The Value of an Answering Service to a Funeral Director’s Life

An answering service is essential to a funeral home in guaranteeing that every call will be answered at any time and on any day.  Most funeral directors have nightmares of missing a call from a family they have developed a relationship with and promised to be there when their family’s loved one has passed.  A good answering service, such as All City Communications will answer all your calls live, without a recorded greeting allowing us to immediately listen to, empathize with, and comfort a family member calling in with a death call or a concern relating to a loved one. 

The benefits of an answering service that’s available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to the families of a funeral home are easy to understand, however the benefits of an answering service to the individual funeral director or owner of the funeral home may not be as obvious.  The work schedule of a funeral director is very fluid.  Anticipated time with the family of a funeral director can change at a moment’s notice.  Time for a funeral director for sleep or to spend time with their family or to simply enjoy a movie is as scarce as getting a hole in one in some cases.  Not only does a funeral director have to be available for death calls but also they have to be available to answer questions such as; service information, obituaries, florists, directions and billing questions. 

The solution for a funeral director to help with time is an answering service such as All City Communications.   All City Communications will answer every call live with a compassionate, empathetic voice and only dispatch calls such as a death call or a family that really needs to speak to the funeral director.  We can handle all other calls such as service times, obituaries, florists, directions and billing calls.  There is no need for a funeral director to be available for every call, 24 hours a day.  An answering service is a needed resource that a funeral director must utilize to free up time for their family and for themselves in order to provide a little normalcy to the hectic and unpredictable nature of their lives.         

Answering Service Cost: It's More than Price

There is nothing more expensive than a cheap answering service.

Many times throughout a day, the first words out of a prospective customer looking for an answering service is how much do we charge and how do we provide accurate billing?  It seems like the quality of our service is secondary than the pricing.  I am more than happy to share our pricing with anybody; however it is important for the caller to understand the differences in the quality of service versus the price.

Price is a one-time purchase; Quality is a life time purchase

Answering services are not built alike.  A good analogy is when you shop for a vehicle.  We all can head to a car lot and ask the car salesman, “What is the cheapest car in the lot?”  Most of us and I would assume all of us don’t ask that as the first question.  The reason we don’t ask that question as the first question is because we want to get the highest quality at the most reasonable price.  Not the cheapest without considering the quality.  We want a vehicle that is reliable that doesn’t have you in the garage monthly for an issue.  We want a vehicle that has the highest rated crash test rating to protect your family.  We want a vehicle that has the best gas mileage.  There truly is value we want that goes beyond price when buying a vehicle.  There should be no difference in how you look at an answering service.  Just like a vehicle that has many different amenities you can purchase, an answering service has many value added services that benefit your business versus just looking at price. 

All City Communications Value Added Services

All City Communications will answer all your calls live.  Your customers will have their needs immediately addressed.  There is an increased value to addressing your customers’ needs immediately versus an answering machine, voice mail or an answering service that tells your caller to remain on the line for the next available operator.  All City Communications employs the most skilled, professional customer service associates to handle your calls in the industry.  The person who answers your call is the face of your business and the ability of our operators to consistently and effectively communicate with your callers is essential in growing and maintaining your business.  Anybody can answer the phone; it takes a professional, experienced customer service associate to communicate effectively with your callers.  Our people will do just that.  All City Communications will ensure you actually receive all your messages accurately with correct spellings and with detailed messages.  There is no reason, no matter how cheap an answering service is that you should be with an answering service that doesn’t take detailed, accurate messages.  How much money will you lose if you don’t receive detailed messages from current customers and potential customers? 

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The Importance of Understanding Billing with an Answering Service

Knowing what you are being billed is only a part of understanding the cost of an answering service to your business.  The real key is understanding how you are being billed.

