We were happy to explain to her that we offer 24/7 bilingual Spanish answering services to a number of businesses serving the Hispanic market and our bilingual call-support solutions would ensure her potential clients were always able to speak directly to someone who would understand them. By gathering detailed lead information regarding the pending event, our professional agents help prospective clients feel cared for, assures them that their needs are important and saves the planner a ton of time. With these details she can now return the call and hopefully close the sale. Alert can answer her calls when she’s going to be out of the office, after her regular business hours or all day, every day.

No matter what your business is — from an event planner to a realtor or a marketing firm with leads coming in 24/7 — we are your bilingual resource. While providing translation and interpretation services, our Spanish-speaking agents ensure every lead is handled according to your instructions, resulting in more new business for you! .

If  your customer base is in the Hispanic market or you want to start targeting that market to grow your business, talk with us today to find out how our Spanish answering services can help you provide the customer service your callers need.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: spanish answering.

Benioff explores nine elements in growing from a start-up company of three employees using card tables and folding chairs in an apartment in 1999 to a company with a billion dollars in revenue in 2010. No one’s using card tables or folding chairs anymore, either. 

The nine areas Benioff talks about in the book are:

• Start up — Get through all the normal start-up phases.
• Marketing — Figure out how to stand out from the crowd and be heard.
• Events — Build buzz and drive customers to your business.
• Sales — Have your customers be your sales team.
• Technology — Develop products/services that customers love.
• Philanthropy — Care about more than just the bottom line.
• Global — Introduce your product/service to new markets progressively.
• Finance — Raise capital and generate a return.
• Leadership — Align everyone so they know vision, values, methods and obstacles.

Benioff lays his business-development philosophy and marketing strategy on the table. And to say some of it (especially some of his advertising) is edgy is a bit of an understatement. But it was all incredibly successful for Salesforce.com.

What I found most interesting throughout the book, is that Benioff observes and judges Salesforce.com’s performance not from his founder/leader perspective, but from how his customers, his investors, his employees and his competitors see the company.

What went on “Behind the Cloud” is a very interesting story and definitely worth the read.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: legal media and marketing support.

 ”Our clients need to be able to talk to a live person 24 hours, 7 days a week,” says Michelle Garcia, Office Manager of Pro-Care Hospice in Oxnard, California, “So Alert covers our phones after hours, on the weekends and sometimes during regular business hours if needed in case of an emergency.”  Hospice and home-healthcare callers can be patients or family members reaching out for advice and counsel during very stressful times. Alert’s agents are specially trained to treat these callers with great care, understanding and respect. Not only are they knowledgeable about the industry, but our agents understand the different types of questions and concerns hospice patients and their caretakers have. We also provide bilingual services at no extra charge, making it easier for callers to communicate needs or concerns. 

Alert’s customized call protocols ensure agents capture all critical information and handle each call appropriately, based on the callers answers to questions. We also provide customized client call reports that show the caller’s information and needs, who was contacted and the response time. 

“The customized reports are a great way for our agency to have a tracking system that corresponds to our on-call nurses notes to make sure all situations were handled in an appropriate time and manner”.

Alert’s trained agents are a critical link between hospice care centers and their clients. Our services are only a phone call away, 24 hours a day, for hospice patients and their caretakers.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: physician answering service, hospice answering service, home healthcare answering service, and medical equipment supply answering.

• Online vendors – eBay and Craigslist are great ways to reach a large market, but find a niche market for what you sell. Check out sites like www.clickbank.com or www.amazon.com to find categories or sites like www.etsy.com to direct sell your products/services.
• Promotion – Once you find the right place, let people know you’re there. Your sales people can promote products on Twitter and create a company fan page on Facebook.
• Group buying – This is becoming more popular with sites like Groupon, Deals for Deeds and Social Buy. Remember that most of these sites are regional so make sure you find one in your area or one that will sell your products online.
• Foursquare – This is a powerful tool, allowing salespeople to offer rewards/special deals to loyal customers or new ones. Some businesses offer certain discounts only on Foursquare. It’s a great way to measure the effectiveness of specific promotions.

