If you have a bail bond company, you may be used to handling most or all of your business’s phone calls by yourself, and you are finding it to be a lot of work. Alternatively, you may have tasked your staff to do so, but still, they can’t balance phone handling and other tasks that need to be done around the office. Additionally, when it is after hours, you have no one to answer your clients’ calls. Well, there’s a way to solve all these problems—a bail bonds answering service. Have you ever thought of partnering with one? It is time you did, and here is why.
You’ll Be Able to Provide Support for Clients When They Need You the Most
Arrests happen all the time— during the day, at night, on weekends, or during holidays, meaning arrestees may need your help any time to be released on bail. As a bail bondsman, you should expect to receive calls at any minute, even when you are closed for the day. A lot of these calls come in late at night or on the weekends. You may not be able to handle all of them by yourself. Your staff may also not help you much because once they leave the office at 5.00 pm, they also need personal time.
When a client calls, they need you the most at that hour. They are counting on you to support them, so they are released from jail. If you don’t pick their call, they may be devastated, especially if they don’t know any other bail bonds company they can turn to. And if they know one, they won’t wait for you to respond at a time of your liking. They will quickly call the other company that’s ready to support them. When this happens, it means you have lost the chance to offer support and make money as well. Additionally, that caller is likely to leave a negative review about your company.
When you use a bail bonds answering service, you’ll never need to worry about not being there for your clients when they need you the most, even if they need you at what may be deemed by many of your competitors to be a bad time.
Reduce Callers’ Waiting Time
Sometimes, callers trying to contact businesses have to be put on hold because of a busy line. Clients report waiting twenty minutes on hold every day when calling companies, which amounts to thirteen hours in a year. Your company doesn’t have to be part of these statistics. Once you partner with a bail bonds answering service, your clients won’t have to be put on hold. They can choose the person they need to talk to right away or leave a message so you or one of your staff members can call them back. This will reduce frustration and ensure your callers have their time respected. Since some callers will refuse to employ your services because of poor customer service, offering speedy service is critical for your bail bond company.
Personalized Call Center Services
By working with a bail bonds answering service, virtual receptionists can make you realize significant cost-savings by freeing you from those time-consuming administrative tasks. You can also personalize your service plan, whereby you can choose to include calendar updates, appointment scheduling, call reports and analytics, message taking and delivery, call routing, etc.
An Answering Service Does More Than Just Answer Phone Calls
Answering phone calls and directing them is undoubtedly a huge time-saver for your bail bonds business as it is. However, an answering service offers much more services than this. Answering service providers have highly-trained virtual receptionists qualified to carry out other tasks, from providing basic customer care & support to processing clients’ bail bonds on your behalf as you handle other matters. All of these tasks are done securely and in compliance with all your business’s internal regulations. This frees up more time for your staff, enabling them to focus on critical tasks instead. Other services your answering agents can handle include:
Message Taking and Delivery
Most bail bond clients don’t like leaving messages, especially voicemail messages, since they urgently want to be released from jail and don’t know when you’ll call back. But when they call and are greeted by a real, live person they can leave the message with, they may reconsider. When a client phones after-hours and has the option to leave a message with a person they know will deliver it to the intended recipient, they’re much more likely to be content with the services they receive.
Regardless of how efficient your staff may be, it can’t work all the 24 hours of the day. Partnering with an answering service is an excellent way of ensuring that your clients speak to a real, live person whenever they contact your company.
Call Screening and Transfers
You can instruct your answering agents to field all phone calls and forward them to you if necessary. Doing this can enable someone else to attend to simple appointment phone calls.
Collecting Contact Details
Collecting contact details is a critical but time-consuming task to do in your company. Instead of directing your in-house staff to dedicate a significant part of their time doing this task, an answering service can help you. Virtual receptionists are properly trained as far as HIPAA compliance is concerned and other data security processes. They can gather and compile clients’ details, bail bond processing information, etc.
Appointment Scheduling
Clients who call on behalf of a person in jail aren’t always able to confirm or schedule their appointments with you during the regular office hours since they also have to report to their workplaces. Partnering with an answering service is convenient for these busy clients and can earn your company more business.
Apart from scheduling appointments, an answering service also offers appointment reminder services. Answering agents make outbound phone calls, giving your clients a heads up that their meeting is approaching. These agents can address any questions or concerns that might arise and cancel or reschedule appointments as necessary, so you don’t waste time waiting for a client that will not show up.
