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A MARKET RESEARCH ON HOW 

MANY PEOPLE AND HOW MUCH 

PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR A 

TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE 

BETWEEN 8.00am – 6.00pm 

(Mondays – Saturdays). 

Written by: ODEH FRIDAY ODEH  

 

 

 

AUGUST 11, 2010 

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ABSTRACT

Each day there are an unlimited number of phone calls that are placed.

Amazingly is the number of phone calls that go unanswered. Unanswered phone

calls can be costly, especially for those who are running a business.

Phone answering services are used all around the world. One of the reasons why

phone answering services are so popular is because they allow a business to

provide their customers with the utmost service during normal working hours.

One of the many goals of a business is to keep their customers happy; however,

that cannot happen around the clock. Due to holidays, business meetings, lunch

breaks, and vacations a business employee may not always be available to take

their calls. A phone answering service can be used when an employee will be

gone even for just a few minutes.

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1.0 INRODUCTION

1.1 CALL MANAGEMENT is the process of designing and implementing

rules and parameters governing the routing of inbound telephone calls through

a network. These rules can specify how calls are distributed according to the

time and/or date of the call as well as the location of the caller.

A call centre (customer interaction centre) is a centralised office used for the

purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone.

A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support

or information inquiries from consumers. Most major businesses use call

centres to interact with their customers. Examples include receptionist,

complaints centre, help desks, retail financial support, sales support, and

customer support for services.

Through contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to

appropriate people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. It is generally

a part of company’s customer relationship management (CRM).

Types of call centre calls are often divided into outbound and inbound. Inbound

calls are calls that are made by the consumer to obtain information, report a

malfunction, or ask for help. These calls are substantially different from

outbound calls, where agents place calls to potential customers mostly with

intentions of selling or service to the individual. In providing answering service

to customers, inbound calls are considered to satisfy customers request and

inquiries.

In call management, staff are organised into a multi-tier support system for a

more efficient handling of calls. The first tier in such a model consists of

operators, who direct inquiries to the appropriate department and provide

general directory information. If a caller requires more assistance, the call is

forwarded to the second tier, where most issues can be resolved. In some cases,

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there may be three or more tiers of support staff. If a caller requires more

assistance, the caller is forwarded to the third tier of support; typically the third

tier of support is formed by product engineers/developers or highly skilled

technical support staff of the product. In between the multi-tier support system,

we will consider a call answering service.

1.2 TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE

Telephone answering service is a service that businesses, professional offices,

and private individuals contract to answer their telephones when they are

unavailable. In the past, a telephone answering service would answer your

phones, take messages, and dispatch calls. Today, services can do much more

including scheduling appointments and processing orders.

When you employ a full-time office assistant or receptionist in business, you

realize that your office needs someone to answer the telephone lines. However,

considering the payroll costs, benefits and paperwork required for employing

additional employees, employing new employees may not be affordable for

your business, and may not be worth the time and energy. When you choose to

hire an answering service, there are no benefits or payroll taxes to pay. With a

reliable and professional answering service your calls will be answered

promptly and professionally. You will receive accurately recorded messages,

which can be relayed to you however you wish: via phone, voicemail, e-mail,

and PDA depending on the answering service technology. You and your current

employees can stay focused on whatever else you should or want to be doing

besides covering calls.

1.2.1 A live answering service will connect a customer with an actual

representative instead of a recording if they call after hours, at a time when

you're away from the office, or if all of the lines in the office are already busy,

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depending upon how you set up your service. These live representatives can

give patients as much or as little information as you tell them to whenever a

patient is speaking with them. For example, if you decide to go away for a short

time on vacation the representative can let your patient know that you'll be away

and for how long. This way, your patient doesn't keep calling and getting the

same recording over and over. Even if the recording contains all of the

information that the patient may need, it can still be frustrating to not get to talk

to the individual one on one. It can be much easier to take in information when

you have an actual person relaying it to you, and they can explain what it means

if the patient doesn't quite understand.

1.2.2 An automated answering service is a recording which will pick up

during set hours of the day, when all lines are busy, or when nobody is available

in the office. These can range from a simple recording which relays information

you've chosen and links to a voicemail system at the end, or an interactive voice

response (IVR) technology. Interactive voice response technology will allow the

caller to make selections from a menu by using their keypad. These can give

callers access to far more options than they would get if they were connected to

a basic automated answering service. This can help save your organization both

time and money. This service can be classified by:

Virtual Personal Assistant - is a robust and flexible application. It is set-up to

handle calls that are not answered within 15 seconds approximately. These

automated answering services allow the caller to obtain a series of information

based on responses to prompts. This application gives a full suite of unified

communication tools that adapt to your work e.g. True call handling by status

modes, voicemail, fax, call forwarding, music on hold, e.t.c. It's like having

your own personal assistant.

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RE-Direct - : forward calls. As soon as someone calls your number they will

immediately be forwarded to the phone number(s) you have programmed your

service to call. The caller will hear nothing but ringing before they are

transparently forwarded to you. If you don't answer the call, your caller will be

put into your voicemail or answering machine on your end.

This service is preferably used in medical services, telecommunication call

centres, an organisations’ complaint centre, receptionist, e.t.c.

Due to holidays, business meetings, lunch breaks, and vacations a business

employee may not always be Available. This is why phone Answering

Services are needed. In a way, phone Answering Services make up for an

employee that is unable to answer the phone. A phone Answering Service can

be used when an employee will be gone even for just a few minutes.

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2.0 FACTORS THAT AFFECT TELEPHONE ANSWERING

SERVICES

The experience a customer gets and the results a company achieves on a given

call are almost totally dependent on the quality of the agent answering that call.

Call centres are beginning to address this by using agent-assisted voice

solutions to standardise the process all agents use.

