At first glance, call centers and answering services may look like they’re the same job since they’re both set up the same way. Some businesses are set up where a large number of people are in cubicles answering the phone, while others have gone remote and allow people to handle phone calls from the comfort of their homes. Even though they look alike, that doesn’t mean that the two jobs are exactly the same. So when you’re considering which you need for your business, an answering service vs a call center, you need to ask yourself questions about what it is your business needs before you make a decision.
What Do Call Centers and Answering Services Do?
Call centers and answering services deal primarily with talking to people on the phone. For call centers, this includes a mix of incoming and outgoing calls, depending on who they are working for. Outgoing calls are primarily focused on subscription renewal programs and telemarketing, while incoming calls are for customer service, billing, and tech support. Since most of the work they do is scripted, the work call centers do is largely done by overseas representatives between a strict set of hours that usually match the regular business hours of the company they are working with.
Our live answering service, on the other hand, uses US-based operators to answer phone calls 24/7 for specific markets. The operator may be trained to answer industry-specific questions, such as basic health questions for doctors and hospitals, pet health care for veterinarians, and general legal basics for lawyers. Their goal is to help clients and potential clients make appointments, get answers to questions related to their needs, and to get more information about the business. To reach this goal, the phone calls are often personalized and require a solid command of written and spoken English, as well as training to answer specialized questions, especially if it involves emergency situations.
Answering Service vs. Call Center: Which Does My Business Need?
If you’re trying to determine if you need an answering service or a call center to help your business, it’s important to determine what it is you’re looking for. If you’re a big company looking for a large amount of customer service representatives or people to help do technical customer support for your products, a call center might be a better option. A call center could field the majority of your customer service issues or product issues by following a script or series of basic questions to get to the root of the problem so the callers get off the phone feeling better about their issue than they had when they initially called.
If you’re a newer specialized business that can’t afford a full-time in-house receptionist, but you know you need somebody to answer your phones to make appointments or help field questions so they don’t go straight to voicemail, then a live answering service might be the right option for you. You can test out VoiceNation’s live answering service with our 7-day free trial to see if it’s right for you! Call us at 833-426-1704 to chat with a representative today!