If you have an employee who specializes in telephony, that’s fine, but if you’re answering calls alongside your core business, be careful.

This is because there is a possibility that the original work may be neglected or the work efficiency may deteriorate, which may reduce the productivity of the company.

One way to reduce the burden of telephone work is to use a telephone answering service.

In this article, let’s take a closer look at the features of telephone answering services for companies that are worried about the weight of telephone business. You can also check the advantages and disadvantages of using it and the points when choosing a request destination.

What is a “telephone answering service” that acts on behalf of a company’s telephone business?

In addition to handling inquiries from customers, we can also take orders for products and services, accept orders, and provide customer support.

Depending on the telephone answering service you use, it is also possible to ask for marketing research and complaint handling using the telephone .

Companies that fall under the following conditions and situations may be able to take this opportunity to consider using a telephone answering service as it may be possible to solve problems in telephone operations.

• A large number of inquiries addressed to the company
• The response time of core business is being squeezed by electric business work, overtime is occurring
• Lack of call center experience and know-how
• Insufficient staff to serve customers
• Want to acquire new customers by telephone, etc.

Advantages of Outsourcing Telephone Business for a Company

Can operate at low cost

Hiring an agency to handle the phone work is often cheaper than doing it yourself. Consider the salaries and service fees you pay your employees.

It depends on the rate plan of the company you request, but in general, you will be charged a fixed monthly usage fee and a fee according to the number of calls.

Since it is structured like a success fee type, there is almost no wasteful expense even if you ask an agency to handle the telephone business.

It is a good idea to check with your agent to find out how much you can save by using their own telephone answering service.

Allows employees to focus on core business

It is not uncommon for companies to have employees who are originally in charge of other duties also answering telephone calls.

However, too many calls can overwhelm employees, leaving them unable to devote time to their core business.

If your company is in this situation, outsourcing phone work to another company will give your employees more time to focus on their core business.

Unlike the time when we were dealing with telephone work, there is no need to interrupt core work, so work efficiency will also improve.

You can also expect productivity improvement as a company.

Leads to improved call center quality

If your company does not have much experience or know-how in telephone business, you can expect to improve the quality of customer service by using a telephone answering service.

Operators who handle telephone services at telephone answering companies have received specialized training over time and have a wealth of experience and know-how.

For this reason, outsourcing the telephone service to a telephone answering service may lead to an improvement in the quality of the call center.

Disadvantages of outsourcing phone calls to another company

Let’s check two disadvantages here.

In-house experience and know-how are not accumulated

If you entrust the telephone business to another company, your company will not accumulate experience and know-how.

For this reason, if you ask for a long-term agency, you may be in trouble when you want to do telephone business in the future.

However, there are telephone answering companies that support in-house production, so it would be a good idea to consider who to ask depending on the future direction.

there is a security risk

In order to request telephone services from another company, it is necessary to convey information about the company’s products and services, as well as information about customers. This inevitably increases security risks.

Of course, telephone answering companies are also taking measures such as introducing highly secure systems to deal with security risks and conducting security training for corresponding operators.

It can be said that it is necessary to select a telephone answering company that has thorough countermeasures against security risks before requesting a telephone answering service.

There is also a method to reduce the workload of intermediation and transfer with a call transfer service

However, using a call forwarding service is not the only way to reduce the burden on your company’s telephone operations. For example, using a call forwarding service is also effective.

A call forwarding service, as the name suggests, is a service that allows you to forward incoming calls to a fixed-line telephone installed at your company to another number.

Although the response method differs slightly depending on the service content, there is also a telephone transfer service that automatically transfers the call to the person in charge without the need for the employee to pick up the receiver and listen to the content of the other party’s inquiry.

Canario, provided by NEC Networks & System Integration, uses AI to recognize names and relay calls to the person in charge, so it will be possible to reduce the burden on employees who have been handling phone calls.

How to choose a telephone answering service company

How to choose 1: Basic supported industries

Depending on the telephone answering service, the industry and business that can be handled differ.

If you think that “understanding of specialized knowledge is indispensable for handling telephone calls with customers”, it is important to check the industry and business of the client when choosing a telephone answering service .

Choice 2: Price plan

Rate plans vary depending on the telephone answering company. In general, it is a fixed monthly fee type and a pay-as-you-go type, but let’s check the billing plan of the request destination before proceeding with the contract in earnest.

By the way, if you make a lot of calls in a day, we recommend the fixed monthly fee model, which has a low call unit price .

Choice 3: Quality of Service

If you ask another company to handle the telephone business, it goes without saying that the staff of the telephone answering company will take care of your customers.

For this reason, it is important to assess the quality of service when choosing a client.

Let’s consider the destination based on the number of operators belonging to the telephone answering company, personnel structure, reporting, achievements, etc.

summary

For companies that are busy with telephone services, asking a telephone answering company can provide benefits such as improved operational efficiency and reduced operating costs.

However, there are disadvantages such as increased security risks, so it is important to carefully compare and consider telephone answering companies when making a request.

If you feel uneasy about outsourcing phone work to another company, you can also use a call forwarding service to handle it yourself.