24 Hour Live Telephone Answering Service
24 Hour Live Telephone Answering Service
Every phone call is an opportunity, and missing opportunities is bad for business. Customer service surveys have shown the importance of prompt, readily available telephone support. If your business wants to stand out from the competition, it starts with meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations.
With 24 hour live telephone answering services from Absent Answer, your business can take calls around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our friendly live agents can answer calls overnight, before or after office hours, over the weekend, during the day — whenever you need a professional voice to help answer calls live in the name of your business.
Improve Your Availability Without Increasing Costs
Improve Your Availability Without Increasing Costs
Our 24/7 live answering services help free up your staff to focus on operations, not manning the phones. And because you only pay for the time you need, using Absent Answer as your telephone answering service enables you to extend your availability without increasing costs. There’s no payroll or administrative overhead to worry about. Simply establish your account, outline your instructions for handling your calls, and forward your calls when you’re ready for us to start answering. It’s that simple.
By establishing a 24 hour hotline or call center solution for your business, you ensure that customers, employees, vendors, and other stakeholders always have a point of contact, even when your office is unavailable.
Answering Service Features
How It Works
Having Absent Answer handle your 24 hour call center needs is easier than you think. It’s as simple as establishing your account instructions, training our team, and then forwarding your phone lines whenever you want our agents to answer calls on your behalf. You can turn your calls over to Absent Answer at the same time every evening when your office closes for the day, during holidays when the office is closed, during busy periods, or on demand. We’re there to answer whenever your business needs us.
Here’s how a 24/7 answering service works.
1.
You Receive a Call
A caller dials your regular office phone number. This could be a customer trying to reach your receptionist or request technical support, an employee checking in from a job site, routine scheduling calls, or any other type of call that your office may receive.
2.
We Answer
Instead of ringing your office line and going to voicemail, burdening your staff with non-urgent requests, or sitting on hold while your office is busy handling other tasks, all calls made to your office are routed directly to our friendly call center agents, who immediately recognize that the call is for your business and greets the caller accordingly.
3.
We Take Action
Benefits of a 24/7 Answering Service
- Extend your office hours. Business happens outside the hours of 9-5. Sales inquiries, customer support issues, employee call-offs, scheduling changes, you name it. Our after 24 hour answering services is always available, which means you can stay open 24/7/365. No more restricting your availability to regular business hours. Let customers reach a live person whenever they place a call. With Absent Answer, your office is always open.
- Deliver excellent customer service. Calls to your office are important, and every detail impacts the customer experience. From the tone of the operator’s voice to their level of understanding and ability to efficiently handle the call, every step presents an opportunity to either improve the customer experience or introduce friction and costly miscommunication. We recognize the importance of these calls and train every agent on customer service standards to ensure every call we take is handled professionally.
- Reduce your staffing costs. Hiring receptionists or in-house call center agents to handle all of your telephone answering needs would be a significant expense. Especially if you need 24 hour coverage. Our answering service operators are available around the clock, but unlike employees, you only pay us for the time you need. With Absent Answer, you can ensure every call is answered live without increasing your payroll. Our call center agents are highly trained customer service representatives who can deliver the level of service your residents demand at a fraction of regular staffing costs.
- Efficiently handle incoming requests. Our 24 hour call center is setup to function as an extension of your business. We answer calls under the name of your organization and handle each request per your instructions. By using your web-based software systems, delivering messages across email, text, fax, and voicemail, and following scripting that you design, we’re able to facilitate incoming customer requests as though we were a regular employee working out of your office. As a result, we can fulfill key aspects of your customer service and call center operation efficiently without increasing your overhead or adding unnecessary red tape.
100% Customized Telephone Answering Services
Our telephone answering service is completely customizable. We take calls as an extension of your organization. We can handle customer intake, enter troubleshooting tickets, dispatch emergency issues, take messages, and perform other telephone answering tasks on your behalf.
Our 24/7 telephone answering services include:
- 24 Hour Virtual Receptionist. Do you want calls to your office answered live 24 hours a day? Do you wish your receptionist was available around-the-clock? We’ve got you covered. Our 24 hour answering service can deliver the call coverage you need, when you need it.
- 24 Hour Emergency Service. Give your customers a single phone number they can use to request support or notify you of urgent issues. Our 24 hour hotline can take routine messages or escalate issues directly to on-call personnel, allowing us to serve as the frontlines and filter out non-urgent items while ensuring important issues get the attention they need. We can reduce costly distractions while also decreasing your risk and liability.
- 24 Hour Customer Service. Don’t force customers to call during certain hours. 24 hour customer service enables you to remain flexible to the needs of your customers and ensure you always have a live voice available to take calls and assist with customer requests.
- 24 Hour Appointment Scheduling. We can schedule appointments by accessing your web-based calendar system. By having our agents use the same system as your office staff, you can reduce data entry costs, reduce errors, and ensure everyone remains on the same page. More appointments and fewer scheduling issues means happier customers, better retention, and improved profitability.
- 24 Hour Dispatching. Our dispatching service is designed for companies or support departments who provide 24 hour service and need an effective way to screen calls and dispatch on-call technicians. We can deliver call details to the appropriate contact based on the type of call, location, time, and other factors that may alter the escalation procedure.
We serve a variety of businesses including:
- Physicians
- Medical Practices
- Attorneys
- IT Companies
- Property Managers
- Real Estate
- Service Contractors
- And more!
Call Center Solutions Built for Your Business
Allow the friendly receptionists at Absent Answer to take your calls while you focus on managing your business. We are based in the U.S. and operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, delivering unparalleled support to companies across the country.
