Four ways to get your phone answered
We are not going to name our competitors. Here are the four kinds of answer instead, including the two we would send you to ourselves.
A traditional call centre
A room of trained people who take your calls as part of a larger operation. They are good at long conversations, at scripts with branches in them, and at being calm with somebody who is upset. If your callers are distressed, or the conversation is technical and goes on for a while, this is the right kind of answer and you should pay for it.
What it costs you is the readiness. People are paid for the hour whether your phone rings or not, so there is a fee every month before a single call arrives, and per call charges after that. For a small business with a quiet Tuesday, most of that money buys silence.
An overflow answering service
Your phone rings out first, and the calls you did not get to spill over to somebody else who takes a message. It is cheap because it only catches the leftovers, and it is a real improvement on nothing.
The catch is in the word overflow. The caller has already sat through five or six rings before anyone speaks, which is exactly when people give up. And the calls that come in at nine at night were never overflow in the first place, because there was nothing to overflow from.
Voicemail
Free, already on your phone, and honest about what it is. If your callers are people who know you and expect to leave a message, it does the job and you do not need us.
It falls over with strangers. A new customer ringing three businesses does not leave a message on the first one. They ring the second. And the messages you do get are half the information, in the wrong order, from someone standing next to a road.
A phone answering service like this one
Every call is answered on the first ring, in your business name, at any hour. The caller's details are taken and read back, a time can be put in your diary, and the message reaches you by text and email inside a minute. The callers you nominate get put through to you.
What it will not do: give advice, argue with a complaint, negotiate a contract, or handle somebody who needs a human being to be kind to them. It is reception. When a call needs a person, it says so and gets you.
Side by side
| Call centre | Overflow service | Voicemail | This service | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When it picks up | Within a few rings, in business hours | After your phone rings out | After your phone rings out | First ring, any hour |
| Out of hours | Usually an extra service | Sometimes, usually extra | Yes, as a recording | Included, same as daytime |
| Books into your diary | Often, at a price | Rarely | No | Yes, into the real diary |
| Puts urgent callers through | Yes | Sometimes | No | Yes, to the names you pick |
| What you get afterwards | A message, sometimes a recording | A message | A recording you have to listen to | Text, email and a full write-up |
| Cost in a quiet month | The monthly fee, regardless | Usually a monthly minimum | Nothing | NZ$10 for the number, then usage |
| Contract | Often a term | Often a minimum | None | None, and no cancellation fee |
| Handles an upset caller | Best in class | Depends who picks up | No | Puts them through to you |
This service starts at NZ$10 a month for the number plus NZ$1 a minute, or NZ$129 a month for the first three months and NZ$199 after that with 200 minutes included. Ask every provider for the total at your real call volume and get the conditions in writing.
When we would send you elsewhere
There are calls this service should not be taking, and pretending otherwise would cost you customers.
Distress and complaints
If people ring you angry or frightened, they need a person being patient with them. Put a human on that line.
Long technical conversations
If a typical call runs fifteen minutes and needs judgement, a trained agent will do it better than a front desk will.
Anything clinical or legal
Reception can book the appointment. It cannot triage a symptom or advise on a case, and it should never try.
What to ask any answering service before you sign
Ask us these too. Anyone who will not answer them plainly is telling you something.
Do I keep my number?
If the answer involves porting or a new number on your signage, that is a much bigger job than it sounds.
What does a quiet month cost?
Not the headline price. The number that leaves your account in a month where the phone barely rang.
Is the price with GST or without?
Quoting without GST makes a service look cheaper than it is. Ask, and get it in writing.
What is charged per call?
Per call, per minute, rounded up to what. This is where a cheap monthly fee usually gets its money back.
Can I read what was said?
A summary somebody typed is not the same as a record of the call. Ask which one you get.
How do I stop?
Notice period, cancellation fee, and what happens to your number. Ask before you start, not after.
The questions behind the comparison
What is the difference between a call centre and an answering service?
A call centre is built for volume and for handling a conversation all the way through, and it is priced accordingly. An answering service does the front desk part only: answer, take the details, book or pass on. Most small businesses need the second one and get quoted for the first.
Is an overflow answering service enough on its own?
It depends on your handset ringing out first, so the caller has already waited by the time anyone speaks. And the calls that arrive while you are asleep were never overflow, because there was nothing to overflow from.
Is voicemail really that bad?
Voicemail is free and it never lies about what it is. The problem is that it asks a stranger to talk to a machine and wait. Most callers hang up instead, and the ones who do leave a message leave half the information you need.
Should I run more than one of these at once?
Plenty of people do, and it is often the sensible answer. Your handset rings first during the day, this service picks up everything else, and voicemail sits behind both as a last resort. You are not choosing one thing forever.
Judge it on your own callers
A comparison table is somebody else's opinion. Put it on your real number for a while and read what your own customers said.