Keep operating and never miss important calls after hours
Are you missing important calls after your office is closed? Need to maintain constant availability?
Our after-hours answering service can help — providing highly trained agents to answer the phone for you and work as a virtual extension of your business.
With CMS, you never have to miss opportunities because your office is closed.
Over 60% of after-hours calls generate significant revenue for various businesses and often require immediate attention. If that customer can’t reach a live person at your company, he or she will call your competition. If you don’t have after-hours call center support from CMS, you’re losing revenue and the opportunity to improve or develop long-term customer relationships.
After hours call answering services tailored to your needs
It is ten times easier to keep a current customer than to acquire a new one. After-hours customer support from CMS helps build a loyal customer base because they know you’re available when they need you most. They never have to worry about whom to call after hours.
Callers don’t want a different experience when they call you after regular business hours. Instead, they want the same level of service and support they receive from your office. Our goal is to function as a seamless extension of your business; callers won’t even know they’re speaking to an answering service!
Our after-hours answering services are customized to meet your business needs. Your account can be structured to function as your office does during business hours, taking messages and routing them to the appropriate parties, relaying and dispatching urgent calls, and aiding customers with routine tasks such as appointment scheduling. If you only wish to handle specific concerns after hours, we can filter out non-pertinent calls.
Experience the CMS Difference
Custom After Hours Call Center Solutions
Regardless of after-hours call center needs, we can help! CMS provides call answering services tailored to your needs, from virtual receptionist solutions to fully customized call center implementations. So whether you have a simple script to gather information from each caller or a complicated call escalation procedure involving hundreds of variables, we can deliver a professional, accurate, and efficient solution that helps you get more done for a fraction of the cost.
After-Hours Call Center Outsourcing
When you need call center support outside of normal business hours, you can rely on after-hours call center outsourcing solutions from CMS. We provide 24/7/365 support so your customers can always reach someone when they need assistance.
Our team is trained to handle various customer inquiries, from technical support to on-call dispatching and customer service. Our call center can take over for your staff after business hours and help you create a seamless, 24-7 operation.
Our after-hours call center capabilities can be as simple or complex as your business requires.
Suppose you need more than just a live operator answering and taking messages. In that case, it’s easy for our team to create a customized, fully-functional system that handles all your business processes. From interacting with a complex customer or employee database to utilizing online web portals and e-commerce platforms, we have the professional staff and innovative technology needed to design an after-hours solution that works and adds measurable value to your company.
After-hours call center services from CMS are affordable and scalable, so you can get the support you need without breaking the bank. We offer various pricing options to fit your budget, and we can scale up or down as your needs change.
After Hours Dispatching & Emergency Answering
Emergencies always happen when you least expect them, and it’s important to have a plan in place so that your business doesn’t miss any important calls.
CMS delivers trusted dispatching services to organizations nationwide. Our dispatching solutions are 100% customized to your needs, ensuring we dispatch every call per your existing policies and processes.
Companies have various after-hours dispatching needs, but we’ll customize our solution to fit your requirements. Whether you need to dispatch a vehicle, a technical support representative, or activate an emergency response team, you’ll find that our dispatch service is ready and waiting. Our knowledgeable and sympathetic agents will answer, document, diagnose and route calls as needed, according to your instructions. We can even integrate with your existing software applications.
After Hours Virtual Receptionist
You’re great at what you do, but when the office is closed, who answers the phones?
It’s not always easy or cost-effective to find someone to answer the phone after hours. If you don’t have an answering service, your calls may go unanswered or worse – to voicemail. This can lead to unhappy customers and lost business.
After-hours virtual receptionist services from CMS give you the professional call coverage you need after hours. Our system can handle each call according to your requirements and forward messages via email or text. Our agents can answer these questions, schedule new appointments, and more – all while professionally representing your company.
After-Hours Customer Service
Not every customer service issue can wait until the next business day. By utilizing our after-hours customer support call center, you can easily transition your customer service lines to our operators after hours, allowing your customers to reach a live person regardless of when they call.
Staffing a 24/7 customer service department in-house can be costly Whether an employee takes one call or two hundred, they’re still paid the same salary or hourly wage. By using CMS as your after-hours customer support team, you pay only for the time our operators spend working on your behalf, making our service incredibly cost-effective to provide customer support after hours.
