Are you tired of seeing potential customers choose your competitors because your phone lines are unattended? As a savvy business owner, you know that every call is a chance to win customers – and that’s where the right answering service comes in.
The U.S. answering service industry, valued at $2.5 billion in 2024 with 1,012 companies and is projected to grow at 5.74% per year. Answering services can screen and prioritize calls, ensuring that high-value leads receive prompt attention. By handling routine calls and inquiries, answering services free up staff time to focus on core business activities and revenue generation. Thousands of businesses rely on professional answering services to help them improve customer service and win more business.
But not all answering services are created equal, and some common mistakes can truly impact your customer experience.
What Is An Answering Service?
A professional answering service, also known as virtual receptionist service, is a company whose business is to receive and answer telephone calls for its customers. These services provide personalized customer interactions, such as answering calls, transferring them, taking messages, and providing information. The goal of a professional answering service is to maintain a professional and understanding tone, which is best accomplished with live agents rather than automated voice systems.
Benefits of a Professional Answering Service
The right answering service partner provides many benefits, particularly for small businesses. They include:
- Professional presence and caller experience: A professional answering service positively contributes to your company’s image by ensuring every call is answered promptly and courteously. This creates a positive first impression for callers and has been shown to improve customer satisfaction.
- 24/7 phone coverage: Round-the-clock availability means your business never misses a call, regardless of the time or day. This is particularly critical for businesses that operate in multiple time zones or industries such as medical, where after-hours emergencies are common.
- Cost savings: An affordable answering service offers a great value when you compare the cost to hiring full-time secretaries or receptionists, especially for small businesses. It also reduces the need for other employee-related costs, such as additional office space, equipment, and employee benefits.
- Peace of mind: When you hire a professional answering service, you will rest easy knowing that every call will be handled professionally.
- Flexibility: An answering service can handle call overflow during busy periods, so your in-house staff can focus on more specialized job tasks.
- HIPAA-compliance for medical answering clients: For healthcare providers, a HIPAA-compliant answering service ensures that patient information is handled securely and confidentially.
Top Answering Service Mistakes Small Businesses Make
Choosing an answering service that is a poor fit for your business, local, industry, or goals, may end up backfiring and causing poor customer service, and even potentially damaging your reputation. Here are top 5 mistakes businesses make when choosing an answering service, and how to avoid them:
- No Industry-Specific Knowledge
One of the most common mistakes businesses make when hiring an answering service is choosing a provider that lacks experience in their specific industry. This is especially critical for regulated industries such as healthcare, legal, or financial. In these industries, non-compliance with privacy laws and industry-specific protocols can result in severe legal and financial consequences.
To avoid this issue:
- Look for an answering service with documented experience in your industry, for example, a medical answering service
- Ask for references and testimonials from similar businesses.
- Ensure the service provider understands the unique needs of your callers, as well as your business protocols and preferences.
- Poor Training Or Quality Control
Poorly trained operators can impact your company’s reputation. Some answering services fail to provide adequate training or maintain consistent quality control measures. This can result in major problems such as:
- Mixing up customer names or information
- Providing inaccurate or incomplete responses
- Failing to capture crucial details during calls
To avoid this mistake, be sure to ask the answering service about its training programs, length of time each answering agent is trained upon hiring, as well as refresher training, specialized training by industry, and quality assurance measures.
- Limited Availability
Many businesses make the mistake of hiring an answering service that doesn’t offer 24/7 support; yet everyone knows that callers today expect assistance at any time of day or night. Limiting your availability to services that only offer after-hours answering solutions can mean lost opportunities and frustrated clients.
To avoid this mistake, be sure to do check the following:
- Opt for a provider that offers round-the-clock coverage
- Double check that they can handle calls during weekends and holidays
- Avoid services that charge extra for after-hours support
Even if you don’t expect calls after hours or on the weekends, studies have shown that customer satisfaction increases significantly when clients can reach a real person at any time, versus being directed to voicemail.
- Outdated Phone Technology and Equipment
Using outdated phone technology can compromise your operations with poor call quality, dropped calls, and upset customers. How can you tell if an answering service is using outdated technology? Watch out for background noise or static during calls, frequent dropped calls, disconnections, or technical issues.
Choose an answering service that invests in up-to-date technology and regularly maintains their equipment.
- Hiring an Offshore Answering Service for US Callers
Many answering services are based offshore, which can present challenges related to cultural understanding and local nuances. While offshore services offer significant cost savings and scalability, they often lack the proper understanding of local cultures in the U.S. This can mean miscommunications and potentially lower caller satisfaction. For instance, accents, idioms, and cultural references may not align with what U.S. customers expect, which can reflect poorly on your business reputation and even cause callers to question your location.
To mitigate these risks:
- Hire an American answering service
- Double check that your answering service provider has extensive training on U.S. and regional cultural nuances
- Regularly review customer feedback to check for any cultural misunderstandings
The benefits of hiring an American answering service far outweigh the cost savings of working with an offshore service provider. When you choose an American answering service, you’re getting more than just someone to pick up the phone – you’re getting a communication partner who fluently speaks your customers’ language, understands their context, and can represent your brand like a local.
Don’t let common mistakes in answering services hold your business back. Avoid the pitfalls of poor industry knowledge, lack of training, and poor customer experience by partnering with the best answering service provider for your industry.
