How Shelf Companies Lost Their Appeal and What to Do Now
Also known as a ready-made company or an off-the-shelf company, a shelf company is a pre-registered business you can buy and customise.
The office phone rings for the first time. You take a breath and reach over to the handset. The way you communicate with this caller could impact the reputation of your business ahead. And if you don’t have the experience and prolific nuances of answering a business call, then you may be damaging your brand significantly. Therefore, when you’re done forming a company, and you’re operating from either an actual or virtual office, it’s not difficult to understand why adopting a business call answering service is so advantageous to your business goals.
Here are 8 positive points to ponder if you’re still considering the efficacy of an answering service for your business:
1. Your Company Will Exude Professionalism and Credibility
If you’re trying to run a professional service, the last thing you want is someone answering your incoming calls in a rude, misinformed, and/or colloquial manner. Therefore, to get complete control of how your incoming calls are answered, the adoption of a call answering service with a virtual receptionist is highly recommended.
You have the freedom to record your outgoing messages to ensure they reflect the standards of professionalism you require. Even if you hire an in-house receptionist (note: considerable expenses will be incurred), you will not be afforded full control over the proficiency in which he/she answers your business call. If your receptionist is having a “terrible day” or is met with a challenging situation, you’re relying on their ability to deliver a service you deem “correct”. The consistency levels of someone answering your calls is unquestionable with a call answering service.
According to an article on Forbes, out of 1,000 consumers polled in a study about customer experiences, 92% say they would stop purchasing from a company after three or fewer poor customer service experiences, while 26 % percent of those would stop after just one bad experience. Hence, your company’s customer service can indeed make or break your brand.
Additionally, with automated menus in an answering service, your customers can reach precisely where they need to for the relevant help from your team members. Such a variety of menu options exudes an established status — as if you’ve been running for many years.
2. Experience Cost Savings With a Business Call Answering Service
One of the most important advantages of a virtual answering service is that it can cost you far less in comparison to a live answering service, saving you money when compared with hiring a receptionist.
The cost of searching, hiring, and subsequently training a new employee might cost you approximately £20-£30k for their salary — not to forget payroll taxes, benefits, bonuses, holidays, sick days or workers’ compensation coverage. Additionally, a receptionist will not be expected to remain at their desk 24-hours-a-day. Hence, you may need to pay for a back-up system when your live receptionist is absent. And let’s not forget those added costs of potential birthday gifts, or company treats!
A competitive and comprehensive call answering service with the right company will save you a significant amount of money — finances that you could spend on other areas of your business.
3. Effectively Work With Remote Teams
Remote working has become an increasingly popular work-life decision employed by many companies the world over. One of the key advantages of remote working are the low employee costs involved.
However, communication is an obvious challenge associated with working from home. If your office is located in Liverpool, but a member of your team works in Lisbon, it’s difficult to gauge if one phone system will work for all.
With an effective call answering system, callers can call one company number and get in touch with everyone on the team, regardless of employee location. Even if you run a completely virtual organisation, a call answering system allows each caller to select the department or individual they wish to contact. The caller is none-the-wiser about where each of your employees are located, or indeed your company in general.
Calls are automatically routed to where they need to go, so everyone receives the calls for which they are responsible.
Don’t do business alone. Join a Community.
Subscribe to our newsletter and join the ranks of 100,000+ entrepreneurs who receive weekly insights, legal updates, and compliance reminders directly in their inbox.
4. Reduce the Amount of Time That Callers Must Wait
Callers can grow quite frustrated when they have to wait to reach their intended recipient. However, with an automated answering service, your customers needn’t wait. Callers can instantly choose the person or department they wish to contact and subsequently leave a message for a call-back.
5. Business Answering Systems Are Always Active
When your office has to be closed for reasons such as emergency pandemics, weather catastrophes, or power outages, a remote answering service continues to function. Even during “the unexpected”, your company remains “open for business” in the perception of callers and you no longer have to worry about missing any calls.
6. You Don’t Need Any Additional Equipment
Unlike a conventional live phone service, a business answering service does not require additional equipment for an automated menu. Your existing phone lines will suffice, so you can get rid of that soon-archaic chunky answering machine, keep your current telephone number, and save your company money. Alternatively, you may decide to switch to another local or national number depending on the type of branding you wish your business to project.
7. Maintain Industry-Specific Services
Call answering services are not universal. Depending on the call answering system you use, you can utilise a telephonic support service for each of your clients in order to reflect the needs of their specific industries. For example, if you run a medical clinic, you may need to set up a simple system to inform a doctor’s office about how to contact you. You might want to use the system to simplify the way patients can schedule appointments, or provide important after-hours information.
8. Maintain a List of Calls and Voicemails
A business answering service records all calls that enter in to your account. All incoming calls are logged, making it simple for you to monitor and analyse your business call traffic.
With a business call answering system, you can:
- Identify how many incoming calls are diverted to sales
- View the most frequently asked questions
- Access voice recordings and transcriptions
- Set up instructional voice recordings
Remember…
A call answering service with automated menus offers many advantages, especially for smaller businesses looking to save time and money. Quite simply, an answering service lets you offer the highest standard of customer service while also keeping your company active and productive.
To find out more about setting up a virtual call answering service for your business, contact our company formations service, today.
