By Rob Porter

You want your business to be a success but your employees are busy taking calls and messages and they can't devote the time you need to boost your business. Why not use a call answering service to give your employees more time to focus on their core responsibilities? Outside service providers can host live operators to answer your calls and forward your messages, allowing you to provide excellent customer support without cutting into your employees' time.

Your phones are often left unanswered when your in-house receptionist goes on breaks or is on vacation. You don't have to worry when you outsource to the right company! A call answering service ensures that you always receive your calls by providing a network of professional people to answer your phones both day and night. Live operators act as your virtual receptionists around the clock, and answer calls in your company name. They'll politely assist your callers and transfer calls immediately to your employee extensions or departments. When you're not available, call answering service operators take detailed messages and send them to your voice-mail, pager, e-mail, or fax. And since call answering service operators transcribe and double-check these messages, you can trust that you'll always have clear and accurate information.

With the right telephone answering provider, callers feel personally connected to your business after hours. Live operators answer callers in friendly voices and help them with their queries and concerns. Call answering service operators inform callers of your normal working hours, your department e-mail addresses, and let callers know about your current events or promotions. Callers can also send requests for services and operators set their appointments. You'll get requests for service through page, e-mail, fax, or voice-mail, allowing you to keep the appointment or call clients back when necessary. You can also use your support vendor as your buyer hotline. Live operators walk customers through their order and help them select product colors and sizes. They'll estimate shipping costs and up sell and cross sell your products. And since fast and accurate live operators send order information instantly, you'll be able to fulfill orders more quickly.

Your goal is to make your company's name inseparable from your industry. So why not use a call answering service to achieve this goal? Your employees will have more time to expand your business, and your callers will still get great customer support.

Robert Porter is the President and CEO of 1-800 We Answer  http://www.efls.com/ Answering Service, a full service telecommunications company providing a complete range of answering service, call center, voice mail, fax, mail receiving, ordertaking, telemarketing and phone system services to businesses and individuals.