Answering Service

Welcome to our Answering Service mini website. Here we provide a directory for the United States which consists of a list of companies which offer answering service. We also provide some information about the various types of answering services available, a listing of links to current articles about phone systems for business, and finally, a chat room for anyone who has an interest in answering services and related topics. If you are seeking an answering service for your company, then this site should be helpful.

In an effort to meet the information gathering needs of the small business owner, here you also find a Small Business Book Store. Our book store consists of books which are interesting to the small business owner. While the main purpose of this site is to provide information about one aspect of customer service, our book store broadens the scope of available information for the small business owner.

Today there are different types of answering services available. The following is a breakdown of what is available today:

Outsourced telephones/fax services - Answering Services
This answering service is primarily for taking calls and setting up appointments. This type of answering service works well for the freelancer and the self-employed, and works well for companies which have one or a few employees. This is a live answering service.

Call centers - Answering Services
These are usually set up as toll-free numbers and are used by large companies which receive hundreds of phone calls daily. This is a live answering service. Most of these operate 24 hours a day.

Automated - Answering Services
This group consists of all answering services which do not have an actual person receiving the call. This is the type of automated service that provides the caller with many options. We also place feature rich voice mail within this group. Automated systems are usually run by software. Many customers believe that this type of answering service is inhuman, as shown by our videos below. This type of answering service may or may not work for you, and whether you use this or not depends on your type of business.

Answering Service - Do You Need One

Why would you want an answering service for your company? Let’s examine this question.

Today, your customers expect to receive information about your product during most times of the day. But what if you are a small business and you are not ready to add a receptionist to your payroll. Or, what if you are a large business and you need to cut costs. Setting up an answering service with one of the many companies which specialize in this service would solve the problem for both of these two scenarios.

Customers know that given today’s current communication technology, information about your product should be readily available. If that information is not available when they need it, those potential customers will simply go to your competition for product information.

Even if you have a receptionist, what about those calls that come in after normal business hours. Can you really afford to lose customers because no one was available to answer their questions. Once again, an answering service could solve this problem.

Many managers in the past have been hesitant about setting up an answering service, mainly because there is a false belief that the customer knows they are talking to an answering service and many customers are turned off by this. But today, answering services can work seamlessly where the customer actually thinks they are communicating with the company of interest.

Some answering services can work 24 hours a day, and there is a very large variety of plans available in order to meet your companies needs. Live answering services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or you can set up an after hour only service, or just simply a service which handles the overflow of calls during normal business hours.

Some answering services operate as call centers, and they use highly trained personal who speak to your customers in a courteous and professional manner. The best call center type answering service will go the extra mile to impress the potential or ongoing customers for your business, leaving a positive opinion about your company.

So we know the benefits of an answering service. What about the costs? There is a wide price range depending on the type of service you need. Our research has shown a price range from $25 to $300 per month. This price range is based on an allotment of 500 calls per month. In any case, the cost would be a fraction of the cost of a receptionist and again, the answering service can be available 24 hours a day.

Because there is many companies which offer answering service, they are quite competitive in terms of pricing. The prudent manager will not only look at pricing, but also look at what features are available.

If a live answering service does not meet your need, many of the same answering service companies also offer voice mail type of automated system. Voice mail can be considered a viable alternative to a live answering service. Many people think that voice mail is just a fancy answering machine. But voice mail does so much more.

When an employee is not available to take a call, many companies have provided an automated voice mail system to take the call in the absence of an employee to answer the phone. This way the customer is attended to promptly.

Voice mail benefits not only potential or ongoing customers, but also the employees of that company. Employees benefit because this allows them to be away from their desk and yet still have any potential or ongoing customer attended to.

Lets look at some of the features of voice mail:

• Many customers can be calling into a voice mail system at the same time.
• Incoming messages can be stored in personal mailboxes.
• Store messages just like an answering machine, but with much greater storage capacity.
• Transfer a caller to customer assistance.
• Play a wide array of messages to different types of callers.

These are just some of the many features of voice mail. One of the problems with voice mail is that many employees use it to avoid customer calls and this can be harmful to the business. Also, many customers feel that voice mail is impersonal. If you believe this is an issue, then you are better off using a live answering service for your company.

Whether you select voice mail, a non-voice mail automated system, or live answering service really depends on the type of business you have. If your business needs that personal touch, then live answering service would be better. The following is a directory of companies that offer answering service across the United States. Each state listed links to a list of cities for that state. This information is provided by Answering Service Finder.com.

Answering Service - Directory

Nationwide Outside US Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Washington D.C. Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana

Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada

New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming

Answering Service - Conclusion

In the world today, there are a very large number of options for person to person communication. Many businesses provide some sort of communication interface between the customer and the company. An automated system is one form of this type of communication and this serves many companies well. But if you are a company which needs to provide a more personal touch to this interface, a live answering service would probably work out better for you.

A company that is to small for a receptionist, or a large company which is trying to reduce costs, would benefit from using most types of answering service. Also, any company which has a large over flow of calls during normal business hours, would benefit from an answering service. In any case, the money spent for an answering service would be a fraction of the revenue influx from new customers whose initial contact was with your answering service.