The Opportunity Cost Of Missed Calls

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? If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, it’s time to consider hiring a?professional answering service?for your business.

Did you know?

According to?Forbes.com, “recent statistics show that?80% of callers sent to voicemail, don’t leave messages because they don’t think they’ll even be heard”?

If you’re not currently employing an answering service, it begs the question: Just how many opportunities are you missing out on? And it’s not just a matter of missed calls, opportunity cost also comes in the form of, being double booked, or losing customers’ contact information, leaving you scrambling for a customer’s address on the morning?of?your appointment, and potentially showing up late.

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 your customers to associate you with. And since you are likely the only individual who knows the ins and outs of the pain that your product or service can solve for your customers, 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 humans 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 (think text, email, social media platforms), picking up the phone still proves to be most popular with?“60% of consumers choosing to call local businesses after finding them on Google,”?per brightlocal.com

Customer Benefits from Answering Services

An answering service is not just good news for you, it’s also beneficial for your customer base, who whether they realize it or not, are reaping its time-saving benefits: they’re not spending time on hold; nor are they trying to solve the Rubik’s cube that is spelling their last name with a 9-digit keypad, only to be told by an automated voice: “that option is not available, goodbye.”

There’s no better time to start doing business with a new customer than when the morale is already high for both business and customer, and using an answering service can help send the message to your customers that you take your business seriously, and that you’ll take theirs seriously as well.

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?