Good dm answeing service?

Question

I worked for a drtv advertising agency years ago, and I know some of the big answering services like Convergys. But for small businesses like us who want consistent but affordable service what options are out there? Can anyone recommend a good service?

Misty W. · Answer

A lot of people use VoiceNation.com and I've heard great things and am considering REIOS.com when I separate marketing numbers for buyers and sellers.

Rhonda E. · Answer

I too have been looking around for an answering service.  It feels like I have contacted most of the call service companies.  ;-)

The one that I was the most impressed with so far is AnswerConnect.  I have not used them, but if there phone service is as good as their follow-up system then I expect they will do a good job.

I am also looking for someone to make outgoing calls as well.  CBSI Holdings does both incoming and outgoing calls, but I was not impressed with their responsiveness to my e-mails.

Seems like most/all of the answering services will charge in the range of $1.00 per minute.  I would like something more affordable, because $1.00 per minute can get to be quite expensive.

At this point I think I am just going to go with a VA unless I can find a company that meets all of my criteria.

Jeff Anderson · Answer

Rhonda,

I'm the owner of CBSI, and I want to apologize for the lack of responsiveness that you experienced with our service. There is no excuse for it, and I will be addressing it to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

As for some of the other questions in this thread, I would like to offer some information that might help a little.

First, Rhonda is correct that the rates tend to be around $1.00 per minute - until you get above 100 minutes. Some services don't even offer plans starting below 100 minutes, which can make it very expensive for someone just starting out. This is why CBSI offers a plan at $35 per month for 30 minutes. It is a little more than a dollar per minute, but it's great for someone with low volume (24/7/365 coverage for just $35 per month!). Clients are then able to add minutes to their base in increments of 30 minutes for an additional $25 per month. Thus, the rate per minute declines as the volume increases. When accounts get up to around 500 to 1,000 minutes, our rates are around $0.84 per minute in the base and $0.95 per minute for excess minutes.

Next, beware of other billing features. Some services round to 6 seconds. Thus, if a call last for 25 seconds, it's counted as a 30 second call. That doesn't sound like much, but it really starts to add up over the course of a month. Some services will also add 6 seconds every time an e-mail is sent from the system. So, that 25 second call is now counted as 36 seconds, if the message is e-mailed. At CBSI, we do not round or count calls in 6 second increments, and we don't add on additional time when a message is delivered via e-mail. You only pay for the operator's time. So, a 25 second call is billed at 25 seconds.

Some services will also bill on a 4 week cycle or 13 times per year, rather than once per month. These services will present it as a benefit to the customer, but in reality, it's done for the benefit of the service, not for the benefit of the customer. At CBSI, we bill one time per month or 12 times per year, which is best for the customer.

Regarding hold times and answer times, this varies widely by service, and unfortunately, it's hard to know what the real level of service until you try it. At CBSI we averaged less than six second ring times and less than 30 second hold times last month. We focus on this constantly and tend to "overstaff" to ensure that these times are kept low. We also have people on standby to help take calls if we experience periods of abnormally high volume, and we make sure that all of our other accounts don't suffer if one account explodes with abnormally high volume. With any service, you're going to have some hold time, but they should be able to tell you what they do to minimize it.

I hope this helps, and I hope you will still consider CBSI (www.cbsiholdings.com).

Sincerely,

Jeff Anderson

CBSI President/Owner

Tarique Jawed · Answer

Following thread.  We have used continental message solutions and pat live in the past.  CMS was great but lately their hold time for our sellers has been random between 20 seconds and 2 minutes.  PatLive was great but their hold time was generally around 1.5 minutes.

Looking for suggestions here as well.

Good dm answeing service?

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