On-call after hours answering service: industries in need
Medical offices
How much do on-call services cost for a doctor? A lot of doctors seem to think that the cost might be too high, and they opt out of hiring an on-call answering service team. In reality, doctor and nurse on-call services and general medical on-call services should be available for every patient. With the percentage of urgent calls coming in, it is easy to understand why the medical offices, neglecting on-call services, lose patients to their competition.
Physician on-call services are the most popular when it comes to after hours answering services.
Pharmacies
Pharmacy on-call services are not rare at the pharmacies working 24/7. But what about the customers of the pharmacies working during business hours only? They are stuck with either having to wait for an answer until opening, or they churn and leave for the competition.
Processing buyers’ orders, making them ready for shipments, and providing needed answers any time should become one of the core operating rules for any pharmacy.
One of the best options here are on-call services sites, enhanced by AI and chatbots. These can answer basic customers’ questions and automatically process customers’ tickets, leaving the team with the task to pack and ship.
Home repair offices
Home services are a popular request when it comes to on-call answering services. There is no way to predict when a pipe can burst or a faulty wiring can cause a power outage. It can happen any time of day. Companies, taking care of people’s homes, should be prepared and set up on-call services and emergency teams that can take care of all the troubles any time of day.
Insurance companies
Replacing an on-call answering service insurance team with a chatbot or an answering machine might seem easier, but in a field as volatile and uncertain as insurance, a trained on-call services team becomes irreplaceable. On-call services for insurance provide callers with the possibility to get their answers or report an insurance case right on the spot, ensuring that customers’ inconvenience doesn't go beyond the need to report a case.
Determining whether your business can benefit from an on-call answering service is easy. Just estimate customer communication coming in after business hours. If your customers lack your attention after you have closed for the day, an on-call services team is the right way to go.
On-call services company: how to improve customer experience
An on-call services team should handle customer communication as well as the business hours team. It can also be leveraged to improve customer service and experience. How can a business improve customer service with an on-call team?
Implement different L1 and L2 teams
Customers are willing to pay 17% more if a business is ready to provide superb customer service (on-call services included). 52% of customers say they have made a repeat purchase from a business providing perfect customer service. At the same time, businesses tend to answer customers’ questions 85% of the time. With 15% of inquiries going unanswered, it is doubtful these businesses will see a very high customer satisfaction KPI.
This can happen when, without on-call services, the support team is overwhelmed with customer communication and ticket resolution. One agent could have more than 10 or 20 support tickets of different difficulty and urgency. Dealing with this kind of pressure, it is no wonder that sometimes customers not only get wrong answers, but do not get any answers at all.
Separating the teams responsible for handling L1 and L2 support tickets is one of the best options when it comes to increasing the quality of customer service. L1 on-call service teams do not require a deeper knowledge of the product and can easily provide customers with answers at a sufficient speed.
L2 on-call services teams can handle more difficult customer inquiries without having to distract themselves with easy questions and answers. This would result in a faster resolution process and a more efficient customer communication.
Ensure perfect team synchronization
Teams spend about 50% of their time being engaged in collaborative tasks. 75% of professionals say collaboration and teamwork are important for their productivity. Both of them are impossible without team synchronization. How does SupportYourApp ensure on-call services teams synchronization?
- Regular in-team talks that help us be in touch with each other
- Frequent collaboration between all members of the teams
- Frequent team building activities including support consultants and Delivery Managers
- A policy of openness and cherishing one another
- Feedforward talks for constant personal and professional development
By taking these steps, we ensure our synchronization.
Promote in-team communication
80% of American professionals feel stressed out because of inefficient in-team communication. Lack of communication can lead to:
- Roadblocks
- Miscommunications
- Conflicts
- Low productivity
- Strained relationship with the coworkers
- Burnout
Communication inside the team is one of the most important things for efficient collaboration and customer service processes. We at SupportYourApp are always open to communication with each other. We treat each other as friends and are always ready and happy to not only communicate openly, but to help each other when needed. This makes our workflow smooth and efficient.