls more cost-effective, but it also removed any vestiges of human contact and warmth. In an effort to win and retain customers and clients, the trend is once more toward answering calls with live human beings. This is why business answering services are becoming extremely popular.
We all know the rationale behind the change. After spending time in a company's call tree, sometimes the only recourse is to leave a message. This may involves a whole routine of button-pushing, straining to hear rushed recordings, and that empty feeling of knowing nobody at the other end seems to care. Many times irritated customers will hang up, and take their business elsewhere if they can.
The psychological benefit of actually speaking to another human being cannot be overestimated. Most people begin to feel less anger and frustration after speaking to a courteous, knowledgeable operator, even when there are no immediate answers to a problem. This factor alone can win repeat business. A personalized after-hours telephone relationship with customers becomes more profitable for everyone involved.
The word "answering service" conjures up a sort of fantasy vision of an old-time operator taking messages while plugging jacks into a board. Reality shows us two kinds of answering services. One is virtual, the other live. Both are usually trained in serving customers, and answering routine questions after hours. Both use human operators rather than machine recordings.
"Virtual" in this instance doesn't equate to being a computer. Virtual operators don't really exist at the physical company you may be calling, but are trained to answer questions or take messages of a specific kind, only from a different location. A live answering service uses dedicated operators who are able to determine the urgency of your call, and then connect you to the right number. If your call is not urgent, they may connect you to an automated answering service.
This human-to-human communication will, at the very least, make your customers feel as though their call really does matter. Businesses who depend on making appointments often use live operators, because they are perfect for medical and dental offices, and legal or service industries. Customers feel better knowing that a real person is there to actually analyze a situation, and forward messages instead of dumping them into one big file.
Live and virtual telephone answering businesses are mainly outsourced, often locally. This can be a win-win situation for any group that wants to stay in communications with clients at all times, such as medical and legal offices. Understanding why business answering services are becoming extremely popular is not difficult. In a popularity contest between humans or machines, a competent live operator almost always wins.
by: Jon Smith.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
