Generally speaking, most business will have a 1800 number or a local phone number that customers can call to discuss anything having to do with the particular business. This is not just something business decided on. Surveys show that about 80% of clients would actually rather contact customer service over the phone as opposed to any other methods. It is convenient, because there are times where you need to speak to someone while looking at the product in question and often times it is not a portable product.

The problem comes when the business is not a 24 hour business or does not have a 24 hour answering service. Employing a specialty answering service would be appropriate in these cases. After hours call service is important to any business because this is generally when customers will contact a business. After the client is done with work or their daily duties, getting around to calling customer service about certain issues usually happens later on in the evening. Especially someone with a medical issue. They know it’s not severe enough to call 911 but often wonder if it’s even necessary to get everyone up out of bed and go to the ER. Having a medical answering service comes in very handy at this point, as the answering service can have the on call physician or nurse return the patient’s call in a timely manner.

A specialty answering service can usually provide either an automatic call back service once the customer’s place in line is reached or an on hold method where the customer must stay on the line until a representative can answer. Around three quarters of customers say that prefer the call back method rather than staying on hold. The call back method actually saves your place in line so that you can hang up and go about your day until you receive the call back. This is particularly helpful with businesses that have a long hold time either during business hours or even as an after hours phone service.

The only problem seen so far with a specialty answering service is that they may not be able to resolve the issue in a very timely manner. This is the priority for customers; they want their issues taken care of quickly and efficiently. Often times, specialty answer services are unable to provide the same type of care that employees from the actual business would be able to simply because the knowledge is not there.

However, this problem can be overcome with excellent customer service. If a place has great customer service, 13% more consumers say they would be willing to stick it out with a particular company. Excellent customer service can go a long way to giving a business the great reviews they need to continue.