Avoiding Problems When Selecting An Answering Service

Before you start thinking about the process of selecting an answering service, it’s important to understand the importance of having one. Answering services have proven to be an excellent tool for supporting communications for the medical profession, professional trades, non profit organizations, solo entrepreneurs, small business, large business having field operations, and just about every other business category.

Not every answering service is created equal. Because of this, organizations using selection criteria that do not reflect their business model and needs can experience performance and service problems with their answering service selection. The fit between your needs and the services offered by the answering service should drive the decision. Organizations selecting an answering service sometimes pay more than they expected because of their selection criteria. Choosing a local answering service or one that has the lowest price might cost more in the long run terms of dollars, professionalism, and frustration levels. Avoiding problems when selecting an answering service is entirely possible!

Avoiding Answering Services Problems

The lowest price may not be the best option. You know what they say—you get what you pay for. Price is only one part of your evaluation criteria, and should not be the only factor. Remember, it’s your business the answering service will be representing. If your requirement is for an answering service to have extended conversations with callers and do more than collect information and create messages, be certain you are comfortable with the service’s hiring and training procedures. Think about the services you will need and let that be a guide.

Highly available modern technologies. It’s more than forwarding your calls to your answering service and having them answer! Ask if they have any redundancy and high availability options. No answering service is worth it if their systems fail often and your calls cannot be forwarded for extended periods of time. Ask if they have system backups and plans for disaster recovery. Your business and your callers will become reliant on you answering services. Ask the answering service to document their high availability strategy and disaster recovery plan. Also ask if they make use of technologies that allows them flexibility in delivering your messages – phone messages, email, text to mobile devices, pager messages.

Local or National Answering Services Providers. Many companies will never be dissuaded from selecting a local answering services provider. The thought is, because they are local, the answering service will provide better services. Be aware there are also national providers of answering services that provide excellent services and their costs can be similar to local services. Be aware that many of the national providers offer state-of-the-art technologies, redundant systems, and disaster recovery plans. As a result, some national answering services may have a slightly higher cost while providing higher availability.

Do they know your business? Some answering services are generalist and successfully support a wide variety of business types. Others are specialist and support a single industry like medical, legal, or financial services. Ask the answering service about their experience with your industry and how they train their agents. Do you need Spanish or another language? Be certain you know how these languages will be delivered.

Answering Services Cost. It’s understood that businesses want to reduce their costs. Obviously the cost of the answering service will influence your decision. You can expect to pay in a range of about 56 cents to $1 per minute for calls or pay for an estimated number of calls. Often there is a setup fee associated with getting you started with an answering service. If your requirement for services is straightforward, the service fee will sometimes be waived. Some implementations are truly complex and require special programming by the answering service. In a complex implementation do not pressure the answering service to waive the setup fee. Usually setups  help to assure implementations meet clients’ expectations. Ask for an understanding of their pricing in writing. Share details about the realistic number of phone calls you expect for them to handle and the average length of your calls. If your call volumes are tied to your advertising schedule or are seasonal, share this information with the service.

Answering services agents make the difference. Arrange for a call into the answering agent pool that will support your organization to learn how they answer calls and respond to you. Learn about agent training and certifications if required. Some answering services are HIPAA (medical record privacy) and PCI (securely manage credit card transactions) certified.

Selecting an answering service that matches your business requirements can increase the professionalism of your business and positively impact your bottom-line results.