An answering service serves as a brilliant solution when it comes to missed calls and poor customer service complaints. They’re your partner when it comes to enhanced time off and  long-term scalability! Nonetheless, you’re capping your return on investment with your answering service if your script isn’t built to maximize lead capture. A strong answering service script should capture customer information in a subtle, yet effective, way to ensure that your clientele grows overtime. In this post, we’ll outline steps you can take to improve your script and start capturing more leads.

Step 1: Understand Your Audience

Step 2: Study Key Elements of an Effective Answering Service Script

Step 3: Consider Optional “Bells and Whistles”

Step 4: Customize Your Script

Step 1: Understand Your Audience

Maybe you’re part of an electric company hoping to service more households. Maybe you work in the medical industry wanting to reach more people in your community. No matter what field you work in, the first step to capturing more leads through your answering service script is understanding your audience. Further familiarize yourself with your audience’s demographics, pain points, and preferences. Without doing so, you’ll fail at making your callers feel heard and understood– thus decreasing the likelihood of capturing more leads.

From there, brainstorm the various scenarios in which customers might contact your business. Are they calling to inquire about the price of your services? They could be calling ready to schedule an appointment, and they could be calling with a complaint about your business. Either way, it’s important to think of all of the distinct scenarios that come with your business prior to customizing your script, as this information will keep your answering service prepared to competently answer a variety of calls from your customers.

For example, in the instance of a law firm looking to re-strategize their answering service script, a portion of their brainstorm list might look something like the following.

-People could be calling with questions surrounding work-related accidents.

-People might call with issues regarding identity theft.

-People might be calling to inquire about how we charge our clients.

-People might be calling wanting to get in touch with a specific lawyer mentioned on our website.

Step 2: Study Key Elements of an Effective Answering Service Script

Here's where you shift from focusing on your target audience to exploring the world of customer service through telephony situations. (Later, when it comes to building your script, we’ll merge the two.) Your answering service script needs to flow both efficiently and effectively in order to understand the needs of each of your callers. Alas, here are some key elements of an effective answering service script.

Personalization and Open-Ended Questions

Using the callers’ names and personal details are a sure-fire way to build rapport with them. Agents should frequently use the caller’s name throughout the script to better help callers feel heard and valued. Additionally, be sure to leave space in your script for open-ended questions. Elect to use verbiage that entices the customer to share more– this will help agents efficiently find a solution to customer inquiries and portray your business as experienced and thoughtful. If they’ve called your business before, maybe you could open with a follow-up question about if they got their previous questions or problems settled.

Brand Voice and Professional Tone

The overall tone of your script should center around making the caller feel valued. That being said, maintaining a professional, yet friendly, tone makes callers feel comfortable and conveys the fact that your business truly cares. Be sure to infuse your brand voice into your script, as well. This way, your business ensures consistency over the phone, which builds trust and reinforces your business’s identity. It also creates a more engaging, memorable customer experience by reflecting the personality and values of your brand in every interaction.

Clarity and Conciseness

Your answering service script should be clear and concise, providing your callers with direct information about your services and avoiding industry jargon (unless, that is, the conversation calls for it. This is why it’s important to have an answering service that seeks to understand the inner workings of your business). When you have a script that clearly answers customer questions, customers will value your business’s transparency. Which builds trust. Which will help to collect information for lead capture on that same call.

Call-to-Action (CTA)

A strong call-to-action can guide the caller towards taking the desired action, such as leaving their contact details or scheduling a consultation. At some point in the conversation, there should be a “May I have your e-mail address and phone number to contact you with more information?” or an “Are you interested in scheduling an appointment?” This CTA can vary from situation to situation, but it’s crucial to include– as this is where the capturing of the lead takes place. Furthermore, a call-to-action can be more organically added into your script if you offer a discount or promotion. More on this in the next section of this blog!

Step 3: Consider Optional “Bells and Whistles”

Now that the essentials are covered, you can consider adding a few “bells and whistles” to your script. You can certainly obtain more leads using the “Key Elements” outlined in Step 2, but the following suggestions are a few ways in which you can add a cherry on top of all of your calls– thus increasing the chances that you capture more leads.

Exclusive Discounts or Promotions

There’s a myriad of ways in which you could offer a special discount or promotion for customers on the line! You can offer exclusive discounts to customers booking with your business for the first time. For other callers, you could also include a simple, “Mention this call for 10% off your next appointment,” or “Would you like to enter to win a 20% discount on a service of your choice with us?” In all of these instances, customers can be more easily prompted to share their contact information, and you can score leads.

Loyalty Program Information

You can also set up a loyalty program for returning clients and encourage them to sign up via telephone. In this way, you can potentially turn your leads into loyal, returning customers for your business. Inform them of the perks of your loyalty program and why it’s a smart idea to sign up!

New Product or Service Announcements

New products to offer? New service package? Let your callers know! When you expand your offerings, you further stand out from your competition. This can entice your callers to learn more about your services.

Referral Incentives

Another excellent way to capture more leads is by offering referral incentives! When you reward your customers for referring friends, they can enjoy “x” percentage off, and you can enjoy more leads and customers coming your way! You can mention your referral program at the end of your script after customers have booked an appointment.

Holiday Offerings

Your script can change at any point in time! Consider the values of your business, and choose what you feel would be appropriate holidays (if any) to offer discounts. This is a brilliant way to further emphasize your brand’s voice and attract a customer base that feels drawn to what you’re all about.

Step 4: Customize Your Script

All of that information you gathered about your target audience? And all of those key elements of an effective answering service script? Here’s where you begin to put all of the pieces together– it’s time to re-customize your script. Every time prior or potential customers/clients call your business, they’re getting a brief glimpse of what you’re all about, and on the other side of the coin, you have the opportunity to capture a lead.

A generic script might check off the basics, but a tailored script elevates the caller’s experience and boosts your business’s chances of capturing leads. When you intentionally customize your script to capture more leads, ensure that each interaction aligns with your brand voice, addresses common customer scenarios, and makes the most of every opportunity to connect. Remember, a personalized touch builds rapport, and when customers feel understood, they’re more likely to trust your business. As your business evolves, so should your script—keeping it up to date with new offerings and adjusting for seasonality can make all the difference in converting inquiries into leads.

When you customize your script, use professional verbiage that encapsulates your brand’s voice. Consider your list of possible call scenarios, but be sure to also leave wiggle room for questions that you didn’t think of. Ultimately, you want to infuse your brand into your open-ended questions and your call-to-actions. Supply your answering service with as much information about your business as possible. That way, they’ll be able to more competently find solutions to caller inquiries.

Conclusion

All in all, your answering service isn’t just there to help answer your calls– it’s a partnership that can be leveraged to help your business experience growth overtime by capturing more leads! If you feel as though you’ve hit a period of stagnancy when it comes to obtaining more leads, you should definitely consider improving your answering service’s script. When you take time to understand your audience, familiarize yourself with elements of an effective script, and potentially throw in a few bells and whistles, you’ll inevitably build a script that helps your business to be more effective in lead capture.