A message taking service is much like it sounds. These are companies that will answer your business’ phone calls, take messages, and deliver them to you via any form you prefer. Essentially, they are receptionists you can hire for as long or as short as you want. However, they are not all the same. When you are looking to hire a message taking service such as www.message-direct.co.uk, you should know what you are looking for and what to avoid.

Contracts

Some companies will try to rope you into a contract that determines how often you can forward your messages, the prices you pay, and the length of time you are required to work with the service. If you are forwarding your calls to a service because of something unexpected like a sudden increase in business or the illness of an employee, how are you supposed to sign a contract? By definition, these situations are unexpected and unpredictable. So what do you do if you sign a contract for one month, but your employee gets better after one day? You are stuck paying for something you do not need.

You should look into a company that allows you to purchase packages based on the volumes of calls and the estimated amount of time. You can forward the phone calls to the service anytime you want. If your ill employee heals faster than anticipated, you can cancel the package and save your money.

Local

Companies that operate on the internet are seen by the entire world. If you run a small business on the internet, you might find that you are gathering customers from around the world. Customers around the world obviously keep different hours than you might. So when it is the middle of the night in the UK, it might be the middle of the day halfway around the world. You probably do not want to wake up in the middle of the night to answer phone calls, but you do not want to lose those customers. So, you should hire a message taking service that will answer your phone calls 24/7. However, you should hire a service that is still local. When you hire a service, all of your calls should be answered in the UK. Some businesses that operate 24/7 outsource their calls to other parts of the world. However, when the message taking service is operating as an extension of your company and answering the phone calls with your company’s name, you want customers to feel as if they are still talking to your actual business. If you are a UK business, you want customers to feel as if they are talking to UK businesses.

Message Delivery

You should consider how your messages are delivered to you. The best companies will deliver your messages in whatever format you prefer. Many companies prefer to have their messages delivered via email, but some prefer text or SMS. Whatever you choose, the important thing is that the company accommodates your requests.