Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Pros And Cons Of Using An Answering Service

Writen by Miranda Keene

As with most things in life, answering services have their advantages and disadvantages. For some independent contractors who are one-man bands, they are live savers, to others they can be your worst enemies. Read the pros and cons of having an answering service and decide for yourself.

Pros

· No need to employ additional people to man telephones, this is especially important if you are running a small start up company or a large operation that needs twenty-four hour customer service availability. This can result in massive savings as salaries and benefits are not necessary.
· No more missed calls /lost clients; losing potential clients can be a hard blow especially for small operations.
· Urgent calls are handled until you are able to deal with them from a company level. Also, you can screen calls when on holiday, and if you are an independent contractor, take messages only from those clients you want to
· Many answering services are located off-shore or in Third World countries leading to reduced cost to the business.v

Cons

· Less control over people answering calls on behalf of your business; some services may be staffed by people who are unmotivated or dislike what they do. This can reflect negatively on your business.
· Accents / language barriers can pose communication problems; this is especially true for call centers which are located overseas or in another state where there are major differences in pronunciation
· Some persons are reluctant to leave voice messages, so automated systems may not work in some instances.
· Confidentiality issues are also important as persons beyond your realm of control may have access to sensitive telephone messages
· Automated systems tend to be full after a while, and unable to take any more messages.

www.answering-service-information.info Click here now to find more observations from Miranda.

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