Answering services provide a valuable service to many different professions. Medical clinics, doctors’ offices and physician’s practices have discovered how many ways an answering service can benefit them and their patients. Property managers, leasing agencies and apartment companies have also come to see how answering services can benefit their businesses and improve their overall effectiveness to increase tenant satisfaction. When it comes to an answering service there are a few different options available for businesses and medical professionals to use.
Live Operator Answering Service
A live operator answering service provides a human being to answer the phone during after-hours. These people are not trained to answer any exact questions about the businesses they are answering the phone for. They are merely a human voice that can then relay a message to who the person calling is trying to reach. Using a live operator system is often very expensive because there is a lot of overhead. The people answering the phones are either paid on a per call or per hour basis. The per hour base rate of pay has to be at least minimum wage for a job that essentially entails something that a basic answering machine could do. If the answering service operates on a per call basis there is no way to determine how many calls they will receive which makes budgeting difficult. The pay per call services can also artificially inflate their numbers with wrong calls, hang up and other shady practices to increase the amount of money they get paid each month.
Automated Flat Rate Answering Service
If the above scenario sounded rather dismal don’t despair. There is a better answering service option available. Many doctors’ offices and leasing agencies have discovered how much more cost effective and efficient it is to use automated answering services. With an automated answering service there is never a question as to how much money the service will cost from one month to the next because it operates on a fixed amount. This allows for easier budgeting and more effective cost operating plans. Businesses pay the same amount each month whether they get 50 calls or 500. There are no per message fees and no hidden charges. Not only does this option make a lot more sense but automated answering services are also more effective at relaying important messages to their recipient in a timely and effective manner which is better for the everyone involved.
