Question: I’m anxiously waiting for the economy to rebound.  Until it does, I need to reduce my expenses.  Although I don’t want to temporarily cancel my answering until things rebound, I feel like I have no other choice.  What alternatives should I consider?

Answer: The out-of-pocket expense you pay to your answering service is only part of the equation.  It is important to remember that opportunity costs, or sales and customer contacts lost, because a real person does not answer each call.

Often, the results of one call are sufficient to cost-justify the cost of an answering service for a month or more.  Even so, if you are set on saving money in the short-term, there are many steps that can be taken to help you cut costs while still providing you with a vital communications link.  Although your answering service will need to specifically look at your account, analyzing it and reviewing your needs to determine the best solution, there are a few steps that will generally help lower your monthly bill.  Common steps include streamlining your instructions, simplifying your on-call procedure, making sure our answering service has up-to-date information, considering a different means  to receive your messages or orders, and using automation for specific routine tasks.

Your answering service can also look specifically at the functions that contribute the most to your bill and target those items for optimization.  If they can streamline the work they do for you, they can likely reduce your bill.

Learn more about telephone answering services and discover how the might be able to help you.