Category: Answering Service
Use an Answering Service to Save Money
Most people who hire an answering service approach the transaction based on what it will cost.
A better perspective is to look at what it will save. Yes, in the long term a telephone answering service will save you money; it will reduce your overall expenses.
Common Areas to Save Money with an Answering Service
Reduce On Call Labor
Many companies have their after hours on call staff answer all calls, even though not all calls need an immediate response. An answering service can screen calls and only pass on the urgent ones to your on call staff. The rest can wait until the next business day.
Remove the Need to Hire a New Employee
As companies grow they often hire a receptionist to answer their calls. This frees up other staff from covering the phone. However, there are usually not enough calls to keep a receptionist busy. Instead they should outsource these calls to their answering service.
End the Need For a Backup
What do you do when your receptionist takes a break, goes to lunch, calls in sick, or takes a vacation? Someone needs to cover the phones. This means they can’t do their regular work, and they might need to work overtime to finish it. Send those calls to your answering service instead.
Save an FTE
We would never suggest you lay-off staff, but when you restructure after a person quits, this is often an ideal time to move your receptionist to another more productive area in your company and then outsource your calls to your answering service. As a result you shave a FTE (full time equivalent) from your payroll.
Avoid Premium Shifts
If there are holidays or special circumstances when your staff earns time and a half, double time, or even more, give them the day off instead. Let your answering service cover your calls, help callers, and take messages for the next normal business day when your staff is back to earning regular rate pay. This works great for holidays and long weekends.
There are many other ways an answering service can actually save you money. You have, no doubt, already thought of more, a few of which apply directly to the unique circumstances of your operation. So stop treating an answering service as an expense item and instead view it as a way to save money in other areas of your company.
Don’t put it off; start saving money today by using an answering service.
Peter DeHaan, PhD, is a freelance writer and publisher of TAS Trader that covers the telephone answering service industry.
