Cheap Answering Service – How Affordable is The Price in 2023?
Economical answering services range from $50/month – $299/month and can be one of the most effective ways to boost the efficiency of your business.
Many factors affect how much you actually end up paying for an answering service. If you’re looking for the most affordable option, keep these points in mind while you are shopping:
- What calls need to be handled by the service, and which can be handled internally?
- What hours do you need coverage of your lines?
- What languages do you need to have available to your callers?
- What type of system do you need in place to have messages distributed to you or your team?
These are all factors that can affect the price. The higher the volume, obviously, the higher the cost, so if you ensure that you only use the service in scenarios where you need it, you can control your costs quite easily. 24-hour and multi-lingual services often come at a higher price but also allow you to reach a wider client base. Finally, more technologically advanced providers may charge higher rates, but the convenience factor of being able to manage scripts, messages, and call forwarding through a simplistic electronic portal more than makes up for the costs in many cases.
What is a Phone Answering Service?
An answering service provides you with everything you need to ensure that your customers and clients always have a human point of contact at your company when they call in with concerns or questions. There are many reasons why you might not be able to answer the phone at any given time:
- All lines are busy
- Staff meetings are tying up all personnel
- Time-critical tasks are being attended to
- It is after hours
…and that’s just a few of the reasons why you might find yourself in this situation. An answering service has your calls forwarded as you direct to the answering service’s agents or call center instead of to your voicemail. This means that even when you’re engaged in any of the important reasons that might prevent you from taking a call, you’re not losing the interest or the attention of your customers.
What to Look for in a Low-Cost Phone Answering Service?
The first thing that you want to look for is a service that is flexible, and which will work with you as we have described above to find a plan that meets your needs exactly. What you should avoid are so-called, “bundled” or “package” services that include additional services and features that you might not really need at purported savings. Of course, if that type of package offers you exactly what you’re looking for, then you may have in fact stumbled upon a great deal. Just make sure that you never end up paying for a service that you don’t really need.
- National Average Answering Service Cost: $0.89 per minute
- Typical Billing Increments: Minimum 15 Seconds, then in 7-second increments
- Average Cost For Holidays: A fee of $10 per National Holiday is generally charged.
- Website Interface Fees: If the call center processes orders on your website a fee of up to $100/month may apply.
- 24/7, Bilingual, Appointment Setting: These services are usually included at no extra cost.
Bargain 24/7 Answering Service Companies with Discounted Prices
Best Value Per Dollar Invested:
Our team reviewed 48 answering service companies across the US and found two companies that really stood out offering the best service for your money. In this review we looked at set-up fees, cost per minute, and added services such as order processing, appointment setting, and industry-specific solutions. While we suggest getting at least 4 quotes to compare, here are two of the best answering service companies you should consider in your search for a value-based solution:
Answer America: Answer America is a pay-as-you-go system, ensuring that you never have to pay for more than you use when hiring their service to field your calls. The minimum credit you need to purchase is industry-leading, with $20 being the minimum, with only one call minimum charge being assessed per month.
PCMSI: PCMSI is another low-cost answering service company that can provide you with some of the lowest rates in the business. Although they have a setup fee of $35, this is lower than the majority of their competitors. If you’re interested in getting a free quote for the services offered by PCMSI, you can visit their website and fill out a simple form to get an accurate quote reflective of the level of service that you would require of them.
Telephone Answering Services Don’t Need to be Expensive
As you can see, with a little careful shopping you can find a very inexpensive answering service that will meet your needs perfectly. Just take the time to do some research and to carefully identify how you see the service fitting into your current business operations, and you should be able to find an excellent fit at a reasonable price.
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