Are you spending most of your time on the phone versus face-to-face interactions with customers? Is your schedule too full to accept calls or appointments that could be handled by others? Are inquiries from new customers going to voicemail, or worse, not making it to voicemail at all? If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, it’s time to evaluate your opportunity cost of missed calls and explore whether or not hiring a professional answering service could help you grow your business.
Missed opportunities impact your bottom-line
According to Forbes.com, “80% of callers sent to voicemail, don’t leave messages because they don’t think they’ll even be heard.” So, let’s say 10 people call your business today and are unable to reach you or one of your employees. You can’t always be available, after all. Of the 10 callers, eight of them hang up when they hear your recording asking them to leave a message. It’s as if they never called at all. And, they likely reached out to one of your competitors to get the information they were seeking instead.
Of course, not every missed call is a missed sale; however, they are all missed opportunities to positively represent your brand by assisting someone who clearly believes they have an important reason to call. This kind of customer service can lead to long-lasting customer relationships and positive experiences with your business that lead to word-of-mouth marketing and referrals—which are far more powerful than any advertisement.
Beyond the missed calls
Opportunity cost also comes in the form of being double booked or losing customers’ contact information, which can result in missing or arriving late to an appointment. Without systems in place that directly connect your incoming calls to your customer database and calendar, something is bound to be missed sooner or later.
Consider an answering service
If you’re not currently employing an answering service, perhaps it’s time to evaluate your options. Not only does a professional answering service give you some room to breathe, but it also enables you to streamline your operations, and achieve the professional image you want associated your business. As someone who knows the ins and outs of the challenge your product or service can solve, you need to be available when your customers need you most.
Technology vs. human interaction
For as much as we employ technology in our daily lives, it’s no secret that we are still social creatures. We like talking to real, live people. And, since no one has figured out yet how to successfully clone the human genome, outsourcing part of your operations continues to be the next best bet. Calls get answered, customer details get captured, and your sanity is preserved for the situations that you, and only you, can remedy.
Even with all of the other channels consumers have access to for communication (i.e., SMS text messaging, email, and social media platforms), picking up the phone still proves to be most popular. In fact, according to BrightLocal, “60% of consumers choose to call local businesses after finding them on Google.”
Customer benefits from answering services
An answering service is not just good news for you, it’s also beneficial for your customer base. Whether they realize it or not, your customers are reaping its time-saving benefits, too:
- They’re not spending time on hold; and
- They are able to speak with someone who can help them, when they need it most.
There’s no better time to start doing business with a new customer than when the morale is already high for both the business and customer. Using an answering service can help communicate to your prospective and current customers that you take your business seriously, and you’ll take theirs seriously as well.
Benefits of business process outsourcing
Right now, you may be inundated with MBAs pronouncing “business process outsourcing” or “BPO” as the savior of small business. Simply put, it means doing what you do best and leaving other tasks to companies who can do them more efficiently and cost-effectively. Is that something that might be right for you?
If you’re unsure, consider the number of inbound calls you experience each month. Do you know how many calls were left unanswered? Of those, how many left a message? Were those calls returned quickly or did they take longer than a few hours? Chances are, your opportunity cost of missed calls can be managed without adding to your headcount or to-do list.
Contact our team of answering service professionals to discuss your current opportunity cost and ways in which we can partner to help you do what you do best. And, in the meantime, you can learn more about professional telephone answering services and some of the benefits (which include eliminating costly missed and dropped calls) here on our website.