Signing your business up for a virtual receptionist service is one of the best ways to alleviate a hectic work schedule. Virtual receptionists can take messages, answer customer questions, forward calls to appropriate staff members, and much more. But as a business owner, how can you ensure that your company’s voice is being maintained while the virtual receptionist is answering phone calls? Script customization is the answer. Customizing the phone answering script for your virtual receptionist service guarantees that operators can answer calls and respond to questions exactly the way you want.
What Is a Phone Answering Script?
While your virtual receptionist is answering phone calls, the script acts as a guide to let our operators know exactly what they should say in any situation. This is so our team can best reflect your business and provide top-of-the-line customer service during every interaction. A call script is likely to include an opening greeting, answers to common questions, and any other information that may be pertinent to customer or client interactions.
Why Does a Phone Answering Script Matter?
Simply put, a call script matters because your clients and customers matter. If you were to think of phone calls as building customer relationships, then the phone answering script would be the blueprint used to do that most effectively.
When a customer calls your business, they expect to find answers to their questions and resolutions to their problems. A well-crafted call script provides that information at a moment’s notice while helping to maintain a natural flow of the discussion. Having the right information provided quickly, naturally, and fluidly helps a customer feel confident in your service and leaves them with a positive impression of your business.
Tips for Creating a Custom Phone Answering Script
The best scripts manage to create a natural flow to any phone call while still providing the caller with all of the information they need. For newcomers to virtual receptionist services, crafting a call script can seem like a complicated task, but it doesn’t have to be. We provide script templates for a wide range of industries so you can get an idea of how yours should look.
Take a look at these helpful tips to keep in mind when customizing your phone answering script:
- Keep your greeting brief. Making the opening greeting to your phone calls short and to the point is important because you don’t want to leave the customer waiting. Should your opening take too long to get through, it’s likely that the customer will end up feeling frustrated or annoyed by the end of it.
- Be polite. When crafting your call script, don’t forget to include the pleasantries. Thank customers for their time, and make sure your script acknowledges that their call is important to your business.
- Include the company’s name in your opening. You want your greeting to be short, but not at the expense of leaving out important information. You should make sure to at least include the company name in your opening, so customers know right away that they’ve called the right number.
- Collect all of the information you’ll need. In general, most calls will at least require operators to obtain the name, message, and return phone number of the caller. However, depending on what industry your business is in, you may require more details than that. Make sure your call script instructs your virtual receptionist to gather every bit of information you’ll need from the customer. Don’t ask for more information than you need, though. Asking for too many details may cause the caller to become annoyed and end the call.
Get Started With a Virtual Receptionist for Free Today
Find out how beneficial a virtual receptionist can be for your business by signing up for VoiceNation’s seven-day free trial now! Our free trial includes 24/7 live answering, instant account activation, and basic message-taking. There’s also no contract, so you’re free to cancel at any time. But once you’ve experienced the benefits of our virtual receptionist service, we’re sure you won’t want to go back.