Church Answering Services

The mission of the church is simple: reaching the lost. Our church answering service is designed with the needs of churches in mind. We work across denominations to provide phone answering services for churches. Our offerings include incoming call handling, outgoing reminder calls, and more.

Answering the call

We help churches with a range of phone answering needs. Your church may have a need for a communications line that is always open and ready to answer with a warm voice. Perhaps you need help making outgoing reminder calls, or even seasonal assistance handling incoming calls at critical times during the year. 

We have got you covered. Our church answering service is affordable, and designed to represent your church well, with a voice that mirrors the warmth of your congregation. We can quickly learn about your church and set up a trained remote representative to answer your calls, for a fraction of the cost of a full time worker.

Our church call answering team can provide trained virtual receptionists that are great at:

People always want to connect with people, not a voicemail box. This is especially true when it comes to the church and spiritual needs. Our church answering service has been refined over multiple years of working with church clients, across multiple denominations. We’ve developed scripts, worked on seasonal church campaigns, and understand how to approach the art of answering on behalf of a church.

Churches we have helped with answering services report feeling less overwhelmed, less likely to feel burnt out, and more confident and flexible in their ministry roles. They also report being able to get more done, in the same amount of time, once we start answering incoming church phone calls. Consider choosing Taravox to provide reliable answering service for your church, today. 

Tips for choosing a church call answering service

Leading a church means that you are often required to make wise decisions on behalf of a larger group. Choosing an answering service can be a straightforward task, as long as you know what to look for. Here’s what we think you should look for when choosing a church answering service:

  1. Make sure they understand the message: A church is not like any other business. In order to serve it effectively, one needs to fully understand the importance and impact of the work a church does.  
  2. Pricing structure: Most call answering services follow one of the following pricing methods. In the first method, all features are available on all plans, with the cost increasing as you use more minutes over your billing cycle. In the second method, specific features are excluded from lower tier plans, and become gradually “unlocked” as your usage and monthly costs increase. Because of this, it is important to focus additionally on features, and not just price. Does the lowest tier plan actually contain the features you need? Every business using a call answering service experiences cost savings, and prices tend to move in lockstep amongst providers. The differentiating features that make price more of a factor are less about the total cost, and more about ensuring that even if you choose a lower tier plan to save money, you will still receive all the same features that you need.
  3. Training and management: Nothing is worse than a poorly run call center. When you choose a call answering service do whatever you can to ensure that they have modern training and management practices in place. Training and management of a call answering service agent is essential, and for the most part, it shouldn’t be your responsibility. A call answering service is supposed to gather information from you at the beginning of your relationship, so that they can learn your business. The better they know your business, the better they can train your call answering team to speak directly to the needs of your customers. Ask your call answering service salesperson about how they train, how will they gather information from you to train on agent? What is their process for updating their files and training materials, and alerting agents if something changes with your business? Will they create any SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to help their agents truly understand your business and customers needs? What processes do they have in place to ensure that your business has agent coverage at all times, regardless of illness or vacation. These are the key questions you need to be asking.
  4. Metrics and data: Does your call answering provider provide metrics and updates? This will be more important to enterprise clients who have large communications budget, and need to demonstrate, at scale, that customers are being well served. This could include information such as average handle time, percentage of missed calls, average call length, and so on. If you are spending les than $10,000 a month on call answering services, you likely do not need to be concerned about this granular data. However, once your spend exceeds that amount, you’ll want to start to consider choosing a call answering provider that can cater to your need for performance data. It’s a bonus if your provider can supply you with this information in real time; large organizations often require it for accountability and decision making.

How we can help

Leading a church means that you are often required to make wise decisions on behalf of a larger group. Choosing an answering service can be a straightforward task, as long as you know what to look for. Here’s what we think you should look for when choosing a church answering service:

