Business calls made during office hours are typically managed by an in-house receptionist or office staff. Business phone etiquette dictates that office calls must be answered promptly and courteously and routed to the right personnel in a timely manner. Premier Telephone Answering Service provider TAB Answer Network notes however that office calls made during after-hours are often neglected and disregarded with businesses thinking that if the call is important, the caller will try again during office hours. This is a mistake that could prove costly for your business.
Voicemail for after-hours calls
The common solution that most businesses employ is to direct after-hours calls to voicemail and attend to important and urgent messages the following day. While this may be well and good, it’s not the most effective solution to after-hours calls because of the following reasons:
- Some customers and callers believe it will take time before their voicemail message will be attended to, usually taking several days to a week before they hear back from your office
- Some callers don’t appreciate being directed to voicemail as it makes them feel unimportant, particularly if the caller is a long-time patron of your brand
- Messages could indeed get neglected or overlooked as you and your staff will be busy with your respective tasks during the day
Telephone Answering Service for after-hours and weekend calls
On the other hand, if you have an outsourced live telephone answering service agent to take calls, you won’t have to deal with the issues mentioned above and you will be conveying the message to all your callers that their calls are important and that you value their business.
Here are some of the benefits of hiring a live phone answering service for your after-hours and weekend calls:
- A live, professionally trained agent will handle all calls, promptly answering these and politely interacting with the caller
- Frequent questions about your products and/or services will be answered immediately and accurately based on your instructions, which means the caller won’t have to wait for days for you to get back to them
- Urgent messages will immediately be dispatched to the right person, allowing for these to be promptly addressed, which helps put the caller’s mind at ease
As you can see, a live telephone answering service is the more effective solution to after-hours calls made to your office as real-time and personal interactions with callers convey the message that you value their time, effort, and inputs.
For questions or inquiries, feel free to call TAB Answer Network at (800) 880-4324. You may also leave a message here.