“The idea of prosthetics is a tool. Most people’s cell phones are prosthetics. If you leave your cell phone at home, you feel impacted by not having it. It’s an important part of your daily function and what you can do in a day.” — Aimee Mullins

In the business world, phones are a particularly vital prosthetic, as they fuel communications and, in turn, transactions. But smart businesses are always looking to cut expenses by streamlining processes and improving efficiency, and answering the phones will often be the target of budget cuts. One of the best ways to do reduce the costs of managing the phones is to work with a phone answer service that can handle rigorous and time-consuming daily calls. Live receptionist services can allow businesses to avoid the costs of hiring full-time employees while still having trained professionals answer their phones.

Not only will phone answer services help owners and managers reduce payroll and labor costs, but they also allow companies to answer calls at all hours, even when they are closed. Whether a company operates in New York but has lots of customers and clients in California or operates globally, accommodating different time zones is often important to maximizing sales and success. By working with an answering service, administrators will not have to worry about answering calls beyond business hours.

Of course, since simple desk phones are almost a thing of the past and cell phones are often more important, reliable answering services will be able to not only provide information, but re-route calls to a number of different devices. They can forward calls to cell phones just as easily as they can office phones, so employees can field calls while on the go. In today’s highly competitive and fast-moving marketplace, that ability is essential.

In order to set themselves apart from the competition in both the short and long terms, businesses need to find ways to provide great customer service while sticking to budgets that don’t include extraneous costs. For many, partnering with a dependable phone answer service is the best way to do that. It allows companies to make sure customers and clients get the information they need without having to budget for full-time employees. That combination should make the decision to outsource phone answering services an easy one and will make any investment completely worthwhile. Read more: Live answering services