There are many ways in which an executive answering service can help, even transform your business, for the better. By outsourcing your telephone answering to a high quality, award-winning service provider such as Moneypenny, you can create a great first impression and never have to worry about missing a business call again.
Not only can this benefit your business and your revenue, but it can also help develop your brand. Focusing on the work at hand and not listening out for your phone can help to prevent burnout, which is all too common amongst busy entrepreneurs and CEOs. Distractions such as unwanted phone calls can also increase anxiety and error rates.
This article will examine how an executive answering service can reduce interruptions and streamline your work for a more efficient and effective daily routine.
Our research concluded that a shocking one out of every three business calls goes unanswered. For the average business, this could amount to a considerable volume of lost revenue, especially when you consider that the vast majority of people will not leave a voicemail message and will go on to call a direct competitor.
What’s more, if you are spending money on building your brand, marketing offline and online, then you are wasting a significant proportion of time and money by missing calls. Sales calls are the lifeblood of many businesses and are the most qualified of all leads sources. If someone is taking the time and effort to call your business rather than email or submit a form, then chances are they are ready to buy or sign up.
With this in mind, it can also be stressful attempting to wear different hats during the day. It can be challenging to focus and be mindful of the work that you are doing if you have to listen out for your phone and become a receptionist as soon as it rings.
We all know how important first impressions are; this is especially true when it comes to business. If you fail to make a good first impression, chances are you won’t get a chance to make a second. With Moneypenny’s dedicated receptionist service, you can enjoy the benefits of a full-time receptionist at a fraction of the monthly cost. Your receptionist will get to know your business just like an in-house employee and will handle some or all of your calls in a manner that will provide an excellent experience for the caller.
With an executive answering service, you can also create the impression of size. Even if you work from your spare room, having a professional and polite, UK-based receptionist answer your calls can make a great impression. If you work from home and answer a sales enquiry whilst next door’s dog is barking, or your neighbour is mowing the lawn, then the first impression can be quite different.
Research from the University of California concluded that it takes, on average, 23 minutes to get back to the task at hand following a short interruption. Another study published in 2006 looked at the impact interruptions and distractions had on “task completion time, error rate, annoyance, and anxiety”.
The results showed that an interruption caused the completion time to increase from 3% to 27%, the number of errors made doubled, and levels of annoyance and anxiety increased significantly.
Distractions are a major bottleneck and burden when it comes to productivity and getting the core of your work completed each day. For every unwanted phone call you receive per day, in theory, you could add up the total time of all phone calls in minutes and then multiply the number of phone calls by 23 minutes to establish how much time each day you lose.
The ultimate psychological state to enter into when working is “flow state”. Also known by terms such as “being in the zone”, the term “flow state” was coined in 1975 for Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and is characterised by the ego falling away and time perceived as moving faster than expected. This state can only be entered into with complete immersion on the task at hand. Despite what people might claim, it can be tough to multi-task and produce the same standard of work and output level. As a business owner who is responsible for answering and nurturing phone enquiries into sales, it can be virtually impossible to give your full attention to the work at hand.
When you use a trusted executive answering service, you can focus on the core of your work, giving it your full attention. You’ll have the peace of mind that comes with knowing your calls will be handled professionally by a highly trained, UK-based receptionist.
One of the factors that can determine whether or not a business is successful are the monthly overheads.
Whilst many entrepreneurs have embraced the ability to work remotely, a full-time receptionist can make all the difference when it comes to customer service and building a professional brand. Whilst a remote full-time employee is a great way to reduce office and hardware overheads, you can streamline this even further with an executive answering service.
With Moneypenny’s answering service, you can enjoy all the benefits of an in-house receptionist for a fraction of the monthly cost. Our dedicated receptionist service has won several awards and comes highly recommended – just see our case studies and TrustPilot reviews.
Unlike a new employee, with an executive answering service there is no need to train your receptionist or spend money on recruiting one – and there’s no need to sign up for any pension plan or dental programme either. There are no permanent or lengthy contracts Moneypenny’s answering service. After the free trial, the minimum commitment period is three months, and after that, we require just one month’s notice to close your account – from the date of your next invoice. This flexibility can make a massive difference if your business is seasonal or you just want to mitigate financial risk.
An executive answering service is ideal for those entrepreneurs and business owners who have successfully transitioned over to a remote working operation. If you are more productive working from home and enjoy the freedom that comes with remote working, but need to maintain a particular image that comes with a traditional brick-and-mortar presence, an executive answering service may be the answer.
By providing a dedicated receptionist who will wow your callers, you can maintain or enhance a potential customer’s perception of your company, regardless of where you are based.
Outsourcing, in general, can be a great way to grow your business without dealing with the hiring, training, and administrative work that comes with taking on full-time employees.
As mentioned previously, you can also pay freelancers per project rather than per hour. In regards to an executive answering service, with Moneypenny there are no lengthy contracts, so can be used as and when needed.
Rather than training a new receptionist, with Moneypenny you ‘meet’ your receptionist on your Welcome Call. We choose the right receptionist for your business, and the Welcome Call is the chance for them to learn all about how you like to work and how you would like your calls to be answered. You can then use the Moneypenny app to divert all calls to your receptionist or just at specific times of the day or when you are busy.
Offering around-the-clock customer support or availability can prove to be a substantial competitive advantage.
With a large percentage of the UK workforce working shifts outside of the regular office hours of 9 to 5, offering a 24/7 contact telephone number can provide a customer service level that may well set you apart from your competitors. Even those working regular office hours will often prefer to contact businesses outside of these hours.
In the age of the internet, varying consumer demands and out of hours customers, an executive answering service can provide higher levels of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It can ultimately start the generation of more leads and sales.
With Moneypenny, you can choose from a range of local and freephone telephone numbers. This type of vanity phone number can make a massive difference to the way your business is perceived. A mobile phone number on a website or business card can look somewhat unprofessional compared to a freephone number, for example.
Moneypenny offers the choice of thousands of different telephone numbers, so you can choose a memorable or suitable one for your business and stand out from the crowd.
If you are still not 100% convinced of the benefits of an executive answering service, then why not sign up for a free 7-day trial and experience the service for yourself?
Click here to find out more about our award-winning answering service.
12 Feb 2024
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