Phone answering service is a business phone answering solution that receives incoming calls for your company, takes messages or connects callers with other staff members to help with sales, customer support, appointments and product inquiries. Whether you’re looking to scale, boost revenue or improve your company’s customer experience, an answering service is a great way to ensure no call goes unanswered.

Answering services can vary widely, but they all typically provide some form of live phone support for your business. Depending on the provider, this may include virtual receptionists who can help your customers with sales and customer service requests, or a team of professionals that can assist with emergencies (like medical calls), schedule a meeting, provide after-hours support, or take orders. Whether it’s an answering service for small business or a call center solution for enterprise, the best services are able to seamlessly integrate their work into your business so you can track every interaction and gain insights into your customer data.

Many answering services use auto-attendants to greet callers and guide them to the right person. But these automated solutions can make your customers frustrated and may be unable to address their needs. For example, an auto-attendant may ask a caller to press a number or say a specific word, which can be confusing for customers who don’t know the correct steps.

Some phone answering services also offer additional digital options like chat and social media monitoring, allowing you to handle more complex customer questions and interactions in addition to simple message-taking or call transfers. Other services like Ruby allow you to publish a separate business phone number while forwarding your personal number to their servers, so you can answer all calls on your mobile device and protect your privacy. phone answering service