Some of the worst customer service experiences happen when the customer isn’t even inside the business. We’ve all been there — we call a business to ask a simple question or to get help and the phone rings, and rings, and rings…and rings. Maybe someone does finally answer the phone only to put you on hold and then proceed to bounce your call around to four different people, none of which have an answer for you. Or maybe there’s just an automated answering service with a really long and confusing automated menu. Any of these scenarios can be incredibly frustrating and also reflect badly on the business.

What you can do
There is something you can do to increase customer satisfaction when it comes to your call line. Hiring a professional answering service means that you don’t have to worry about the phone ringing off the hook or your customers getting upset because of it. More than half of people — 61% of them — prefer to get their customer service over the phone. Give the people what they want. A call handling service is also going to allow you to focus on essential operations at your business rather than being tied down by the phone.

How it’s going to help
A quality answering service is going to be able to handle the call volume and be able to assist people to help you avoid having displeased customers. Consumers are twice as likely to share a negative story about a business than they are to share a positive one. Additionally, more than 80% of people who have a positive experience at a business say that they return to businesses where they had a good customer service experience.

Since professional answering services offer different types of services, look for one that will suit your business. For example, if your business has few operating hours, you may want to find a company that offers an after hours answering service.

Do you have any phone related customer service horror stories? Tell us about them in the comments.