What Should You Know About Answering Service Pricing Before Hiring Them?

by Kristen White Blogger When you consider purchasing any service for your business, the first thing you need to know is the pricing structure. With price come value and every company wants maximum value for the money spent.

Determining the answering service prices in Miami shouldn’t be different as determining prices of other services. However, there are certain aspects of the pricing structure that you need to know about.

General Pricing Structure Followed by Answering Services

Majority of the answering services in Miami either charge by time or by call. Though both pricing mechanisms look straightforward, there are several aspects of the pricing that you need to know.

Time-Based Pricing

For some reasons the time-based pricing seems to be a truer reflection of value. When you hire answering services for your business, their responsibility is not limited to answering calls alone. There is a host of other activities that call center agents have to complete. They include scheduling an appointment, sending messages, looking for information on your behalf. These activities, though not time-consuming, does require the call center to spend some time.

The time-based pricing model not only considers the time spent by the agent answering the call but also the supplemental work that agent does. For this reason, the answering service might charge a higher rate for time-based pricing model. If you are planning to go for time-based pricing, here are some of the questions you need to ask.

• If the call lasts less than 10 seconds, is it counted as one minute?
• Do you have to pay for time when callers are placed on hold? If yes, what is the average time on hold?
• Are emails, text messages, and faxes counted by minutes?
• Are weekends or holidays charged at overtime rates
• How do they charge for appointment scheduling and CRM management? 

Per-Call Pricing

The per-call pricing model is less straightforward. For example, it mainly depends on the definition of the call as per answering service. Some rogue companies also count dropped calls and bad-quality calls when billing their clients. Also, some answering services count the wrong number and hang-ups when billing their clients. Hence, you need to study carefully what is the definition of the call as per the answering service and what is included in answering service prices in Miami. Some questions you need to ask the service provider are:

• Are emails, text messages, and faxes counted as calls?
• Is a hang-up or a missed call considered a call?
• Do they count a call that is made to notify you about an emergency?
• What are the other charges for appointment scheduling, meeting reminders, or CRM management?

Many answering services has tiered service plans. These plans are sweet-spot of call volume and needs for small and medium businesses. Answering services cover a large spectrum of business and many have a large variety of tiered plans. Call center might have their unique tiered plans and the plans discussed below are general ones.

Pay-As-You-Go
In this plan, your company pays a flat monthly fee and per call charge.

100-150 Minutes
This plan is priced at a monthly rate and you might have to pay additional fees for supplemental work and additional minutes. The price of this plan can be in the range of $100 to $250.

200-250 Minutes
It is also priced at a monthly rate but is little cheaper on per-minute basis. The cost of the plan can range between $479 and $1000 per month. You might also have to pay additional fees for supplemental work and additional minutes.
These are some of the pricing model and structure followed by answering services in Miami. No matter what pricing model you choose, make sure you read the fine print before selecting any.

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Created on Dec 15th 2018 03:12. Viewed 414 times.

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