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Telephone answering services have always played an important role for small businesses and large corporations alike. Put simply, no one is available at all hours of the day to speak to customers and catalog and respond to inquiries. For those hours during which customers expect to be able to speak to someone but people from the company aren’t available (yes, everyone does need to eat lunch at some point), telephone answering service (TAS) representatives are there. Whether they are simply taking messages and passing them along or performing basic tasks like confirming appointments or sending reminders or follow-ups, TAS reps are crucial to the success of a business. But perhaps even more important than the people themselves is having a TAS platform that is trustworthy, easy to use, and allows agents to effortlessly complete all their tasks. Here are three things to look for in the best telephone answering service software. 

Customizable Interactive Voice Responder

Almost every company uses some form of an interactive voice responder (IVR) to direct callers to the agent or department best equipped to handle their inquiry. But oftentimes, when service switches over to an answering service, the IVR disappears. Instead, the phone rings and connects you to a TAS agent who is handling all the calls, regardless of their purpose, which can be frustrating for callers and slow down response time from agents if messages are being relayed back to others. Likewise, if a telephone answering service is handling all phone communication for a small business, it can be overwhelming for agents to have to deal with all manners of inquiry. A TAS platform that has a customizable IVR will allow you to create personalized menus that guide callers quickly to the best person to handle their call. IVRs can also direct callers to self service options when they are available, lowering call volume for TAS agents who may only be equipped to handle certain types of inquiries.

Integration Capabilities

These days, TAS and call center agents are increasingly working remotely from all different places. Depending on the software and applications used to run the business, this can limit the capabilities of TAS agents and create slowdowns and bottlenecks that negatively affect the customer experience. That’s why it’s crucial that your TAS software can be integrated with other tools, systems, and apps that your business uses. This will drastically expand the spectrum of problems that TAS agents can solve, as well as the variety of tasks they are able to complete. If your TAS software is integrated with your scheduling system, TAS agents can make, confirm, or change appointments. If it is integrated with your helpdesk, TAS agents can access information on solutions to common problems or easily get in touch with specialists who can better assist. If it is integrated with your CRM software, TAS agents can look up or update customer information, eliminating the need for a follow-up interaction to handle basic tasks. 

Voicemail Management

As much as companies may rely on telephone answering services to be there for customers when they can’t be, most do not make an agent available 24/7—and even if they do, there won’t always be someone available to answer every single call. As such, people will be leaving voicemails. Leaving a voicemail can sometimes be scary or stressful for customers—they often have no idea how long it will take to receive a call back or even if they will at all. Timely and accurate responding to voicemails is a key way to build trust between your business and your customers and a TAS platform that helps you retrieve, forward, and prioritize voicemails efficiently will go a long way toward making this a reality. You don’t want your agents to be setting aside time to listen to, forward, or respond to stacks of voicemails when your TAS software can do the listening and forwarding for you. 

Telephone answering service agents bridge an important gap between your business and your customers, one that should be built on trust and efficiency. The best way to ensure this foundation is with a TAS platform that offers a customizable IVR, integration capabilities with all your business’s apps and systems, and efficient voicemail management tools. CallShaper’s telephone answering service platform offers all this and more. To see it in action, request a demo today.