Answering Calls for a Difference

The invention of the answering machine in 1898 and introduction of the first commercial answering machine to America in 1949 were considered by companies as a rescue from having unanswered concerns (i.e., unanswered phone calls).

Way back, an answering machine became a great advancement for companies in accommodating more calls. Further advancements were made and thenceforth came the voice mail feature; this time, companies are able to accommodate all their calls.

But let's face it. Getting the machine or voice mail doesn't readily translate to having an "answered" call, as opposed to having an actual person receive the call.

Nowadays, when clients or customers call a company and only hear an automated response at the other end of the line, they would immediately hang up, thinking that their call will just be ignored. In a study, 70% of callers do this.

How your company takes the calls of your clients or customers is also an indication of how much you value them and their concerns.

Many companies have availed of an answering service from BPO (business process outsourcing) service providers. The answering service has been an efficient means for companies to accommodate all of their customers' concerns, having a live person take every call of a client so as to give prompt solutions to the latter's problems.

With an answering service, anyone who usually has a lot customers or clients trying to reach him/her—especially business owners, physicians, company executives, and the like—can have a live operator address the concerns of the callers.

The operator—who is usually called a virtual assistant, CSR (customer service representative), or call center agent—functions as a secretary per se, with the following tasks:

1. answer the call/s of the customer
2. take note of the concern
3. relay the message to the "boss"
4. get back to the caller

This is the common cycle of what an answering service operator does. Also, an operator has access to basic information a caller may need, enabling the former to readily assist customer concerns on his/her own. Apparently, a person who avails of an answering service can then have more time to focus on matters in greater need of attention.

There's no telling when a customer or client would need assistance; hence, an answering service is there to cater the clients' concerns even after-hours, holidays, weekends, or vacations. The service can also provide round-the-clock assistance, especially for companies with minimal manpower and yet have a steady influx of callers.

Answering service operators are commonly housed in a call center, which is an organization or a company itself that employs professionals with above-average communication skills and a good grasp of the English language. In turn, call center answering services are delivered with efficiency and quality.

Companies that availed of call center answering services have already attested to the advantages the service gives to the business. This type of outsourcing service may be set according to the standards of the company. BPO service providers usually have the resources needed to customize the service, incorporating a system or determining what communication tools are best for the company in order to attend to the needs of its customers and clients better.

It has been pointed out that call center answering services have changed the face of customer relationship management (CRM). The service has satisfied the preference of a caller to have an actual person take the call instead of a machine. Also, it not only met but also exceeded the expectations of all the parties involved—the company, its customers or clients, and even the service provider. It has enhanced business partnerships and professional relationships.

A BPO service by nature, call center answering services provide the main benefit of outsourcing, and that is for a company to run its business functions with cost-effectiveness. Having an answering service operator instead of a full-time employee for the position can eliminate training costs and salary budgets. Also, the cost of outsourcing the service is much lower than hiring a full-time employee. The service helps the company achieve the goal of maximizing the business's function (if not the necessity) to consistently accommodate the clients' calls at a very low cost.

In providing call center services, outsourcing companies in the Philippines have gained the preference of foreign businesses. An outsourcing company of note is Taking You Forward, Inc. (TYF, Inc.). When it comes to call center services, outsourcing to TYF, Inc. has become the foremost choice of several foreign companies. This is due to how Taking You Forward, Inc. creates a unique business partnership, offering reasonable rates, matching requirements, and having proficient professionals.

Now, it's high time for your company to make a difference—to your customers, from your competitors, and even to your revenue. Build up the advantages of your business by not only having an answering service but availing it from a reliable outsourcing company as well.

Older Post:

• How to Choose the Right Answering Service
• Is It Time to Hire an Answering Service?
• Bright Horizons of Call Center Outsourcing - Philippines

Call Center Answering Services: How to Choose the Right Provider

It is now a commonplace for business owners, entrepreneurs, doctors, company executives, and other professionals to have an answering service. With the hectic schedules that these people have, it became logical for them to avail of the service to keep up with the demands of their profession.

Call center answering services make it possible for individual professionals or large organizations to accommodate the concerns (i.e., taking the calls) of their customers, business partners, or patients without sacrificing other areas of their responsibility.

Call center answering services are usually availed from BPO (business process outsourcing) companies or third-party service providers. This service is basically offered in any and every BPO service provider. Also, there are now hundreds of BPO companies around the world. Therefore, choosing a call center answering services provider may prove to be a challenge for professionals or businesses searching for one.

