Your small business is generating more phone calls from customers and potential ones – and that's good news except it's getting harder for you to make your products or give services. Consider outsourcing your incoming calls.
The value of a human voice is huge – many callers will simply hang up rather than talk to a machine. But before you pick the cheapest answering service to handle your calls, remember this vendor may be a caller's first impression of your business and should be treated as a partner in branding your business.
Three important things to know:
1. What type of calls will you need the answering service to handle – orders, information, technical support, e-mail and Web chat? What volume do you expect? Take into account seasonal spikes.
2. Understand pricing and compare apples to apples. Quotes may be per-minute, per dedicated rep, per call.
3. Evaluate answering services with surprise sample calls by getting phone numbers from the vendor's other clients. Listen to the type of live calls you plan to outsource. Are agents friendly, knowledgeable and skillful with irate callers?
Action Steps
Choose a company that belongs to a professional trade association. Find award winners whose service level has been evaluated through test calls. A score of at least 80 percent snags an award.
There are hundreds of answering services competing for your business – it's one of the easiest home-based businesses to start, but so very difficult to succeed at. Go with an established professional company.
Find out how long operators typically work before quitting. The person who actually answers your phone is vital to your business. Is she enthusiastic and well-trained? If 35 to 50 percent of a vendor's staff has been around three years or more, that's a good sign.
Experience counts; you get what you pay for – the more established answering services will have higher prices – along with existing customers and a sterling reputation.
Pick a specialist; whether you need bi-lingual services or an automatic rollover to a live operator when a natural disaster strikes, there are companies that specialize in niches.
Make sure the answering service has back-up power and redundant critical systems.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
311 Helps Support the Republican National Convention
This past September Minnesotans rolled out the red carpet to welcome Republicans attending their National Convention. Nearly 45,000 delegates, guests, visitors, and media converged on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul to watch John McCain accept his party’s presidential nomination. If any of those visitors had questions about where to go or how to get there, they needed only to dial 311 from their cell phones.
Like New York City’s use of its 311 system at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in 2004, the Minneapolis 311 system also provided a hospitality hot line for the 2008 convention. The RNC 311 hot line designed for the delegates was loaded with information about the convention schedule and activities, transportation, traffic management, tourist attractions, restaurants, shopping options, and more.
Ramping Up
Getting RNC 311 up and running required a stretch of technological and logistical muscle. For one thing, 311 chose to partner with Time Communications, a professional call center, to handle the majority of RNC calls to preclude 311 service levels from being compromised.
Working with subcontractors meant that they would need access to, and training on, the information software used by 311. A T1 line provided the technological connectivity between the two call centers. For the training, curriculum on the Knowledge Base software and RNC fact sheets were developed for Time’s agents. Special training emphasis was put on how to stay politically neutral during caller interactions, something that later prove to be valuable.
Then there was the challenge of expanding 311 dialing outside Minneapolis city limits. Although Minneapolis is the only city of the Twin Cities with 311 system service, the convention was located in neighboring Saint Paul and delegate hotels were scattered throughout the entire metropolitan area. To make 311 dialing available from anywhere within the Twin Cities, Minneapolis 311 personnel worked with each cell phone provider to temporarily expand coverage.
Finally, a customized database had to be designed and built to service the callers. The RNC Knowledge Base had more than 50 categories of information that call takers could access in response to questions. Callers could find out everything from “When does McCain speak?” to “Where is traffic tied up from protestors?”
The RNC’s Unsteady Start
The Republican Convention blew in on the heels of Hurricane Gustav. What should have been celebratory turned somber as President Bush canceled his trip, the schedule was curtailed, and presumptive nominee John McCain headed for the Gulf Coast. An aura of uncertainty clouded that first day of the convention. With the entire schedule up in the air, no one knew whether the convention would be postponed, or even canceled.
Meanwhile, a different type of storm was brewing in Saint Paul as anarchist groups took to the streets on day one of the Convention. Splitting off from a mostly-peaceful protest march, the anarchists caused chaos—bashing windows and cars, and taunting police.
Keeping Current
At the 311 information line, two main topics were on caller’s minds: the RNC schedule and the protests. With information changing on both fronts, 311’s Knowledge Base administrators had to make constant updates.
Getting updated information about convention schedule changes was challenging. Convention planners were skittish about publishing the daily schedule because of security concerns and now the entire schedule was in flux. Knowledge Base administrators relied on three tools to get information so it could be conveyed to call agents as quickly as possible:
Getting on the RNC’s media advisory list where scheduled updates were e-mailed.
Monitoring national and local news reports.
Monitoring live-streamed media feeds from the convention.
It was not a perfect system, but it worked. During the time that the RNC 311 hot line was activated, the top five calls to the 311 RNC Information Line were about protests and police-related issues (265); the convention schedule, meetings, and related events (259); traffic management (142); restaurants and night life (101); and miscellaneous hospitality calls—shopping, day trips, attractions (85).
The top category of RNC 311 contacts were related to the protests because many individuals were upset with how the police handled protestors. They voiced their complaints not only through telephone calls to the 311 system, but through an unexpected communications tool—the Minneapolis 311 system’s e-mail address.