An important question you must ask your answering service is what is their billing periods.  Is it a month to month billing cycle or is it every 28 days.  There can be a huge difference over the course of a year between the two.  A 28 day billing period accounts for a partial billing period for every month.  In a typical non leap year, six months of the year have 30 days and 6 months of the year has 31 days.  In a 28 day billing cycle you will have 6 months of the year with 2 days unaccounted for and you will have 6 months of the year with 3 days unaccounted for.  The total of all the days unaccounted for is 30 days.  Those extra days will be billed as an extra invoice during the course of a year which also means you will receive an additional base rate during the course of the year.   All City does it differently.  We bill you on a month to month basis with 12 invoices in a 12 month period.  There are no hidden costs with us.

Another question you must ask your answering service is what their rounding rate is.  The rounding rate is the fraction that the call is rounded to.  An example is a call that lasts 34 minutes.  Is it rounded for billing purposes to 40 seconds or is rounded to the next full minute which would be 1 minute.  Some services do the next full minute of rounding.  This would greatly affect your usage rate so you wouldn’t be comparing apples to apples when deciding on an answering service.  At All City Communications we only round to the 1/10^th of a minute, so a 6 second call will only be rounded to 10 seconds.  This can be a great savings for your company. 

Finally, review any additional line items for services that you currently use.  Examples of additional line items may be texting charges, patching charges, and any term a specific answering service may use for an additional surprise service charge.  All City Communications is upfront with pricing and offers an extremely competitive rate.  We have many customized packages that will fit your needs so you will not be paying for additional minutes you may never use.  

Never Miss a Call and Why That Matters to You

I think we can all agree that availability to your customers and potential customers is a key component of business growth and success.  Whether you are in the funeral industry where being available to your families is paramount or in the service industry where many people will search for a specific service such as plumbing or heating in their area, it is extremely important to be available to answer the call.  As important as availability is to your business it is almost impossible to always be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year including Holidays to your potential customers and current customers.

All City Communications provides a solution to that problem by being available to answer your calls by a dedicated group of customer care specialists 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  We can answer as your business without the caller ever knowing that we are not in your office no matter what time the call comes in.  After speaking to the caller we have multiple options to dispatch the call to you.  These options include; texting, patching, calling and emailing.  Additionally, you will get a report of the call history and the dispatch result to help manage your employees and to keep record of the caller’s information.

Ensuring that you will never miss a call is essential to the success of your business.  All City Communications has professional, dedicated customer care specialist that will handle the needs of your callers and address their concerns immediately.  Do not let your competitors be more available to potential customers that you are.  Contact All City Communications and we will give you the competitive advantage. 

Live Answering, All City’s Essential Difference Maker!

Just a few a days ago I found myself in customer service limbo with a prominent supplier of television service.  I was on hold in a phone loop with another automated phone system, known as an IVR (Interactive Voice Response).  This system is all too familiar to all of us in which you are instructed to press a certain button on a phone tree where you press 1 for billing issues, 2 for tech support, etc.  I finally made it through to a live person that was able to answer my questions and address my concerns, but not until I was extremely frustrated and mumbled to myself about switching to a competitive provider of the same service. 

In a 2011 Consumer Reports survey, 71% of those surveyed said they were “tremendously annoyed” when they couldn’t reach a live customer service rep over the phone.  Customers hate IVR automated phone systems and it is not a good practice to anger your customers or potential customers from the start of the call.  Not all companies use an IVR system for their customer service processes.  In fact the #1 internet retailer, Amazon utilizes live answering for their customer service processes.  It is easy to understand why companies that appreciate customer service such as Amazon utilizes live answering representatives. 

Here at All City Communications we will answer every call live with no recorded greeting telling your callers to remain on hold or no frustrating IVR phone trees that your customers and potential customers have to navigate through to have their concerns and questions addressed.  An answering service that provides a live answering environment is crucial to making your customers happy and satisfied and will definitely have an impact on the level of customer service you provide on the phone.  After all, communication is essential to being able to effectively address the concerns of your customers.