Posts Tagged ‘business phone answering’

Increase Sales and Revenue with an Order Taking Answering Service

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Order takinorder taking answering serviceg answering services are a necessary element of any service-oriented business. Every call in this industry is an opportunity, which is where an order taking answering service can help leverage sales and provide high quality customer service. These services guarantee that every call is answered promptly and every order is placed no matter the time of day.

In a fast-growing business, order-taking answering services offer 24-hour support that is needed for a sudden influx in call volume. Trained call center agents provide superior customer service, product knowledge, and customized scripting so that you feel confident leaving transactions in their hands. Whether your business needs full time order taking or only over-flow coverage, an order taking answering service is truly the most affordable route to handle rapid business growth.

Benefits of an Order-taking Answering Service Include:

  • 24-hour coverage so your business is reachable at all times
  • Full time or overflow order taking answering service options
  • Highly trained, articulate customer service representatives providing accurate order placements 100% of the time
  • Money saved on in-house staffing and office facilities

Most importantly, an order taking answering service allows you to allocate your time to what’s important – running your business. An order taking business means higher profits, increased sales, and consistent high quality customer service, all while streamlining your business model for lasting success.

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

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Developing Positive Agent to Caller Relationships

Friday, July 8th, 2011

The key to a successful call center is having highly trained, specialized agents who are friendly and also ensure callers that they are in good hands. Sometimes, prospective clients may be hesitant to commit to something over the phone. An effective call center agent will help callers overcome these fears and turn leads into appointments, order placements, or whatever the goal of the call may be.

Business Identity and Caller Empathy

When handling incoming calls, agents should always identify themselves right away with his or her name and the company they are representing. After politely inquiring about the reason for the call, agents should be patient while letting the caller fully explain their questions or concerns. Allowing the caller to speak without interruption helps develop a trust factor. When the customer is finished speaking, agents should display a level of concern for their needs and follow up with probing, relevant questions to help resolve the issue at hand. As a call center, one of your main goals is to ease any uncertainty the caller may have about making a commitment later in the conversation.

Establishing Desires of Clients

When prospective clients make the very first call to a business, they may not know exactly what they need or even what to look for. This is where call center agents use custom scripting and industry training. Call center agents must ask probing questions to discover the caller’s needs, collect useful information, and develop a rapport.

Eliminating Cancellations

Post-call remorse may occur after getting off the line with a caller who has agreed to set an appointment, purchase a product, upgrade a service, etc. Many agents will rush to get off the phone after upselling, cross-selling, or appointment setting in order to avoid sudden changes of heart from the caller. While this may seem effective, it can actually leave the new customer feeling regretful and panicked. To significantly reduce cancellations, call agents should follow a post-close script that will leave the caller confident in their decision to utilize the business’s services.

Call center agents who develop a healthy rapport with callers are proven to capture more leads and make more conversions than those who do not establish an agent-caller relationship.

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Virtual Receptionists for Service Providers

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Virtual receptionists come in especially useful for commercial and residential service providers. Give your company an airvirtual receptionist of professionalism from that very first call for an estimate. Even if you run a small business, a virtual receptionist can make it sound like a large and well-organized corporation. Virtual receptionist services ensure that every call is answered without missing an opportunity for business. Receptionists will greet callers with the business name and efficiently gather information to direct the caller appropriately.

Service providers that offer 24/7 emergency assistance receive calls around the clock. Naturally, not all of these calls can be taken and voice mailboxes fill up quickly. Some businesses don’t even have the time to go through all of their messages, let alone return calls. Allow a 24-hour virtual receptionist to handle this for you. Especially in emergency situations, callers are more likely to keep dialing until they reach immediate assistance. When a caller reaches a live person, they are much less likely to drop the call.

Whether you are fixing a broken air conditioner or sending out roadside assistance for an overheated car, virtual receptionists for service providers ensure that your business is reachable 24 hours a day for the ultimate in customer care. Virtual receptionist services allow you to customize scripts in line with your business objectives so no information slips through the cracks. Answering services can take incoming calls 24 hours, after business hours, or simply just for overflow. Automated services can also be used solely or in combination with a live receptionist to screen calls before answering. Several options are available depending on the size of your business and its needs. Choose to receive messages via email or text, or even implement bilingual call center agents for Spanish-speaking callers.

Virtual receptionists take over the administrative duties so that you have time to run your business. Virtual receptionists will manage scheduling tasks, collect accurate client information, dispatch calls to technicians, put through emergency service callers, record messages, and provide post service customer satisfaction calls. Service packages can be purchased with no contract according to your call volume. As a service provider, your leads can now become clients with the help of a virtual receptionist.

