We all know the scene: a busy office with staff running everywhere from one task to the next, trying to take care of every customer and keep everything under control. Meanwhile, the phone rings, rings, rings, and rings incessantly, until it finally stops ringing before anyone is able to pick up the phone call. On the other side of the line, the caller grows more and more frustrated with each failed attempt.
Put simply, this is your overflow call volume – it’s the phone calls you didn’t manage to answer. It may seem like a simple issue that won’t harm your business, but this perception couldn’t be further from the truth.
Every phone call you don’t pick up can represent a lost customer, a poorer conversion rate, and eventually, lower profits. Failing to address this problem could eventually harm your business’ reputation, since people will spread the word that your business is often unavailable and difficult to reach.
However, many small and medium sized businesses simply don’t have the budget to hire a larger staff and set up a call center that can ensure that phone calls won’t go unanswered. Even if you were able to do this, you would probably need to allocate a significant portion of your profits to set up a call center big enough to handle all your phone calls. In many cases, this isn’t realistic at all; but a virtual answering service can provide an ideal solution.
These services are much more affordable than paying wages for a full-time on-site phone operator, and they can also be customized to fit your needs exactly. There are many different tasks that virtual answering service operators can take on in order to help your business handle phone calls and customer service. Now, let’s discuss how an answering service can help with your overflow call volume.
A virtual call center will give your staff some much-needed time to rest
It can be difficult to keep up with everything that needs to be done everyday to keep a business running. Odds are that every member of your staff is already operating at full capacity, so when the phones keep ringing, it can be overwhelming. Every job can be demanding, but if your staff is chronically overworked, they will be more prone to making mistakes or offering a poor customer experience.
You can customize a virtual answering service to pick up phone calls only during certain hours, or after the phone has rung a specific amount of times. This way, your staff will have one less thing to worry about, and they will be able to devote their undivided attention to every customer. It can also increase your employees’ satisfaction, productivity, and wellbeing.
Your new remote operators are already trained and professional
When you hire a new member of staff, you have to devote a significant amount of time to training them and teaching them everything they need to know about the business and their new position. This is perfectly understandable, but it can be a costly and time consuming process — especially when you are trying to grow a small business.
But when you hire a virtual answering service, that same company will provide operators who have already been trained in customer service and who are used to dealing with the public. Remote call center operators are consummate professionals and they will use the information that you provide to help each caller.
You won’t have to worry about 24/7 support
These days, customers expect to be able to communicate with your business 24/7. It doesn’t matter what type of business you run, or if you follow strict office hours: if a potential customer can’t reach you quickly, they will probably seek a different alternative from one of your competitors. And if your competitors are capable of providing customer service around the clock, the clients that could have been yours could choose to stick with them in the long run.
A virtual call center can easily fix this issue, since remote operators are able to cover your phone lines 24/7, 365 days a year. Now, you won’t have to worry about keeping your customer service department available to potential clients after your business has closed for the day, because your answering service operators will do it for you. And even better, you will only be charged for the time that operators actually spend taking phone calls, which means that you won’t have to spend extra money if your phone lines are slow on certain days.