Regardless of which route you pursue, beware of one thing – preserving your brand. Define your brand and determine how to market it without compromising your authenticity. Then you can use social media to sell your products or services with real results.

If you have advice to share on how to use social media in sales, please share your comments below.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: Call Center Service, Live Answering Service, Spanish Answering Service, Attorney Answering Service, Virtual Receptionist Service.

I could give you a long list of things to try on your web site to increase customer loyalty, but I’d rather give you some tips to make sure you don’t lose it.

• Keep it simple – If your web site is too difficult for people to navigate, they will look elsewhere. Use easy-to-read signs to guide them, and make sure your navigation bar is simple and in the same spot on every page.
• Deliver on promises – Nothing is more aggravating than finding out “guarantees” are only lip service. If you’re not going to do it, don’t put it on your site.
• Limit bells and whistles – You want people to immediately know what you do. Don’t distract them with flashing icons, pop-up windows and rotating banner ads.
• Be current – Promote new products, services, discounts and special offers. Tell people when an out-of-stock will return. Don’t frustrate them by waiting until check out to tell them.  
• Don’t hide your contact info – If it’s too difficult to reach you, visitors may go elsewhere. Offer a variety of ways to reach you – toll-free phone number, e-mail address or a live, online chat.

While you work to discover new ways to build customer loyalty with your online presence, be sure your site isn’t working against you.

Is there something else you’ve done to make sure you’re not damaging customer loyalty? Please share your comments.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: Call Center Service, Live Answering Service, Spanish Answering Service, Attorney Answering Service, Virtual Receptionist Service.

You can’t afford a full-time receptionist in your small business, but you also can’t risk missing a call. Is there a fix? Yes. Alert Communications’

We use advanced technology and trained agents to mirror the job of your on-staff receptionist, intake specialist, appointment scheduler or emergency dispatcher at a fraction of the cost. No matter what industry you’re in, we can tailor our services to meet your financial and business needs — without signing a contract.
—Emergency calls – Our agents follow your customized escalation protocols so each call/message gets to the right person, right away. We also provide reports so you can track your calls.
—Work-hours calls – Alert agents can handle calls during lunch times or whenever you don’t have coverage in your office.
—After-hours calls – We provide 24/7 phone answering service 365 days of the year, so your calls are answered on sick days or during vacations.
—Bilingual calls – Alert offers 24/7 bilingual answering services at no extra charge.

With our options, you have the flexibility to choose when to forward your calls to Alert. We also can work with you to combine your existing automated system with our live services for customized answering. Take advantage of the small business answering service options Alert Communications offers, and never miss a call again.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications is a 24/7bilingual inbound call center, specializing in professional attorney answering, virtual receptionist, Spanish answering and business answering solutions.

Begin with reaching the people who want to receive your e-mails. How? By either having people sign up on your web site or giving their e-mail addresses when they purchase from you.

Once you have permission to e-mail them, you don’t want to bore them so:
     -Have a catchy headline.
     -Offer new or discounted products/services.
     -Include links to click to get more information.

Grab attention with bits of info — five tips for protecting your home if you own a security firm or suggestions on stress relief if you’re promoting a fitness center. 

Link from your e-mail to landing pages that give recipients information they want about your offer without having to pass through your home page. Still offer them an option to link to your web site if they choose.  

Keep these suggestions in mind, too:
     -Tell recipients their information is not shared.
     -Offer an unsubscribe option.
     -Do not over blast — more than once a week is annoying.

E-mail marketing can be an inexpensive and quick way to reach your customers and potential customers. Just be sure your message grabs their attention before they hit “delete.”

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications is a 24/7bilingual inbound call center, specializing in professional attorney answering, virtual receptionist, Spanish answering and business answering solutions.

There’s no question he needs 24/7 phone answering, but he also needs more than simple message taking. Imagine the variety of call protocols he’d have to have.

