Business answering services can help you do a number of things for your business. It is not just answering your phone while you are out to lunch or taking a message either. There is a lot more to it than that. You can use this service in all of the following ways; it just depends on what you need such a service for.
You Are Not Open Past a Certain Hour of the Day
Four or five o'clock hits, and everyone in your office is out the door. Nobody stays behind, and that might be a problem if some of your customers or clients need to talk to you right away. An answering service can take messages and even forward calls or messages that require much more immediate attention. You will have to set the ground rules for any messages that seem like they should be forwarded to your home phone or cell phone. This service is offered for after-hours calls Monday through Friday.
You Do Not Do Weekends
If you adhere to a strict policy of no business on weekends, then you might need an answering service for these calls as well. A lot of people are looking for help, products, and/or services on the weekend because they have a lot of free time then, but you and your employees are not in the office. If that is the case, you could be missing out on a lot of business opportunities, and it helps to have an answering service grab the necessary information and pass it along. To make it a little less frustrating for your would-be weekend customers or clients, hire an answering service that uses live people to talk to instead of automated or robotic answering technology.
The Office Is Closed Because of a Holiday or Vacations
At a time of year when a lot of other businesses are normally in operation, yours might not be. Maybe you are Jewish and honoring particular Jewish holidays, or maybe the entire office takes off and goes on separate one- or two-week vacations at the same time because it is easier than trying to take time off the rest of the year. (Accountants do this a lot because there are certain lulls in the year where it is okay to take a vacation and it is too busy the rest of the year.) An answering service can explain to customers and clients why the office is closed, rather than allowing your office phones to ring off the hook or fill up your inbox with messages.
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