Trusting anyone who isn’t you or your team to answer your customer’s calls is a big deal. Every business wants their customers to experience the full red carpet service, so when shopping around for an answering provider, you need one that will treat them with the same care and attention as you and your team would.
Each provider will offer something different, but to help with your search, this blog compares two key providers on the market: VoiceNation and Smith.ai:
Additional answering service features
So, you know you need an answering service and you’ve decided what additional features your business could benefit from. Great! Now, you need to find the right provider who can deliver all of this for you. Many providers will offer features like CRM integrations and appointment booking, but are they included in the price? Or, do they charge an add-on fee which could soon see the cost of your plan soar? When it comes to our two providers, they both do this in different ways, let’s have a look below:
– VoiceNation offers two levels of service, Essential and Personalized. Both plans include features like 24/7 answering, bilingual receptionists, warm call transfers and customized responses to name a few. However, the Personalized plans also include extras like CRM integrations, appointment scheduling, order processing, call dispatching, customer form population and on-call management, all included in the plan price
– Smith.ai works slightly differently and charges for additional features. All schemes include lead qualification, new client intake, a dedicated phone number, and the first CRM integration is free. They then use a call add-ons system for other features with prices from $1.50 to book appointments, $1 to take payments, $0.50 for Microsoft Teams notifications, and many others. It’s important to be mindful of these kinds of pay-as-you-go schemes as, depending how much you will need these add-ons, your bill could add up pretty quickly!
Phone calls vs minutes pricing options
Quite a common differentiator between virtual receptionist providers is whether they charge on a per call or per minute basis. There can be benefits to both, and it really depends on the types of calls your business receives. If you have lengthy calls, then a per call service could work better for you cost wise. However, if you have loads of quick fire calls into your business, then a per minute solution might be your best bet. Let’s see how our two providers compare:
– VoiceNation operates on a per minute billing system for all their schemes, with plans starting from 20 minutes for just $70 a month. To put this into the context of our comparison of Smith.ai – a 50-minute plan with VoiceNation is $135, and equates to roughly 30-35 calls.
– Smith.ai plans are all billed per call. Their starter plan includes 30 calls and is $285 per month. Remember as well, this price does not include additional chargeable features.
Other services offered by VoiceNation & Smith.ai
Don’t forget, call answering is just one touchpoint of your customer service. What about your web visitors? Or existing leads – do your team have time to call back and qualify them? Are there any other areas of your customer journey that could use some extra help? Well, you’re in luck, because lots of these services offer solutions beyond call answering, meaning you can cover all bases through just one provider.
Speaking of which, both VoiceNation and Smith.ai offer live chat solutions – an increasingly popular channel to engage with customers browsing your website in real time. Smith.ai offers an Outreach Campaigns service, which acts as 24/7 sales outreach and SDR support, working to convert leads for your business. VoiceNation offers a similar provision, Outbound Calling, which sees trained virtual receptionists proactively making calls to leads and data lists on your behalf to qualify and make it easier for your team to follow up. VoiceNation also provides a complete customer service solution; Contact Center Outsourcing. This service provides businesses with a dedicated team of agents to represent their brand perfectly and carry out more involved tasks on their behalf, like answering customer service emails, monitoring social media and review sites and accessing internal systems. Smith.ai does not currently offer a comparable service.
Choose VoiceNation as your answering service provider
There’s a reason we’re the leading answering service provider in the US. We offer our clients the best receptionists, all based in America and trained to the highest standards, to answer your calls in a prompt and professional manner. With over 20 years experience, and thousands of happy clients, we really do know what we’re talking about.
To find out more about VoiceNation services, view our pricing options.