Giving Directions to the Company
If you give your clients clear directions to your company, they’re less likely to miss or be late for their appointments. A bail bond answering service can provide clients practical and concise driving directions and respond to any questions they might have when trying to locate your company.
Have Free Time for Yourself
Running a bail bonds company can be challenging. For instance, even though you may like being there for your clients as much as possible, you may feel you never have free time to handle your personal and family issues. However, by partnering with a bail bonds answering service, you‘ll delegate the duty of handling calls should you need to, and you’ll not have to worry about your clients not being capable of speaking to someone when they call.
The answering agents will then inform you about the calls that need immediate action on your part while handling other general calls that do not require your immediate attention. This way, after finishing attending to clients for the day, you’ll have a few minutes or hours left to take care of issues that aren’t business-related.
A Bail Bonds Answering Service Provides Extended Availability, Meaning You Won’t Ever Miss An Important Phone Call
With professional and reliable answering agents ready to help your clients 24/7/365, you will never miss a call, be it from a client or another bail bonds company that wants to partner with you. Callers will appreciate that they can talk to a real, live person rather than speak to a voicemail recording or automated service. You can instruct your assigned answering agents to respond to callers according to your company’s customized script and relay messages or forward & screen calls according to the internal operating procedures and your preference.
Bring in More Business
It may be challenging for you or your staff to handle all the calls you receive, plus all the clients that need your help. For one, it can be time-consuming, and you may only be able to handle a few calls. You may also not be able to do other tasks that will grow your business. In case you desire to expand your bail bonds business, you may need help. Partnering with a bail bonds answering service will enable you to take more phone calls, meaning you can extend your services to more people. At the same time, you will be able to engage in duties that help your business grow, such as chasing leads. When your business grows, your name will be out there, and this will bring more profits than ever.
An Answering Service Will Help You Build Your Reputation
A good reputation is crucial to your business since what you say about it does not matter as much as a client’s perception of it. Therefore, it does not matter if you say that customer care and service is the number one pillar of your business if you cannot back it up.
Once you partner with a bail bonds answering service, it will be the answering agents’ job to respond to every call, meaning they are the first to interact with callers. Therefore, how they will handle the callers plays a significant role in building your reputation, and you can count on them to do a great job.
Firstly, answering agents answer calls within only three times of ringing. Secondly, they handle each call with empathy, enthusiasm, and dedication, regardless of what time it comes in. Virtual receptionists can spend a lot of time assisting your clients since they do not have conference calls or meetings to attend or any other duty they need to do. Their work is all about helping your clients, improving how clients see your business and services and making them more likely to stick around long-term.
An Answering Service Does Things Your Way
If you want your answering agents to use specific terms related to bail bond services and avoid particular phrases for liability reasons or legal restrictions, they will do so. If you want it to integrate your business’s formal or fun, quirky voice into each interaction they have with your clients when they call your company, they will also do that.
Any good bail bonds answering service will not stick to its way of providing services. It will adapt to yours. It will incorporate your company’s voice and greetings into every phone call the answering agents take and even comply with your regulations about onboarding clients, solve various issues, etc. An answering service provides flexible scripting, enabling you to sell your business precisely how you want it.
Bilingual Services Help You Reach A Larger Market
The Spanish-speaking population in the country is growing at a steady rate, and it forms a large client base. However, your company may not have Spanish speaking employees. This means you will be losing a lot of money since you won’t be communicating with Spanish-speaking clients because of the language barrier. Do not let the language barrier prevent you from extending your service to the Spanish-speaking population. A bail bond answering service provides bilingual services enabling you to connect your business to a broader market.
Stay Competitive With A Bail Bonds Answering Service
Bail bond companies have a small window of time to link up with those who need their services. Whether they’re currently in jail or calling on a friend’s or loved one’s behalf, they want to connect with a company that’s reliable, professional, and responsive. Does your company have these characteristics? One of the factors that will make your business ranked as reliable, professional, and responsive is its capability to meet clients’ needs swiftly and most professionally. A bail bond answering service can help you achieve this and make you stay competitive in the market. With it, your clients will receive immediate attention when they need it most, preventing them from hanging up and contacting the next bail bonds company on their list.
