What to Look for in a Phone Answering Service

My Receptionist holds our clients, our service, and our team in the highest regard. Which is why we have always provided the best phone answering service, transparent pricing, and customization to our clients and their businesses.

But how can you be sure you are getting the best service from the best phone answering service? What should you look for? And what do you need to avoid?

We’ve been in the industry for decades, meaning we know what to look for and we want to share our insights with you so you can get the very best service every time!

Take a look at our top tips:

Look for High Reviews

Reviews are like letters of recommendation from previous clients and customers, so take them seriously for your next potential phone answering service providers! Read through the Google reviews (not just the reviews from their website which might be skewed or asked for).

You don’t need a company with perfect reviews, but you do need one with good averages and mostly content and happy customers. Make sure you read through the bad reviews (if any exist) to see how the company responds. Hopefully, they’ll reply quickly and kindly and see if they can rectify the problem.

And the final thing to look at during your review-hunt – how far back do their reviews go? Multiple years or only a few months? Choosing a company with longer service lines can often mean they have a longer history and have therefore weathered more changes in the industry and have ‘staying power’, but we’ll get more into that later.

Look for Fast Responses & Quality Services

The next step after finding some great companies with great reviews is to reach out to them for your phone answering service…and then wait.

Do they reply quickly, professionally, and politely? Do they answer your questions promptly and get back to you when you ask them to? Or do they seem vague, their answers spaced out or unprofessional?

Think of how they act now as a mirror for what might be to come in your future working with them. After all, you would think that a phone answering service (or any company) will be on their best behavior when they’re trying to get a new customer. So if they aren’t good in the very beginning, they’ll probably be even worse in their general service!

You deserve the best; make sure you get it by judging on your very first points of contact and understanding that this might very well be how they will always treat you.

Look for a Good Reputation & History

Google reviews or testimonials aren’t the only way to see how clients and customers feel about potential phone answering service providers. In fact, one of the best ways is still good, old fashioned word-of-mouth.

Ask your friends, business professionals, and other connections who they recommend or who they use for their own phone answering services. Ask them who they don’t recommend, too!

A company that has a good history, and a long one, in the area, will most likely come up in multiple conversations as you ask others. So, look for history, longevity, and positive reputations from those in your business circle.

Even if you don’t always end up choosing the recommendation of a business cohort or friend, it can open up the conversation to what they did or didn’t like about a certain company and help you to get a better idea of what’s important for your phone answering service.

Look for Flexible & Customizable Services

There should be no such thing as ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to phone answering services, because your specific needs for your specific business and industry are anything but cookie-cutter. So, make sure (once you narrow down to your final couple options) you ask about their plans, customizations, and flexibility.

Make sure they are willing to work for you, and fit with you, not expecting you to do all the work and bending. After all, you’re getting a phone answering service to make your life and business simpler, and help your business run more smoothly. So, if their service is only going to complicate things, it probably isn’t the right fit for you.

My Receptionist Is Always Here to Help!

Did you know that My Receptionist has decades of experience, great reviews, testimonials, and reputation, and is always here to answer your questions? We also have flexible and customizable plans and services, so you can always get exactly what you need!

We would love to help you get back to your business and leave the phone answering to us! Contact us now to learn more!