It takes money to make money, right? Isn’t that the old saying? The trick, though, is striking the perfect balance so that after all of the bills are paid – you still come out a bit ahead at the end of the month.
One of the most frequent questions we hear is how business owners can reduce their monthly answering service bill.
We’ve been around the block a few times. In fact, Focus was instrumental in writing the book on answering service protocols. And, as such, over the last few decades we’ve figured out a few ways to nip here, and tuck there, and adjust overall in order to keep invoices at a decent level for our customers.
Here are just three things you should keep in mind if you are hoping to reduce your monthly answering service bill:
1. Have pen and paper handy: It may sound ridiculously simple, and it is. When contacting your answering service for business-related messages, be sure to have your notetaking tools at the ready and write everything down as it is relayed to you. Believe it or not, this can save a tremendous amount of time (and, subsequently, money) as it cuts down on repeated “clarification” calls.
2. Opt for text and email: One quick fix to reduce your monthly answering service bill is to switch to a text messaging plan. Ask your answering service to relay urgent messages to your on-call personnel and other contacts digitally. This reduces man hours and minutes that would otherwise be spent when contacting the service via phone. It can also help to improve your response time, while mitigating errors.
3. Update everything: Even the smallest mistake or miscommunication tacks dollar signs onto your monthly answering service invoice. Consider this: if your answering service’s agent attempting to phone an on-call tech, and it turns out the tech in question hasn’t worked for your company for the last three years – then all of the time spent on apologies to the wrong number, updating the contact list, and reaching out to the correct on-call tacks needless dollar signs on to your invoice. The solution? Simple. Keep things current and keep your answering service in the loop. And keep the following in mind:
• Dismissals
• Deaths
• Turnover
• New and/or alternate phone numbers
The bottom line? The more time you can save your answering service as they work for your benefit, the more you can reduce your monthly answering service bill.
Focus Answering Service offers cost-effective solutions for multiple industries, from property management to medical practices. Our agents are skilled, knowledgeable, and compassionate, and can help you eliminate redundancy, while improving efficiency in the workspace. Call us to find out how we can help you keep costs in check. And download our free e-book today for additional money-saving, efficiency boosting tips for your business (and ours!)