Whether you’re looking for an answering service to help with call overflow, support on evenings and weekends, booking appointments, or you just want to have that consistent and professional 24/7 response, finding the right fit can be tricky. As an organization based in the greater Toronto area, you know that you need to compete on every front, and customer service is no exception. Every customer interaction counts and excellent customer service can have a huge impact on customer loyalty.
Chances are, you already know that choosing the cheapest service will not deliver those results. Since your business is in the greater Toronto area, you figure it makes sense to partner with an answering service that is too.
The next logical step would be to google best answering service Toronto. Let’s see what kind of result that search yields.
Best Answering Service Toronto
You'll notice two of the three ad results for our search "best answering service Toronto" are marked up in blue. Both of those marked up are not in Toronto at all. In fact, Patlive is 100% American, not exactly your local Toronto provider.
There's nothing inherently wrong with these companies bidding for ad space on Toronto answering services, they just want you to give them a chance. From time to time, you'll see Telelink show up for the exact same search, and our headquarters is in St. John’s Newfoundland.
The image shown above is not an anomaly, either. Just look at these search results for other Canadian cities searching for answering services.
Best Answering Service British Columbia
I24 is Montreal based, Smile dog has locations across Canada in Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, ironically, not in British Columbia. Patlive we mentioned is an American answering service, and Answer Connect is Toronto based. Although if you spoke with most of the providers, they would probably tell you that they have agents across the country – however, they are not British Columbia Answering Services.
Let’s look at one more example.
Best Answering Service Newfoundland
There is only one answering service in Newfoundland, which is us. Map Communications is another American based company; they do have some Canadian locations (but not in Newfoundland), i24 we mentioned above is Montreal based, and Answer Connect is a Toronto based answering service.
Why are all of these answering services advertising in locations where they do not have offices? Are they lying to you?
No, not really.
The reason answering services across Canada are bidding on ads in geographic locations outside their own territory is because an equal quality of service can be achieved no matter where you are in the country. You just need to give them a chance to prove it to you.
So, here’s the weird takeaway for you to consider while reading our article: the best answering service in Toronto may not be in Toronto. The best answering service for you, whether you’re Toronto based or not, is going to come down to five factors that determine success outcomes when partnering with an answering service. The answer to each of these questions will determine who the most fitting partner for your organization is.
Your new answering service criteria for 2021
In our humble opinion (and think the dozens upon dozens of Toronto based customers that we’ve been serving for years will agree) you can get amazing customer service from across Canada, not just Toronto. You do need some sort of criteria by which you can evaluate your options. Here is what we suggest.
- Choose Canadian. More and more American big box call centres are pushing their way into Canada, but that doesn't mean you'll have friendly Canadians answering the phone for you. It also means you could be paying in USD instead of CAD for the same number of call minutes or a comparable package.
- Ask for references or case studies. When you're choosing your answering service, ask about similar customers and if you may speak with them to inquire about how they enjoy their service.
- Ask about speciality industries. If you're in a specialized industry like property management or a government body, you'll want to work with a service that has clearly defined processes and experience dealing in that world. Other industries like law firms or other professional services require less specialization and can be handled by most reputable answering services.
- Ask about employee turnover rates. The higher the turnover rate the more training and re-training will occur on your account. A lower turnover rate indicates a happier workplace. A happier workplace means happier customer service representatives. Happier customer service representatives mean better call interactions with your customers. You get it.
- Take a test drive. Ask to call in and speak with one of the agents who would be servicing your account. There's nothing like getting a firsthand experience to let your gut feel guide you to the answering service that's right for you.
Thrive in the new normal with Telelink Answering
We hope you choose to use our evaluation criteria and find an answering service that will care for your customers and help your team thrive in the new economy. While you're evaluating your options, we'd be thrilled if you gave Telelink, the Newfoundland based answering service some consideration. After all, the best answering service in Toronto is not always in Toronto.