The Starter Guide of Phone Answering Services

Posted by Vaishnavi Verma

Explaining phone answering services can be a daunting task for the person who is totally unaware of it.

Yesterday only I met a friend of mine, after years-long, we had a quick intro, discussed what we are doing in our life at the current moment and shared the information of job role I am handling at an outsourcing agency.

Listening to the term ‘Call answering services’, he got confused with the term as ‘Interactive Voice Response’ aka IVR services.

His quick question filled with the tone of aggression was, “Whenever I need the assistance from these call center companies, why did you (executives) not bolster me the same moment only. The robotic sound often lay me in a delusionary situation without getting support from the actual human being.” ...“What you guys are supposed to do at the phone call answering services if everything is automated?”...

For a second, I was shaken, as the guy in front of me is having totally wrong idea about what exactly the phone answering services is!

If you are one who thinks, all sort of customer support services work in a similar way and have same characteristics, then its a quite high possibility, that you might not know what exactly is- phone and telephone answering services.

What is Phone Answering Services?

Phone answering services are the source gateway of attending the customers of an organization over the phone call, social media, fax and various other preferred sources of communication and channels, irrespective of its boundary to outbound call center services and inbound call center services.

Simply putting up in a words, phone call answering services is everything that can bolster the customer getting assistance from the customer care executive in easy one go.

How Does Phone Call Answering Services Work?

Phone call answering services are usually offered by the service providers, dealing in telecom services and call center services.

If we talk specifically about how it works, the technology is designed in a fabricated manner to satisfy the need of an organization, especially answering the queries of the customer in the odd hours of the day.

Alike traditional services, here the live operator can answer the inbound as well as the outbound calls, eliminating the whole automated path during the call making it as a more responsive approach to satisfy the customer and retain them for the longer period of time.

Let's say, you are owning an organization dealing with the e-commerce sector.

Here, the customer support agents are focussed with the customer related queries pertaining to refund, shipping status, order details and many others.

If the office timing of your organization closes at sharp 6:30 P.M. It is likely to think that the person tends to call your customer support section will also be free after his working hours of an organization, that means the organization is likely to have a high chance of receiving the calls after 6:30 P.M. to deal with the situation.

The organizations are seen outsourcing the phone and telephone answering services to a digital agency working for answering services.

The executives are trained in dealing with customers, understanding issue dedicatedly and handle the mood of irate customers.

Therefore, all we can say is outsourcing the phone call answering services to the service provider to a local or remote location can act as a favourable for business as it tends to offer services round-the-clock via direct communication with the real-time agent.

Types of Phone Answering Services:

The phone answering services are known to have the vibrant colour that is sufficient enough to cater the requirement of the customer, either by accepting the call for offering technical and customer support or by making a call to the customer for conducting a telemarketing practice.

Based on the services offered by phone call answering services, it is subdivided into the following categories:

Virtual Receptionist Services:

There are numbers of companies who tend to set up a reception, working virtually to conduct the session for solving the customer’s basic queries.

These queries are usually catered by answering services that are capable of informing the customers of the basic details on behalf of an organization.

Internet Answering Services:

The internet answering services offered by the organizations are usually not the real medium of getting in touch with the customers through the personalized attempt.

Here, the answering services by the real-time agent are altered with automated services such as email support, chat support, social media support and many others…

Therefore, if the organization opting for internet answering services through the outsourcing service provider. It has the power to offer outstanding support in delivering the services for the virtual channels in a most defined manner.

Call Answering Services:

The call answering services specifically deals with offering the solutions to the customer on the behalf of an organization are as similar to other call center services by an outsourcing organization, the only difference lies in the call answering service agents are dealt with offering solutions for the inbound and outbound call, as well.

Benefits of Phone and Telephone Answering Services:

Phone call answering services are known for their easy deliveries of the raised query to the customer in their desired format of calling.

Based on the types of services offered by the initiative of outsourcing partner, phone answering services as a technology uproots the list of benefits favourable for the organization is given below:

Dissolve the issue of calls not getting picked at the brand's end.
The phone answering services are optimized and lowered in the cost in comparison to the automated answering mediums such as interactive voice response (IVR).
Boost the trust level of the customer by getting in touch with the live agent.
Outsourcing telephone answering services to call center outsourcing provider helps in assisting the customer round-the-clock i.e; 24/7.
Sectors like Healthcare, Bank, transportation can answer the queries of the customer in odd hours by responding to the complaints in short notice without degrading the brand’s name in any form.

In Conclusion:

In order to escalate the customer satisfaction rate for the brand’s product and services, it is advisable to look for the phone answering services that are known to personalize the conversation with the customer through the live answering operator.

Tags: Telephone Answering