Phone answering recommendations

[jimm]

Hi,
Im looking at offering a service which will require 24x7 phone answering.
I will also require them to input the details onto my own job tracking software (web based) and depending on the job follow an escalation procedure.
Has anyone any good or bad experances with companys doing similar?

 

Try JAM - http://www.answer.co.uk/?refid=68QL8N2QB - they come highly recommended.

Kind regards

Zöe

 

[Call Tracker]

Jam are good - another recommendation

 

[Ashley_Price]

We don't do 24/7 so cannot help you - and won't try and sell you our service.

Try AlldayPA (this link is for less than 500 calls a month) - they are about the only firm who we haven't inherited customers from because they were unhappy with the service.

 

[virtuallysorted]

Ah now that's interesting Ashley - because we have! LOL!

To be honest 24/7 call answering as a high quality service is a bit of a myth. And I know why - it's because it's blooming difficult to recruit and retain quality candidates to work unsociable hours.

And realistically, how many businesses get genuine leads outside of 8am-7pm? My parents used to run a travel company and they stopped using the overnight call service because a) they got the telephone numbers wrong a lot of the time and b) the leads were usually someone on the way home from the pub!!!

Jimm - do you really need it? And if so, would it be more cost effective to hire your own shift of people to work through the night and therefore remain accountable to you?

 

[jimm]

Interesting comment re AlldayPA. They were someone who we have been recommended as top notch elsewhere (they were the only recomendation I have outside of here though).

Caroline, Its not for leads, its for emergencies. For example if I was a small pluber and wanted to offer 24x7 call out. I would need someone to escalate as per a procedure to the number of the 'on call' plumber. (its not that but thats kind of a similar situation).

Cheers

 

[Mpg]

KMHS

http://www.kmhs.co.uk/

They handle 200+ calls a day for us

 

[jimm]

KMHS

http://www.kmhs.co.uk/

They handle 200+ calls a day for us

Do you use them outside normal hours?
Do they still provide the usual quality?

 

[virtuallysorted]

Or could you have a dedicated mobile phone which gets given to the on call person and they get straight through to someone who can help them?

You could use a redirect on the phone line and send it through to the mobile or their landline or what have you, so it wouldn't seem dodgy.

If it is an emergency, you don't want the call centre to be emailing through a message and then the on call person has to try and get hold of the person who called in etc. Also the call centre has no way of assessing whether or not it's an emergency. To give you an example, I called my plumber a few weeks ago because "I have no hot water - EMERGENCY!!!" and he asked me whether I'd checked the pressure and if it was a bit low to top it up - drama solved.

Unusually for a call centre type person - in this instance I'd say to use your own people!

 

[TotallySport]

This might be slightly wrong, but if I looked for an emgerncy plumber, I would expect to ring a mobile number that almost literaly woke up a plumber, not sure I would want to ring a call center type number.

 

[jimm]

Unfortunately a mobile wouldnt work due to the service Im looking to offer. (Its not actually a plumber, that was just a similar example).

Due to the service the people answering the phones couldnt actually be skilled in the service. It would simply cost far too much.
And again the volume of calls really wouldnt make it cost effective to do it with my own staff.

 

[Mpg]

Do you use them outside normal hours?
Do they still provide the usual quality?

Yes they are 24/7/365

We run a 24 hr service

 

[Ashley_Price]

They handle 200+ calls a day for us

OMG! What do you do that has 200+ calls a DAY?!

 

[Ashley_Price]

Mind you, I couldn't recommend us even 9am-5:30pm Monday to Friday. We're so bad we have to offer the free one trial just so people can see how bad we are.

 

[Mpg]

OMG! What do you do that has 200+ calls a DAY?!

Specialist couriers.

Its not until you see it in print that it makes you realise 200 is a fair amount of calls. Glad I'm not doing it myself

 

[Ashley_Price]

Specialist couriers.

Its not until you see it in print that it makes you realise 200 is a fair amount of calls. Glad I'm not doing it myself

Still 200+ a day, I can't think of too many business that get that number.