Unlike a vacation, which employees schedule in advance, no one plans a sick day—or at least most people don’t. In most cases a sick day is not a pre-arranged absence. So what do you do when your receptionist calls off at 7:45 in the morning? Panic The idea of hearing a ringing phone all day … Continue reading Use an Answering Service to Cover Sick Days →

If your business operates outside the call center industry, you may have trouble answering this question of “What is a call center?” But it’s an important one to ask and even more critical to give careful consideration to the answer. While some businesses know they have a corporate call center, most others assume they don’t, … Continue reading What Is a Call Center? →

Call center agents, your public-facing staff, are key to your call center’s effectiveness and fuel the success of the overall organization. Successful agent development starts on their first day of employment and continues every day after that. This begins with their initial training, continues with ongoing training, moves into possible promotion, and culminates in defining … Continue reading Implement an Agent Development Program →

In the call center arena, your frontline people are key to success. This starts on day one of their employment in their initial training. Here are some tips to foster successful agent training. Pick the Right Medium There is a time and place for online training, but self-directed instruction will not work in all situations. … Continue reading Agent Success Starts With Great Training →

There are some commonsense steps to take when selling your telephone answering service, just as there are when selling anything. Common key elements include presentation, promotion, correcting problems, and so forth. At the risk of comparing a business to a vehicle, would you abuse a car, drive until it breaks down, and then slap a … Continue reading How Not to Sell Your Telephone Answering Service →

It’s likely your hospital system has at least one call center, a centralized place that handles calls. This may be for a department, a building, the facility, or the entire network. While some healthcare operations wisely have only one comprehensive call center, other networks have a dispersed array of specialty call centers. The reality is … Continue reading Why You Should Consolidate Siloed Call Centers →

Some businesses and professionals live or die by the number of appointments they have each day. For them, an appointment is a billable moment. A full schedule results in a full day of billing. A schedule with holes means fewer billable hours and less revenue. Downtime equals disappointment. The Goal is Maximum Productivity The objective … Continue reading Use an Answering Service to Schedule Appointments →

It’s a dilemma. You want all of your staff to attend your staff meetings, but that leaves no one left to answer the phone when it rings. After all, the meeting is for all staff and to exclude one person by removing him or her from the discussion doesn’t make sense, and an absence implies … Continue reading Use an Answering Service to Cover Staff Meetings →

A key to keeping in touch with prospects for your answering service or call center is to collect email addresses and send out periodic updates or informative newsletters. We call this email marketing. In a post about the legal aspects of email marketing, we shared six tips for success. Tip #4 was “Provide a clear … Continue reading Make Sure Your Email Has a Clear and Easy-to-Use Opt-Out Procedure →

If you are the owner of a small business or the business manager in charge of overseeing your answering service, does it sometimes seem as if your answering service is more hassle then they’re worth? Here are two common pain points many small businesses have when they hire the wrong telephone answering service: Employees Whine … Continue reading Are You Sick of Hearing Complaints about Your Answering Service? →