The Easiest and Cheapest Way to Start a Telephone Answering Service from Home

Even though business people increasingly rely on mobile phones, the fact remains that the smart ones know that being at the beck and call of every prospect and client is inefficient. They know that every job takes longer and mistakes are far more likely if they allow themselves to be constantly interrupted by a ringing phone.

So the smart operators would rather have their phone calls answered by someone else. The problem for small businesses is that paying for a full time telephonist or secretary is just not economic. What they need is a telephone answering service manned by human operators. And it is this need that presents an ideal business opportunity to those who want to set up a business at low cost.

Operating a telephone answering service from home on behalf of local small businesses is one of the simplest and least expensive home businesses to set up. It is very suitable for those who are housebound for whatever reason. It's also a business that can be operated by people with a disability who either find it easier or have no choice but to work from home.

Large office based telephone answering services use sophisticated and expensive computer equipment. When the phone rings, the software knows from the dialled number which client is being called and displays the client details on the operator's computer screen.

In the past the only way a home-based answering service could compete was by having a separate phone line for each client so that calls could be answered in the client's name. This was not only cumbersome but meant that only one call could be answered for each client at a time. And the only way to expand the customer base was by buying more phone lines.

But now there is another way made possible by the recent introduction of virtual switchboards. These are phone systems that are an integral part of the telephone exchange and that offer the same facilities as expensive switchboards but without the attendant cost. In fact, many virtual switchboards are often offered for a small fee and many, especially in the UK, are free to the user.

Each client is allocated a virtual switchboard phone number that is used by the client as the main business number. Alternatively, the client can use call forwarding to send calls to it from an established number.

Calls to the virtual switchboard number are answered automatically and placed in a queue. Each call is then immediately forwarded to the landline number of the telephone answering service. For those just starting out in the telephone answering business, this could even be their home telephone number. That's because each call is announced. When the operator answers a call they hear "You have a call for ABC company. Press any key to accept".

The virtual switchboard doesn't just send calls to one number. It can send them to several in succession if they are not immediately answered or are engaged. This is great for those starting out who can either install more lines as needed or outsource overflow calls to others they recruit to also work from the comfort of their own home.

Of course, virtual switchboards include other features such as voicemail messages delivered by email and notification of missed calls by email. But it is the essential ability to have calls announced and sent to multiple landlines that mean it has never been easier or cheaper for the home worker to start offering a telephone answering service to businesses.

Author Michael Soliatis writes about telecom issues and offers a free 0870 virtual switchboard facility.

Answering Machine Greeting - Things to Remember

You've experienced it anytime you're about to leave a message for someone: You sit through 30 seconds of instructions on what to do to leave your message when it is common knowledge that we wait for the beep and speak. And then we turn around and make the same greeting on our own answering machine when we get one. The vicious cycle continues.

There are 3 things that you need to communicate to a person who is bound to get your answering machine:

1) A brief introduction

2) You're not available

3) A reminder to leave a contact number

The reasoning behind this is simple. Some people may not realize they're initially getting a machine and quality on the machines are much better than they used to be, so you want to communicate quickly that you aren't there. to minimize confusion.

The reminder to leave a number is important because people leaving a message will get so wrapped up in delivering the information quickly that they often neglect the most important piece: contact information. And don't expect to rely on caller-id either, since more and more people either install call blocking, or call from numbers that are re-routed, resulting in incorrect caller-id results.

There are two opposing schools of thought on the introduction. One states that you should never leave personal information up for grabs on the greeting, while others maintain that a simple first name won't hurt anyone. The answer lies in your own personal comfort level, but the advantage to announcing your phone number in your greeting is that you will reduce the number of wrong-number messages that are left for you. Simply using a name might not be enough to inform the caller they called the wrong number. However, using a phone number in the message is very impersonal and makes for a more robotic greeting. Utilizing both the phone number and your first name in the greeting is a slightly longer, but best of both worlds solution.

An example of all this could be as follows: "You've reached 555-555-5555. We're sorry we missed your call, so make sure you leave a number where we can get back to you. Thank you".

Or, for a personalized message: "Hey, it's Julie. Sorry to miss you call, but make sure you leave a number so I can call you back right away! Thanks".

That's it. Everything else that is often put into answering machine messages simply prolongs the time a caller must wait before leaving what is ultimately going to be an abbreviated version of the conversation you'll ultimately have with them anyway. Furthermore, with the continued proliferation of answering machines with computerized instructions after the initial greeting, callers often end up hearing you tell them to leave a message after the tone, only to have a computer instruct them to do the exact same thing moments later. If you want to make 100% certain that your callers get all the information they need, call your own answering machine and listen to whatever additional instructions are given after your own greeting. Eliminate the redundant information given by both yourself and the automated process and you'll find yourself getting much more informative messages from callers, as well as happier callers to boot.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Answering Machines