  1. Make sure they understand the message: A church is not like any other business. In order to serve it effectively, one needs to fully understand the importance and impact of the work a church does.  
  2. Pricing structure: Most call answering services follow one of the following pricing methods. In the first method, all features are available on all plans, with the cost increasing as you use more minutes over your billing cycle. In the second method, specific features are excluded from lower tier plans, and become gradually “unlocked” as your usage and monthly costs increase. Because of this, it is important to focus additionally on features, and not just price. Does the lowest tier plan actually contain the features you need? Every business using a call answering service experiences cost savings, and prices tend to move in lockstep amongst providers. The differentiating features that make price more of a factor are less about the total cost, and more about ensuring that even if you choose a lower tier plan to save money, you will still receive all the same features that you need.
  3. Training and management: Nothing is worse than a poorly run call center. When you choose a call answering service do whatever you can to ensure that they have modern training and management practices in place. Training and management of a call answering service agent is essential, and for the most part, it shouldn’t be your responsibility. A call answering service is supposed to gather information from you at the beginning of your relationship, so that they can learn your business. The better they know your business, the better they can train your call answering team to speak directly to the needs of your customers. Ask your call answering service salesperson about how they train, how will they gather information from you to train on agent? What is their process for updating their files and training materials, and alerting agents if something changes with your business? Will they create any SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to help their agents truly understand your business and customers needs? What processes do they have in place to ensure that your business has agent coverage at all times, regardless of illness or vacation. These are the key questions you need to be asking.
  4. Metrics and data: Does your call answering provider provide metrics and updates? This will be more important to enterprise clients who have large communications budget, and need to demonstrate, at scale, that customers are being well served. This could include information such as average handle time, percentage of missed calls, average call length, and so on. If you are spending les than $10,000 a month on call answering services, you likely do not need to be concerned about this granular data. However, once your spend exceeds that amount, you’ll want to start to consider choosing a call answering provider that can cater to your need for performance data. It’s a bonus if your provider can supply you with this information in real time; large organizations often require it for accountability and decision making.

Benefits of a church answering service

Leading a church means that you are often required to make wise decisions on behalf of a larger group. Choosing an answering service can be a straightforward task, as long as you know what to look for. Here’s what we think you should look for when choosing a church answering service:

  1. Make sure they understand the message: A church is not like any other business. In order to serve it effectively, one needs to fully understand the importance and impact of the work a church does.  
  2. Pricing structure: Most call answering services follow one of the following pricing methods. In the first method, all features are available on all plans, with the cost increasing as you use more minutes over your billing cycle. In the second method, specific features are excluded from lower tier plans, and become gradually “unlocked” as your usage and monthly costs increase. Because of this, it is important to focus additionally on features, and not just price. Does the lowest tier plan actually contain the features you need? Every business using a call answering service experiences cost savings, and prices tend to move in lockstep amongst providers. The differentiating features that make price more of a factor are less about the total cost, and more about ensuring that even if you choose a lower tier plan to save money, you will still receive all the same features that you need.
  3. Training and management: Nothing is worse than a poorly run call center. When you choose a call answering service do whatever you can to ensure that they have modern training and management practices in place. Training and management of a call answering service agent is essential, and for the most part, it shouldn’t be your responsibility. A call answering service is supposed to gather information from you at the beginning of your relationship, so that they can learn your business. The better they know your business, the better they can train your call answering team to speak directly to the needs of your customers. Ask your call answering service salesperson about how they train, how will they gather information from you to train on agent? What is their process for updating their files and training materials, and alerting agents if something changes with your business? Will they create any SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to help their agents truly understand your business and customers needs? What processes do they have in place to ensure that your business has agent coverage at all times, regardless of illness or vacation. These are the key questions you need to be asking.
  4. Metrics and data: Does your call answering provider provide metrics and updates? This will be more important to enterprise clients who have large communications budget, and need to demonstrate, at scale, that customers are being well served. This could include information such as average handle time, percentage of missed calls, average call length, and so on. If you are spending les than $10,000 a month on call answering services, you likely do not need to be concerned about this granular data. However, once your spend exceeds that amount, you’ll want to start to consider choosing a call answering provider that can cater to your need for performance data. It’s a bonus if your provider can supply you with this information in real time; large organizations often require it for accountability and decision making.

Ideally, you’d be able to answer the phone every single time it rings, on the first ring. Most responsible business owners love the idea of the personal touch. But in reality, business moves at the speed of life. There are a few hundred other important things that need your attention. Sometimes this even means you end up missing a call.

That’s exactly where Taravox comes in.

When you trust us to answer the phone, you unlock a world of possibility, and more free time. We’ll take great care of your new and existing customers, treating them like our own.

In turn, this means that you have more time to focus on high value tasks. Instead of putting out fires, you are more focused on working “on” your business, instead of “in” it. Think of us as a dependable extension of your very own team.

Ready to step things up with live call answering for your business?

Contact us using this form, or give us a call. We’ll quickly learn about your business call answering needs, and get you set up with the right virtual receptionist for your scenario.

For a limited time, your first week of service is on us.

 

We exist to help businesses run and grow.

The hard, boring work that happens behind the scenes is the biggest factor that determines if a business thrives. This kind of work rarely receives accolades, and only gets talked about when it is not done right. 

Answering the phone is that kind of work. It is routine and standard, yet absolutely essential. When a call is answered with enthusiasm and gusto, it reminds us that greatness begins with doing basic things in a brilliant way.

Trust us to perform this work. We happily dwell in the rapid world of incoming calls, customer data, and granular details. To steadily grow your business, satisfy customers, and maintain your peace of mind, let an expert handle the hassle.