Compare The Cost oF Answering Service Solutions

Reduce Business Debt by $11,616/Year With Answering Services–Here’s How

If you don’t have walk-in customers to your business you can reduce your yearly debt by at least $16,776 and have calls answered live 24/7 and it’s less complicated than you’re thinking. If you’re like most people that see pitches like this you immediately recall expressions like “you get what you pay for” and “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is” and while you’re justified in that kind of thinking, sometimes when we examine the facts more closely we can clearly understand how some offers can really live up to their astounding claims.  Here’s how.

Many business owners that have no walk in customers actually employ a full-time receptionist whose only responsibility is to answer phone calls, take messages, and in some cases schedule an appointment or patch important calls to the business owner. What they fail to realize is they can get a lot more receptionist service for a lot less investment. Let’s begin by taking a look at the basic expenses of an employee and comparing them to an answering service fee.

$1,398/Month For a Receptionist vs $430 For an Answering Service

Depending on where your business is located a receptionist can cost as little as $8/hour to as much as $12/hour, but for the sake of the argument let’s just assume you can hire one for $9 per hour. Simple math reveals a monthly payroll of $1,398. Although usually billed by the minute, an answering service is typically priced at about $1 per call. With that said, let’s assume a business had a fairly high call volume of 430 a month, in which case they would invest about $430 to have their calls fielded by a professional call center. Right off the bat the savings are a whopping $968 a month ($11,616/year).

Answering Service Quotes

What Can an Answering Service Offer That an Employee Cant?

No Payroll Taxes: When you consider the cost to match FICA and other related taxes you immediately see a savings of 11% on payroll taxes.

No Holiday Pay: Your employee not only gets paid for the holiday but they don’t work either. Your answering service never closes and takes calls on holidays, nights, and weekends, and usually with no additional fees.

No Sick Pay: Like the holiday pay your service never takes a sick day and therefore you don’t pay for unused labor.

Never Takes Time Off: And this is literal. A full-time employee that misses no time will answer your phone 172 hours a month but the answering service answers phones 24 hours a day 7 days a week for a total of 720 hours which ensures your calls are answered for an additional 548 hours!

No Health Insurance Cost: A phone answering service removes the need to purchase employee health insurance, and other benefits like dental, vision, 401K, etc. Oh yea, no coffee breaks, smoke breaks, restroom, or personal calls.

Compare The Break Down

172 # of Hours Employee Answers Your Calls Per Month

720 # of Hours an Answering Service Answers Your Calls Per Month

540 # of Hours You Gained From Full Time Coverage

 

14 # of Holidays/Sick Day Employee Takes Per Year

00 # of Holidays/Sick Day Answering Service Takes Per Year

 

$16,776 Annual Payroll For Employee (plus taxes and benefits)

$5,160 Annual Cost For 24/7 Service (NO taxes – NO benefits)

$11,616 Annual Saving When Replacing an Employee With an Answering Service

Can an Answering Service Perform The Same Duties as an Onsite Employee?

While the savings are substantial and the amount of labor you get can dominate that of an in-house employee the question still remains can a remote call center receptionist perform the same responsibilities as an in-house employee could? Obviously, if you need someone to file papers, run errands, or physically greet people that visit your office then outsourcing may not be your best option, however, aside from that you might be very surprised to learn what a remote answering service is capable of doing these days, for example:

Answer Call Just Like an Employee: Using sophisticated software your call center can easily identify your callers and will always answer in your business name as your personal receptionist. Unlike the old days when service literally answered as “answering service” today’s technology allows for a totally customizable and personalized experience. In most cases, you totally determine the entire scripting and flow of calls from any scenario.

Appointment Scheduling: Be it scheduling a plumbing contractor to fix a plumbing problem or setting an appointment for an attorney or a real estate agent you’ll never miss a sales opportunity because your agent can set appointments with online software that is customized to your time table.

Patch/Transfer Calls: Some calls you want and some you don’t. Simply identify the types of calls you deem important (like new customers or big clients) and instead of taking a message, the agent will contact you directly to see if you’re available to take the call. Different types of calls can be patched to different employees at different days and times of the week.

Order Taking: From taking inbound sales orders to processing credit cards by phone many call centers are fully equipped to integrate with your website or shopping carts to help your customers finalize their purchase. Agents can answer questions about products, handle fundraisers – donations,  and much more.

Reservations: Need hotel rooms booked? Restaurant reservations? Need an RSVP solution for special events? No problem with most call center service providers that have access to the latest software making it easier than ever to help with your reservations and event planning.

How Do I Know an Answering Service is Right For Me?

Before committing to an answering service there are a few things you really need to know, beginning with the fact that the majority of companies only require month-to-month contracts, and should you be dissatisfied require no fees to cancel an agreement. Additionally, it is very common for most answering service providers to offer free trials lasting 7-14 days allowing you ample time to determine the value and experience the benefits before entering into a relationship.

Over 1 million US-based businesses use an answering service as part of their daily business operations and to discover if it is a good fit for your business you can request free quotes with no obligation and discuss options for trying various services to discover for yourself all of the benefits from this affordable solution.

Answering Service Quotes

Author: Michael C

Michael has over 30 years of executive call center and answering service experience. He is a successful business owner and lead generation expert and shares tips to help other entrepreneurs build and grow their business through leads generation and lead capture solutions. His mission is to share carefully guarded marketing tips that will help small-medium business compete on a smaller budget.

Leave a Reply