Phone contact Dilemma

[kroeger]

Hi,

I have the problem that at the moment I am working fulltime in another job whilst I am establishing my ecommerce business. I have signed up for a VOIP number but would like advice as to the best course of action as I am not contactable until the early evenings. I suppose I could leave an answerphone message?

I don't anticipate customers needing to contact me all the time however there will be occasions when they will need to.

What would the best advice be?

[darrenwis]

Hi Kroeger,

I am in exactly the same situation and too have a voip phone, will follow this thread in great interest.

[atlascs]

Why don't you look in to some kind of PA telephone service so that somebody can take messages for you during the day and you can return answers queries by e-mail / telephone in the evenings? I can't recommend a supplier as I've not used one before, however I do know a couple of e-commerce store owners who use a telephone service to great effect.

[MacAddict]

Yep, same situation for me. I am planning on using a PA service, probably these guys http://www.alldaypa.com) (http://www.alldaypa.com/). Any cheaper suppliers ?

The disadvantage of these guys

- Dont know you, your company or products
- Can't take payment for orders

They can patch a call to a designated number and can take messages and email it to you. I think they will good for customers who want to know there is a human at the other end.

[darrenwis]

Yep, same situation for me. I am planning on using a PA service, probably these guyshttp://www.alldaypa.com) (http://www.alldaypa.com/). Any cheaper suppliers ?

The disadvantage of these guys

- Dont know you, your company or products
- Can't take payment for orders

They can patch a call to a designated number and can take messages and email it to you. I think they will good for customers who want to know there is a human at the other end.

Hmm seems an expensive alternative to be honest, at 72p per minute the cheapest package i wonder if a voip message would be more cost effective. Responding to emails within a few hours could do the trick.

[JamieM]

- Can't take payment for orders


Oh yes they can (http://www.alldaypa.com/small_business/24hr-services/orderline.html). :)

Darren it's not really expensive when you think about it. You might only take 10 minutes of calls in a day. You could then have 24 hours of telephone cover for £7.20. Awesome if you ask me!

[MacAddict]

Hmm seems an expensive alternative to be honest, at 72p per minute the cheapest package i wonder if a voip message would be more cost effective. Responding to emails within a few hours could do the trick.

yep, its not cheap. But its the cheapest I found so far to have a human at the other end. It could be good for launch and establishing credibility. I would be a bit worried if I called a line and got answering machine all the time.

[cjd]

When you say you are not contactable, do you mean you are not able to take the call because you will be doing something that prevents it or because you don't have a way of getting the call?

If it's the first and you don't want to use voicemail your only answer is a Virtual Assisstant - there are lots here.

If you need a way of getting a call to whatever phone you are near then a VoIP divert to your mobile or landline with line presentation would do it (Line Presentation tells you what number your caller dialled so you can answer it abc company lts etc)

[kroeger]

My problem is that I am working fulltime in another job whilst I am establishing my ecommerce business and therefore cannot be contacted at my other place of work. By the way I am already one of your customers cjd.

[cjd]

My problem is that I am working fulltime in another job whilst I am establishing my ecommerce business and therefore cannot be contacted at my other place of work.

Then I guess the VA route is best. There are several using this forum (and also using us because the VA's can then work from home which is handy for mothers with young children.)

You could advertise for a VA in the tenders forum. Alternatively try the VA forum here:

http://www.virtuallysorted.com/svaforum/index.php

We use AllDayPA ourselves for out of hours and overflow calls. They are pretty good and can work with scripts that interface with your own back office support systems.

By the way I am already one of your customers cjd.

:)

[INDIZINE]

Another possible route is to use BT text alert to your mobile when people leave a message on your free BT 1571 messaging system on your home landline (or the £1.50 a month personalised 1571 where you can record your own message).

It takes only a minute to set up and link your mobile number to your landline, and you only get charged for the text and of course, dialling up from your mobile to your landline to listen to the message. The text alert comes within seconds of the message being left, so you cal dial up, listen to the message, and then get back in touch with the caller straight away, or as soon as your able to.

I use it for my home telephone and its very useful, so if you work from home you can use this method. I am not sure if this service is available on business landlines.

[MacAddict]

Oh yes they can (http://www.alldaypa.com/small_business/24hr-services/orderline.html). :)




Hmm, I will ask them about this, but I would be very nervous about letting someone else take customer credit card details

[coxadmin]

Then I guess the VA route is best. ...VA's can then work from home which is handy for mothers with young children.

:)


I sincerely hope that any VA offering call answering services does not do so with young children around - noisy children in the background would present a very unprofessional image to the callers.

[cjd]

I sincerely hope that any VA offering call answering services does not do so with young children around - noisy children in the background would present a very unprofessional image to the callers.

One of the VA outfits that use us has quite a few mums with young children working a few hours per day according to their own schedules.

With VoIP this sort of thing is fairly easy and cheap to set up. Each VA has a VoIP extension and all of them ring when a call comes in (the smart ones switch the phones off when not on call) - whoever is 'on call' answers the phone. We send called line ID so they know which of their clients' phones is ringing.

So client and VA are both happy.

[glenb]

Hi Everyone

I spotted this thread with interest! I'm part of a team that runs both a Call Centre & Telephone Answering business, and an ecommerce business.

You're absolutely right to be watching out for the cost (who isn't if you run your own business?). Our approach is to work with you to make the calls cost neutral or even revenue generating so you can provide human contact for those who want it and it even increases your revenue.

Happy to talk further if anyone's interested.

Many thanks
Glen


Glen Blow
GoResponse
Award Winning Call Centre & Telephone Answering Solutions
t: 0800 043 0443
b: www.goresponse.co.uk/call_centre_blog.php (http://www.goresponse.co.uk/call_centre_blog.php)
w: www.goresponse.co.uk (http://www.goresponse.co.uk/)
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[nav2100]

Again, I know it's an old thread but it may be useful info for someone else -

I used to use Needmoretime (have to google it, I can't post links yet) - they are great and can offer mail handling in addition to taking calls and message forwarded.

Great price, very reliable, can vouch for them 100%.

Ironically it wasn't used for pureTXT but a company that never really took calls, however I needed someone to take the odd call at a real office number while I was abroad - and they did a great job.

[James1980]

Hi,

I have the problem that at the moment I am working fulltime in another job whilst I am establishing my ecommerce business. I have signed up for a VOIP number but would like advice as to the best course of action as I am not contactable until the early evenings. I suppose I could leave an answerphone message?

I don't anticipate customers needing to contact me all the time however there will be occasions when they will need to.

What would the best advice be?

My unbiased ;) advice would be a telephone answering service. You will probably find that many people do not bother to leave a message on an answering machine, and may go elsewhere. A friendly human voice, on the other hand, ensures they don't go strayin' to your competitors.

We can take messages during the day, sending them via SMS to your phone or email to your desktop PC/Blackberry/etc; and/or liaise with your callers to answer queries, talk them through using your ecommerce website, take orders from them etc.

Call us on 0118 952 6900 if you are interested, and we can set you up within the same day.



James

[dunerider]

I used an answering service for a couple of years, it cost me £120-150 pm and was well worth the money. It gives peace of mind that your customers are not being abandoned. I only stopped it when i was able to employ someone to take calls and do other stuff.

if you can afford it it will be an investment