A professional switchboard serves as the hub of a business’ busy communication network. It makes sure calls get through to the right person first time, everytime, and quickly.

Or it can ensure messages are taken accurately and passed on to the right team member to be dealt with later. A switchboard can run as an alternative to your reception, or be the focus of your whole call management.

But did you know you can outsource your switchboard, and that doing so can actually have more benefits than building a switchboard team inhouse?

In this article we look at what an outsourced switchboard is, and how it works to improve your business.

What is an outsourced switchboard?

An outsourced switchboard essentially works the same as a traditional switchboard (although it’s not the old school room of people connecting calls by switching wires on a board)

The main difference between a regular and outsourced switchboard, is that the latter works remotely rather than in your office.

Your outsourced switchboard team can work alongside your in-house team, or it can take over responsibility for all of your business’ incoming call management – it completely depends on what you need.

How an outsourced switchboard works

Depending on your provider, the way your outsourced switchboard works could change, but here’s how we do things at Face For Business to give you an idea what it will be like working with us.

During your onboarding, we’ll integrate your business’ phone system into our switchboard portal so we have access to your incoming calls as and when you want.

You’ll also be assigned your team of professional call handlers who’ll be dealing with your calls. This is an opportunity for both parties to understand how calls should be answered, which calls should be passed onto who, and how any messages should be dealt with.

Once you’re onboarded, your professional switchboard managers will simply answer calls on behalf of your business and ensure the caller is efficiently passed onto the relevant person.

This means you never need to worry about missing any calls or disappointing customers, while being reassured that all your calls are being dealt with professionally and that your business is being represented in the right way.

As well as the service, you’ll have access to a customer portal where you can review your business’ switchboard services in one place, make any request or changes you want to how calls are dealt with, and also manage your account.

You’ll also get a team leader who’ll manage your team of call handlers, and also act as your main point of contact so you know who to go to when you have a question or issue.

What are the benefits of using an outsourced switchboard?

We won’t go into too much detail here because we’ve written a separate blog on the benefits of outsourcing your switchboard – which you can read here.

But here’s some of the main points to consider:

1 – You can extend your opening hours beyond the usual 9-5 without committing you or your team to excess hours while also bringing in weekend call cover.

2 – You can save money on hiring full-time staff to handle your calls so you have more investment for other areas of your business.

3 – You can easily scale your switchboard resources up and down based on your needs.

4 – You get access to all the latest switchboard technology and systems to ensure your call handling works as efficiently as possible.

There are other benefits that you can find by reading our other blog.

Benefit from a professional outsourced switchboard with Face For Business

If what you’ve read sounds good then get in touch to see how we can work together to improve your business’ communications.

Our professional outsourced switchboard service has already helped hundreds of businesses’ professionalize their call handling and remove the stresses of calls from employees so they can focus on their jobs, helping customers and growing your business.

With Face For Business you can extend your business’ weekday call answering hours to 8am-8pm, 9am-5:30pm on Saturday and even benefit from Sunday services between 10am-4pm with no extra charge for weekend or evening calls (and our competitors can’t offer that)

If you want to experience the benefits of our outsourced switchboard management service without the long-term commitment, request a consultation and a free trial.