How Businesses Handle Incoming Calls When Everyone’s Already Busy
The phone rings as a customer attempts to pay a bill at the counter. The phone rings again while the owner is deep in a consultation with a client. The phone rings yet again as the person who usually answers phones is on lunch. This is what the typical small business knows – everyone has a primary job – and it isn’t answering phones – but phones need answering.
Lost calls equal lost business. Yet constantly putting everything else on hold to field a call isn’t any better. It’s one of those uncomplicated nuisances to someone who’s not running a business but gets exponentially complicated when you’re running one.
Common (and Not So Common) Solutions
What does the average business do, first and foremost? They have someone at the front desk answer when a call comes in. Great, but let’s turn up call volume, or that person needs to run to the bathroom, or they’re in the middle of helping someone else face-to-face. Then it’s back to ringing phones and the choice to let them ring or jeopardize what they’re doing.
What do most businesses do as a backup plan? They let it go to voicemail, and ideally call back later. All good, except people rarely leave voicemails these days. They hang up and call the next person down the line or they leave a message that sits for hours while they’re red in the face for having not been answered in the first place.
Some businesses decide that whoever is available can just answer the phone. Great; at least everyone shares in the disruption. But that comes at a cost of no one really being accountable for phone quality. Answers may be vague, people might be told something is happening when it’s not because no one took five seconds to check availability, and staff resent being pulled from what they should be doing to answer the phone anyway.
Where Call Volume Exceeds Your capabilities
And then there’s a time when an informal phone system doesn’t work. You’ve grown and you’re getting three times as many calls as usual. You’ve expanded your services and now you get inquiries about things that your front desk person isn’t trained to answer. Your highest call volume overlaps with your highest in-store volume.
You can’t tell customers to call less; they need something and if they can’t reach you, then that’s your problem – not theirs. But you also can’t clone your best employee and you certainly can’t add eight hours to your days.
So now the business tries to find options outside of previously tested means. Some hire an additional person just for phones – this is if they have the volume – and the budget – to support such an addition; however, it feels like a giant leap to hire someone dedicated for an all-day, same level call volume that may not even happen in the first place.
Another Option: Remote Receptionists
More and more businesses are going with a virtual receptionist service for clinics, particularly in professional fields that need guaranteed call coverage without hiring another body sitting in person at the location.
With a remote receptionist, they work from an area different than your location, but field all calls as though they’re familiar with the situation at hand.
Typically this requires simple call forwarding and access to a calendar or whatever your receptionist would need from them in order to facilitate questions from callers.
They’re not merely there to take messages – they’re there to schedule appointments, make bookings, answer your frequently asked questions, transfer calls, etc. They do what your in-house one would do without being there in-house.
How It Works
What makes this work is that someone whose only job is to answer calls doesn’t get sidetracked when someone’s sitting in front of them trying to get adjusted or book their next appointment after just getting adjusted. When your phone rings, they’re available; when your staff is busy doing their primary work, calls still get answered.
Most business owners will tell you that once this integration is set up, there’s usually no turning back – because now that someone’s hired someone specifically for calls – even if it’s a catch-all remote – and it works better than what’s been previously in place, why bother with less quality assurance?
There are often common experiences like what information is typically needed over the phone and what should be handled versus transfer – but generally speaking, any questions someone overseas cannot answer are reassured by transfers by an owner/expert should they ever become available or take thorough notes if not.
Most businesses keep any current clients who call their direct line handled by their own staff as well as any urgent matters that come through when employees are available (extremely relevant calls). The remote is there as the safety net that catches everything else but doesn’t replace any real-time interaction otherwise.
Patterns Emerge
The hope is that patterns develop over time – once calls become nonexistent during specific hours because it’s handled – which means employees can focus on their primary work without risk of distraction thanks to someone else who’s actually focused on answering phones.
And when phones are answered at critical times, it’s because someone’s the right person for that type of conversation – not because they happened to be closest to the phone when it rang.
Normal Hours of Operation Are Extended
One common change that’s surprising is that hours become flexible. If you need someone outside of your normal hours of operation – after-hours’ phone coverage on any given day or weekend – then you’ve got it with a remote operations person.
That said, you don’t need someone 24/7; most businesses don’t – but at least you have someone during your real hours of operation – and not just when your employees happen to be available on a day-to-day basis – which makes you more reachable regardless.
When It Makes Sense and When It Doesn’t
This type of reception works best for operational workflows where calls are key but probably unpredictable. For example, if you know you’ll get consistent call volume throughout the day – or enough during peak times – but can note how many other bodies would be ideal on a full- or part-time basis, it’s better to have one person in-house.
If calls come in bursts where it’s always busy at some times and dead during others – or staff struggle to keep up and you’re looking to avoid bringing another full-time employee on board JUST for phones – then a virtual one makes sense.
It also depends if most of your services can be tackled without specialized knowledge (calendar access and standard FAQ) – then a remote makes sense; however, if every single question needs specific expertise that takes years to master, you’re probably better off with someone more present who can learn you inside-and-out over time.
Cost comparatives also matter – typically virtual services charge by call/per minute/monthly packages but generally speaking, it makes more financial sense than hiring an additional employee because those costs include benefits/taxes; however, if value isn’t connected – at least with lower costs – you’re less likely to pull this route.
When People Switch and Why
For most businesses who implement virtual receptionists, this is commonly adopted when something goes awry. Someone quits (like the receptionist) and no replacement is found; volume exceeds what’s currently available; they miss business due to missed calls but do nothing about it until they’ve had enough.
The sooner you assess whether there’s an issue truly renders more options; waiting until you’re at wit’s end proves you’re out of options and forced into something quick and easy without assessing whether there’s any merit whatsoever.
If you’re currently floating phone coverage with little success – reliably missing calls, unnecessarily interrupting work through constant disruption – or using voicemail more than you’d like – it’s probably time to at least see what’s available for you out there because unglamorous as it is – to phone coverage – is integral to operational coverage determining whether clients can actually do business with you or not.
While there is no complex solution required about getting it right, being honest about whether what’s already in place works – or if you’re used to frusteration – makes all the difference.