Delivering gold standard quality telephone answering support is what we’ve done for over 20 years. It’s our bread and butter, and we’ve come to know exactly what a business should be looking for when finding the right service for them. So, we thought we’d share 10 of the most important questions you should be asking yourself when looking for a telephone answering service for your business.
The person answering your phone is the first point of contact for customers calling your business. This is a big responsibility and they should know everything about you, your team and exactly how you like to run things. For these reasons, and many more, having that dedicated person you trust to always do the right thing and represent you in the right way is crucial. Despite this, it’s not something every telephone answering provider offers, which is why it’s one of the most important things to consider when shopping around. Here at Moneypenny, we hand-pick our PAs for every single business so we’re confident it’s the perfect match. You’ll get to know them and brief them exactly as you would a new team member, so they can work as a completely seamless extension of your business.
How a telephone answering provider offers ongoing support to you and your business in your journey to success is massively important. It’s so much more than just answering your emails or phone calls when you have a question. Good account management means acting as an always-on stakeholder, providing continuous support and advice to better improve your service, but not every provider recognises this. We’d never leave you to flounder. Whether you have a problem, need help with a technical aspect of your account, or looking for recommendations on how to maximise our support, your dedicated Client Engagement Manager from Moneypenny is there whenever you need them.
A lot of businesses aren’t as available to their customers as they’d like to be. Especially these days, when customers are increasingly enquiring outside of ‘normal’ working hours. Many other telephone answering providers find themselves in a similar situation, but not us. We understand all too well the importance of being available around the clock, which is why our support can be used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With us answering your calls whenever they come in, you can be sure your callers are enjoying an incredible customer service experience, day or night. No waiting, no frustration, just a professional PA taking your calls exactly as if they were based in your business.
Charging a set-up fee is pretty common amongst the standard telephone answering services out there. Even if the set-up itself is relatively straightforward, you can be hit with a hefty price to pay. But that’s just not how we do things here at Moneypenny. Our seamless onboarding process is completely free of charge to you as a new client, so you can be confident the beginning of your Moneypenny journey is 100% transparent and clear.
There’s nothing worse than being tied into a lengthy contract, especially if the service isn’t what you were expecting. A lot of other providers benefit from holding you to a multi-year contract that will leave you exasperated. After your free trial with us, all of our smaller telephone answering packages have a minimum contract length of three months with only a month’s notice to close the account, should there be any problems.
Pricing is one of, if not the most crucial factor when weighing up your options. Most companies that provide a telephone answering service round up to the nearest minute when it comes to billing for calls. We don’t think that’s the best way to look at things. For example, if a call lasts for 1 minute and 31 seconds, it’s not fair to charge you for a 2-minute phone call. That’s why Moneypenny’s per minute billing rounds up to the nearest 15-second interval. There’s no extra cost for transferring a call, and if a call lasts for less than 5 seconds, we won’t charge you a penny.
We all like to keep tabs on the numbers for any service we use, and any telephone answering service provider worth its salt will be aware of this. Here at Moneypenny, we have our very own mobile app and online portal, both of which you’ll have exclusive access to as our client. Here, you can view a full audit of your calls and messages, analyse call stats, see when your busiest day and time is, how many minutes you have used on your plan – the list goes on. You can also update your Moneypenny PA throughout the day with your real-time availability. The portal comes with a toolkit as well, where you can prioritise your VIP callers and redirect those cold callers that won’t leave you alone.
While doing your research, you may find that the support other providers out there are offering is relatively limited. Past answering your calls (usually with scripts!) and taking a message, there’s often little more they can do. When we take a call for you, we want you to feel you’re getting as much value from us as possible. This is why we can help with things like booking appointments, taking payments, qualifying leads, filtering and fielding enquiries, conducting post-call surveys and much more. For us, it’s all about doing the heavy lifting and taking away any distractions so you can focus on what you do best.
One criteria that many businesses have when looking for a telephone answering service is whether they’re able to integrate with the platforms they use every day. It means they can enjoy the benefits of call support, whilst working seamlessly alongside their other platforms. As a business, we’re continually investing in technology and innovations so that the services we offer our clients can ultimately do even more for them. When you come on board, you can add on as many system integrations as you like – right now, we have over 3000 of them, including Zapier, Slack, Outlook and Calendly. And then there’s our world-first Microsoft Teams integration, which allows us to view your real-time status information and transfer callers to you via the Teams platform.
There’s nothing worse than committing to a service, only to find out it’s not quite what you expected. Unlike most telephone answering providers, Moneypenny offers a completely free trial – no small print, no hidden extras, just the opportunity to experience our full service for yourself. Taking the steps to outsource your communications in any capacity is daunting at best, which is why we believe trialling us is the best way for you to see exactly the kind of support your business needs. What’s more, there’s absolutely no obligation to continue with the service afterwards, so you’ve really got nothing to lose!
Of course, there are many other factors at play when deciding which telephone answering provider is right for you, but rest assured, you’ll be in safe hands here at Moneypenny. Whether it’s our amazing people to delight your callers, or the technology to help streamline your operations, we’ve got you covered. Get in touch with one of our New Business Team today on 0333 202 1005 for a tailored quote and information on how to set up your free trial.
12 Feb 2024
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