Elizabeth Lockwood

Year after year, millions of Americans are plagued by spam calls and unfortunately, the issue is far from being resolved. In fact, First Orion reported that, from 2020 to 2021, there was been a 118% increase in spam calls, and that percentage is only expected to grow in the years to come.To help ensure consumers aren’t constantly bombarded with spam calls, phone carriers are starting to offer solutions, like SPAM RISK Caller ID, which is designed to alert customers of incoming spam calls. But spam ID technology isn’t bulletproof. Sometimes, numbers are incorrectly marked as spam. So what happens when your business number gets flagged as spam, and how do you ensure your callers won’t brush off your calls as yet another spam call?

If you find your business missing a lot of valuable calls or spending an inordinate amount of time returning messages, you need an answering service. Of course, that comes with its own set of concerns and considerations, starting with what type of answering service to hire. There are several options out there today, including answering services and virtual receptionist solutions that can handle everything from calls and chats to lead intake, appointment scheduling, and even payment collection for the businesses that need it.

There’s a lot of information out there about answering services for small businesses and solopreneurs because they obviously need the assistance, but what about enterprise organizations that seem to have it all? They might still benefit in several ways from a partnership with an answering service or virtual receptionist.

There are several benefits that come from adding an answering service to your list of partners and outsourced services. For starters, you can choose 24/7 services so that you never miss an opportunity, no matter what time it is or what you may be doing. You’ll also guarantee that people get a professional live person on the other end when they call with a need or concern.

Being a small business doesn’t mean that you can’t find big opportunities to improve things by outsourcing or forming partnerships. In fact, it’s often the small businesses that benefit most from these types of solutions, including the addition of a dedicated answering service.

Retail store owners have a lot to deal with on a daily basis, including all the calls that come into the store seeking information on your hours of operation, location, and other information that can only come from talking to someone at the store. What if you don’t have enough people at the store to handle the call volume? Or maybe you just want to invest in a service that will deliver 24-hour solutions so that you never miss a lead again.

If you’ve got a small business in the car repair industry, you don’t have to be “always on” to ensure that you capture every lead and take care of every single client call. With the assistance of a professional answering service, you can deliver 24/7/365 support for leads, current customers, and anyone else that reaches out to your business.

When you’re two hours into a complex repair and rebuild and the phone just won’t stop ringing, what do you do? If you take the time to stop and answer every call, you lose valuable productivity and aren’t able to give your existing jobs the focus that they deserve. On the other hand, if you don’t answer the calls, you’re losing valuable leads (and potentially some existing business) because people can’t reach you when they need to.

An answering service could be just what your interior design firm needs. You can outsource to a third-party service that will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so your existing and potential clients can get in touch when they have questions or concerns. Plus, they can handle a host of other tasks in the admin and communications area, freeing up your time and resources.

As a busy photographer, you have a lot of things on your plate, and you spend most of your days out on photo shoots, at events, or traveling to and from those sessions. That can make it challenging to field all the phone calls coming into your business. And if you’re missing calls, you’re missing opportunities. That’s not going to be good for business, but you’re only one person—what can you do?