The Real Things to Understand About Answering Service Prices

Posted by Andy Gross on March 28th, 2018

The answering services have become an integral part of every modern business. The service providers in this industry work with the teams of virtual receptionists, offsite sales representatives, and customer care representatives who can handle any number of inbound calls for their clients. When compared to an in-house staff, outsourcing of answering services to these companies can bring more flexibility and cost savings for your business. However, you should clearly understand the pricing pattern of a company before hiring it. They make different types of packages to suit the individual requirements of each client. It is advisable to compare their plans and make better decisions based on your specific needs.

Understand the Difference Between Per-Minute and Per-Call Pricing:
As a common industry practice, most of the service providers charge their clients on the basis of total time spent in a month on handling the calls. However, there is a slight difference in the pricing models followed from one company to another. Basically, there are two models, viz. per-minute pricing and per-call pricing. To know answering service prices, you should understand the difference between these two.

The per-call pricing model works with a predefined rate charged for every call received in a month. A service provider may include hang-ups and wrong numbers also in this pricing. Some companies include text messages, fax, and emails also as a call in the monthly bills.

The per-minute pricing is based on the time actually spent on call handling by the operators of answering service company. This time includes the minutes that they spent on answering the calls, sending the messages, placing the calls, and dispatching the emails as per the requirements of the customers. There are some companies that charge their clients for the actual time spent on the phone. Their pricing may be slightly high to cover the additional services that they provide.

Understand the Types of Plan:
You should analyze the types of plans and know answering service prices beforehand to make the right selection. You can understand the pricing packages on the basis of invoice duration and call volumes.

If your business has a low volume of calls received in a month, you can opt for flat-rate plans that allow you to pay as you go. Some plans include supplemental fees for providing the additional services. On the other hand, a company with large call volumes should go with best value plans. They include more than 500 minutes of calling in a month.

For bigger businesses with more than 500 minutes of calls in a month, there are tailored plans that are based on your specific needs. Similarly, the company may have a 28-day billing cycle to charge you for 13 months in a year.

Understand the Hidden Costs:
Some companies may invoice hidden charges which are not explained beforehand. For example, 1 minute may not be exactly 60 seconds in the bill for a call lasting one minute and one second. They will charge you for two minutes as incremental costing in these cases.

Know these factors to understand the answering service prices.

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