In an era where customers need support 24/7, business owners must ensure that they are available around the clock to take care of the customers’ needs. However, running a business requires a lot of hard work and commitment, which means you may not always be available on the phone when your customers come calling. This may in turn affect the growth and productivity of your business. Luckily, there are call service providers that can make things easier for busy entrepreneurs like you.
Our Best Call Center receptionists offer live answering services in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We give you a chance to connect your callers with our skilled virtual receptionists and beat your competitors in the customer service area.
An Outline for Minneapolis Answering Service
Receiving a voicemail is never the best response for anyone in need. When given such a response, most customers will get annoyed, hang up and look for help elsewhere. You may end up losing a lot of potential customers when your team is busy or after work hours when no one is available to answer the phone. Luckily, with the help of skilled virtual receptionists, you can be able to offer exceptional customer service experiences to your customers at any day or time.
Partnering with an answering service gives you the ability to support every caller 24/7. This helps you stay on top of the game and kick up your sales. Whether you run a small business or an established company, hiring professionally trained virtual receptionists is vital if you are looking to increase your sales and profit.
The Core Features of Our Minneapolis Answering Service
There are various reasons why many businesses from Minneapolis have partnered with Best Call Center. By choosing us, companies can enjoy the following services:
- After-hours services — Your business does not have to stop after closing your office doors. We offer 24/7 customer services like messaging responding to emergency and non-emergency calls.
- Telemarketing services — We make professional calls to your target audience to set appointments or make direct sales.
- Voicemail services — we give your callers the option to leave a voice message or press a certain digit if they wish to speak to a live agent.
- Industry-specific solution — Our virtual receptionists are professionally trained to answer different calls from every niche. Regardless of whether you have ventured into HVAC, real estate, or law, our virtual receptionists are trained to professionally answer each and every call.
- Taking online orders — we offer a live-voice virtual receptionist to enter items and information into your shopping cart and offer inbound support for all the online orders.
- 24hours reliability — With our virtual receptionists on board, you are guaranteed that your customers will get a professional customer service experience regardless of a blackout. We have generators and batteries as well as phone lines from various carriers.
- Bilingual services — There are many Spanish speakers in “The Land of 10,000 Lakes,” which means you will probably have incoming calls from Spanish customers. Having someone fluent in both written and spoken Spanish is a plus. Our virtual receptionists are fluent in Spanish, meaning that no information will be lost during translation, and it also cuts down the cost of a translator.
- Appointment scheduling — Having a clear outline of your schedules helps you avoid inconveniences and last-minute cancellations. Our virtual receptionists will help you schedule appointments and help you display your calendar online with your availability so that your customers can pick the most favorable day for them to schedule an appointment.
- Customer service — We offer different services related to customer care. For example, we take calls; online order taking, telemarketing, and many more.
- Nationwide call center — Our virtual receptionists offer national and professional call dispatches in a reliable way.
- Affordable pricing — We offer per minute rate packages that are affordable to everyone. You do not have to stress over replying to hundreds of emails and answering calls throughout the day.
Benefits of Partnering with a Call Center in Minneapolis
Hiring an answering service provider comes with a lot of advantages. For instance:
- Offers 24/7 live support — In-house receptionists can only work for a limited number of hours which means clients calling after office hours are likely to get no response. Office assistants may also be busy multitasking office duties, and missing all or two can be unavoidable. Hiring a virtual receptionist gives you the guarantee that your business will be in operation even on holidays and weekends and that not all will be missed.
- Improves lead nurturing — Capturing leads is critical if you want to grow your business. Every missed call could be a missed sale or business opportunity. You want to ensure that you get hold of every prospective client before they can seek services elsewhere. Bringing an answering service on board helps you take leads from anywhere at any time. If your sales team is large, calls can be forwarded to a member of your choice.
- Saves you money — Having an office receptionist is more costly than having a virtual receptionist. For example, let’s say you pay your in-house receptionist $20 per hour and they work for eight hours a day, which means they earn$160 a day and $3840 a month plus other benefits like insurance. On top of that, add other expenses like taxes, rent, human resources, management, and payroll. Since rent is not cheap in Minneapolis, you may end up spending so much and having little to no benefits left to enjoy. Maximize your benefits by hiring a professional answering service.
- Helps you improve productivity — Sometimes clients can call when you are busy attending to something or when at a meeting. Missing a call does no good to your business and a ringing phone can cause a lot of destruction. The best way to avoid these inconveniences is by partnering with an all-service provider.