Knowing the major factors involved in having an answering service is key to finding the most apt service provider for you, your company, or your business.

The following are the basic considerations in choosing the right call center answering service provider:

• Review the Rates
  
  Answering services can be billed per minute, per call, or per unit. Most service providers offer a small fee for each of the three billing structures, but the catch is in the additional charges in each message transferred. Hence, clarify which costs are fixed and which ones will vary so as to get the actual amount of the service. Getting both an overview and a thorough look of the rates will greatly aid in the final decision of which provider to pick.

• Run a Test Call
  
  The service provider's answering service operators will be the ones to bring the name of your company or business; hence, see for yourself how well the operator can handle the concerns of your customers. You can request a potential service provider to have one of their operators take a mock call from you. Pretend to be a customer with the most basic issue of your business and see how well the operator responds.
  
  A tip in running the test call is to ask for an average operator (not the best one). If an average operator does well, then the more-tenured ones are sure to do better.

• Wield the Workforce
  
  More appropriately, see how the service provider wields its workforce. Does the provider conduct sufficient training, proper orientation, and continuing evaluation for its employees? The job of answering service operators entail dealing with different kinds of people, that is, your customers who come as varied as the concerns they have. Also, the operators have to be competent enough in being knowledgeable about your business, and training, orientation, and evaluation are the basics of obtaining that competency.

• Evaluate Equipment
  
  Get an overview of the programs and devices used by the service provider in making, taking, and recording the calls. Make sure that the provider has the necessary technology to monitor the calls and trace lapses or complaints (if any) from the conversations.

• Look into the Location and Population
  
  A service provider with only 20 to 50 operators indicates a wanting workforce. With this number, many callers may be put on hold for too long or left unanswered, especially that large organizations or busy professionals usually have a minimum of 100 callers in a day. Also, a caller put on hold usually hangs up at the next couple of seconds, thereby making your company lose a potential loyal customer.
  
  The accessibility of the location of a service provider may be a minor concern albeit important all the same; a visit from is highly possible. Also, choosing a provider located in an area that is barely prone to natural disasters ensures the continuous provision of answering services for you; in turn, no hiatus in answering your customers' concerns as well.

• Consider Other Companies' Referrals
  
  Referrals are a good basis in gathering a selection of service providers or in narrowing down the options. However, don't make the referrals the sole reason for finally deciding on the one service provider for your business. Don't settle for what other business owners have to say; instead, gauge the ability of the provider with specific metrics in accordance to the needs of your business.
  
  There may be no such thing as the best answering services provider, only the most apt one for your company—that is, a BPO service provider that offers answering service at an affordable rate and has the flexibility to cater to the needs of your customers according to your specifications.

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• Is It Time to Hire an Answering Service?
• Bright Horizons of Call Center Outsourcing - Philippines

Medical Answering Service – Choose The Best

Telephone answering services

You might be a bit stressed out about providing your patients with the best service and care, and wondering how to do that without burning yourself out completely. After all, doctors are the most underrated professionals when it comes to the amount of time they spend looking after patients and even in their clinics and hospitals. It would not hurt if there are some professional service providers who could take it up for you when your body needs rest, or maybe when you are going on that long-delayed vacation. The best you can do is to hirea medical answering service provider who would help maintain the flow of information between you and your patients.

A medical answering serviceprovider answers patient calls and takes and passes on messages. This simple service goes a long way in increasing worker productivity, reducing overhead costs, and improving overall patient care. To choose the best providers in this domain, one should be aware of certain factors though.

The calls that go to your office should be handled efficiently by the chosen service provider; clients should not be put on hold or asked to wait for extended periods. This is because people are not very accommodating when it comes to calling about a recently conducted diabetes test, for instance.

The service providers offering telephone answering services to the medical fraternity and even otherwise should ideally be able to offer a large range of message delivery options. Most medical practitioners nowadays carry a personal digital assistant (PDA) ora web-enabled phone. The right kind of service should be able to provide more important messages from patients in an email format, easily accessible from a web-enabled phone or a computer.

If a medical establishment is closed due to weather conditions, the medical answering serviceprovider should ideally be able to take the messages from patients and relay them on quickly and with the least possible turn around time. This way, patients are always cared for even when a medical establishment is closed or not staffed.

Is It Time to Have an Answering Service?

According to Freelancer.com, the largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace, a huge increase in virtual assistant jobs (144%) focusing on answering service and administrative functions emerged in the first quarter of 2012. The figure indicates that many companies are already acquiring the service.

