A Better Answer's annual spring cookout is a tradition that has been going on for decades, thanks to our boss, Dee Hawkins. We all look forward to this event and the opportunity to relax, socialize, and enjoy some delicious food!

Growing a business is tough. Maintaining top-tier customer service as your customer count skyrockets is even tougher! As you scale your business from a small operation to a medium-sized or even large company, you’ll still need to keep your customers happy, answer complaints effectively, and constantly operate the phones or chat lines.

There’s a lot that goes into a successful business: brand identity, marketing style, product quality, and, perhaps most importantly, customer service. In fact, good customer service is often what separates subpar brands from companies that dominate distinct industries or niches.

In order to thrive and not just survive in the modern market, businesses must grow. More specifically, they must increase how much money they make, their customer bases, and their market dominance across as many vectors as possible.

To keep your business up and running — and to keep your customers satisfied — you must maintain constant communication channels between you and those customers. There’s just one problem. Customer calls don’t always come in during normal work hours.

Companies of all sizes can benefit and cut costs by outsourcing certain roles to an answering service. Top-tier answering services do far more than simply answer phones and provide basic information to customers — they can also act as brand representatives and handle administrative tasks. When professionals handle the lines of communication, you can focus on your business. 

You may be unable to handle every aspect of daily operations when your business starts growing. An answering service can assist customers in relieving your in-house staff. It’s important to hire a call center with the best features that meet your needs.

Let’s review what qualities to look for when hiring an answering service.

Hiring an answering service assists growing businesses meet their customers’ needs. Call center agents can handle increasing demand for inquiries. Outsourcing customer service lets you focus on running your company. Call centers help businesses achieve higher client satisfaction levels and a positive reputation.

The challenges facing small businesses are similar to any other — the difference is, they have to address them with smaller teams and fewer resources. They need to be creative in solving any emerging issues without compromising quality customer service. One of the main reasons some small businesses never reach their full potential is because they neglect customer service; whether you are a team of one or working with a small group, you should be using your time and resources wisely.  

Here are six customer service tips for startup businesses to help them reach their goals.

If you researched customer service trends for each previous year, you would see that the growth was pretty linear and with no surprises. In a nutshell, customers desire a better overall experience, AI is finding its door in and steadily improving and instant messaging is the dominant form of communication.