Telephone Answering Services in Charleston
There’s no such thing as an uncomplicated workweek when you run a small business. Small tasks are constantly demanding your attention, making it hard to focus on truly important work. One of the worst culprits is phone management. Untimely calls interrupt your workflow. Spam callers take time away from priority tasks. Potential leads go silent instead of leaving you a voicemail. These are just some of the reasons why Charleston has seen a surge in demand for telephone answering services.
Live answering services, like those provided by Office Evolution® Charleston, are ideally suited to phone telephone reception for small businesses and independent professionals. Business owners reclaim crucial work hours by having all of their calls screened in advance. Meanwhile, their customers speak with live receptionists instead of automated systems, which tend to perform poorly on customer satisfaction surveys.
Telephone Answering Services vs. Virtual Receptionists
Live receptionists set telephone answering services apart from virtual receptionists, another popular option for small businesses in Charleston. Virtual reception services rely on automated systems instead of live agents to answer customers’ phone calls, which can make them a less expensive option. But recent data shows that these systems do a poor job of keeping customers satisfied.
Below, we’ve collected seven stats that small business owners in Charleston should know about telephone answering services, including how they stack up against virtual receptionists.
- Clients Don’t Want to Hear Your Voicemail. Your phone rings. You let it go to voicemail. No big deal, right? Wrong. According to data from Telecompaper, 69% of callers will hang up instead of leaving a message.
- Nobody Wants to Spend Time on Hold. Today’s consumers are less patient than previous generations. Research by software firm Velaro has found that 60% of modern consumers consider it offensive to be left on hold for even a minute.
- Automated Wait Times Are Longer. Some virtual reception services claim to reduce wait times. But researchers have found that average wait times are more than twice as long on automated systems compared to systems that use live agents.
- Nearly All of Your Clients Prefer Live Answering. Almost nobody wants to hear a robot on the other end of the line when they call a business. In a survey conducted by HuffPost, only 3% of respondents preferred virtual receptionists. A full 90% said they preferred live agents.
- Half of Your Clients Expect a Real Person to Answer. According to research by AchieveGlobal, nearly half of all consumers — 47% — say that any time they call a business and don’t hear from a real person, they consider that a negative customer experience.
- Virtual Receptionists Leave Customers Unsatisfied. When HuffPost asked consumers to rate their experience with virtual receptionists, most respondents gave automated systems a failing grade. Only 10% said that their experience had been positive.
- Spam Calls Do Serious Damage to Small Businesses. Spam calls are more than just a nuisance for small businesses. According to ZDNet, spam calls end up costing American small businesses around $500 million in lost productivity every year.
Live Telephone Reception in Charleston, SC
If you run a small business or work as an independent professional in Charleston, you don’t need to look far for the perfect telephone answering service. Live reception services from Office Evolution Charleston can help you get more done — adding two hours to the average client’s workweek — and improve your customer service track record. We offer a range of live answering plans, perfect for small businesses in Charleston, North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, James Island, West Ashley, and Isle of Palms.
Learn more about our telephone answering services in Charleston, SC, by calling 843-203-9048 today!