Financial Rebuilding: How an Answering Service Can Help Staff Return to Full Time
Companies around the world have been forced to make staffing adjustments to survive the COVID-19 outbreak. These include salary reductions, furloughs and layoffs, as well as cutting back on staff hours. It’s never an easy decision to reduce staff or hours, especially during an international crisis. If you need trained, skilled workers but can’t afford them right now, Contact One is an option. By conserving resources now, you position your company to rehire and bring your staff back full time when the crisis passes.
- Reduce customer service costs
Even in times of crisis, as your business adjusts to market demands, customer service is a major factor in its success. If you need a customer service representative but hiring or retaining an in-house employee with salaries, taxes and benefits is not feasible for your business right now, an outside answering service with set fees can help you reduce costs and ensure a predictable expense.
2. Eliminate training costs
Training is an important part of the hiring process, but it’s also expensive. According to Small Business Trends, the average cost of training an employee is estimated at $1200-$1800 for small businesses. With an answering service, your customer service representatives are already trained, without the interview, hire and training process required. Our services can help you manage cash flow in the short term, so your business survives this and can reopen the doors and rehire employees.
3. No missed customers
Customers are essential to business survival, but it can be hard to take every call with a limited staff. Our answering service is available 24/7 to take calls — in English and Spanish — for your business. This not only improves your business’s reputation, but assists customers faster, helping to keep your vital customers.
4. Reduce overtime, PTO and other expenses
One area you’ll save money on with an outside answering service is by avoiding paying receptionists/customer service representatives overtime or for working holidays. Contact One monitors your calls 24/7, and doesn’t charge extra for after-hour or holiday service, saving your company thousands of dollars.
5. Improve employee productivity
Depending on how often your business gets calls, it can take a lot of time away from other areas of work. If you’re working on a skeleton crew, but still need help, we’re an option. Hiring us as an answering service gives your existing employees more time to focus their time on revenue-producing activities.
6. Stand out from your competition
During this time of quarantine, it’s important that consumers spend money wisely, and that means being careful about which businesses they trust. Always being there to answer your customers’ calls will make your business stand out from the rest. Having an answering service that is always there to take your incoming calls will build a good reputation for your business.
If you are considering using an outside answering service, or just want to know more, contact Contact One at 1 (877)-959-0158. We can help save your company money, and help speed up getting your employees back to full time.