Sally was good at a lot of things. She was a good communicator, a great cook, and her kids frequently made her cards that declared her the best mom in the world. But Sally struggled in one important quality: balance. She started her own accounting business after her kids were old enough for school, and as much as she tried to end her work day at 5:00 pm and play with her kids, she often found herself answering client phone calls well into the evening-usually around the time the people she served got off work and had the time to call her back. Her husband, kids, and dog all learned to dread the sound of her cell phone ringing, knowing that she would likely be on the phone with a new or existing client instead of being with the family. Sally was also getting exhausted. She felt like a 24 hour answering service. She knew something had to change.
Her bright idea came when she saw information about an after hours answering service. She knew that sometimes she would get a doctor’s answering service, but she did not realize that all kinds of industries could use an after hours answering service. This seemed like a great solution. Sally knew that customer service mattered. She saw it even in her own behavior. People are twice as likely to tell the people they know about bad experiences than they are about good ones, and she hated to risk letting new clients get a standard voicemail or an automated answering service when what they wanted was the benefit of working closely with their accountant. Plus, Sally knew that prioritizing customer service could pay off big and that companies with good customer service could see profits up to 60% higher than those of their competitors. Good customer service made good business sense.
At first, Sally wasn’t sure she was ready to put out the money for an after hours answering service. She tried to encourage clients to email instead of call her after hours. What she found however, was that she rarely able to resolve their issue without a real conversation. In fact, across all companies, only about 27% of customers who email about a concern feel that they receive a response that satisfies their needs. Sally couldn’t risk damaging her reputation by relying on email after hours.
After one final night of missing out on her son’s stories around the dinner table because of a client call, Sally decided that an after hours answering service with great customer service was definitely worth the investment. She found a live phone answering service that was perfect for her small business. Now she knows that when she leaves her office for the night, her clients are in the able hands of her after hours answering service. Go ahead and add balance to her list of accomplishments.
