First impressions count, and they are crucial when it comes to your business and building your brand. Hiring an award-winning answering service provider such as Moneypenny can give your business a real competitive edge. With a hand-picked, dedicated receptionist handling your calls during regular office hours and a small team of highly-skilled receptionists taking care of all your calls outside of regular working hours, you can gain a significant advantage over competitors.
An inbound answering service has many benefits for your business. An answering service can also dramatically increase your productivity and enhance feelings of wellbeing. In this blog post, we will look at the many advantages of hiring an inbound answering service. We will also examine the scientific research that demonstrates how an answering service can improve your focus or reduce stress levels.
With an answering service such as Moneypenny’s, you get to choose a local or toll-free telephone number. Even if your only phone is your mobile, you can change how your company is perceived by combining a professional telephone number with a dedicated receptionist. This combination is excellent for your company’s brand and is likely to result in more enquiries and sales leads around-the-clock. It is an excellent way for your business to stand out from the competition.
Our data suggests that 1 in 3 business calls go unanswered. With so much time, effort, and money spent on building a company’s reputation and generating new sales leads, it’s rare that a business can afford to miss out on so many potential leads and customers.
With an inbound answering service, you can be sure that none of your business calls will go unanswered. This will ensure that all of your marketing campaigns and word-of-mouth referrals never go wasted.
While phone calls are essential for virtually every business, efficient time management is too. While intentional breaks help productivity, interruptions certainly do not.
In recent years, there have been several studies carried out that have all concluded the same thing – that interruptions destroy productivity.
One study conducted at the University of California, Irvine concluded that:
“It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to a task”, following a single interruption.
So, each time you are interrupted, add the time of the interruption itself to 23 minutes, and that’s how long you’ve been knocked off track!
Interruptions also increase our error rates, increase anxiety levels, and lower the quantity and quality of written work. You can read more about the negative impact of interruptions at sciencedirect.com.
With an answering service, it is much easier to focus on the work at hand. You will no longer have to listen out for your phone, and you will not get distracted by any unwanted spam or sales calls. With the Moneypenny app, you can even update your status so that you only get interrupted in case of an emergency, helping you to keep focused when you need to be.
Burnout is a significant issue across the developed world. In Japan, burnout is such an issue that it’s even been given its own term – “karoshi”, which is translated as meaning “overwork death.”
One significant issue for many business owners is the inability to switch off from work mentally and rejuvenate oneself.
With an inbound answering service, you can literally switch off and fully immerse yourself in whatever you are doing. Be it spending time in nature, with the family, or watching your favourite TV programme; you won’t have to worry about listening out for your phone all of the time.
What’s more, the reduced number of interruptions from unwanted calls during the day will mean that you get more done in less time and feel lower levels of stress and anxiety. A study conducted at the University of Illinois, for example, concluded that:
“When peripheral tasks interrupt the execution of primary tasks, users require from 3% to 27% more time to complete the tasks, commit twice the number of errors across tasks, experience from 31% to 106% more annoyance, and experience twice the increase in anxiety….”
The great thing about an inbound answering service is that although you get many of the same benefits of a full-time in-house receptionist, it costs significantly less. Not only can you enjoy all the advantages of a full-time hire for a fraction of the cost, but you also don’t have to spend time recruiting and training a new member of your team. In addition, you don’t need to worry about employment laws, legal paperwork, and employee contacts and benefits.
Once you sign up for Moneypenny’s answering service, you will be introduced to your dedicated Moneypenny Receptionist on a Welcome Call. This is an opportunity for your receptionist to get to know more about your business and how you would like your calls handled.
You can keep in touch with your receptionist on the phone, via email, the online portal, or using the Moneypenny app. The app is available for both Android and Apple mobile phones.
With the app, you can send and receive messages to your receptionist and Account Manager. You can update how you want your calls handled and where you want callers to be sent to. The app also has a GPS feature that updates your receptionist as to where you are. The GPS can be used to update your receptionist if, for example, you only want to take calls when you are in a designated location, such as your office or home.
In the Moneypenny online portal, you have access to a history of all your calls and messages. You also get graphical reports related to your call statistics which can help you identify your busiest days and times of day in terms of inbound calls.
With a 24/7 inbound answering service, your customers and prospective customers can contact you around-the-clock.
People rarely leave a voicemail when trying to contact a business and are likely to go straight on to call a direct competitor.
With the number of people working shifts increasing in recent years, providing a 24/7 point of contact can provide a valuable competitive advantage. What’s more, many people find it much easier to call in the evenings, after they have finished work, for example, or have just put their children to bed. Having a highly-trained and professional receptionist available to answer your calls can make customers feel valued and appreciated. Combined with 24-hour managed live chat on your business’ website, you can target and appeal to and attract specific target audiences, such as working parents, much more effectively. You can essentially grow your business while you sleep.
With Moneypenny, you can try out and enjoy the benefits of an inbound answering service for free with our seven-day free trial. With no payment information required and no obligation to sign up, you can experience the service risk-free.
With Moneypenny, there are no lengthy contracts. After the free trial, there is a minimum contract of three months for a small business client. If you want to cancel, you can do so at any time – we require one month’s notice to close your account from the date of your next invoice.
With excellent reviews on Trustpilot and Google, why not give our answering service a try?
Click here to learn more and to start your free trial.
12 Feb 2024
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