- Years answering calls
- 30+
- Live agents, every call
- 24/7/365
- English & Spanish agents
- EN · ES
- Plans start at
- $33
Email answering service
Every email, chat and text answered by a trained person
Your customers don’t only call. They email at midnight, open the chat window on your website during lunch, and text the number on your truck or your sign. Our email answering service makes sure every one of those messages gets a real answer from a real person, written in your voice and handled by your rules.
The agents who answer your messages are the same trained agents who answer your phones, working from the same scripts, the same FAQs and the same escalation tree. A customer gets the same answer whether they call, email, chat or text, and your team gets one consistent record of what happened. We answer in English and Spanish.
Southern Voices has handled customer contact for businesses since 1995. We’re a US company headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and every conversation runs through our US-hosted systems.
One team for every channel
- Email inbox management and replies
- Live website chat staffed by people, not a bot
- Text messages answered and routed
- Phone calls on the same account and scripts
- English and Spanish on every channel
What we handle
Email answering service, live chat and text replies from one team
The same people, scripts and rules behind your phone line, applied to every written message your customers send.
Inbox management
Your shared inbox read, sorted and tagged, so nothing sits unanswered and the right messages reach the right people.
Email responses
Replies written from your approved answers and templates: hours, services, policies, order status and next steps.
Live website chat
A trained agent in your website chat window who answers questions, captures details and books the next step.
Text message replies
Texts to your business number answered, appointments confirmed and requests logged, the same as a call.
Urgent messages escalated
Anything you define as urgent goes to your on-call contact by your escalation tree, right away.
Leads captured
New inquiries qualified with your questions and handed to sales while the prospect is still interested.
Live chat outsourcing
Live chat outsourcing with real people behind the window
Chatbots are fine for “what are your hours?” They fall apart when a customer has a real problem, a half-formed question or a complaint. With live chat outsourcing, a trained agent answers your website chat, reads what the visitor actually wrote, and responds like a person who knows your business.
Our live chat answering service follows your script for every type of conversation: answering product and service questions, collecting contact details from a new prospect, booking an appointment, or passing an upset customer to the right person on your team. When a chat needs a phone call, the agent can ask for a number and call the visitor back.
- Your tone and your answers, approved by you before go-live
- Hours you choose, from evenings and weekends to around the clock
- Leads and requests delivered by secure text, email or the client portal
- Transcripts and details passed to your team after each chat
Inbox management that keeps up with your customers
A shared inbox fills up fast: order questions, quote requests, scheduling changes, complaints and the occasional emergency buried in the middle. Our agents work your inbox on the schedule you set, answer what your approved responses cover, and route the rest to the right person with a short summary on top.
You decide what we answer and what we only sort. Many clients start with sorting and routing, then hand us more of the replies once they’ve seen how we write.
Text message answering service
A text message answering service for customers who would rather type
More customers text a business number before they ever call it. Our text message answering service makes sure those texts get answered by a person: questions answered, appointments confirmed or moved, service requests logged, and urgent problems escalated the same way an urgent call would be.
Texts are handled in English or Spanish, depending on how the customer writes to us. Anything that needs your team arrives with the full conversation attached, so nobody has to ask the customer to repeat themselves.
Your rules
Routed and escalated exactly the way you want
Written messages follow the same playbook as your phone calls, so nothing important waits in an inbox until Monday.
- Your escalation tree. Urgent emails, chats and texts go to your on-call contact, then the next one if the first doesn’t respond.
- Your routing rules. Billing to billing, sales to sales, service to service, each with the details your team needs.
- Your systems. Our agents can work inside the inbox, chat or texting tools you already use when you give them access. If your platform has an API, we can build an integration so messages and details land in your own system.
- US-only staff when you need it. Accounts whose agents need direct access to your systems are staffed with US-only agents, and any client can request it. Pricing may change.
Getting started
How it works
- Share your playbookYour common questions and approved answers, routing rules, escalation contacts and how you want each type of message handled.
- Approve your responsesWe write reply templates, chat scripts and text responses with you. Agents are trained on your account before go-live.
- Connect your channelsGive our agents access to your inbox, chat and texting tools, or we connect through an integration where your platform has an API.
- Adjust any timeChange answers, hours, routing and on-call contacts whenever your business changes.
Pricing
What an email answering service costs
Pricing depends on how many messages and calls we handle and how much each one involves. Plans start at $33, and larger organizations get volume discounts: the more we handle for you, the lower your rate.
Email, chat and text can be added to a phone program or set up on their own. See pricing for what goes into a quote, or ask us for one.
Plans start at
$33
Your plan is built around your call volume, and larger organizations get volume discounts.
Questions
Email and chat answering FAQs
Don’t see your question? Call and ask a live agent, any time.
What is an email answering service?
An email answering service puts trained agents in charge of your business inbox. They read every message, answer what your approved responses cover, and route or escalate everything else by your rules, so customers hear back from a person instead of waiting for your team to catch up.
Is your live chat answering service run by people or a bot?
People. A trained agent answers every chat on your website, using your script and your information. If you already use a chatbot for simple questions, we can take over the conversations it can’t handle.
Do you offer a text message answering service?
Yes. Agents answer texts to your business number, confirm or change appointments, log requests and escalate urgent messages the same way they would handle an urgent call.
Are the agents the same ones who answer our phones?
Yes. Calls, emails, chats and texts for your account are handled by agents trained on the same scripts and escalation rules, so customers get consistent answers on every channel.
Can you answer messages in Spanish?
Yes. Our agents answer in English and Spanish, live, not through a translation tool.
Can you work in our help desk or CRM software?
Yes, when you give our agents access. If your platform has an API, we can also build an integration so messages, leads and tickets land in your system automatically. For ticket-based support, see help desk outsourcing.
Keep reading
More on answering every customer
Why customers still want a human
What customers expect when they reach out, and what it means for you.
24/7 doesn’t mean automated
Why live people still win customer trust around the clock.
Capture every lead, serve every customer
Why every inquiry deserves a fast, human answer.
Back to all call center services, or see customer service outsourcing. Popular with contractors, property managers, law firms and healthcare organizations.