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

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“Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company–and Revolutionized an Industry”

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Every cloud has a silver lining, and Marc Benioff’s is no exception. “Behind the Cloud” is his story of how Salesforce.com went from an idea to a billion-dollar company — and changed an industry. Salesforce.com turned software-as-a-product into software-as-a-service. Instead of buying and installing a customer-relationship-management software program, Salesforce.com revolutionized the industry by offering it as a “cloud computing” service to businesses on a per-user, per-month fee.

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.

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Don’t Let a Lack of Staff Lead to a Lack of Business

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

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’ small business answering services eliminate that risk.

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.

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Fourth Quarter Is the New Destination

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Summer is over and as fourth quarter moves closer, small business owners find their thoughts turning more toward year-end results than vacation destinations. The fourth quarter of any year is an important time for small business owners. That’s when you need to be doing year-end tax planning and looking ahead to next year.

Whether you do it yourself or with the help of a CPA, don’t put off fourth-quarter planning. You could end up paying a heavy price — and not just in taxes —  if you don’t look at your books and think about how your company will fare for the rest of 2010 and into early 2011. By looking at your business over a longer period of time, you can make smarter decisions about spending and running your business.

Looking at your business performance over the long term is the best way to plan for what’s ahead. Accountants look at balance sheets as well as income statements for the past few years. Balance sheets show a company’s cash flow, and income statements help determine whether your business is likely to turn a profit. For instance, your company might show a significant profit by year’s end, but if the first quarter usually is a slow period (shown by cash flow), don’t be throwing your money around. Instead, put it aside for those lean days that are sure to hit in early 2011.

Fourth quarter is a good time to think about capital spending, too, and whether you can benefit from certain tax breaks, like Section 179 deductions. Those deductions allow you to deduct, up front,  the cost of certain kinds of equipment bought and used during the tax year rather than depreciating the purchase over time. You’ll also want to keep in mind what you’re cash flow is like when you’re making capital-spending decisions. Forgoing the tax break in order to have the cash on hand for the lean days of first quarter might be the smarter thing to do.

If you’re diligent about contributing to your retirement plan, take a look at your financial statements to decide how much you can contribute for 2010. Fourth quarter is also a good time to make any plan changes you might be considering and still possibly benefit from those changes in the current tax year.

As the summer heat starts to dwindle, consider turning up the heat on your fourth-quarter business review. It just might save you some cold, hard cash.

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.

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Answering Your Business Phones IS Part of the Sales Process

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The phone is ringing. Someone picks it up and says, “Good morning, you’ve reached Green Trails. Can you hold please?” Before I can say “yes” or “no,” I’m on hold. And I’m annoyed. Not just because I’ve been put on hold, but because I wasn’t given a choice. I called to ask if Green Trails had a particular item, but I figure I can call somewhere else and be treated better. I hang up. And Green Trails loses my business.

“Green Trails” doesn’t really exist, but I’m sure you’ve experienced a similar situation. That scenario asks a very important question — where does the sales process begin? It also answers it — as soon as the customer connects with your business. It doesn’t matter whether that connection is face to face over a store counter or simply over the phone. First impressions definitely impact sales.

While many businesses focus on face-to-face customer service, it’s just as important to pay attention to customer service in handling calls. Common courtesy is a great place to start, but it by no means ends there. Ideally, your customers should never be put on hold right when their call is answered. But if you have just one person answering your calls instead of a business answering service or virtual-receptionist service, that person should be courteous enough to wait for customers to answer the question before putting them on hold.

You also want to make sure callers can easily understand what’s said to them. Good articulation goes a long way toward making customers feel comfortable. While you might think you’re impressing customers with how busy you are by speaking quickly or immediately putting them on hold, truth is, that makes most customers feel you don’t care about them and don’t have time to help them.

No matter who’s answering your calls, be sure she has enough knowledge about your products and services to answer basic questions and ask for information to determine exactly what each caller needs or wants. Being able to direct customers to the right person or department for help is critical. Transferring customers around your organization is a quick way to frustrate them and encourage them to hang up.

Pay attention the next time you make a call. How is it handled? Are you taken care of right away or put on hold? Could you understand what was said to you? Did you get information you needed and/or get connected to the right person? Would you call back again? Take your experience and apply it to your own business to see how customers might feel when they interact with your company. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of call handling in your sales process.

Learn more about Alert Communications business answering service solutions.

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.

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