- Build your brand — Our virtual assistants from Best all Center are well trained on how to answer every call professionally with personalized greetings of your choice. In other words, we act as the ambassadors of your brand and represent it well to the outside world.
- Give you the opportunity to focus on the growth of your company — As a business owner, there are better things that you can focus on to help grow your company rather than spend your whole time on-call and responding to emails. Leave all the communication to our virtual receptionist and focus on growing your company.
- Lessens abandonment rate and hold times — Every calling client must be in need of help and some may be urgent. Putting them on hold or keeping them in the line for long may lead to them seeking help elsewhere. Hiring a virtual receptionist will help you avoid missed calls and hold times.
- Helps you maintain voicemail and call records — Maintaining a list of every incoming call is important for every business owner. Maintaining these records gives you a chance to:
- Access transcriptions and voice recordings
- Create instructional voice recordings
- Go through the frequently asked questions
- Know the number of calls directed to the sales department
- Helps you get all your calls — Missing a business opportunity can be frustrating. As a business owner, it is important to ensure that you maximize every sale opportunity by partnering with a call center.
- Helps you save money for additional equipment — You do not need to buy any extra equipment when you partner with a call center unlike in conventional calling service.
Things to Consider When Choosing an Answering Service
The right answering service will definitely have a positive impact on your business. However, before deciding on the answering service to work with, you need to look at6 different service providers to see the one that fits your business the best. Below are some of the factors you should consider when choosing an answering service for your business:
- Budget — Having a budget to work with is vital. There are answering services that will offer a month free trial while others have a flat rate structure. However, most entries change depending on the line activity meaning the more phone activities and email replies, the higher you will have to pay. Knowing your phone activities and having a budget will help you choose an answering service that is affordable to you. The most common billing structures include:
- Per call billing — In this method, call centers charge you depending on the number of calls received. The amount remains fixed for every call regardless of the number of minutes the calls will last. However, the amount may be higher depending on whether there are messages set or if there are calls that need to be dispatched.
- Per-minute billing — In this structure, you will be charged per minute. Call centers that use this method will give you a certain value of minutes at a certain price and will be required to add the money if the minutes overlap.
- Availability — Before settling for a call center, it is important to ensure that they offer services 24/7. This is mainly because one of the primary reasons for hiring a call center is for your business to be available throughout. Finding an answering service that you can count on during after-hours, weekends, and holidays is vital. If you are looking to grow your business and capture many leads, you should aim to hire a call center that works 24/7. Even though this may come at an extra cost, it is important to ensure you partner with service providers who will be available throughout the day and night.
- Evaluate every service provider before settling on one — Before settling on a specific call center, ensure that they offer a free trial so that you are able to evaluate their skills. Here are some of the ways you can use the free period to check if their skills match what you are looking for:
- Perform a call test — This will give you a glance at how your customers' calls will be received and it will also help you know if they understand the services you offer.
- Test different features — Most call centers will offer additional services like appointment scheduling and you want to be sure that they are conversant with all the required software. Try scheduling an appointment with them and see how efficiently they will do it.
- Make updates — If you notice something that did not go well or an area that needs improvement during the trial period, be sure to point it out and make suggestions to make everything better before you can officially begin work.
- Security — Since your call center will be handling sensitive and personal information, it is essential to ensure that their data is protected. A call center that has HIPAA or/ PCI is vital if you are in the medical or commerce field.
- Check the operators representing your business — A virtual receptionist can help you build or break your business. Ensure you get a call center that represents your business professionally and handles it like their own. It is important to ensure that your callers will receive good reception and feel welcomed after making a call. Ensure the operators representing your business are energetic and lively.
- Check their emergency dispatching system — Every business is bound to require an urgent dispatch at some point. It is therefore important to look for a call center that can adhere to a routine and work closely with your in-house team in case of an emergency. Below are some of the questions you cause to learn about a call center’s dispatching system:
- Are they HIPAA-compliant answering services?
- Is it possible for you to upload your current schedule to their system?
- iS it possible for you to make updates from your own systems?
- Are they available through the day and night and during holidays and weekends?
Find a Minneapolis Answering Service Near Me
An answering service is a crucial tool for your business. It can make your day productive, your customer service stronger, and make your callers feel heard. At Best Call Center, we offer a multi-niche answering service at affordable prices. Our virtual receptionists are always available on the phone to ensure your callers get the best customer service experience. Reach out to us at 800-385-4656 and let us be part of your growth.