Telephone is a word that fewer and fewer people use these days. It is far more common, in fact, to hear cell phone or cellular device. Although individual users are definitely gravitating toward cell phones rather than landline telephones, and entire industry still remains dedicated to the answering service telephone needs of companies both large and small.
Answering service telephone needs, in fact, continue to grow even as companies move toward increasingly digital platforms. For while many needs can be met online, when a customer needs assistance, they often do not have the patience to navigate a website or a series of robotic prompts to ask their question. When they have a question, customers often want an immediate answer from a qualified source. As a result, many companies are contracting with answering service telephone representatives to handle their customers’ comments, concerns, questions, and complaints. A real voice responding is, in fact, one of the greatest services a company can offer its customers and clients. Versed in the typical problems that a customer may have, answering service telephone representatives can often field many questions. If they cannot, however, they can connect a customer to another source who can.
Is Your Business Losing Customers Who Have to Navigate Their Way through Complicated Automated Phone Response Systems?
Whether your business is looking for an after hours answering service or a live phone answering service for its daytime calls, contracting with an outside provider is often the best solution. Instead of paying someone onsite to handle the phones calls that are difficult to predict, doesn’t it make more sense to pay a provider to field these calls? Well versed in the kinds of questions that your customers may have, a business telephone answering service can provide a human touch to your customers in an efficient and cost effective way.
Providing a personalized touch in an otherwise digital world can help set your company apart in its customer care. A friendly voice with knowledgable answers encourages customers to return to your business time and time again. did you know, for instance, that as many as 59% of Americans indicate that they will try a different brand or company just to look for a better customer service experience. In fact, competent customer service is becoming so rare these days that when a manager or phone representative provides an exceptional experience, these encounters often go viral on social media sites. Likewise, news of poor customer service can spread quickly as well.
The risks of poor customer service are significant. Consider the following facts:

• 78% of Americans indicated that they have not followed through on an intended purchase because of a bad customer service experience
• 45% of Americans indicate they will abandon an online purchase if their questions and concerns are not quickly addressed.
• 61% of Americans indicate that they want to receive their customer service over the phone.
• 55% of Americans indicate that they would even pay more for better customer service experiences.
• 81% of Americans indicate that they will return to purchase from a business after a customer service experience that is positive.
• 27% of America’s email customer service inquiries are answered correctly in order to resolve the customer’s problem.

The fact that only a little more than one in every four customer service inquiries are resolved is an indication of the state of today’s customer service platform. It is no wonder that the internet is full of company shaming about employees’ poor treatment of customers. Unfortunately, the remaining three of every four dissatisfied customers tend to be pretty vocal about these negative experiences. In fact, consumers indicate that they are two times more likely to share a bad customer service experience with family and friends than they are to share a good customer service experience.
What happens when one of your business’ customers has a question or a complaint. To they search your website to no avail looking for a phone number to contact? Or, do they easily find a number to contact a live person who can efficiently and intelligently respond? Even a 5% increase in customer retention, which is often a result of good customer service, can lead to an estimated 125% increase in future company profits.