Use of automated answering machine is probably one of the worst modern business practices that any firm can adopt. Many potential clients and customers are usually turned off when they call a certain business and all they get is a machine response where they have to press certain buttons for information on various aspects of the company or the company’s products. You could lose a lot of potential clients or even your existing clients if this is what you do. Nowadays, many customers prefer to have one on one contact with a representative of the company when they make a call to a company. It is therefore necessary to have messaging services for your company around the clock since there will be clients and potential clients who will call you outside working hours.

There have been instances where customers have shifted from a company they have been dealing with for some time to a different company simply due to the fact that the older company does not give them the personal attention that they get from the newer company. Messaging services have become so necessary that many companies now outsource this work to other countries. Most of these companies usually have messaging services for the daytime and another one for the night time. The night time messaging service is usually outsourced to a company which is at a different time zone.

One of the most important benefits of having messaging services is the ability to hear customer complaints. Some customers call not to ask about a certain product or buy the product but rather complain about that product or the service that they have already bought. For instance, there could be a sales representative who is rude and unfriendly to clients. Some clients may be irritated to the extent of having to call the company to register their complaints. If you have an automated machine service for receiving calls, then you will not be in a position to hear the complaints of these customers. However, if you have messaging services, you are going to hear the numerous complaints that are made and therefore make the necessary adjustments before you lose more business.

There are certain services that should be offered by your messaging services. These services include:

• 24 hour answering services
• Small Business Answering
• Call forwarding
• Call routing and transfer
• Bilingual Services
• Urgent Call Handling
• Inbound Services
• Order Processing Services

One of the most necessary features of messaging services as listed about is the bilingual services. This is necessary in a market where there is more than one language. You do not want to lose some of your clients to your competitors simply because you could not offer, say, Spanish messaging services to your Spanish speaking clients who cannot hear a word of English. Therefore, this service is a great way of venturing into new marketing and locking in the existing client base.