How Many Answering Service Minutes Will My Business Need?

So, you've probably been shopping for an answering service, and you keep seeing the term "minutes".

Sure, you get that its referring to how many minutes you use monthly for when you answer a call. But, while the idea is simple, figuring out just how many minutes of service you'll need can be a bit trickier. And what are the other factors that would increase or decrease the number of minutes you use? Don't worry, that's what this guide is for. We've been helping businesses with their answering service needs for nearly 100 years. That's a lot of time spent on educating business owners about how many minutes they'll need for their monthly plans.

So, we decided to write this blog to walk you through it. We don't want you paying for extra minutes you don't use whether it's with our service or another answering service. 

1. Do You Currently Use an Answering Service?
2. Use Voicemail Prescreening to Save Time
3. Use New Technology to Optimize Your Workflows
4. Do the Math: Forecast Your Minute Usage

Now, let's take a dig into how you can figure out how many minutes you need for your answering service plan.

1. Do You Currently Use an Answering Service?

If you're already using an answering service, you've got a great starting point. The number of minutes you're currently using can serve as a baseline.

However, don't stop there. Ask yourself:

"Is my service effectively meeting my needs, or are there gaps?"

It's not just about the minutes used; it's about making every minute you use count. One of those ways is by using a voicemail prescreen.

For those new to answering services, don't worry. We know you exist. Our process in helping assess your minutes needed is fairly similar to our process in optimizing a new client's minutes who currently uses an answering service. So, if you aren't using a service, feel free to skip ahead to the third question.

2. Use Voicemail Prescreening to Save Time

Wait, what’s a voicemail prescreen? A voicemail prescreen is a helpful tool that messages your callers, sharing important details like your hours, options, and more at the start of your call. More importantly, it weeds out the routine calls from the urgent calls.

Think of those options you get when you call into a doctor’s office “For English, Press 1, For Spanish, Press 2”, that’s an example of a voicemail prescreen in action!

Using this, many callers get the info they need right from the greeting, reducing the number of people who need to speak with an agent.

Like in the infographic to your left, you may notice that some callers will hang up, do you really want that to happen?

Yes! Many callers are really just looking for general information like hours of operation. Having that on your voicemail prescreen is a great way to provide them with the information they need and save them time.

The coolest part of a voicemail prescreen? It's free with many answering service plans!

But, if you're already using it, fantastic—you're on the right track.

For those who haven't integrated this into their process, it's worth considering. It could mean the difference between an immediate pick-up and a callback in the morning, which can significantly impact the number of service minutes you'll need.

Keep in mind, not every call requires the same level of attention. By prescreening, you ensure that your answering service minutes are focused on the calls that truly matter.

3. Use New Technology to Optimize Your Workflows

In today's world, technology is your ally in optimizing time and efficiency.

A smart answering service should offer ways to streamline communication workflow. For example, reaching your on-call might be more efficiently dispatched through texts, reserving phone calls for confirmations or critical issues.

What we mean by confirmations is this: if your answering service offers a tool like Startel Secure Messaging, your on-call can acknowledge receiving a message with one-swipe on a text message. You can even set up a protocol with your answering service to call them only if they haven't filed that message after an X number of minutes.

Remember: Integrating modern tech solutions can shave off minutes every day, which add up quickly over the course of hundreds of calls.

4. Do the Math: Forecast Your Minute Usage

All calls are not created equal, so it is important to look at the types of calls that the phone answering service will handle for you.

General inquiries might take a breezy 1.5-2 minutes, while scheduling appointments could require 3-5 minutes.

Need to handle an enrollment form? Get ready to use the line a little longer.

And if calls require escalation—you guessed it—you'll use more minutes. You'll need to consider both the urgency of the call and the steps involved in addressing it, from a quick text to a full-blown phone call.

Luckily for you, we're going to show you how important assessing the amount of urgent calls is to keep your answering service cost lower.

Now, let's do the math.

Imagine you get 500 calls a month. 

Let's assume in this example that 40% of those are urgent and require escalation.

That's 120 calls. 

Now, if we assume each inbound call (calls coming from your callers into your business) takes about 1.5 minutes.

Then the time needed to handle those urgent callers adds up to 450 minutes.

But, if those 120 urgent calls need escalation, consider the steps. 

Step One: The Text Message

If step one is a text message, you're going to be billed 30 seconds per text. 

So, that’s 60 minutes to send texts to your on-call staff to let them know about the urgent caller.

Remember, from the Startel Secure Messaging app, they can file those messages as viewed. But some may not because they forgot to or did not check their messages. 

Step Two: The Confirmation Call

So, step two might be the outbound call to confirm they have received the text, which averages about 2.5 minutes. 

If half of the 120 calls require a follow-up phone call from the text message, that's 60 calls, or an additional 150 minutes.

So, for those 120 urgent calls, you’re looking at 60 minutes billed for text messages and 150 minutes billed for outbound calls which adds up to 210 minutes. 

How Much Am I Really Saving by Assessing Urgent Calls?

If you were to not use texting and instead escalated all calls with outbound calls, you would be using 300 minutes instead! 

But because you did the math here—using the industry average minute excess rate of $1.22/minute—you would have saved $1317.60/year!

So, by breaking it down like this, you can see how doing the math and using new technology really saves you money!

Bonus: Why do Outbound Calls Take More Time than Inbound Calls?

Great question! There are a few reasons why outbound calls take more time than inbound calls.

• Extended Conversations: Agents need to explain the reason for the call, whether it's confirming receipt of messages, or resolving issues, which takes longer than answering a question.
• Following Up: Outbound calls often require agents to review past interactions, making the calls longer due to personalized follow-ups.
• Handling Voicemails: Leaving detailed voicemails also adds time, as agents need to clearly explain the call's purpose and next steps.

Which Answering Service Plan Should I Get?

So, now you know what are the factors that increase and decrease your minutes, you can do the math yourself to decide how many minutes you need.

Estimating your answering service minutes isn't an exact science, but it's far from a wild guess.

Now, you may ask yourself “Which answering service should I work with?”.

However, if you’re still wondering how many minutes you need, reach out to us today and one of our experts will help you decide!

When we have a call with you, our goal is to give you a practical estimate that reflects your actual business needs. By understanding your call dynamics and leveraging efficient processes, you'll end up with a tailored estimate that ensures you're not over or under your answering service minute requirements.

Sounds good to you? Request a quote from us today!