Growing a successful business is a challenge in any climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at a time when customers are more demanding than ever when it comes to service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the traditional office based way of working is changing at a rapid pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with more competition around for attention, has there ever been a more challenging time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What it means is that any advantage can give you the edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it also means being smarter with investments and looking at how you can distribute your resources most effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing that is often overlooked when it comes to outsourcing and resources, is\u00a0call answering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply having a resource to answer incoming calls – rather than hiring a member of staff or trying to do it yourself – can not only ensure you answer every sales call that comes in, but frees you up to concentrate on growing your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s see how a telephone answering service can help you grow your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never miss a sales call<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n UK SMEs lose about \u00a390m a year in lost sales simply by not picking up the phone when it rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a huge amount of money to lose out on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not that it\u2019s always the recipient\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Running a business is a delicate juggling act and you\u2019ve only got so much time in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re completing work to generate revenue, or meeting clients or travelling between jobs, you can\u2019t always pick up the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But each missed call is costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially considering customers are more likely to move on and try another company if you don\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oftentimes, customers admit to choosing a business simply because they answered the phone when others didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professional call handling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if you\u2019re able to answer every call that comes to you, when you\u2019re busy and hassled it can be easy to sound snappy on the phone rather than answering in a professional tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you answer the call like it\u2019s an unwelcome distraction and the caller is a lead who\u2019s interested in using your company, it\u2019s not going to give a great impression and could put them off using you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a telephone answering service, your call agents handle every incoming call in a professional manner and either deal with enquiries directly, or forward calls or messages onto you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if the caller has to leave a message, they\u2019ll be reassured they\u2019ve spoken to an actual person and that their enquiry is being dealt with, rather than being left in limbo having left a message with an automated voicemail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create more personalisation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n More than a third of shoppers (36%)\u00a0believe businesses should be more personalised<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And 80% are more\u00a0willing to buy something from a company<\/a>\u00a0that provides personal experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it\u2019s easy to overlook call answering in the mass of technology used by companies to communicate with customers, answering the phone with a person rather than an automated voice can get your personalised service off to the right start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Customers much prefer talking to another person when they\u2019re looking to buy something or have a query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s nothing that can replicate the personal service you get of actually speaking to a real human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Built in flexibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether it\u2019s empowering employees to work from anywhere and investing in mobile technology, or improving collaboration with cloud based technology, flexibility has become a key trait in businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being flexible with allocation of resources is also becoming more important, and being able to distribute those resources to where they\u2019re most needed on a given basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Telephone answering services are highly flexible because you can scale them based on your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need more call answering to deal with peak times – like seasonal spikes in business – you can add to your capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, you can reduce that capacity again once you\u2019re in your quieter times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compare that to hiring a member of staff who you\u2019ll pay for regardless of how busy you are, and investing in call answering makes more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extend your opening hours<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing you can guarantee with customers and new business, is that they\u2019ll call you outside of your opening hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s because these hours are often more convenient for them because they\u2019re working during the day too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re only taking calls between 9-5 you\u2019re potentially limiting yourself and missing out on important calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But you can\u2019t work 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investing in a call answering service means you can extend your opening hours – including adding weekend calls – without having to put the extra hours in yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It means while you\u2019re at home taking time away to recharge, your business is still taking bookings and dealing with customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use telephone answering for lead generation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Generating qualified leads is absolutely essential if your business is going to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the process of qualifying leads and figuring out when it\u2019s best to contact them – if at all – can be a lengthy process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you\u2019re passing cold leads, or none leads, to your sales team for them to qualify, it\u2019s reducing the amount of time they can spend on actual leads and generating revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A telephone answering service can help with the lead qualifying process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can hand them your lead qualifying framework and have your answering service go through the process with the caller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they qualify as a \u2018hot lead\u2019 you can have them passed over to sales to follow up with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others, who might need a bit more warming up, can be directed to the most relevant person to give them more information and keep your sales team\u2019s time saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get a single fixed business number<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Flexible and remote working has created a problem for businesses when it comes to what to do with your business number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t have a central office, do you need a business number?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s several reasons why you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, having an official business number gives your company an authority you won\u2019t get with a mobile number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, are you expecting staff to give out personal numbers for business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not many employees will be happy with it and the only way you could enforce a policy like that would be to invest in business phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other option is to retain a business number and have your telephone answering service deal with calls coming through to that number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All the calls will still be dealt with centrally, and your employees can have the necessary calls forwarded to them, without having to give out their personal number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Save money on staff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hiring a receptionist can be a costly expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At minimum you\u2019re looking at \u00a318,000 a year in basic salary, and that\u2019s for a new receptionist with no experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experienced receptionists can cost a lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus all the added expenses like tax and pension contributions, and the admin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s all for a single member of staff to answer the phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When they do pick up the phone, they can\u2019t deal with any more calls until they\u2019ve finished with that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A telephone answering service means you save money on that member of staff, and allocate the additional savings to another member of staff, like a sales rep, who can contribute towards your business\u2019 growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be more productive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite having a strong economy and thriving business community, the UK lags behind when it comes to workplace productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n