The True Cost of Hiring a Receptionist VS Outsourcing Call Answering Service

If you’re a small business owner, you know the importance of providing excellent customer service. Luckily, there’s an easy way to boost customer satisfaction without adding to your staff: outsource your phone answering to a professional live answering service.

You can pay a lower monthly fee for the convenience of having your phone calls answered by a team of experts! But just how much will you save?

1. Recruiting and Training

Hiring a receptionist is not cheap. There are many costs that go into it including recruiting, training, and insurance. The cost of hiring a full-time receptionist can be anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 per year, depending on how many employees you have and their salaries.

If you are a small business owner, you know how important it is to provide great customer service without missing calls or having to send them to voicemail. A call answering service can help your staff prioritize incoming calls, ensuring that customers are answered promptly and that their issues are resolved as quickly as possible.

A good answering service can be a valuable investment for any business, but choosing the right one is not always easy. There are different pricing models and services that offer varying levels of features, so it’s important to understand all your options before making the final decision.

While some answering services can include message-taking and call transfers, others may only be able to answer questions and field complaints. This is a big difference, and it should be considered when choosing an answering service for your business.

The best answer services will be able to customize their service to your business’s specific needs, and they’ll offer a range of features. These features may include call transfers, message taking, and even customer support.

Once you’ve found the perfect answering service, you can expect to pay a monthly fee for their services. Typically, these fees are quoted by the minute or per call, but some companies also charge for each message sent to your business.

You can also consider how long you’d like to use their service for and what types of features they provide. You should also be sure to ask for a breakdown of their costs so you can compare them against what you would pay if you hired an in-house receptionist.

A good virtual receptionist service can be an excellent value for your business.  Providing a wide range of services and features for less than the average cost of an in-house receptionist. A professional service can help you focus on growing your business while reducing your workload and increasing productivity.

2. Payroll Taxes of Employees

In the world of hiring employees, payroll taxes are an important consideration. A receptionist’s salary will need to be included in your budget. As well as their benefits, paid time off, worker’s comp, and other employee-related expenses.

For a small business, it can cost as much as $3,154 per month to keep a full-time receptionist on your payroll. But that number is a bit misleading. When you add in the additional costs of insurance, payroll taxes, and other employee-related expenses. It is a real eye-opener to see that an answering service is significantly cheaper for most small businesses.

A business will save money by using an answering service rather than keeping a receptionist on staff. This can be especially significant if you have a lot of calls to handle on a daily basis.

You should also consider the amount of time it takes to train an in-house receptionist. For instance, you might spend around $4,000 to train a new receptionist. This is a significant expense that you might not want to incur.

Another factor to consider is how professionally your receptionist will answer your phone calls. They will have to be trained to answer your business’s phone calls in a professional manner. This training can take up to two weeks.

If you have a receptionist on your payroll, they are going to be representing your business in front of your customers. That means you have to make sure they know exactly what your business stands for, and how you do things and are available to answer questions or schedule appointments.

That’s not to mention that they’ll be on a salary and need to be paid for their work hours.  As well as any benefits or paid time off they receive. That’s an enormous amount of money to give to someone who will be spending most of their time on their phones and in front of your customers.

By outsourcing your receptionist duties to a call answering service. You can reduce these costs dramatically and have a more streamlined approach to business. In addition to reducing your overall costs, this will allow you to focus more on growing your business. And less on the backend details of running your company.

3. Insurance

Having a receptionist in-house can be a great way to help customers, but it also comes with its own set of problems. For one thing, it can cost you a lot of money to hire them.

If you decide to hire a receptionist in-house, you will be responsible for paying base salary, insurance, and benefits. This can be a daunting task for any small business owner.

You will have to consider things like worker’s compensation insurance, sick leave, overtime pay, and other costs. All of these expenses can add up to a huge sum of money.

Additionally, you will need to consider the training and development costs involved with hiring a receptionist in-house. It can take a lot of time and effort to train and mentor them. As well as keep them motivated and excited about their job.

In addition to all of this, you will have to make sure that they are covered by your company’s insurance plan. And that they comply with the laws regarding medical confidentiality. This is especially important for companies that handle personal information on behalf of their clients.

Another problem that can come up when you hire a receptionist in-house is the fact that they may not be available during certain hours of the day or night. This can cause your customer’s experience to be negatively impacted and can also hurt your brand image in the long run.

This is why it’s always a good idea to find an answering service that can work around your schedule. And provide you with a 24-hour answer for all of your calls. This way, you can be sure that your customer’s needs are taken care of when they need it the most.

The cost of using an answering service can be much less expensive than paying for a full-time receptionist in-house. But it still requires you to think carefully about your budget and your specific needs. You will need to look at how many phone calls you expect to receive. What type of plan you want, and how long you plan on using them.

4. No Other Expenses on Answering Service

The true cost of hiring a receptionist can be astronomical for a small business, and it doesn’t stop at their base salary. They also need to cover other costs such as training, equipment, and benefits.

Hiring a receptionist can cost a small business upwards of $30k a year on average. And it doesn’t even include vacation or sick days.

In addition to that, you also need to consider the time it takes for them to learn how to answer calls professionally and efficiently. It might take up to two weeks of training for an employee to be able to answer calls as quickly as possible.

If you’re looking to save money on this expense, outsourcing a call answering service is the best option for you. These virtual receptionists are trained professionals and can handle many of the same tasks. As an in-house receptionist without requiring a desk at your company’s front office.

The most important point to remember is that a professional phone answering service can give you the same type of customer service you would get from an in-house receptionist for a fraction of the cost. They can screen, connect and announce incoming calls to your business’s main line.

Another great benefit of an answering service is that it can handle your incoming calls 24/7. This is critical for growing businesses that want to remain available to their customers.

For example, imagine you have an answering service that’s unable to connect with your clients. After they leave the office for a day or on a weekend. When you have a live receptionist, your phone lines are open during normal business hours only. And when they are away or on a break, your callers will not be able to reach you.

This means your business can lose out on valuable opportunities and potential revenue. It’s a costly problem that can impact your bottom line. And it’s an important factor to consider when making your budgeting decisions.