By providing 100% customizable accounts, our after-hours support solutions can be configured to work seamlessly as an extension of your existing operation. Agents answering on your behalf identify themselves as representatives of your after-hours support team and have the tools necessary to serve your customers. In addition, we can program our system to integrate with your existing CRM software or web-based ticket system, making it easy to perform the same customer support tasks as your in-house staff.
Auto Attendant and IVR
Auto attendant systems help to automatically greet callers and route them by extension or call menu. This can be a helpful way to manage calls coming into your business, ensuring that each caller is directed to the proper person or team.
CMS offers customizable auto attendant solutions that can be scheduled to work differently based on the day of the week and time of day. This includes being able to modify your main greeting, menu options, and call routing rules after regular business hours.
An automated phone system enables callers to find their target service, team, or location using a menu system (aka phone tree), which helps to prevent dropped or abruptly ended calls. It manages incoming calls like a traditional receptionist, except it never misses a crucial call or keeps a person waiting.
Computerized IVR systems can connect with databases, record information, intelligently route calls, automate procedures, and supplement the need for human agents. As a result, modern IVR systems offer superior customer experiences while assisting businesses in cost reduction, scaling up, and implementing efficiency improvements.
Depending on your business, CMS can tailor a solution that combines after-hours live answering services with a custom auto-attendant or IVR.
Appointment Scheduling
Keeping schedules organized is crucial to business, but without a sound system in place, things can quickly turn chaotic.
With CMS appointment scheduling services, you can guarantee that your appointment-related phone calls are always handled properly, freeing up your time (and your staff’s) to focus on managing and growing your business.
Our skilled call center representatives make it a breeze to schedule with you by phone. Your patients or clients can call and make an appointment anytime, day or night, according to their schedule. CMS appointment scheduling services integrate with all the leading online calendar systems and business software applications, enabling our agents to interface with the same tools you use to manage your business.
By adopting a simple, convenient scheduling tool and service that’s available round the clock, you can start building a devoted clientele.
24/7/365
Availability
100%
Customizable
3,000+
Clients
99.99%
Uptime Guarantee
Why Use an After Hours Answering Service?
Enhance Your Brand
When new customers reach a live agent each time they call, it will have a lasting impression and leave them with a favorable positive view of your business. Prioritizing customer satisfaction will set your business apart from competitors overly reliant on automated solutions.
Operate Around the Clock
It may not have been cost-effective for you to staff your business around the clock, but now you have a solution that allows you to do just that. In addition, you won’t miss any new business calls over a weekend and can provide emergency solutions to support your clientele.
Achieve Cost Efficiencies
You can quickly run up a huge bill if you have to employ full-time receptionists out of hours, especially considering overhead. An after-hours solution from CMS will help you to achieve cost efficiencies across the board, reducing costs while improving your service.
Improve Customer Service
Customer service may not be your specialty as a small business owner, but as a live answering service, delivering exceptional customer service is what we do best. Our trained operators can help you ensure customer inquiries and complaints are always handled professionally.
Customers Expect to Reach You By Phone — CMS Ensures You Are Always Available
Calls are preferred for quick service
There’s nothing like a quick phone call to get a customer service concern resolved or addressed right away, so we totally understand why customers want to speak to a real person.
In fact, 50% of consumers (regardless of age) contact customer service using their telephone.4 They don’t want to waste time on an endless cycle of back and forth through email or messaging.
So, when you make sure there’s somebody professional at the end of the line taking care of your customers, you’re also showing them how much you care and value their time.
Don’t help your competition
Did you know that 61% of customers who are in the middle of the buying cycle call the business they’re interested in?5 Can you afford to lose out on valuable leads or prospective customers if you do? And can you bear the thought of them going to your competition?
At CMS, we know the rewards of consistently answering calls, as well as the consequences of ignoring or not being able to attend to other calls. One phone call can make a world of difference to your business, so we won’t be taking any chances. Neither should you.
Protect your reputation
Ever get that awful feeling when no one seems to be available to answer your calls, especially when there’s no other way to resolve your concern?
When people are made to feel ignored, you lose their loyalty. They start to question the credibility and reputation of your brand, so it’s no big mystery why 68% of customers leave a company because they think it doesn’t care.6
With CMS, you can build up your reputation and keep your customers loyal to your brand no matter what.
