Even in today’s high-tech working environment, some traditional skills, such as answering the phone promptly, politely and professionally, are still important. Many businesses overlook this simple, yet important part of running their business, often failing to answer calls, leading to lost opportunities and business.

Often, the way a company deals with a caller over the phone, forms the first impression a caller makes of your company. Think about what impression your callers would get – professional, organised and friendly or uninterested, noisy and hectic.

For many businesses it’s not possible, or cost effective, to always have a staff member ready and waiting to answer the phone, in a friendly, cheerful manner, within 3 rings. Modern businesses are more likely to be mobile or home based or relatively small in terms of staff numbers, relying on key personnel to multi-skill to fulfil the administration and secretarial roles.

Quality calls and responses are vital for a business to succeed. This will judge how a company handles and values its customers. One way to achieve this, without the cost of extra employees, is to use an outsourced telephone answering company.

Before outsourcing this important role, you should carefully check and test the telephone answering company’s commitment to answer every call with true professionalism. Employees of the company should be reliable and dedicated to offering quality phone answering and responses to the company’s clients. Remember these staff will be the ones taking your calls!

Telephone answering companies who are confident that they can deliver great service to you, will be confident enough to let you trial and test their service, before making any payments or commitments to them.

Looking into a telephone answering company’s background is also important. Your company will have a reputation to protect and maintain, so you cannot afford to give the job to just anyone. You should look for a company that shares your values and passion for providing excellent service to their customers. The way they handle your initial enquiry will be a good indicator of this. One of the best ways to ensure that your company’s calls are being handled correctly is to look for an "Owner Managed" business. This will ensure that you’re able to speak to the people who have a vested interest in making sure your calls are handled correctly at all times.

The company you choose should be able to meet the requirements of YOUR business. An answering service should be able to handle calls for technical support, billing enquiries, product information, and diary management. The services they offer should be flexible to meet your business needs. So look for a company that is not only able to, but happy to mould its services to your company’s needs not a "one size" fits all approach!