Select The Best Phone Answering System For Your Business Success.
Nothing will steer a customer to your competitors faster than the frustration of not being able to contact you or your business easily.
The use of a phone answering system can be especially important to a business for the proper handling of incoming telephone calls.
Mishandling an incoming call, or missing a call altogether could have a strong negative effect on your business and your image. It is extremely important in a competitive world to present yourself in a professional manner to customers and potential customers.
You no longer need to hire a dedicated receptionist/operator to route your calls. The solution to the problem is to incorporate a telephone answering system.
The service you choose can be as simple as using the call-answer service offered by your phone service provider or a mechanical answering machine or to use the call forwarding service provided by your phone company, or even to use your pc to answer calls.
In our case, when we are unable to directly answer a phone call, as when we are away from the house or already speaking on our one-line service phone, the call is directed to the Bell answering service where our own out-going message is played and the caller can leave a detailed message. When a message is left for us, a signal light flashes on the phone set until the message is retrieved and deleted. Most people are familiar with this type of system.
We toyed with the idea of using phone answering software on our computer to handle calls, but then our home computer would have to be on 24 hours a day, which is a power waster. If, however, our internet access was by phone line, we could have had incoming calls answered by the computer when we were online. Online answering machines function like a regular answering machine but you connect your phone line to your computer. The software allows you to listen to messages while they are being recorded and to download the messages at a later time.
A phone company call answer service is commonly used by both individuals and small businesses. It is becoming rare to find even a home phone without an answering machine or answering service to take your messages. In fact I find it annoying when I call someone who is not home and doesn't have an answering machine or service, as I must try again at a later time not knowing when the person will be home. It is preferable, in my opinion, to leave a message and switch the onus to the other person to call me back.
Anyone who runs a business, no matter how small or large, wants to be sure that no potential business is lost because of bad communications.
This could mean that calls must be forwarded to you directly or to the appropriate staff for answering. If your business has multiple departments, then you want your caller to be able to access the right extension.
We've all been put on the voice-mail merry-go-round that some companies use to direct calls. These automated answering systems are computer controlled and may not even be in the same city as the company you are calling, but calls are directed when the system voice asks the caller to press certain numbers for the department they wish to speak to, or by giving the caller options with corresponding numbers to push.
You may also have encountered business answering systems that use Interactive Voice Response (IVR). This is where a computerized voice asks you questions that you must answer verbally in order to be connected to right department. The software is supposed to recognize what you are saying, then ask you to confirm yes or no, then connect your call. These virtual phone receptionists can be frustrating to the caller when options given don't specifically mention what you are looking for or it fails to recognize what you say in response. You also feel a little stupid talking to a machine.
The ideal phone answering system is a live phone answering service. Your caller is greeted by a real person who understands your language and speaks well, knows proper telephone answering etiquette and can direct you where you want to go. These operators can even connect you to the proper voice-mail box so you can leave a message if the person you are calling is not available. Interestingly, thanks to computers, these live greeters can do their phone answering jobs from home.
The system you choose will depend on the number of people and departments that your company has, and your budget. Pricing starts at around $10 per month and generally, the price goes up as the volume of calls goes up.
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