The Pros And Cons Of Using An Answering Service

As with most things in life, answering services have their advantages and disadvantages. For some independent contractors who are one-man bands, they are live savers, to others they can be your worst enemies. Read the pros and cons of having an answering service and decide for yourself.

Pros

· No need to employ additional people to man telephones, this is especially important if you are running a small start up company or a large operation that needs twenty-four hour customer service availability. This can result in massive savings as salaries and benefits are not necessary.
· No more missed calls /lost clients; losing potential clients can be a hard blow especially for small operations.
· Urgent calls are handled until you are able to deal with them from a company level. Also, you can screen calls when on holiday, and if you are an independent contractor, take messages only from those clients you want to
· Many answering services are located off-shore or in Third World countries leading to reduced cost to the business.

Cons

· Less control over people answering calls on behalf of your business; some services may be staffed by people who are unmotivated or dislike what they do. This can reflect negatively on your business.
· Accents / language barriers can pose communication problems; this is especially true for call centers which are located overseas or in another state where there are major differences in pronunciation
· Some persons are reluctant to leave voice messages, so automated systems may not work in some instances.
· Confidentiality issues are also important as persons beyond your realm of control may have access to sensitive telephone messages
· Automated systems tend to be full after a while, and unable to take any more messages.