What are the benefits of a call handling service?
When it comes to many business operations and administrative tasks, there is an age old question – to outsource, or not to outsource? The thought of expanding your business to include a wider fleet of employees may be appealing, but is it what’s right for you at this stage?
Customer service is an area that often results in this quandary. Small business owners want to be sure their customers are seeing them at their very best, but they don’t always have the resources to facilitate an in-house customer service team. If you’re in a similar situation and you’re wondering whether a call handling service can really help, keep reading to learn more about the benefits you could reap.
5 great call handling service benefits
If you’ve ever used an outsourcing service before, you’ll probably know that the benefits are manifold, and can depend in part on the type of business you run. Larger businesses may see different advantages compared to smaller businesses and freelancers – but there really is something for everyone when it comes to call handling. Below, we’ve outlined our top five favourite benefits of a call handling service – all of which are common to the majority of business types.
1. Ensure no more missed calls
This is possibly the most well known benefit of engaging an external call handling service – you’ll no longer have to worry about missed calls. Your calls can be handled in a variety of different ways according to your preferences, whether that means using the call handling service to take over customer service calls entirely, or to simply pick up the slack in times of high demand. A good call handling service will liaise with you to determine the best option for your business.
2. Enhance your public reputation
Customer satisfaction is a strong currency, and excellent customer service can help you to boost how your business is seen by customers and potential customers alike. Think about the last time you yourself contacted a customer service team over the phone. If it went well, perhaps you left a review to let other customers know how helpful and kind the staff were. If it went badly, on the other hand, you might have left a rather different review to warn others of what to expect.
It’s important to remember that a lot of this conversation happens offline as well. While some people prefer to only leave reviews if the service was outstanding or poor, the chances are they’ll discuss it with friends and family as a matter of course. These word of mouth recommendations can easily spread through a community to raise your brand awareness and improve the way your business is perceived. As a result, the next time someone needs something your business can provide, they might be more likely to come to you.
3. Get the best value for your money
Hiring a team of dedicated customer service operatives to work for your business and your business alone is one way of ensuring you have a good customer service offering. However, it might not be right for your business. You’ll need to consider what you want to offer in order to find out whether in-house or outsourced call handling is right for you.
For instance, if you want 24/7 coverage of your phone lines for busy periods, such as during sale events, you’ll need to pay the full salaries for enough staff to cover that period, or hire temporary staff and waste time training them up each time you need them. Bear in mind that if your team is based in the office, you’ll also likely have to deal with an increase to your overheads in order to light, heat and power the office overnight.
Alternatively, you could engage a call handling service to act as a safety net for a smaller, more manageable team working your business’s regular hours. Any calls your team aren’t available for – whether that’s because it’s outside working hours or because there are more calls than operatives – will be picked up by your outsourced call handling team. That way, you have the extra help when it’s needed, and you won’t have to break the bank when it’s not.
4. Rely on high-quality customer service
When you’re hiring for your in-house customer service team, you’ll need to take the time to sift through all the candidates to find the ones who’ll really benefit your business – and if you’re an office-based business, you might be restricted to what’s available in your local area. But by outsourcing telephone answering duties to an external call centre, you’ll have instant access to pre-vetted customer service representatives who are the very best at their jobs.
5. Have more time to focus on other areas of your business
All of the above comes together to mean that outsourcing call handling services can save you and the rest of your team valuable time. If your team no longer has to answer the phones themselves, they can get on with other work, such as optimising your products and services to be the very best they can be. Additionally, you won’t have to spend as much time on the recruitment process, allowing you to focus on taking your business to the next level.
If these benefits sound too good to miss, that could mean that an outsourced call handling service is right for you. Why not give it a try today, and find out how a team of dedicated customer service experts could help your business thrive?