Learn how Smith.ai can help your business. Weāll address your questions about our receptionist, chat, and campaign services.
of consumers expect an immediate response to a sales inquiry
of lead generation budgets are wasted on leads who are never contacted
of marketing leads never convert into sales
of customers who receive excellent service spend up to 14% more
Calls come in, but you're not always available to answer them. We can capture and screen callers, book appointments, and log details instantly in your CRM and on your calendar.
Thereās too much to do. And you can't delegate managing IT infrastructure or end-user systems. Hand off answering calls, booking appointments, and taking payments to our receptionists.
Smith.ai receptionists make calls on your behalf, improving your speed-to-lead and unburdening staff who need to reach out to clients. We'll call-back online leads who complete web forms, contact donors for donation renewals, chase down payments on unpaid invoices, and more. We'll even send follow-up emails and texts after every call to ensure a connection is made. Learn more.
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Make better business decisions with real-time call data, visualized in every Smith.ai client dashboard. Every call summary is enriched with metadata including actions completed, caller disposition, priority, relevance, call recording and transcription, and more. See the big picture with historical tables and charts to predict business growth, costs, and ROI with superior accuracy.
Leads come to your website with questions. With Smith.ai 24/7 Live Chat, we respond in seconds to turn website visitors into clients. Plus, we answer texts & Facebook messages, too.
Calls, chats, appointments, and payments are automatically logged in your systems. We directly integrate with over 30 programs, including Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zapier.
The best IT and managed service answering services do much more than pick up phone calls and take messages for IT techs and administrators. At Smith.ai, we provide virtual receptionists capable of a wide range of services from calling handling, to scheduling, to lead intake, to website chat, and more. Whether you need a virtual receptionist for full-time call handling, overflow support only, after-hours, or triage, here are the answers to the most common questions we receive from IT technicians, developers, and managed services consultants.
IT professionals are frequently focused on working on computer repairs and canāt be expected to answer every call that comes in, but offering quality customer support through a reliable IT answering service has been shown to improve businesses in a variety of ways. Here are a handful of the benefits IT and managed service agencies experience with us:
With a phone answering service thatās available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, your clients will always have a real person to talk to, whether your ITĀ company is busy, closed, or on holiday. Your clientsā questions always earn a thoughtful response.
Missed calls mean missed opportunities. Donāt miss out on leads just because youāre not always able to answer the phone. Answering services provide nighttime, weekend, and after-hours availability so your managed services business will never miss another call.
Through outsourcing call handling to an answering service, your ITĀ team will be able to spend time where you need it most and focus on more important work to build your business.
At Smith.ai, we know amazing customer service and how to deliver it for a range of business types and industries. Our virtual receptionists are trained in customer service and hospitality, so let us put tried-and-tested practices to work for you and deliver an exceptional and professional response that represents your IT company well every time.
No need to allocate limited time and money towards hiring an in-house receptionist when you can get all of the services your team needs and then some with an answering service for a fraction of the price. On average, customers who use Smith.ai save upwards of $30,000/year.
Phone answering services can provide your IT and managed service business with detailed call summaries after each call and even provide your clients with chat, social media, and text messaging so you can stay in contact with your most valued clients.
An IT and managed service answering service can offer your busy staff with much needed relief, whether you're on a budget, overwhelmed by overflow calls, or simply looking to enrich your companyās customer service. In signing up with Smith.aiās ITĀ and managed services answering service, your business can receive even more benefits to help your agency accomplish its goals, whatever they may be.
Smith.aiās answering service can provide IT and managed service businesses withā¦
After-hours & overflow answering
With seemingly limitless features, Smith.aiās answering service is guaranteed to grow your companyās productivity, revenue, and outreach. Smith.ai has provided quality service to IT and managed service businesses for years and our clients trust Smith.ai to provide their business with premium support. Read our 5-star reviews to learn why tech business owners prefer Smith.ai.
The price of a receptionist is one of the most significant factors to consider when deciding on whether to hire an answering service or a traditional, in-house receptionist. Letās look at the average cost for an in-house receptionist.
The average salary nation-wide for an in-house receptionist is about $37,000 and they often come with expensive, additional fees, such as:
Total Cost, Including Salary: $77,000/year
If your IT and managed services business is located in a highly populated area, that expense may be even higher. In-house receptionists can add to that cost when they end up coming in late, calling in sick, requesting time off, taking personal leaves of absence, going on vacation, and so on. On the other hand, Smith.aiās virtual receptionists can accomplish the same tasks as an in-house receptionist and then some, barring coffee runs and supply restocks, of course, and are much more affordable since your team doesnāt have to pay for any time off, benefits, or salaries.
Smith.aiās answering service costs as little as $255/month, with no hidden fees. Ever. By hiring an answering service instead of an in-house receptionist, your business could save over $33,000/year on salary alone, and possibly up to $40,000/year in benefits beyond salary payments. Not only will your business save money, but your business will also be able to optimize productivity and revenue like never before. Contrary to in-house receptionists, virtual receptionists can answer calls outside of regular business hours, which is far more important than you might recognize, as 27% of leads call after hours. Smith.aiās agents can answer live chats, texts, and social media messages. SMS answering can be overlooked, but over 46% of customers prefer communicating with businesses through text.
Virtual receptionists can even perform sales assistance by making outbound calls to convert more leads, which has been shown to be helpful. Itās critical for businesses to respond promptly, as over 67% of clients base their decision to hire a business on the initial responsiveness to their call or email. Long waiting periods encourage leads to take their business elsewhere and you may not have the chance to explain why youāre the right managed services business to hire. With Smith.aiās IT and managed service answering service, your business can receive all the benefits of an in-house worker without the unnecessary cost. Read our article to learn more about the differences between an in-house vs. a virtual receptionist.