Also, every other firm you know has already acquired answering services. All over the world, businesses, organizations, companies, and even individuals (who are usually very busy) have an answering service.

You, however, are still in a dilemma whether to get the service for your company, thinking, "An answering service may take the load of a hundred calls off our shoulders, but will the service value our customers' concerns as much as our company does?"

For individual professionals, what pushed them to finally take advantage of an answering service was having a phone ringing off the hook in the middle of making business plans or reports. For others, it's the accepted fact that taking calls usually eats up much of their time as well, putting other business matters on hold, if not entirely neglected.

Many of these people have resorted to voice mail too, leaving a machine to "rescue" the calls; however, the piled-up voice mails will eventually still have to be attended to, and will take up much time all the same.

If your business or company has been experiencing such cases, then it's high time to avail an answering service. As for the quality of the service, you can rest assured that your customers' concerns are well taken care of as long as you do your part in searching for the best BPO (business process outsourcing) service provider.

The following are the major factors that you should look into upon looking for a third-party service provider of an answering service:

• Answering Service Operators
  
  See to it that the answering service operators, the people who will take the calls of your company's customers or clients, are assigned to focus on your business.
  
  The BPO service provider can train its operators to be as good as experts about the nature of your company. In turn, addressing your customers' concerns can be well deemed as being delivered within your office walls
  
  It is important for the operators to have ample knowledge of the industry your business belongs to. If your business is in the publishing industry, then operators who are wide readers can make a difference in taking the calls of your customers—that is, being able to connect with the callers by easily answering queries about books or providing further information about famous authors and the latest novels.

• Up-to-Date Technology
  
  Look for a service provider that has the tools or equipment that can efficiently record phone logs, take note of call fluctuations, and track inbound and outbound calls. The data from these are vital in determining selling patterns and growth rates of purchases. Also check the provider's technological ability to handle calls of bigger volumes.
  
  The technology to speed up receipt of calls and messages is as important as the availability of a failover system; it is best to opt for a company who has both means.

• Workforce Status
  
  Constructive and accommodating answering service operators can stem from healthy working environment. Checking the status of the workforce of a service provider can help you determine whether it's favorable to partner with that BPO service provider.
  
  A high rate of employee turnover can also translate to poor accommodation of your callers. With employees constantly leaving the BPO company, the customers of your business will have to be constantly reassigned to another operator, which can result to an inefficient means of addressing customer concerns.

• Price Comparison
  
  Gather background data and price rates of the main competitors of the service provider/s you are looking into. Narrow down your options to ones that can truly deliver quality answering service and offer reasonable rates.
  
  Getting an answering service may be a big decision for your company, but with the aforementioned to guide your choices, availing an answering service can turn out to be one of the best moves you've made for your company.

Older Post:

• Bright Horizons of Call Center Outsourcing - Philippines

Improve Patients' Experience By Physician Answering Service

There were days when there was noconceptofcallcenters,healthcare,orphysicianansweringservice.Theseserviceshaverecentlybecomeanecessityformosttheprofessionals,especiallyphysicians.The healthcare professionals need to be responsive and quick enough to attend to the calls of their patients at any hour. The answering service helps doctors ingivingsolutionsto thepatientsaboutany issues or fixingan appointment.Theyalsoprovidedependablephonecoveragewheneverrequired.Formanydoctors,ahealthcare answering serviceisa basic requirement.

Better Relationship between Doctor and Patient

The main motive ofa physiciananswering servicecompanyistobuildastrongbridgebetweenthedoctorandhispatients.Withagoodphysicianansweringservice,youcanmakesurethatyourpatientsgetaquickreplyina professionalmanner.Thisservicemakespatientsfeelspecialandshowsyourcareandresponsibilitytowardsthem.It also helpsinimprovingyourimage,andattractingnewcustomers.Aneasyappointment,aquickandhelpfulresponse,andnorepeatedcallingleadstoabetterrelationshipbetweenthedoctorandpatients.

Pocket Friendly Service

The option tobedependentonphysician answering serviceiscosteffective.Inthiscase,youdonothavetohireextrapeopletoattendcalls.Itistheresponsibilityofthesecompaniestohirerequirednumberofpeople,andtrainthemtohandlecalls.Moreover,thejobofpeopleinthesecompaniesisonlytoattendcallsandsolvethequeriesofthe patients. Ontheotherhand,ifyouhireateamforthisjob,therearechancesthattheygetinvolvedinothertasks suchasattending visitors, preparing bills, and others. This isthereasonwhy doctorschoosethislowcostaswellaseffectivemethodtohandletheircalls.