- Is someone calling about the availability of a specific toy? That would need to get to the right elf. Customer service of the highest priority.

- Maybe Blake or Brenda is unsure whether they’re on the naughty or nice list. That would obviously have to go to someone pretty high up in North Pole management. And the agent handling those calls would have to be sympathetic but always in control of the conversation.

-  What about questions on cookie preferences? If you want to score points with Santa, it’s a good idea to have his favorites on the plate. That call might have to go to Mrs. Claus or whoever she decides to have on call each day. Or maybe the call protocol changes daily to reflect Santa’s current choice.

And what about incoming information? Santa must have a standing order for weather updates starting on Dec. 23 or Dec. 24. That info needs to get to him immediately. Wouldn’t text messaging be perfect so he could be up to date throughout his delivery schedule?

Of course, bilingual services — or more appropriately, multi-lingual services — would be a huge help. Though I’m not sure any call answering service could provide coverage for as many languages as the variety of callers Santa gets.

So after thinking about it, maybe my holiday prep work isn’t quite as overwhelming as I was thinking. After all, I get a couple of e-mails, a few phone calls and some lists to work from. I don’t need multi-lingual services or call protocols. And thank goodness — I don’t need 24/7 coverage!

I think I’ll leave the worldwide present-delivery business in Santa’s capable hands this year — but I’d be more than happy to tell him how Alert Communications’ answering services can lighten the load for him next year.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications is a 24/7bilingual inbound call center, specializing in professional attorney answering, virtual receptionist, Spanish answering and business answering solutions.

A live receptionist is as “human” as you can get.  If you can’t afford an onsite receptionist then try a virtual receptionist service.  Many offer their services in Spanish as well as English.

We know what so many companies are finding out — people want to talk to people, not machines. And it helps if they speak the same language. When your customers call, they want a live person to answer the phone and talk with them.  There is definately value in human interaction and a personal touch.  It doesn’t matter whether their handling emergency calls or covering your office while you’re out to lunch, live receptionists care about your customers as much as you do, and are dedicated to providing a professional, courteous service when you’re not there.

A machine never goes out of its way to calm someone down, get the right information or can’t determine just how urgent a call is. A live person, given the right training, can.  A machine may very well make an upset customer irate or overwhelmed. A live person, given the right training, won’t.

If you want to get your company’s name off the GetHuman.com list — or ensure your business never makes the list — try a virtual receptionist service. You can “get human” in no time.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications is a 24/7bilingual inbound call center, specializing in professional attorney answering, virtual receptionist, Spanish answering and business answering solutions.

In January we orchestrated a new process for destroying sensitive documents and routing waste paper from our Dumpster.  This material is now deposited in locked, sixty gallon containers provided by a mobile shredding service.  Once per month its truck will service these containers.   The contents will be shredded onsite and carried to a recycling facility.

Last month we also learned the score on the Dumpster service we retain with our local rubbish company.  We discovered our Dumpster is part of a “unicycling” program that permits both recyclables and “messy” trash in it.  The “messy” trash must be bagged and tied shut.  Recyclables, such as hard plastics, containers numbered 1 through 7, and cardboard may be put loose inside the Dumpster.

The dynamics of recycling at Alert are improving.  Most of us now have desk caddies for collecting paper during our shifts that is easily transferred to the sixty gallon containers at the end of the day.  Break rooms now have four bins for sorting various types of trash: aluminum cans, plastic beverage bottles, all “other” recyclables, and one for “messy” trash.  We’ll continue to redeem aluminum and plastic beverage containers for cash while depositing the other types of trash in our “unicycling” Dumpster.  Our answering services representatives and others in the company are eagerly participating in the recycling efforts.

Over the next few months we’ll be rehearsing this new version to an old song when sorting our trash plus developing a process for recycling hazardous items that cannot safely be put in our Dumpster such as electronic equipment, batteries, and computer hardware.    It may take time to perfect our performance, but the melody we’re playing now will take us to the top of the chart as we pursue our “green” goals at Alert Communications.