Live Answering service vs voicemail: Which makes customers happier?

The more lines of communication you open, the faster your business grows. But despite best efforts, it’s simply impossible to answer all calls and queries on your own. It’s a good thing that there are alternatives that let you capture all leads without waiting by the phone all day. So given a choice between an answering service and voicemail, which would you choose?

Both services are useful for taking messages after hours, when you’re in a meeting, or busy with a house call. Though similar in use, these provide very different experiences for your customers. Let’s compare the two to see which will make your customers happier.

Round 1: Efficiency

Voicemails are trapped information, requiring at least 7 to 10 steps before you can get to a message. You have to dial in, go through prompts, listen carefully, recall any names and numbers, write the message down, and act on it later. In a perfect world, you’d have to do all of that once. But chances are, you’re going to mess up dialling your code, miss a number, lose that piece of paper you wrote on, and need to do the process all over again. It just takes up too much of your time.

With a live phone answering service, accessing your messages is so much easier. You can access your messages through email or SMS in one to three steps. A professional operator takes your calls so all important information is gathered and verified before being sent to you. No need to make out scrambled messages when the caller who left a message is at a noisy place or when you are. You can call back immediately for urgent matters, forward information to your staff with a click of a button, or easily go back to the message at a later time.

Round 2: Customer Service

Most people hate their business voicemail service–and with good reason. It disrupts workflow and makes it hard to forward or reply to a message. It also gives callers less incentive to leave a message. Why bother when you’re not sure if the person you’re calling will even check their messages? In fact, studies prove that callers are less likely to leave a message when they get a machine, with chances they’d call back close to none.

Given a choice between live answering service vs voicemail, most people prefer talking to a real person—that’s just human nature. Talking to a machine and gathering your thoughts on the fly can be overwhelming for some. Most people hang up to think of what to say before calling back, but end up forgetting to do so. Having a warm voice at the other end of the line is comforting and encourages callers to leave a message, or their contact details at the very least. Capture 75% more calls just by having a professional phone operator answer when you can’t.

Round 3: Business Continuity

Clients don’t care whether you’re in the office, on the road, or on vacation. What matters to them is to get a hold of you whenever they dial your business number. People don’t remember what their issue or queries were. What they remember about you is how you made them feel. When your mailbox is full and they can’t reach you, callers will instantly write you off due to bad service.

A telephone answering service provides a seamless experience for your customers 24/7. They get the attention and high quality of service whenever they need it, even when you can’t answer the phone. You don’t ever need to worry about your mailbox going full, being inaccessible, or having poor call quality. Your provider makes sure that someone is always ready to take your calls—no interruptions due to breaks, sick days, or holidays.

The Decision: Live Answering Service vs Voicemail

Technology may become more complex, but people remain the same. In the debate between live answering service vs voicemail, a telephone answering service trumps the latter on all fronts. Engaging with your customers over the phone instead of sending them to a machine is simply the best opportunity to build trust and credibility.

Through an affordable and quality service like Alltel Telephone Answering Services, you can make your clients happy, capture more leads, and keep your overhead costs low. To learn more about how a phone answering service can help your business, give us a call at 1 300 ALLTEL or visit the official Alltel website at www.alltel.com.au for more details.