Billing Methods for an Answering Service: Flat or Flawed?

When making the decision to hire an answering service, for either your entire or partial call volume, there are a variety of factors to consider.  The budget may appear lacking when seeking outside help, but don’t let this be a detour. It’s all about opportunity costs here – where you choose to allocate your time and money.

It may be most appealing to choose an answering service who offers a low monthly flat rate rather than a seemingly higher adjustable rate. When doing so, you can certainly expect a consistent bill and the notion you’re saving money. But let’s not leave out the service level, which would result in poor service for both you and your callers.

Providers who offer these low flat rates do not allow themselves the resources to properly handle real-life call volume. It’s easy to list a consistent call volume on paper, but what happens when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday and your office is closed on Monday? Most people don’t think twice about a weekend holiday and inevitably call businesses like yours expecting assistance. Since you have an answering service, these callers should still be helped, at the same service level as a regular day, right? This outcome is not likely if you are paying a low flat rate.

For example, if you are paying an answering service the same amount of money, regardless of your call volume, why would they choose to incur more cost on additional staffing when it doesn’t matter how many calls get answered? Instead, staffing levels would remain the same, since that is what you are paying for. Your callers are likely going to receive poor service, due to the overwhelming stress on the operators, or they will hang up due to a long wait time. Not only do you lose that business, but you may also be harming your company’s good reputation.

The same principle applies to your growing business needs. Although you’re now getting more calls, this doesn’t mean you’re getting more operators to answer them.   It’s highly unlikely that any business is going to hire and pay additional staff to support your business when it’s going to hurt their own bottom line.  Plans to invest in marketing promotions, such as newspaper or television ads, are not an option. With the unpredictable spikes in call volume that marketing can create, there likely wouldn’t be the additional operators necessary to answer those calls, at least in a timely and friendly manner.

Ultimately, those running a business in such a manner are not focusing on how to best serve their clients. Employing the resources of an answering service should benefit your company’s goals for customer satisfaction, retention, and most of all. . .growth!  If you’d prefer your callers to have excellent customer service, and the flexibility with your call volume to help retain those potential customers that your marketing campaign brings in, all while remaining within a reasonable cost, then perhaps you should choose an answering service which offers an adjustable billing rate!

To learn more about answering services with an adjustable billing rate, stayed tuned for Billing Methods for an Answering Service installment 2 – Adjusting for a new Era.