In order to improve performance, call centres are either using scientific

technologies to do the job or personality and skill based approaches. Many

business owners turn to answering services when their workload becomes too

much to handle. An answering service could prevent you and your other

employees from becoming overworked. Businesses who do not receive

important phone calls put themselves at risk for losing profits using a telephone

answering service.

2.1 ADVANTAGES OF TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE

a. No need to employ additional people to man telephones, this is especially

important if you are running a small or large business that runs working hours

for customer service availability. This can result in massive savings as salaries

and benefits are not necessary.

b. No more missed calls or lost clients; losing potential clients can be a hard

blow especially for small businesses.

c. Urgent calls are handled until you are able to deal with them from a company

level. Also, calls can be screened calls during holidays. For independent

contractors, messages may be taken only from those clients you want to.

2.2 DISADVANTAGES OF TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE

a. Less control over people answering calls on behalf of your business; some

services may be staffed by people who are unmotivated or dislike what they do.

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This can reflect negatively on businesses.

b. Accents or language barriers can pose communication problems; this is

especially true for call centres.

c. Waiting time. Some persons are reluctant to leave voice messages, so

automated answering services may not work in some instances.

d. Confidentiality issues are also important as persons beyond your realm of

control may have access to sensitive telephone messages

e. Automated answering services tend to be full (message storage) after a while,

and unable to take any more messages.

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3.0 QUESTIONNAIRE

The following questions were considered in the survey:

1. Unemployed/ Employed

2. Employed: Government Establishment/ Private Organisation/ Self-

Employed

3. Do you make use of voicemail service?

4. Do you know what a telephone answering service is?

5. Are you always available to answer your phone (office, personal)

6. How important/ confidential are your calls?

7. Will you be willing to use the service?

8. Will your organisation/ the organisation you work for use a telephone

answering service?

9. How much do you think you can pay for the service?

10. How much do you think the organisation you work for will pay for the

service?

Questions that arose during the survey are:

1. Will it do better than my receptionist?

2. Who/ what is transferring the call and how long will it take to get a

response?

3. Is the payment plan or charges dependent on the number of calls that

comes in daily or monthly?

3.1 COMMENTS

Government worker:

I will pay double the amount for text messages............period. No

government office is supposed to adopt the use of a telephone answering

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service since theirs is a seat at table kind of job... it will surely encourage

absenteeism from office.

Private workers:

1. I think an organisation like SUBURBAN would pay N100, 000 for a

telephone answering service monthly

2. If MTN were to use the answering machine, they would pay N200, 000

monthly

3. Approximately thirty organisations out of a hundred will use it.

4. I will pay based on the salary of the receptionist, between 30,000naira

-60,000naira.

Businessman:

It is nothing short of annoying when a person does not have an answering

service. Let us face it. In this day and age, everyone should be able to

manage at least an answering machine. When it comes to business

transactions, it is even more important to have some sort of answering

service available to your customers.

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4.0 CONCLUSION

It shows that people will pay for an answering service depending on the kind of

business they run, the kind of clients they have, and the number of clients who

communicate with them on a daily basis(mainly dependent on working hours).

Multinational companies will offer to pay more. Small – Medium businesses

(retail stores) will pay less because they do not necessarily need a telephone

answering service. Individual business such as Tailors, plumbers, electricians,

Construction workers and other general contractors may need a telephone

answering service because their job could depend on it. Businesses that deal

with emergencies (Medical Practitioners and Lawyers) will pay for this service

(depending on their profit). Medical practitioners are the ones that will benefit

the most from using a phone answering service. Lawyers are another group of

individuals, just like medical emergencies, crime does not take a break. A

Lawyer will use a phone answering service when they are with another client or

out of their office.

All businesses are likely to use a phone answering service (most especially

those that handle emergencies).

In conclusion, 88% of self-employed individuals, will not use the service or pay

less because they are readily available (as a Nigerian) to answer their calls and

also cut down irrelevant expenses. Government establishments will not

encourage the use of a telephone answering service as an Organisation. 60% of

private organisation that provides services that require customer relationship or

assistance will pay for the service, as it enhances their business, cuts down costs

of staff benefits, and also enhances market intelligence.

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REFERENCES

• http://ezinearticles.com/?Should-You-Use-a-Live-Answering-Service-Or-

an-Automated-Answering-Service?&id=2570592

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_management

• http://www.call-center-tech.com/phone-answering-services.htm

• http://www.voicenation.com/how-it-works.shtml

• http://www.per-com.com/answering-service.html

• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/answering-services-for-small-

businesses.html

• http://www.messagesplus.com/telephone-answering-service/

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GLOSSARY

The following is a glossary of terms and products used in the call centre industry. It covers the commonly used terms, Agent: the telephone operative who handles the call at an extension. Aggressiveness Level: used with power or predictive diallers. The level or speed at which the calls are automatically placed for the agent. Automated Fax: systems that will automatically send a fax to the caller if requested. CLI Call Line Identity: identifies the number calling on a screen. Call Record: digital recording system, primarily for inbound centres. Database: the base list from which all calls are made. Device Numbers: extensions, agents and lines can be given a code to identify them in system reporting. Extension: the physical telephone handset at which an agent takes/makes calls Log on: when an agent tells the system he/she is connected and ready to make/take calls. Skills Routing: a system which directs calls to a particular agent where specific skills or knowledge is required. Unavailable: an agent may make themselves unavailable for a next call, Voice Mail: system for recording messages to agents/operators. Voice Recognition: sophisticated auto attendant system where the caller can respond to prompts with spoken answers rather than entering key strokes on their handset. Wrap Up: an agent can enter a wrap up state before they terminate a call, to complete paperwork or enter data and will not receive another call until they leave wrap up.