10 Reasons You Need to Outsource Business Calls to a Phone Answering Service

Are you trying to understand if outsourcing your incoming calls is a good investment for your business? In this article, we break down the top 10 reasons you should hire a phone answering service this year.   

Why you should outsource calls to a phone answering service:

1.) More Time to Focus on Business Operations

How much is your time worth? As a business owner, you should know what the value of your time is. If you don’t, click here to complete a handy time calculator provided by Clearer Thinking. It takes 10-minutes to complete but it is incredibly detailed in describing your hourly rate and the overall value you place on your time.  

Consider how much time you spend answering your business’s incoming phone calls. Do the math and figure out how much time you are spending on answering frequently asked questions. Lastly, tally up how many hours a week you spend handling administrative tasks like scheduling appointments.

Now, take a look at our calculations. A Courteous Communications has been providing answering services for businesses like yours since 1986. Our monthly rates start at $19.95 per month with per call charges as low as $0.45. If your time is valued at anything more than 20 bucks a month, you will have a healthy return on your investment.  

When you invest in a virtual receptionist to handle your callers, you are opening up your work schedule to handle more productive tasks.  

2.) Absolute Freedom to Grow Your Business

Who answers your business line when you are at a client lunch? Who greets your callers when you are attending a networking event? Avoid being distracted by a ringing telephone and hire an answering service to handle your calls when you cannot.

Give yourself the freedom to turn your cell phone on vibrate while you are busy growing your business.

3.) Security Knowing You Hired an Expert for the Job

You didn’t open your own business because you were passionate about answering telephones. You opened your business because you saw an opportunity to bring value to your field of expertise.  Outsource your calling customers and clients to a telecommunication expert.  

The key to finding the best phone answering serviceis making sure you ask the right questions when shopping around. We love sharing telecommunications’ insider info with business owners. In a recent article, How to Choose an Answering Service for Your Small Business, we give you the top 10 questions to ask an answering service.

Make certain that whoever you choose to answer your incoming phone calls is qualified, professional and friendly. You only have one chance to make a good first impression so perform your due diligence with all of your receptionist options.  

4.) Saving Salary Pay for Higher Skilled Tasks

Skip hiring an on-site receptionist and save your business budget for hiring staff that bring your productivity up. If you are a law firm, take that extra money and hire a highly skilled paralegal or associate that will make your business more valuable. If you are a florist shop, spend your employee expenses for a delivery driver or on-site floral design clerk. If you own an eCommerce business, take that extra money and put it towards designing a web app or more visually appealing website.

Think about all the money your business will save by hiring an affordable team of virtual receptionists that act as an extension of your business.  

5.) An Impressive, Streamlined Communication Hub

Did you know that you can customize the way virtual receptionists answer, handle and dispatch your business calls? When you get creative when how you want your business calls answered, you start seeing all of the different tasks that can be completed by a phone answering service.

Services that we can discuss bringing to your business:

• • Telephone Answering and Message Taking
• • Customer Service Phone Representatives
• • Professional Dispatch Unit
• • Telephone Order Taking and Payment Processing
• • Virtual Scheduling Assistants
• • Subscription and Account Management
• • Virtual Help Desk and Contact Center
• • Multilingual and Bilingual Telephone Agents
• • Outsourced Billing Department
• • Virtual Personal Assistant and Virtual Receptionist

6.) Two Words: Tax Deduction

Successful business owners are notorious for making sure to get each and every tax deduction possible to reduce their annual tax burden. Just like any other independent contractor you outsource to, the IRS allows you to deduct any expenses you incurred with hiring a business answering service.

Discuss how an answering service can be a business tax deduction with your CPA.  

7.) Relieving Stress of Your On-Site Staff

Snack Nation shares an amazing statistic that will make you want to keep your staff satisfied, “Companies with happy employees outperform the competition by 20 percent.” When your company has a professional team of virtual receptionists and schedulers, your on-site staff can enjoy their workday without the constant disruptions of a ringing telephone.

Take a poll in your offices today and ask your employees, “By a show of hands, how many people would appreciate having a gatekeeper for all phone calls.” You may be surprised to learn that this employee benefit will be attractive to your current staff. 

8.) Tracking System for Your Marketing Efforts

A digital call center tracks all incoming calls you receive and can print out a monthly summary of your phone inquiries. After a month’s time, you can start discovering your company’s most popular day of the week and the specific times of day you receive higher call volumes. This information will help you in the planning of your business and give you insights into your business’s communication needs.

Another customization our clients enjoy is being able to track their on-line and off-line marketing efforts. Associate a different telephone number with each of your marketing campaigns and have a segmented reporting on the popularity of each ad.   

9.) Cell Phone Answering Service Included

Forward your cell phone calls to our team just like your business landline for call handling. Have the benefit of being a fully mobile business without having the hassle of making sure your mobile phone is always on.

Whether you are driving or treating yourself to some personal time, we will make sure all of your cell phone calls are answered.  

10.) 24/7 Telephone Coverage for Business Calls

Being available on your customer’s timetable is no longer a luxury. In today’s saturated markets, you will need the competitive edge of being available all day and night for your potential customers and hot leads. Don’t turn any new business away because you aren’t able to be on-call 24/7.

We have telephone operators standing by 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to answer your business calls.  

Give Our Phone Answering Service a Call Today to learn more about outsourcing calls!

Our phone answering service is ready to help answer any questions you have about outsourcing your business phone calls. Start the conversation and give us a call today at 1-800-785-6161 to speak with an account specialist about your specific and unique call handling needs.