Just Invested in a Telephone Answering Service

[Stephen Davies]

My little business is taking the plunge with a local telephone answering service to help us out during the Christmas period.

Basically, the phone rings so much right now that we can't get any work done!

We've tested them out by having a few of our friends and family call up to check that their answers are good and it all seems kosher.
Just wondered if anyone else has used a telephone answering service before and whether it's a good long term solution or it's only worth using around busy periods?

Many thanks

 

[FreelanceScribbler]

One place I worked about 3 years back outsourced their customer service to a call centre. Biggest mistake they ever made.
Very few of the problems were resolved because the questions being asked by customers were very specialised. Meanwhile the team of customer service girls in the company didn't actually get anymore work done. They just took longer lunchbreaks
This was apparent in the first 2 weeks, but rather than pull the plug, the boss rolled with it for 3 months...
So my advice is that if things aren't working after a couple of weeks, don't risk your business and pull out rather than hoping it gets better.

 

[Stephen Davies]

No fear of that. There's only 3 of us here!

 

[help4545]

One of the worst things we have done, customers feel like they had spoken to some one from the company and could not understand why we didn't therefore return there calls back to them in 10 mins.

It didn't help us in fact turned out worst than them leaving message on a answer machine.

 

[TheCallManager]

Using an answering service can really help support businesses but they need to know what you expect and want from the relationship. There are many types of telephone answering services so it is important to choose one that can become part of your team. If they are worth their salt then they will know how to deal with different calls and situations just as you would. It is unfair to assume they just don't help. If you have discussed your needs with them then great, if not then they should have done so with you. Either way all feedback is good feedback and the way to improve things.

 

[gzylo]

Hi

Best thing I have done for ages!


Since I am foreign and my accent is not perfect and in 99% of cases its phone sales.

You just need to put an exchange before asking ringing person to press:
1 - for new sales
2 - for existing customers

I basically depends from the business, if its technical you cannot do it or split exchange to departments etc. But if its simple sales go for it!

 

[No Missed Calls]

I think whatever part of your business you're outsourcing (telephone answering, marketing, etc) it should be regarded as a partnership rather than just 'another supplier' or it simply won't work out long-term.

Treat the operators at the telephone answering service as your 'team' or colleagues; openly discuss what's working and what isn't and iron out any concerns or issues.

It's all about working together because it's in both parties interests that it works successfully

Emma

 

[Talay]

It truly depends upon what people are phoning for.

For example, if people are phoning for you to send them a brochure, then a receptionist can take their details (better if you give them a pro forma sheet) and pass all these on to you via email. No problems, everyone gets their catalogues, happy days.

However, say you are marketing a service. Customer call you up to get information on the different services you offer, what the T&C are, how much it is, payment options, etc. None of these enquiries can be dealt with by someone who knows nothing about your business and all they'll be able to say is that you are too busy to answer the phone, take some details and pass it on to you.

You need to understand your business and what your customers are asking for. For me, it doesn't work at all.

 

[alice_p]

Did this company give you a free trial period just to see how well it works for you? I would recommend trying it to see how it works for your team first of all. In my opinion, yes, this kind of service is a good solution. Obviously, missing calls is unprofessional for any business. Voicemail isn't really an option these days, nobody leaves a voicemail on a business line.

 

[maxine]

My little business is taking the plunge with a local telephone answering service to help us out during the Christmas period.

Basically, the phone rings so much right now that we can't get any work done!

We've tested them out by having a few of our friends and family call up to check that their answers are good and it all seems kosher.
Just wondered if anyone else has used a telephone answering service before and whether it's a good long term solution or it's only worth using around busy periods?

Many thanks

I think it's great that you are so happy with it that you are sharing your views on here I mean that sincerely as so often people use forums to grumble but hardly ever to share the good stuff!

I'm expanding my telemarketing company at the moment to do more inbound call handling for clients. It came about partly to support outbound telemarketing calls where people were calling our clients back and not getting through to someone or where they were starting to get too busy to always get to their calls themselves and handle them professionally. Even if you have enough people for most of the time there are still some times where several calls come through at once or where there are other pressing priorities and deadlines perhaps in the business so it makes sense to have some kind of overflow facility in the business on a variable cost basis.

When I was researching the inbound call handling market though it's interesting to see how some things vary with pricing structure for things such as sending messages via SMS text or having calls put through to you.

