Did you know that in the year 2020, the United States government spent almost $400 million on answering services? Phone answering is crucial for businesses of all sizes that want to provide great customer service. Some companies don’t want to hire an in-house call center, but there are plenty of options for help with outsourcing a call center.
But how much will these call center prices cost your business? And what software for businesses will you need for the answering services to work at the level needed?
The good news is that you’ve come to the right place for answers. Continue reading to learn more about how much answering services will cost your business.
What Is Your Preferred Answering Services Pricing Model?
There are a bunch of different routes you can take when it comes to paying an answering services company for their help. A big part of running a successful business is ensuring that you price things properly. For help with finding the right company, click here.
It is important to keep in mind that not all answering services are created equal so you should do your due diligence when it comes to finding the right package and company for your business.
Here is a closer look at the most common ways that an answering service will bill you for their help.
Pay By The Minute
Paying by the minute is the most common way that answering services bill you for their help. This is nice because you only pay for what you use. The billing process works by being billed for the outbound and inbound calls that the call center handles.
It is also typical for there to be a base rate that guarantees a set amount of minutes per billing cycle. Before you sign up for this type of pricing model, make sure you understand how the company calculates call time.
Pay Per Call
Pay per call models will pay out a flat rate for each call that the call center receives. This is nice because you’re not billed for the amount of time that the agent spends on the phone. It is more based on the number of inbound and outbound calls processed.
Some pay per call models also included a base rate for a certain amount of calls made and received per billing cycle. With this model, you need to find out how things work for calls to wrong numbers and calls that get disconnected.
The drawback to this model is that providers will try to keep their call center workers on the phone for less than a minute to boost their profits.
Monthly Fees
There are also a lot of services that prefer a monthly billing cycle. This is usually in the form of either fees or a subscription and involves a set number of call minutes per month.
This might not be the best model for your business since if you pass the minutes threshold, the answering services will bump you up to the next plan. This can make going the monthly fees route very expensive.
Answering Services Cost
When it comes to outsourced answering services pricing you can expect it to cost you anywhere from $20 to $30 per hour. This price is a great guide of what you can expect for each outsourced call center representative you hire to help out with your business’s call center needs.
Get Answering Services Today
There are a number of ways that answering services can help you grow your business. It is a great alternative to hiring an in-house call center department to handle your customer service and sales. It is important to know which payment method will work best for you. A safe estimate is that each call center rep you have will cost you around $20 to $30 per hour.
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