Call handling typically relates to how a business manages its calls. For example, a small business owner may answer and make all of their own phone calls, or they could employ an in-house full-time receptionist to do it for them.
It is also possible to outsource call handling responsibilities to a telephone answering provider. A good phone answering company can provide a similar service to a full-time receptionist, but for a fraction of the cost.
This blog post will examine the benefits of 24-7 call handling services and explain how they can revolutionise the way you work!
A 24-7 call handling service is a telephone answering service that operates around-the-clock. This means that no matter what time a customer or client gets in touch, you’ll never miss their phone call.
With 24-7 call handling support, you will never have to worry about missing any business calls. In addition, you can turn your business into a 24-7 operation without having anyone in the office. Emergency calls can be passed on immediately, while all other calls are handled at your leisure and usually passed on as an email or SMS text.
With more people working shifts than ever in the UK, people expect businesses to be contactable 24-7. What’s more, it is often still more convenient for people who work regular hours to get in touch with companies, sometimes late into the evenings, after putting their children to bed or finishing dinner.
With this in mind, you can gain a significant competitive advantage by outsourcing to a 24-7 call handling business. With a dedicated receptionist service like Moneypenny’s, you can enjoy all the benefits of a single, dedicated receptionist answering your calls during the day. A small team of highly-trained receptionists, who specialise in answering calls in your industry, will answer your calls at all other times.
The fact that customers can get in touch with a real person, and not a bot or recorded message, around-the-clock, can make their custom feel valued, as well as making them feel more important and cared for.
One great advantage of having a 24-7 call handling service is that you can switch off mentally – and switch off your phone physically at the end of the working day. With no need to constantly listen out for your phone, you can relax and completely immerse yourself in whatever you are doing.
Hiring a 24-7 call handling service can be a great and practical way to immediately create a more beneficial and sustainable work/life balance.
Somewhat surprisingly, a call handling service can completely change the structure and efficiency of your working day.
Financial analysis and consultancy firm Oxford Economics carried out a study whereby they surveyed over 1,200 workers. The workers were from various industries, and they were each asked what was important for a healthy working environment.
“The ability to focus and work without interruptions” was chosen as the most important by 29% of respondents.
This desire to minimise interruptions makes sense from various perspectives, especially in light of research that suggests it takes on average 23 minutes to return to a task again after a single interruption. Research leader, Gloria Mark, told Fast Company:
“You have to completely shift your thinking, it takes you a while to get into it, and it takes you a while to get back and remember where you were. We found about 82 percent of all interrupted work is resumed on the same day. But here’s the bad news — it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”
This surprising statistic may explain why so many people have found remote working more productive than working in the office.
If you are a business owner, count the number of unnecessary and unwanted phone calls you deal with each week, then multiply that number by 23 to calculate how much time a call handling service could have saved you! A call handling service can also help you to ‘get in the zone’ or flow state. The fact that you can focus on the work at hand without having to worry about missing a call means that it will be much easier for you to concentrate and be present with whatever it is you are doing.
If time is money, then a call handling service that enhances productivity can be a wise investment.
Working remotely has many benefits. It’s possible that remote and virtual teams can be just as successful as in-house teams. Remote teams save time on commuting, dealing with interruptions, and other ad hoc inefficiencies.
If you run a ‘distributed company,’ you can hire the best and the brightest employees and freelancers from across the world.
Whilst working from home has been accepted as something necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic, it can still be seen as more professional to have a receptionist answer your calls. What’s more, if you try and answer your calls at home, there’s always a chance that a noisy neighbour might be mowing their lawn or their dog might be barking. With a call handling service from an award-winning company like Moneypenny, you won’t have that problem. You will enjoy the benefits of a dedicated receptionist who will wow your callers, regardless of whether or not you’re working from the office, from home, or the beach!
Although auto-receptionists and even artificial intelligence can deal with call handling to a certain extent, they aren’t human. This means that your callers don’t feel as valued or looked after.
A live phone answering service from a provider such as Moneypenny gives you a dedicated receptionist who is hand-picked to manage your calls.
Your Moneypenny Receptionist is chosen to make sure they are someone who you would hire yourself if they were to walk through your office door. We understand how precious your business is, and therefore it is vital that we hire the best receptionists possible and train them to the highest standards. We then match them precisely to each call handling customer based on their experience and expertise.
Once your Moneypenny Receptionist has been matched to your business, you can get to know each other during an introductory Welcome Call. This is your chance to tell your receptionist how you’d like your calls answered and to introduce some fundamentals about the company that you run.
You can keep in touch with your Moneypenny Receptionist by chatting on the phone, via email, or with the Moneypenny app or online portal.
The Moneypenny apps can be found in both the Apple App Store and Google Play for Android phones. The portal is easy to access; log in via moneypenny.co.uk.
You can use the app to send and receive messages between you and your Moneypenny Receptionist and Account Manager. You’re also able to update how you want calls to be handled and routed. Use it to update your status in terms of whether or not you want calls to be routed through to you, and if you only want to take calls in the office, your Moneypenny Receptionist can see your whereabouts thanks to the app’s helpful GPS technology.
12 Feb 2024
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