Call handling technology has evolved so much and I personally think it is great to see smaller businesses benefit on the same level as larger organisations and be able to compete really well with them to help deliver excellent customer service. Obviously it's not just the technology but the people on the end of the phone too along with whatever processes are best for your particular organisation

I haven't gone down the route of offering a free trial because to be honest if a job is worth doing then it's worth doing properly and it takes time and money to train, test and pay salaries for good people plus it's open to abuse too and I haven't needed to offer it. Instead I've offered a no quibble money back guarantee (but nobody has taken me up on it yet).

To answer your question about whether it's worth using all the time or just busy period I would recommend keeping track of all the calls that come through (whether billed or not, or included in the free calls packages etc) to see how the patterns vary. Then hopefully you can compare the cost and benefits of either different suppliers or in-house costs plus the opportunity cost of what else you have been able to do with your time uninterrupted.

 

[sysops]

We tried it over xmas 2008, and it was a complete disaster. We used one of the larger companies, which came highly recommended. The calls were for an ecommerce operation (not taking orders, just answering general questions.

It was a complete disaster. The call centre operators basically just told the callers random things, without referring to the script in any way. It resulted in large numbers of extremely unhappy customers.

The following year we went phone-free. We did have a few complaints from customers that wanted a phone service, but on the whole we had a lot fewer complaints than we did the previous year.

 

[Jet Virtual]

My little business is taking the plunge with a local telephone answering service to help us out during the Christmas period.

Basically, the phone rings so much right now that we can't get any work done!

We've tested them out by having a few of our friends and family call up to check that their answers are good and it all seems kosher.
Just wondered if anyone else has used a telephone answering service before and whether it's a good long term solution or it's only worth using around busy periods?

Many thanks

Stephen when I started Jet Virtual I did alot of research into the telephone answering service industry. Interestingly enough I found out not so much what people wanted in an answering service but more so what they didn't want.

• Robotic Sounding Receptionists
• Noisy Call Centre Background Sound
• Charges for Wrong numbers or Sales Calls

And more ...

So we decided that rather than setup a call centre we would setup a service whereby the client would receive a personal receptionist who would get to know their business well. They could be updated on a regular basis so that callers were given up to date information rather than a scripted response.

You are right in having the fear of hiring a telephone answering service.
After all, you are putting your clients/potential clients in their hands.

Best of luck,

Daniel

 

[Talay]

... So we decided that rather than setup a call centre we would setup a service whereby the client would receive a personal receptionist who would get to know their business well. They could be updated on a regular basis so that callers were given up to date information rather than a scripted response....

How does that work ? Are you integrated into your clients' systems ?

Say I have a client telephone me and it goes through to your handling this call. Above static data, what can you give the client in terms of useful information, such perhaps on the status of their order or to take a new order or perhaps to discuss a proposal already received ?

I could train you to understand the absolute bare fundamentals of my business but I am interested in how you could possibly give out more than that information to a client.

If that is the case, isn't the service merely a human answering the telephone instead of a recorded message ?

Maybe I've missed the crucial part of this but I've looked at these services a few times (because of my needs) and I don't get how they can know enough about the business to do more than take a message. I'm all ears to hear how they can and how that can be achieved.

 

[Jet Virtual]

How does that work ? Are you integrated into your clients' systems ?

Say I have a client telephone me and it goes through to your handling this call. Above static data, what can you give the client in terms of useful information, such perhaps on the status of their order or to take a new order or perhaps to discuss a proposal already received ?

I could train you to understand the absolute bare fundamentals of my business but I am interested in how you could possibly give out more than that information to a client.

If that is the case, isn't the service merely a human answering the telephone instead of a recorded message ?

You would be amazed at what is possible these days. We have clients who we take orders for, answer FAQ's, cancel appointments and reschedule appointments (using a shared online diary), take payments etc.

The key point is that because you have direct contact with your receptionist you can update her on a daily basis if need be.

The other thing to realise is that nobody expects a receptionist to know ALL the details. But it gets frustrating if she can't answer simple questions or if the receptionist says "someone will call you back shortly" when actually the client is in a business conference and won't be returning calls until the following day.

We don't claim to be perfect but we do surprise our clients with how flexible and personal an answering service can be when done the right way.

 

[jamesws]

Somone said put a divert for sales / non-sales calls which of course is not always possible, what we do is have the telephone answering hot-key the NEW sales call across to one of our directors, a bit like a receptionist might. We use a company called Beserved Virtual Services and they do a stirling job.

FB