Say goodbye to voicemail
Answering machines may have been a novelty the first time they were introduced. Today, however, voicemails are not only considered productivity killers but are also untrustworthy — that is, people assume nobody ever listens to them and that they’ll never get their problem resolved.
Besides, other than baby boomers and Gen Xers, millennials and members of Generation Z probably make up a portion of your market, so it’s useful to know these younger generations can be averse to voicemails.7
So, better not leave phone calls to chance.
Partner up with CMS and see your loyal customer base grow like never before!
Why Choose CMS?
We Become an Extension of Your Office
At CMS, we are not simply agents on the other end of a line, but we are your call center partner. We can personalize and customize all of our systems and help you to build your call center solution from the ground up. As a result, we will become a true extension of your office, and the caller will assume that we are an integral part of your business.
We Make It Easy for You to Integrate With Us
CMS has put great effort into creating intelligent solutions and dashboards to help you stay on top of your communications. These web-based dashboards are easy to access and can give you a raft of analytic data to manage your business effectively. For example, using our core scheduling software, you can adjust your after-hours on-call service schedule at any time of the day and night. This ensures that our agents will always reach the right person within your organization.
We Integrate With Your Systems as Well
You may already have software solutions in place, and we aim to integrate with those at every opportunity. This means that our call center services can handle more complicated situations at any time. For example, we can interact with your CRM database or place new orders on your e-commerce platform.
We Have the Experience
CMS is ready to work with you as one of the US’s most experienced call centers and answering services. We’ve been around since 1967, and thousands of companies across the country trust us with their after-hours call handling needs.
After Hours Answering FAQs
What is an after-hours answering service?
An after-hours answering service is a type of telephone answering service that is typically used by businesses to handle calls outside of regular business hours. The service is typically staffed by live operators who can take messages and forward them to the appropriate party or provide other assistance as needed.
CMS offers after-hours solutions that go beyond the basics. Our agents can assist with appointment scheduling, order taking, basic customer support, call dispatching, and more. These services can be a valuable resource for businesses looking to maintain customer service after normal business hours.
What is the difference between an after-hours answering service and a call center?
While the term answering service and call center are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two. An answering service is generally more straightforward, providing a live voice to answer calls and take messages. A call center, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive solution that often provides tailored customer service outsourcing and other in-depth support.
So, if you’re simply looking for someone to answer your calls after hours, an answering service is probably all you need. But a call center is the way to go if you’re looking for a more robust solution that can provide additional support and services.
At CMS, we provide everything from basic after-hours virtual receptionist services to fully customized call center solutions. We don’t just answer your calls; we handle them thoughtfully as an extension of your organization. We pay attention to details and relieve your core team of basic call handling while delivering outstanding customer service that will leave a lasting impression on your customers.
How much does an after-hours answering service cost?
At CMS, we tailor our pricing to meet your needs. However, we always offer per-minute pricing with full transparency. Our after-hours answering services are available for as little as $50 a month.
How do you handle emergency calls after hours?
Your emergency calls are handled per your instructions. For example, we may need to qualify whether a call comes as a true emergency and will gather the information accordingly and follow your instructions. Alternatively, we can immediately dispatch calls to your on-call personnel or employ advanced call scripting to evaluate calls across multiple criteria. In other words, we use our technology to handle every call properly according to your guidelines.
What are the benefits of using an after-hours answering service?
Using an after-hours call service, you can free up your regular staff to handle their other duties without worrying about missing any calls once they are off the clock. As a result, you won’t miss any new customers after hours and can enhance your company’s reputation. Crucially, calls will be picked up immediately to avoid frustration, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
Sources
- https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/how-companies-can-improve-phone-call-pickup-rates-2021-1
- https://phmg.com/blog/research-reveals-telephone-remains-customers-preferred-method-of-contact/
- https://www.mactech.com/2022/03/03/research-reveals-consumers-and-businesses-prefer-voice-calls-to-text-or-email/
- https://d1eipm3vz40hy0.cloudfront.net/pdf/cxtrends/cx-trends-2020-full-report.pdf
- https://hbr.org/2017/07/your-customers-still-want-to-talk-to-a-human-being
- https://ecommco.com/blog/68-percent-believe-you-dont-care.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/fashion/millennials-shy-away-from-voice-mail.html