Common applications of our 24/7 call answering services include:
- Sales Lead Capture. A critical necessity for a successful marketing campaign is the ability to capture and handle sales inquiries on a 24-hour basis. This of course includes after regular business hours when your staff has gone home for the day. Absent Answer will work with you to customize call handling and scripting to ensure you don’t miss a single call. In addition, you will be able to track all aspects of your marketing campaign and measure any number of data points that you would like to report on.
- Call Routing and Pre-screening. Many clients reduce their costs by 40% by using our specialized voicemail pre-screening service. Many service companies use our pre-screening service to inform clients of business hours or other information. The caller has the option of leaving a voicemail for office hours or speaking with an agent in our call center.
- Telephone Order Entry. Save time and money required to handle order taking by letting our staff handle those tasks for you. Whether yours is a small business going through growth periods, or a larger operation needing help with after hours or overload order processing. Did we mention that we also train our professionals to up-sell and cross-sell in order to maximize your sales efforts?
- Help Desk Services. Commonly referred to as Level 1 Tech Support, many technology companies find that 90% or more of technical support issues can be resolved with the simplest of instructions. Absent Answer agent fills out a “trouble ticket” identifying the level of importance and then notifies the appropriate staff.
- Virtual Secretary and Messaging Services. Never worry about the accuracy of your messages with our highly trained call center professionals. Your messages can be dispatched via a variety of methods: text messaging to your cell phone, sending emails, faxing messages. Absent Answer’s automated message routing program eliminates human error when dispatching to multiple on call staff.
- Emergency Dispatching and Call Escalation. Some calls require immediate attention or support from an on-call professional or Tier 2 personnel. We won’t be able to run each call by you as they happen, so our team will be briefed on your individual escalation policy, ensuring we can handle every situation appropriately as they arise. We’ll adhere to your instructions at all times, and will monitor the situation until the appropriate person attends to any fault or the issue is resolved. Our 24 hour support service is a great way to keep on top of your business and ensure critical operations remain available to your customers, even when you’re not in the office.
Answering Service Features
- Quality customer service. Absent Answer’s 24/7 answering service provides highly trained agents who deliver high quality customer service on behalf.
- Call recording and reporting. All calls are recorded and time stamped, with detailed call reports made available so that you can track usage and maintain compliance.
- On-call scheduling software. If you have rotating on-call personnel or specialized instructions based on the nature of the call, our specialized On-Call Scheduling software will ensure the correct person is contacted every time. When changes are made, they instantly update our system so that we reach the correct person.
- Web-based system integration. Our call center agents can utilize your web-based systems to perform routine office tasks, such as opening trouble tickets, placing orders, updating records, or scheduling appointments.
- Failsafe systems and disaster recovery. Our service quality is just one reason that successful companies turn to Absent Answer to help them grow. Our call center has taken great care to make sure we have redundancy in our operations. We realize that being available on a 24/7 basis for you requires us to maintain excellent uptime.
- Customized call scripting and routing. Our sophisticated software allows us to become an extension of your staff. We are able to handle sales inquiries, provide information and process orders. If your company has a mobile sales team or has multiple locations, we are able to quickly and efficiently connect prospects to the most qualified representative. We can even rotate sales inquiries automatically using our customer referral software.
About Absent Answer
At Absent Answer, we’ve been answering calls since 1985.
Each and every call, message, support issue and appointment request gets handled accurately – 100% of the time. That kind of reliability allows you to focus on managing your business while we worry about handling your important calls and serving as your 24/7 virtual office receptionist. The personal touch that your customers feel is the same personal attention you can expect every day.
To your callers, we are a friendly, helpful extension of your team.
To your office and personnel, Absent Answer is an accurate and reliable virtual assistant who knows you and your business. We are your virtual assistants who never miss a call, take a day off, or call in sick.
The Absent Answer Difference
Why choose Absent Answer as the answering service for your 24 hour call center needs?
Positive, Outgoing Staff
When we say we have the best personnel in the industry, we mean it. Our call center specialists have been with us an average of 8 years. The industry average is a mere 18 months. Some of our staff has been with us since the beginning.
We only hire positive, outgoing people to assist your callers, so you can have peace of mind knowing your calls will be handled in the most courteous and professional manner. Our extensive training program ensures that all of our employees are prepared to answer any question a caller may ask.
Highly Trained Virtual Receptionists
Absent Answer works closely with you to develop service benchmarks and create a consistent training program to ensure that all agents are fully trained to provide your customers, prospects, office staff, and outside vendors and contractors with attentive service and exceptional attention to detail.
Superior Quality Standards & Reliability
Our clients consistently rate the quality of our service as good/excellent 97% of the time.
To ensure uptime and availability, our telephone circuits are set up with a failover in case of fiber optic cuts. We maintain redundant servers for all critical systems and ensure all data is backed up with UPS and natural gas generators in case of a power outage.
US-based call center
All our agents work and live in the USA. There is no offshore outsourcing.
FAQs
Do you answer calls in the name of our business?
We can answer calls however you’d like. A common greeting is to announce the name of the business, thank callers for calling, and ask the nature of the call.
How do you determine whether a call is an emergency?
Emergencies are determined based on the nature of the call and whether it aligns with your policies. You can allow customers or on-call personnel to determine whether calls are urgent or not, or have our call center agents cross reference issues with a list that we keep on file. Our call center can be setup to follow the exact policies spelled out in your agreements and policy documents.
Do customers still call our office number after hours?
Yes, your callers can call the same published business number after hours. The only difference is that you forward that line to us when you’re unavailable, and the calls reach our answering service personnel instead.
Learn More
Ready for a 24 hour answering service you can depend on to help support your business? We are ready to help. Contact our account team today to discuss your telephone answering needs and learn more about our affordable pricing plans.
