how do i start a home based answering service in my home?
Hello There! Starting a home based answering service is not as easy as many people think it is, but don’t think that since starting an answering service is not easy that you can’t start your own telephone answering service! There are a few pillars that are the foundation of any answering service.
The first thing to remember is that you the majority of answering service customers use a telephone answering service because they are looking to have someone live answer the phones 24/7/365 with a live operator or when they aren’t available after hours. If you are just starting your answering service, it is likely you won’t have any employees. So you have to ask yourself how often you want to provide coverage. Do you just want to provide service like a secretary from 8am – 5pm Mon – Friday. Do you want to expand your customer prospects and answer for companies who need your services after hours (from 5pm – 8am). Or, do you want to provide 24/7 service?
If you aren’t looking to provide 24/7 answering services, recruiting customers will be initially very hard – though not impossible.
The second thing you’ll need is the phone system. Many answering services have a T1 or T3 that brings in the phone calls. Customers will forward their lines to your call center. A T1 can provide each customer with a unique D.I.D. (Direct Inward Dial) telephone number to forward their lines to when they are closed, or can’t answer the phone’s themselves. You should then have an internal computer system that can identify the DID, and pop screen information that gives information relevant to that customers account.
If you are just starting out, you can have everyone forward their lines to a single number. This method is practical for you, though undesireable for your customers. The reason is, if you have all customer calls come into a single phone line, you won’t be able to tell which customer they are coming in from! So, you’ll have to answer the calls as if you were a switchboard, and say something like, “How may I direct your call”, or ask “Hello, how can I help you today, who are you calling for”? Many customers want their phones answered in their company name, “Thanks for calling Joe the Plumber, how can I help you?”
The last thing you will need is a way for customers to find your service. You will want a website, though if you can’t get to the top of search engines like google or yahoo, a website is all but useless. You can place an ad in your yellow pages, and drive some business your way that way, though doing so is often costly depending on the size ad you go with.
I hope this helps get you pointed in the right direction!
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