Running an IT and managed service business can get hectic, from managing projects and tasks to overseeing company development and growth. Businesses like these constantly face issues that impact their ability to succeed. The most common scenarios that IT and managed service businesses use virtual receptionist services for are:
āFront deskā support is an indispensable way to provide IT and managed service companies with consistent administrative assistance that can help operations run a lot more smoothly. When tech managers have a limited budget, however, they may not be able to afford pricey in-house receptionists, especially when they already have to pay for computer repair tools and supplies, marketing, and advertising.
Phone calls come in whether your IT and managed service business is available to answer them or not. When ITĀ teams have to answer phone calls in addition to their regular duties, they may struggle to stay focused and keep up with important tasks. On average, it takes about 23 minutes to get back to a task after being interrupted by a phone call.
Businesses grow and it can be difficult to keep up. With calls that need to be answered, appointments that need to be scheduled, and invoices that need to be sent, itās easy for ITĀ and managed services teams to feel overwhelmed.
āWhen the work day is over, IT technicians and repair staff want to go home and enjoy their free time away from clients, but calls donāt stop coming in and leads can often be missed, as over 27% of leads call outside of normal business hours. Businesses may not be able to provide after-hours availability, but may still want to offer accessible customer service.
If your IT or managed service business is currently dealing with one or any of these scenarios, an answering service can help by allowing you to outsource these tasks directly to a professional agent. An answering service will take on some of the more painstaking responsibilities, addressing and alleviating the tedious issues your IT company faces. Smith.aiās virtual receptionists can accomplish the same, whether your team needs assistance handling phone calls, blocking spam, or qualifying leads. By erasing the need to allocate time to screening calls and answering clientsā questions, your company can get back to focusing on more important work without neglecting your client relationships. Review our case study to learn more about how Smith.aiās virtual receptionist service can provide support for IT and managed service business like yours.
IT and managed service businesses, like any business, often find themselves in compromising situations that need outsourced assistance to resolve. Some of the most common problems are:
With a limited staff and an endless list of projects, IT and managed service businesses often have difficulty answering phones and responding to messages from clients in addition to their regular duties. Running an IT business and providing quality customer service at the same time can be too much for one company to do and can lead to poor performance in both.
The high price of in-house receptionists being what it is, managed services businesses are often left to delegate daily tasks themselves. Despite spending a large portion of their day on performing office duties, managed services teams often struggle to balance their important projects with their regular administrative tasks.
Responding to each call can feel impossible for IT and managed service businesses when they have higher priority assignments to address. ITĀ staff can easily fall behind on replying to new inquiries so potential leads can be frequently missed. Leads don't wait for call-backs. They call the next ITĀ business in the search results. If businesses fail to pick up, they not only lose a lead, they lose ROI, money on marketing campaigns and ad spend, as well as conversion rates from ads.
With a crowded marketplace for IT and managed service businesses, it can be a major obstacle for managed services businesses to distinguish themselves and stand out amongst other similar businesses. Consistently offering quality customer service through quick and thoughtful responses can place businesses above their competitors, but many businesses often lack the time to do so.
One of the most crucial, yet challenging, aspects of growing a successful business is finding and keeping new clients. With so much time and effort being dedicated to existing clients, IT and managed service businesses may not have the chance to seek out and nurture new clients. Businesses who spread their workload too thin may not be able to deliver quality customer service. Slow response times may annoy customers and hurt client loyalty and retention, as well.
Maintaining detailed phone records and call summaries can be difficult for ITĀ and managed services businesses who disperse client data across a multitude of software platforms. Knowing how, when, and why clients call is critical for any business hoping to successfully navigate client relationships, but unfortunately, is not always easy to accomplish.
If your IT and managed service company is facing any of these challenges, a virtual receptionist service may be useful. One of the many rewarding things about Smith.ai is that our services fit your business needs, not the other way around. Our virtual receptionists can allocate time where you need it most and address the specific issues your staff face, whether you need assistance qualifying and intaking new clients or sending invoices and collecting payments. Sign up risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee and see how Smith.aiās virtual receptionists can alleviate the problems your IT and managed services company faces.
Determining which services are important to your IT and managed service business is a good place to start. To figure out which services would be best for your business, ask yourself what problems or opportunities you face that a virtual receptionist service can address:
Whatever it may be, Smith.aiās virtual receptionists can adjust their service to better suit your business needs.
After that, consider what services would best fit your companyās activity level:
Whether you get twenty calls a month or 2,000, Smith.ai can customize your virtual receptionist service to fit your business activity so you only pay for what you need.
All you have to do next is sign up. Getting started with Smith.aiās virtual receptionist service is simple and fast. No annual contracts, no setup fees, and no need to supply scripts.
Follow three simple steps:
Whether your business is looking for a full-time virtual receptionist or an overflow or occasional phone answering service, Smith.ai can offer customized assistance to your team with quality customer service, lead screening, and sales development. When you sign up with Smith.ai, you wonāt just be gaining a virtual receptionist service, youāll be gaining a professional, reliable, and friendly team who are guaranteed to transform your business by capturing leads and delighting current clients.Ā
āLearn how to get started with Smith.aiās virtual receptionist service.
Use our best practices to hit the ground running with Smith.ai virtual receptionists, and achieve results from Day One.
