Outsourcing your calls can seem like a confusing prospect. After all, you’re the one who knows your business, so how on earth could someone else understand your business well enough to answer questions from clients? This is just one of the many, many questions we know people have about call answering services and how they work. So today, we wanted to address some of the most common questions we get asked at Verbatim, and provide you with some answers.
How Does It Work?
We can work in a variety of ways, depending on how you want to work, what calls you want us to answer, and what number you want to use. We can create you a virtual telephone number to use on your advertising (which comes straight to us), or we can divert calls from your existing number through to our centre. When your call reaches our office, a tailored script will flash up on our telephonist’s screen, along with accompanying notes about you and any systems you use. This means we can answer the phone in your company name and with your company message, delivering service so seamless your customers won’t even know it’s outsourced.
Why Should I Use A Call Answering Service?
Because you can’t afford to keep missing calls. On average, businesses miss 15% of their incoming calls, and of those callers, 80% of them won’t try to call again. 70% won’t even bother to leave a voicemail. When you add that up, it’s a lot of missed opportunities -especially if you’re spending money on marketing and advertising to get those leads calling in. A call answering service can handle any call that comes into your business at any time, so you never miss another lead again.
Don’t You Just Sound Like Someone Reading A Script?
No. We hate the sound of people reading from scripts as much as you do, which is why at Verbatim, we don’t use them. Instead, all of our call handlers are fully trained, professional and friendly by nature, and will answer your calls in a natural way. We will take detailed briefs from you so that we understand how you would like your calls to be handled, and while we will keep some prompts on hand, we aim to keep the conversation as natural and free-flowing as possible, while still achieving all of your aims.
Do Regular Callers Have To Explain Everything For Each Call?
We understand the concerns around this one – after all the last thing you want is one of your regular customers having to explain their situation over and over again every time they call you, just because they are speaking to a different person. Which is why we’ve designed our system to avoid it. We make sure we have all the details of your regular callers before we start answering your calls and keep meticulous notes to be shared among every handler who might answer your calls. This way we can avoid embarrassing situations, but we can address your customers personally and deliver a much better experience. You can also leave us with instructions on how you would like such calls to be handled.
How Do You Work Out The Cost?
No two clients of Verbatim will pay the same price for our services, because the service and the price are tailored to what you need from us. We have an initial consultation with you to discuss your business, your average call rates and how many calls we anticipate we’re likely to handle for you on a monthly basis. From this we can create a personal quote, which we can then adjust over time if your calls go above or below what we expected.
How Do I Know What Calls Come In?
At Verbatim we offer a secure online portal that lets you see everything about your service – including how many calls have been handled, who they were from and what was discussed in them. All of your calls will be logged, and we will also email you with details as and when they happen, so you are kept in the loop and up to date at all times.
We hope that gives you a little insight into how our call answering service works, and what benefits it could bring to your business. If we haven’t answered your question here, or you would like to know more, please just get in touch with the team today, and we’ll be happy to help.
