Starting a Telephone Answering Service
Nowadays, there are very few people who actually own a home phone. But the rise of cell phones and other smart devices has led to an increased demand for telephone services. This makes starting a telephone answering service a profitable business venture for someone with enough resources and drive to customize their plan to fit the needs of their market.
Before diving in head first, though, it’s important that you take some time to research markets similar to yours along with real estate prices within those areas so that you can prepare an accurate budget before even getting started. It's also important that you review your state’s licensing requirements before beginning operations since they vary from state-to-state.
There are several ways to generate income from a telephone answering service:
Telephone answering services provide businesses with many benefits over traditional voice mail systems. One key benefit is that any message can be forwarded to multiple extensions at the same office. This allows for more efficient communication in busy offices where employees may not always be available at the same time.
Answering services also allow business owners to put on more of a personal touch with potential clients, even though they may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. Businesses could use their phones to leave a friendly message on an answering machine letting the other party know that they’re trying to contact them, as well as when they will try again.
However, answering services come with a few disadvantages. One of the most significant issues with an answering service is the extensive setup process. Once the system is put into place for your company, it can be difficult to switch back and forth between a traditional voice mail system and an answering service.
Because of this, many businesses opt for both types of customer-service methods in order to maximize their efficiency. It is also possible that a telemarketing firm could generate more leads for a telephone answering business than it would other businesses that don't utilize telemarketing firms, as telemarketers will often have great luck reaching potential customers on the phone rather than through other means (such as email).
Additionally, with an answering service, businesses may have trouble reaching customers if they suddenly stop their service. This can make it difficult to reach clients who are no longer subscribers or those who don’t want to be bothered with your advertisements.
Another disadvantage is that some answering services will charge the company a fee to listen to their messages. In some cases, this fee can be steep and can cost businesses a significant amount of money each month.
Before you start your own telephone answering service, it’s important that you do your research to determine whether such a business is right for you and what kind of start-up costs a business like yours would incur. As an example, an answering service can cost as much as $15,000 to get up and running. For that price, it’s possible that you may not be able to save enough money to pay your employees’ salaries for the first few months before being able to begin making money.
When setting up a telephone answering service, there are several things you should consider:
If you don't have the resources or the knowledge of how to start a telephone answering business, there are many telemarketing firms and other agencies that are willing to provide you with the help you need in order to get your business started. If you're having difficulty finding a suitable partner, it may be worth looking into the small business grant program to aid your business in getting off the ground.
One important thing to consider when starting up a new business is whether you will take care of customer service yourself or outsource it. Many businesses that do this choose to outsource their customer care in order to make more money for themselves and pay less for their employees. However, there are several pros and cons to outsourcing this aspect of your company:
It’s important to note that whatever decision you make regarding outsourcing, it is possible that once you are able to hire employees, they will have issues with being outsourced as well.
For businesses that do things differently, it’s possible that you will have to contend with negative comments from your clients and customers about using different methods of customer service. However, some consumers have a tendency to complain about almost anything, including the telephone answering service they are using. If you need customer service in order to make a sale or in order to help solve a problem, your product or service may not be received as well if it’s handled by someone who is not familiar with it.
The hiring of employees is perhaps the largest expense in starting a telephone answering business. In order to hire employees, you will have to look for people in certain fields. For example, if you're going after a big business that has large amounts of money and wants a telephone answering service but has no experience in the field, it may be hard to find employees. When looking for employees, you need to take into consideration the following:
When setting up an answering service there are many ways that you can customize your plan and add features to make your company unique. You might want to put a logo on each message left by customers or create the first message of each customer's recording so they feel like they're getting personal attention.
There are also many ways of making sure that your customers don't get too many messages, such as deleting messages from the same person or changing their password. Deletion is a great method for keeping the amount of messages down and making sure that only new messages are sent to their phone. It also ensures that your customers hear each other's messages.
You can change password options so that customers will call in to reset their passwords. This gives consumers more control over which messages they want to hear from people and gives them an outlet for questions or concerns about the service you provide them with.
You can customize your recordings for each individual. For example, if you have a specific number in your plan that you’re trying to get out to potential clients, you can send it automatically to their phone so that they hear it over and over again.
You can customize messages so they are more personal based on what your clients or customers want to hear. For example, if you sell certain products or services through telemarketing, it might be beneficial for consumers to hear messages about a product or service that they like in order to feel more comfortable with how you're handling their money.
Many companies who use telephone answering services hire their own customers' representatives.
Conclusion
Another form of telephone answering service are what are called "multi-purpose answering services." The majority of these companies handle all types of calls and have staff to help with customer service. Since they have multiple services they can choose from, they can answer by offering a unique option for potential customers.
Many businesses, such as airlines, avoid using phone answering service because it is expensive to hire employees. Airlines find that the cost to provide call handling is not worth the return on investment. Airlines also believe that personal telephone conversation is more effective than recorded messages because people generally like to hear their own voice. However, some companies persist in using phone answering service because it maintains a relationship with customers and retains clients' confidence in the business.