In an increasingly competitive economy, businesses of all sizes need to stay one step ahead of the curve. This means hiring the most talented workers, investing in the best products and services, cutting costs wherever possible, and leveraging new technology to enhance productivity and reduce inputs.
Business owners of all sizes are discovering the benefits of two services that, while not exactly new, have never been more important: business fulfillment and telephone answering services.
Regardless of what your company does or where it operates, it’s likely that it could use a boost from one or both of these mission critical solutions. Here’s what you need to know about telephone answering and fulfillment services — and why they could offer the “juice” your company craves.
What Is a Telephone Answering Service?
Telephone answering services perform a range of value-added services for companies in a variety of industries, including:
● Healthcare (primary, tertiary and emergency)
● Legal services
● Other professional services, such as finance and accounting
● Utilities and civil service providers
● Property management and construction
● Travel and leisure services
● Government
● Transportation and logistics
● Funeral homes
● Charity
● Commercial services
Although every telephone answering service is different, their core functions generally include:
● 24/7 live answering with well-trained, professional staffers
● Appointment scheduling
● Dispatching services
● Call screening
● Message delivery (by phone and other channels)
● Business registration
● Virtual receptionist services (off-site reception)
Answering services allow businesses of all sizes to tap experienced, responsive call answering professionals in support of — or instead of — an in-house inbound team. Some of the benefits of this highly efficient service are outlined below.
What Is Business Fulfillment?
Business fulfillment companies serve clients in a similarly broad range of industries. Some of their services complement those offered by telephone answering firms, offering companies that leverage both a powerful one-two efficiency punch. That said, business fulfillment services tend to be a bit more technical, and often involve a physical inventory. Common fulfillment functions include:
● Order fulfillment services, including shipping, tracking, promotional mailings, troubleshooting, and more
● Order processing services, including database management, telemarketing and data entry, and customer relationship management
● Inventorying and warehousing for physical storage
● Direct mail services, including cutting-edge list building and management functions
● Contact center services, including multi channel customer contact (online, phone, and more) and customized sales or help script deployment
5 Benefits of Telephone Answering Services
1. They’re Always on Duty
Unlike in-house receptionists, telephone answering services don’t have bathroom breaks, lunch hours or sick days. They don’t sleep or take care of their kids.
No, they’re not robots. They’re smart, savvy humans who work in team rotations. When one team member goes home for the day or grabs a bite to eat, another is there to take her place. This means you never have to worry about missing an important call because no one is there to take it.
2. You Don’t Have to Rely on Voicemail
Many companies plug the gaps when human receptionists aren’t available with voicemail. The problem is, voicemail is impersonal, brief, and prone to error. Many prospects and customers simply hang up without leaving a message, leaving the reasons for their call a mystery and potentially leaving money on the table as well.
3. Dispatching and Appointment Scheduling Is Easier and Less Error-Prone
Telephone answering services are adept at scheduling appointments, dispatching assets and personnel, and delivering messages to the appropriate parties. They’re ideal for companies looking to maximize efficiency, reduce downtime, and allocate assets effectively. In short, they’re a good match for pretty much every company.
4. Great for Your Margins
Whether you’re using a telephone answering service to take appointments after hours, dispatch personnel, or serve as your virtual receptionist, it’s likely to provide superior service at a fraction of the cost of in-house employees. This is because telephone answering services work with dozens or even hundreds of clients, facilitating economies of scale that control costs, passing on the savings to their customers.
5. Simpler HR
Telephone answering services allow you to make do with fewer front-line contact employees. This means fewer employees and departments to manage, freeing up your human resources team’s bandwidth for higher-value work.
5 Benefits of Fulfillment Services
1. Better Geographical Reach
Fulfillment services allow you to scale your geographical reach without physically expanding outside your home region. With a centrally located warehouse, solid transportation connections to the farthest corners of your market, and a robust digital presence that facilitates order-taking, data-entry, and customer relationship management, you can reach and satisfy customers and prospects wherever they’re found.
2. Great for Your Margins
When it’s true, it’s true. Like telephone answering services, fulfillment services are great for your company’s margins. Why? Because they cost a fraction of what an in-house operation of similar quality and breadth would cost. Opt for a fulfillment service and let your team focus on high-value work.
3. Direct Mail Is a Whole Lot Easier
Comprehensive business fulfillment companies don’t just warehouse and ship inventory, they also help move that inventory indirectly by providing lucrative direct mail services. Look for a fulfillment company that offers strategic list-building services. Not all do, and not all that do go the extra mile with cutting-edge data analysis tactics. Once you’ve worked with a fulfillment company that offers direct mail services, you’ll wonder why you waited so long.
4. You Don’t Have to Staff Your Inbound Lines Internally
Comprehensive business fulfillment companies have extensive inbound call handling capabilities. Say goodbye to staffing your phone lines 24/7 to catch those late-night orders and requests, and say hello to courteous order-taking, expert data entry and accurate, timely information processing. Oh, and fulfillment companies’ inbound staffers are more than happy to upsell and cross-sell, as per your instructions.
5. Customized Script Design
Don’t have the time or inclination to design a sales script? Many fulfillment companies are happy to do this for you, exposing inbound callers to tightly honed messaging and boosting your ROI in the process.
