3 Tips To Cutting Your Answering Service Bill in Half
If you are curious about ways to lower your answering service bill, here’s some hot tips on how to cut your answering service bill in half.
Have you considered how much you are spending on your answering service?
Should you pay by the call?
Pay by the minute?
As one of the things that often gets forgotten, an answering service for a business can become easily outdated. This can lead to some aggravation from you and your customers.
How can you change your answering service without breaking your budget?
Check out our 3 tips to cutting your answering service bill in half and see what you can do to save some money.
The Cost of Your Answering Service
Before we get into the tips to save money, it is important to understand why you need an answering service at all and why you pay money for one.
The answering service is a tool that can be used to provide easier access to customers, especially if you are in a business that often has urgent situations.
By providing a service to your business, your answering service helps you become more efficient and customer-centered. It may be true that some services cost more than others, but you can find a service that fits your budget!
When you first got an answering service, you may not have needed as much attention as you do now. For instance, has your business grown? Do you get more calls than you used to?
If the answer to those questions is yes, you likely need to get an answering service that meets your new needs. While looking for an answering service, you need to make sure it has the features you need within your budget.
Good examples of businesses that need answering services are law offices or medical offices. In addition to these types of businesses, there are other facilities that may need to be easily accessible to customers at all hours.
As times change, so do the things you need from the services you pay for.
Today may be the best time to upgrade, so think about what you need and how your answering service could be working for you.
Must-Know Tips to Cutting Your Answering Service Bill
You can pay high fees for your answering service, but why would you if you don’t need to? These 3 tips will help you save money in the long run and still have a great answering service for customers.
1. Get Basic Information First
Asking for the basics upfront will save time in the long run. Getting the name, phone number, and general purpose of the call should be sufficient for an answering service.
The additional information that you will need can be obtained when the call is returned. By making the initial call shorter, you can save money if you are billed based on time used.
If you are billed by the call, you can gather as much information as you’d like in the initial contact, but keep the customer in mind. It can be frustrating for the customer to have to stay on the phone so long and answer questions for a sustained period of time.
Keeping things basic and getting just the beginning of what is needed will help everyone feel more at ease. Depending on the type of answering service you have, the information you need can vary.
The customer will feel like they are getting help and will look forward to your next call. In addition, your business will also get a general idea of what they are calling about and can get more information later to solve the issue.
2. Bill By the Call or Time Used
If you have longer calls, you want to find a service that will bill you by the call that is made. If your calls are generally short, you can find a service that will bill by time used instead.
Shorter calls are generally best because they free up time for you to be doing other things, whether that is answering other calls or working on other elements of the business.
Regardless of what works best for you, it is important go with the option that will save you the most money over time. The way that you use the phones for your business and how often they are used should be considered.
Remember to have staff contact customers after they call as soon as possible.
Not only does this make the customer feel better about your business, but it also deters the likelihood of the same customer calling again.
If they don’t hear from you, they may think you didn’t get the message and continue to call until they hear back.
3. Less Charge for Holiday Time
It is important that you don’t get extra fees for your answering service on holidays. If fees do exist, they should be small.
After all, you are unable to control when customers might be calling you and it could very well be on a holiday. You don’t want to have to pay exorbitant fees as a result!
In some cases, you may find a company that is able to include holiday calls as part of a package.
Upgrading to a package may cost a little more upfront, but it will likely pay off in the long run. Consider the features and if you think they would be useful for your business.
Choosing the Best Answering Service
Now that you have seen some tips to cutting your answering service bill, you may be ready to make a change.
The good news is that it is easy to switch to a new answering service that will easily help you get in touch with customers, get information you need, and not cost a fortune.
If you’re interested in a new service for your business, check out our website and see if we can set you up with a fair price today.
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