subject: Stop Working! Answer Your Office Phones! [print this page] Who will answer your office phones? That is a question that so many businesses ask every day in this country. There are many options. A company can staff its office with a receptionist or an in house call center. A company can utilize voice mail or automated features such as Intelligent Voice response (IVR). A company can also choose to outsource their telephone calls to an outside answering service or call center. If using an outsourced option, there are several considerations. There is a choice between using an answering service and using a call center. To complicate matters even more, there is a choice between a United States and an overseas option and a choice between a bilingual answering service and an English speaking center.
To answer office phones, a company needs a plan. In planning the options, every factor must be brought into consideration. By knowing the pros and cons of how your office phones will be answered is key making the right decision.
In House Staff to Answer Office Phones
Many businesses employ their own in house staff to primarily answer their telephones. This is a common practice that most business practices. By having an in house telephone staff, an office is able to train, oversee closely and make adjustments to the staff. Direct contact between management and telecommunication is usually the best way to effectively handle phone calls.
In house staff does have its drawbacks. By employing in house staff to handle communications, an office will find a tremendous cost in payroll. Employee also adds to a company's overhead, including taxes, insurances and supplies. An in house staff is also very difficult to manage. With high employee turnover, employee theft and absenteeism, an employee is often a nightmare proposition.
Voicemail to Answer Office Phones
Many companies utilize voicemail to answer their phone calls. Voice mail is a very inexpensive method of handling a business's phone calls. With voicemail there is usually a fixed cost and it is very affordable. Voicemail is a very dangerous proposition. Seven out of every ten phone calls that are answered by voicemail do not result in a message. While the upfront costs of using a voicemail is something that any business can afford, the lost revenue that occurs from the extraordinary percentages of hang ups, make voicemail a very expensive proposition.
Answering Service and Call Center
Outsourcing to an answering service or call center is a best of both worlds' options. The answering service combines quality and affordability. Using an answering service is a way to get live operator quality employees at a fraction of what they would cost in house. It is also a way to get the affordability of automation mixed with the high quality service that is needed to handle each and every call.
