How Much Does it Cost For an After Hours Answering Service?

At Best Answering Service, we know a lot of customers depend on answering services when they call a business after hours, or during lunch breaks.

As customers, we depend on answering services. Because we know office staff will retrieve our message and call us back.

Finding out how much answering service cost is an important piece of information. We need the information when we decide which answering service is best for our business.

Because we use answering services ourselves when needed, we want one that is thorough and within our budget.

We also want professionalism and standards for our answering service policies. In general, we want the best answering service available at a reasonable price.

How Much Does an Answering Service Cost?

Statistics state the average business uses between 250-500 minutes of answering service minutes every month. The average rate is usually listed around .85 cents per minute if you are using a live person answering service company.

A 2017 report from Zendesk showed over the last five years, 41% of customers prefer live chat. 32% like to have a conversation on the phone about their issues. 23% would rather have corresponded via email and only 3% prefer a social media interaction.

How much does an answering service cost depends on what services you need? Some answering services only manage incoming customer service calls and return message notifications.

But some answering services will speak to you from a prepared script. These answering service companies use scripts to answer your questions or give information.

We want to provide you with information that you can use when deciding which answering service is best for you.

Cost of Answering Service

One of the first places you can start when determining the cost of an answering service is to compare it to hiring a receptionist.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, receptionists made an average of $14.01 per hour in 2018. There are limits to what a receptionist can do when answering your business calls. They are;

• Usually, only work 40 day time hours during the week.
• Training has to occur.
• They also get 1 to 2 week paid vacation weeks per year.
• Training provides tools in being pleasant but sometimes they have bad days and you can receive customer complaints.

In the short and long run, an answering service tends to save businesses money. They do this by;

• The answering service is available 7 days a week and 365 days a year.
• The answering service is in charge of training their own staff and you don’t need to worry about it.
• As a business, you also don’t need to worry about paying for your answering service company’s vacation or sick days.

Answering services are usually cost-effective and well within your company’s budget.

Answering Service Plans and Price Points

The cost of answering service can be diverse and varied. You must also take into account, how much your business may benefit by using an answering service. To do this you need to know how answering services work.

Here are some of the criteria broken down by your answering service needs. This is not all the criteria you may wish to provide in your answering service, but it is some very common ones. They are;

• Medical answering services are approximately .70 per call.
• Attorney office answering services charge approximately .69 per call.
• If you need a bilingual answering service the cost runs about .60 per call.
• If you need 24/7 answering service the cost runs about .70 per call.

The average cost of answering service is between .60 and 1.12 per call. This average depends on how detailed the call information needs to be for messaging.

Also, if you are a business that receives a lot of calls per month, the cost of answering service may be adjustable. Sometimes there is an extra fee or cost (i.e. $50 per month for over 50 calls).

The cost of the answering service is negotiable and flexible. No one knows how many business calls they will receive after hours and if the number goes up or down, there are cost remedies.

Business Answering Service Cost

When you start wondering if business answering service cost is something your company needs you should know a couple of things.

1. Approximately 72-80 percent of your callers hang up if their call isn’t answered by someone.
2. When hiring a business answering service company it’s best to see if they have scalable fees (i.e. can they grow if your business grows)?
3. If there is a natural disaster and your electricity goes out or your business floods, what happens? Does your answering service change your contract, if needed?
4. Do they have any reviews from past and current customers they will let you review? If not, that’s a red flag.

Every business wants to keep its budget in line while being more profitable. To achieve this goal, you need to invest in what you want customers and others to know about you.

If they think you don’t care enough to call them back or have someone speak to them if you aren’t available, will the customer stay with your business?

These are important questions to ask yourself when you are weighing the value of business answering service cost. Because some things when lost you can never regain.

Some of those things in a business are customer service and professionalism.

Answering Service Prices

Do you want to know what your next step is in finding an answering service and getting an answering service cost?

We have the answer for you. We have an online one-stop, one-form page for you to fill out. We do the rest. We will provide you with answering service options and costs.

You don’t need to wait for days to have someone let you know what answering service cost best fits your business needs.

You know your business best. You also know your business needs. We want to be the answering service that meets those needs.

We want to take one of the worries you shouldn’t have to think about by making sure you never miss another call.

We will provide the answering service that lets you concentrate on your business and not what phone call you missed. Contact us today for an answering service quote that meets your needs.