10 Sectors that can Benefits from a Phone Answering Service
Often, phone answering services are associated with larger corporate businesses who experience an unmanageable volume of daily calls.
While it’s true this is one way to use a phone answering service, almost every business in every sector can benefit from using a phone answering service. The benefits don’t end at improved customer service, but also at enabling a businesses staff to better allocate their time and resources.
Today we’re going to take a look at 11 different sectors with interesting uses for phone answering services. Let’s jump in.
1. Law Firms
Despite popular belief amongst law firms that a phone answering service is not able to provide the high standards expected within the legal sector, alldayPA’s telephone answering capabilities go above and beyond what a virtual receptionist provides. Our extended specialist team of operators cover overflow and out of hours calls as a way of supporting a firm’s solicitors.
While basic message taking services may not be effective for dealing with corporate law firms, advanced services that work to accommodate and support a firm’s current framework handle the high standards of care expected in the legal sector.
Generally, using a phone answering services enables law firms to qualify new enquiries, whilst saving fee earners’ time. Paying on demand for calls to be answered directly attributes costs to leads and opens up opportunities for international clients. This provides a better client experience as they have an immediate human interaction and have their queries attended to immediately.
You can read up more on legal customer services here.
2. Accountancy Firms
Much like the legal sector, finance and accountancy firms receive a similar standard of specialist, professional call handling operators for their clients. The importance of client confidentiality and data protection standards are prioritised and respected.
In the case that a client is required to make a payment, our FCA accredited answering service can take such payment in a smooth and efficient manner- working in both the client’s and firm’s best interested.
The volume of enquiries faced by accountancy firms are very much so dependent on seasonal rushes, such as the end of the tax year. A ‘pay on demand’ service enables these firms to pass these calls over to an overflow service for the smooth running of enquires, regardless of the time of year. alldayPA provide the reassurance required that all calls will be answered and attended to by a real person, whether or not there’s a member of staff in your office.
3. Estate Agents
The process of buying or renting a property often involves back and forth calls between an estate agent, the property owner, and the buyer or renter. For a company that predominantly receives their business via an initial interaction over the phone, outsourcing professionals to respond to these enquiries perfectly attends to these calls at all hours of the day.
Whereas most estate agencies work within a 9-5 day, a service like ours ensures that both landlords and tenants can submit new enquiries and follow up on existing enquiries at any hour of the day.
The estate agent can spend more time out of the office, meeting clients and leading viewings, safe in the knowledge that all their calls are being managed.
Services such as diary management and direct engineer call-outs for estate agents and landlords are particularly helpful for incidents that need immediate assistance.
4. Facilities Management Companies
Similarly to Estate Agents and Landlords, Facilities Management (FM) companies will benefit from phone answering services when it comes to meeting service level agreements.
FM firms will benefit when it comes to arranging visits from people like groundskeepers, window cleaners, and any other maintenance services that visit properties in their care.
A phone answering service helps keep communication clear and avoids slip-ups when it comes to arranging services and visits from maintenance teams.
5. Retailers
Running a business within the retail and trade sector understandably encompasses a large inflow of calls regarding stock availability, opening hours, and other services available. Outsourcing calls to a expert company provides an instant solution to fielding these enquiries and allowing you to keep your full attention on customers in store.
Retailers no longer need to compromise between excellent customer service on the store floor and over the phone, as an outsourced company allows you to excel in the former whilst managing the latter. Improving customer service across all channels of communication.
6. E-commerce Companies
One of the biggest channels for e-commerce companies is dealing with enquiries relating to delivery. When operating on an online platform that provides direct consumption for customers, you don’t want to jeopardise that instant level of customer interaction through the phone. Outsourcing a portion of your calls to a contact centre allows E-commerce companies to stay focused on their objective of immediate customer satisfaction. Complaints and queries can be attended to instantly by specially trained call operators.
When customer complaints come through, their waiting time is reduced and prevents an engaged tone from reaching a customer that could already be frustrated. Providing a rapid response and a solution to their enquiry will enhance your company’s reputation whilst reducing any overhead costs.
7. Restaurants
Restaurants undoubtedly require constant floor attendance during peak meal times and answering phone calls for reservations, food orders, and stock deliveries can add up to a significant amount of time lost. Hiring a member of staff to attend the phone can only resolve this in so far that the restaurant does not receive numerous calls simultaneously.
As a form of preventing restaurant staff members from being torn between attending the phone and accommodating customers, outsourcing your calls to a contact centre can, in turn, increase your reservations, maximise and streamline customer service and provide and overall improvement to the restaurant’s organisation.
8. Medical Practices
Medical practices, whether doctors, dentists or even vets, all have similar challenges when it comes to running a reception and managing calls.
A call answering company can help by managing reception call overflow at your busiest times, making sure that your patients can always talk to a real person at the other end of the phone to book an appointment. Medical emergencies can happen at any hour of the day, which is why a having dedicated phone answering team onboard adequately assists patients, whilst simultaneously easing the strain on receptionists.
9. Recruitment Firms
As a recruiter, the most important challenge you have is to get hold of potential candidates.
Understandably, for candidates that are already in full time employment or education, they might not be able to answer calls during regular working hours. Flexible contact centres will come in handy for out of office call- backs from candidates during evenings and weekends. In turn, overflowing your calls to a 24/7/365 phone answering business gives your recruiters well-earned time away from work, without having to be concerned about answering phone calls.
10. Corporate Businesses
Even within large corporate businesses with dedicated receptionists, these outsourced services provide supplementary support that in-house staff are not always capable of delivering. Managing things like accident reporting lines and whistleblowing lines from a third party company provides the impartiality and professionalism required. Enquiries will not always reach your lines during office hours, so whereas fee earners work within 9-5 timescales, we respond to calls at all times so you don’t have to- essentially extending your business’ customer service to all hours of the day and year.
If you want to know more about phone answering services, visit our call answering package page to request a quote or to speak to someone from our team.