No one had anticipated the sheer volume of protest-related e-mails that the 311 e-mail address would receive. All told, 2,138 e-mails were sent to 311 and forwarded to Minneapolis Police. During the convention, there were more 311 system e-mails than registered 311 calls.
Staying in the Know
Although the RNC 311 hot line was targeted to delegates, indexing protest information in the Knowledge Base was important. After all, local residents wanted to know about road closures or areas to avoid. Protestors themselves wanted to know locations and phone numbers for jails and law enforcement. And because incidents and arrest numbers kept increasing, Knowledge Base administrators worked out a system to say abreast of information:
Daily calls to the Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center
Daily conference calls with the Joint Information Center
Regular calls to contacts at Saint Paul’s Emergency Operations Center
Consistent monitoring of news reports and live web streams.
Information updates were also conveyed to RNC 311’s supervisors who made sure that call agents were aware of the changes in the Knowledge Base.
All told, there were more than 800 arrests related to the RNC protests. Although it wasn’t the most positive aspect of the RNC, at least callers could get accurate information merely by dialing 311.
Like New York City’s use of its 311 system at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in 2004, the Minneapolis 311 system also provided a hospitality hot line for the 2008 convention. The RNC 311 hot line designed for the delegates was loaded with information about the convention schedule and activities, transportation, traffic management, tourist attractions, restaurants, shopping options, and more.
Ramping Up
Getting RNC 311 up and running required a stretch of technological and logistical muscle. For one thing, 311 chose to partner with Time Communications, a professional call center, to handle the majority of RNC calls to preclude 311 service levels from being compromised.
Working with subcontractors meant that they would need access to, and training on, the information software used by 311. A T1 line provided the technological connectivity between the two call centers. For the training, curriculum on the Knowledge Base software and RNC fact sheets were developed for Time’s agents. Special training emphasis was put on how to stay politically neutral during caller interactions, something that later prove to be valuable.
Then there was the challenge of expanding 311 dialing outside Minneapolis city limits. Although Minneapolis is the only city of the Twin Cities with 311 system service, the convention was located in neighboring Saint Paul and delegate hotels were scattered throughout the entire metropolitan area. To make 311 dialing available from anywhere within the Twin Cities, Minneapolis 311 personnel worked with each cell phone provider to temporarily expand coverage.
Finally, a customized database had to be designed and built to service the callers. The RNC Knowledge Base had more than 50 categories of information that call takers could access in response to questions. Callers could find out everything from “When does McCain speak?” to “Where is traffic tied up from protestors?”
The RNC’s Unsteady Start
The Republican Convention blew in on the heels of Hurricane Gustav. What should have been celebratory turned somber as President Bush canceled his trip, the schedule was curtailed, and presumptive nominee John McCain headed for the Gulf Coast. An aura of uncertainty clouded that first day of the convention. With the entire schedule up in the air, no one knew whether the convention would be postponed, or even canceled.
Meanwhile, a different type of storm was brewing in Saint Paul as anarchist groups took to the streets on day one of the Convention. Splitting off from a mostly-peaceful protest march, the anarchists caused chaos—bashing windows and cars, and taunting police.
Keeping Current
At the 311 information line, two main topics were on caller’s minds: the RNC schedule and the protests. With information changing on both fronts, 311’s Knowledge Base administrators had to make constant updates.
Getting updated information about convention schedule changes was challenging. Convention planners were skittish about publishing the daily schedule because of security concerns and now the entire schedule was in flux. Knowledge Base administrators relied on three tools to get information so it could be conveyed to call agents as quickly as possible:
Getting on the RNC’s media advisory list where scheduled updates were e-mailed.
Monitoring national and local news reports.
Monitoring live-streamed media feeds from the convention.
It was not a perfect system, but it worked. During the time that the RNC 311 hot line was activated, the top five calls to the 311 RNC Information Line were about protests and police-related issues (265); the convention schedule, meetings, and related events (259); traffic management (142); restaurants and night life (101); and miscellaneous hospitality calls—shopping, day trips, attractions (85).
The top category of RNC 311 contacts were related to the protests because many individuals were upset with how the police handled protestors. They voiced their complaints not only through telephone calls to the 311 system, but through an unexpected communications tool—the Minneapolis 311 system’s e-mail address.
No one had anticipated the sheer volume of protest-related e-mails that the 311 e-mail address would receive. All told, 2,138 e-mails were sent to 311 and forwarded to Minneapolis Police. During the convention, there were more 311 system e-mails than registered 311 calls.
Staying in the Know
Although the RNC 311 hot line was targeted to delegates, indexing protest information in the Knowledge Base was important. After all, local residents wanted to know about road closures or areas to avoid. Protestors themselves wanted to know locations and phone numbers for jails and law enforcement. And because incidents and arrest numbers kept increasing, Knowledge Base administrators worked out a system to say abreast of information:
Daily calls to the Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center
Daily conference calls with the Joint Information Center
Regular calls to contacts at Saint Paul’s Emergency Operations Center
Consistent monitoring of news reports and live web streams.
Information updates were also conveyed to RNC 311’s supervisors who made sure that call agents were aware of the changes in the Knowledge Base.
All told, there were more than 800 arrests related to the RNC protests. Although it wasn’t the most positive aspect of the RNC, at least callers could get accurate information merely by dialing 311.
Subscribe in a reader