As a trade worker, you know that your potential clients might call for your services at any given point in the day. AC units don’t wait to malfunction during business hours, and you might’ve had to step away from a family function to answer a call, whether to book a job or give a caller some information. That—or you missed the call, as well as an opportunity for business. This is where an answering service can make a significant difference. You might’ve considered employing an answering service in the past but decided otherwise because of uncertainty over the quality of service, doubts about whether it could effectively represent your business’s unique needs, or concerns about the cost. Here’s the thing: those worries have simply yet to be resolved, and an answering service can really serve as an excellent catalyst for an improved work-life balance.

In this post, we’ll debunk a few misconceptions about answering services and explore exactly how employing such a service can drastically improve your work-life balance.

Debunking Misconceptions

Before we dive into the plethora of benefits that come with an answering service, it’s important to clear up the hesitancies that keep a lot of business owners from employing one. Maybe you’ve had a bad experience with an answering service as a consumer in the past. Maybe, as a business owner, you don’t see how an answering service can really handle various callers’ inquiries effectively. Let’s get to the bottom of it!

Misconception #1: “An answering service won’t provide quality customer service.”

Let’s be real: bad answering services exist. There are answering services out there that are only concerned with tallying up answered calls and that lack concern surrounding the degree of care they extend to callers. While finding an answering service that provides quality customer service might take some time, there are plenty out there that excel in that area, and the search for a good one is worth the benefits that come with it. All in all, while bad answering services exist, it’s also true that excellent answering services exist, too.

Not convinced? Check out the values we screen for here at Dexcomm when we hire agents in this post!

Misconception #2: “An answering service doesn’t know the ins and outs of my business.”

Again—some answering services won’t take the time to get to know the heart of your business. However, those that do will take the time to understand not merely your hours of operation, but also your distinctive services, values, expectations, and ideas of what “quality” really is. At Dexcomm, we don’t feel like any answering service could effectively represent your business without taking the time to understand these things. Truthfully speaking, an answering service with a thorough onboarding process is the way to go here.

Misconception #3: “An answering service costs too much money.”

The fact of the matter is that while an answering service will be an additional cost to your business, a reliable one will save you money (and simultaneously increase profits) in the long-run. (We’ll talk about how later in this post!) The alternative—hiring additional in-house staff to handle your calls 24/7—means considering the time required for training and the expenses associated with salaries and benefits. When you bring those factors to the table, hiring an answering service really is a no-brainer.

How an Answering Service Aids Work-Life Balance

Alright, now that we’ve cleared up some confusion surrounding answering services, it’s time to dig in to the myriad of ways in which a good service can improve your work-life balance! From improved time management to ensured after-hours peace, the benefits that come with an answering service are genuinely priceless.

Work Benefits

Increased Revenue

With more answered calls comes more booked jobs! An answering service can increase revenue for your business as a result of handling calls more efficiently. Some answering services will even book directly into your business’s software!

A study conducted by eVoice uncovered the true financial value of a missed call. Their survey of five hundred small business owners between the UK and USA, all who were classified as self-employed, revealed that the average value over twelve months for a customer who came to them over the phone was a whopping $3,872! You can check out the rest of the study here!

Improved Time Management on the Job

You have wires to circuit! You have leaky pipes to fix! Instead of dividing up your focus between your phone and your job, an answering service gives you back the time it takes to really focus on your trade. If you have in-house CSR’s, even they’ll be able to better manage their time between the phone and other office duties that are part of their job. As a result, your business can provide higher quality service to your customers.

Relieved Pressure on In-House CSRs

Call overflow, especially during busy season, is difficult to manage. When your CSR’s experience call overflow, they’ll inevitably have to put some callers on hold or even miss calls altogether. As a result, you’ll miss opportunities for business. When you employ an answering service, these issues become matters of the past.

To paint a clearer picture for this point, we partnered with one of our clients right before one of their busiest points in business. They commented on the fact that their “Being full-staffed was great, but [they] wouldn’t have been able to do what [they] did without Dexcomm being able to carry the overflow.” You can read more about their experience with Dexcomm here!

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

Happy customers are crucial to business success. An answering service enhances customer satisfaction by ensuring that all calls are answered promptly and professionally, reducing wait times, and preventing missed calls. This level of attentiveness boosts your business’s reputation and helps build trust with your customers, which also contributes to a less hectic, more manageable workload.

An answering service also enhances customer satisfaction by ensuring that your callers are met with a kind human voice! An alternative to hiring an answering service could be employing a robot to answer your calls for you during your off hours, but this is not the route to take. A 2019 article by Forbes brings to light a survey that was conducted of 1,000 US consumers, in which it was revealed that “86% of consumers prefer to interact with a human agent [and] 71% said they would be less likely to use a brand if it didn’t have human customer service representatives available.” Think about how you feel when you’re put on hold, or when you’re met with an automated list of options—none of which have anything to do with the reason you’re calling.

Personal Benefits

Reach Personal Financial Goals

When your trade business makes more money, so do you. Think about that vacation you’ve been wanting to take. Think about the amount per month that you’ll be able to put into your rainy-day fund. Give yourself the gift of reaching your personal financial goals by employing an answering service.

Quality Time Off

Be present with your family at kids’ sports events! Enjoy that trip with your loved ones! When you employ a solid answering service, you won’t have to step away to take that business call or resolve that issue with a customer. This allows you to disconnect from work more effectively, enabling you to rest (and play) assured that your clients’ and business’s needs are being taken care of.

Stress Relief

As a result of improved time management and financial growth of your business, you’ll feel a weight on your shoulders (that you didn’t even know was there) disappear. You’ll also experience a calmer, more organized work environment.

A good answering service will even be transparent with you and give you access to the audio of the calls they take for further peace of mind. This visibility allows you to review and improve customer service protocols if necessary, ensuring that your business's standards are upheld even in your absence. This level of oversight helps manage your worries about potential customer service failures, which is a common source of frustration for many business owners.

Conclusion

As a trade worker, you know that your potential clients might call for your services at any given point in the day. AC’s don’t wait to malfunction during business hours, and with an answering service on your side, you’ll never again have to step away from a family function to answer a call, whether to book a job or give a caller some information. It's evident that a reliable answering service does not just handle calls—it transforms the way you operate in your personal life and in your work life.

The misconceptions surrounding answering services tend to overshadow their actual benefits, keeping those that would benefit most from an answering service from reaping the benefits that will inevitably come with employing one. Whether it's giving you peace of mind during your time off or supporting your business's growth through call management, the investment in a good answering service pays off in more ways than one. If you embrace the change and see past those pesky misconceptions, you’ll find that an answering service is definitely something you should have in your tool belt to progress both personally and professionally.