For telephone answering services to find success in today’s competitive marketplace, a key essential is quality. Quality consistently ranks as clients’ top concern when selecting an answering service. Here are some key considerations when it comes to providing quality service. Clients Expect Quality: When talking with a prospect about using your answering service, it’s a given that they expect you will provide them a quality service. Seldom will a client say, “I don’t really care about quality, I just need the phone answered.” Instead they say quality is important. But sometimes they won’t even mention it; they assume it’s offered and expect you to follow through. Never take quality for granted. Providing poor quality or inconsistent service is the quickest way to lose a client. Customers Demand Quality: Not only do your clients expect you to provide quality service to their callers, but their customers demand it, too. Callers to your answering service want you to answer their calls quickly, handle their request proficiently, and do everything professionally. When you fail to provide the quality they expect, your clients’ customers will be quick to complain to your clients. Though they will seldom take time to praise you, they will be quick to criticize each time you fall short. And every complaint your client hears about your service from frustrated customers, is one more reason for them to switch services. Not only do you need to convince your clients you provide quality service, but you also need to show it to their customers. Clients Have Options: In today’s competitive marketplace, clients have many answering service provider options readily available. A quick online search gives them a plethora of options. Some alternatives will promise high quality, and others will guarantee low prices. Some will do both. A client can switch service in minutes with a single phone call or a few mouse clicks. No matter how good your quality is, there will be someone who’s better. No matter how favorable your prices, there will be someone who charges less. The best way to prevent your clients from considering options is to provide them with quality service in the first place and keep them from searching for alternatives. With all the options out there, it’s challenging to get a new client and hard to keep them if your quality suffers. Free Trials Make Switching Easy: Many answering services offer a free trial to entice clients to use them. Regardless if you like this tactic or not, know that you compete against it. A free trial is a no-risk way for a prospective client to try a new answering service before committing. With so many answering services offering free trials, it’s easy for your client to test your competition before they sever ties with you. And if the free trial doesn’t pan out, there’s another answering service willing to do the same thing. Clients can keep trying free trials until they find an answering service they deem as better than yours. Then they’ll switch. You Must Prove You Offer Quality. Every answering service says they provide quality service. Not all can prove it. Can you? It’s easy to talk a good game, but it’s harder to follow through. One way to demonstrate your quality, is to offer a free trial. Another way is by sharing testimonials from satisfied customers. But the best way to prove you offer quality is by receiving recognition from a third-party evaluation service, such as ATSI or CAM-X. Answering service quality is essential in today’s market and you can’t afford not to provide it. The best strategy is to make quality your top priority, and then back it up with tangible proof. Janet Livingston is the president of Call Center Sales Pro, a premier sales and marketing service provider for the call center and telephone answering service industry, which helps clients grow their revenue. Contact Janet at contactus@callcenter-salespro.com or 800-901-7706. Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan.