Answering services are a vital function in the day to day activities of any business or organization. Whether it's a for-profit company, non-profit company, hospital, school, or church high quality answering services will help your organization run smoother and more efficiently. They are available all across the country and can be tailored to fit your specific needs.
You're probably saying to yourself right about now, "What do I need answering services for when I can just hire my own secretaries to handle all my incoming call traffic?" Of course, you can hire your own internal secretarial staff to handle your phone traffic. Then again, why would you want to? Think about the costs involved in maintaining your own call center staff. Plus, they can offer 24/7 service at no extra cost.
First, consider the staffing costs. You don't want to hire just anybody off the street. Phone encounters are usually the first impression customers and suppliers get of your business. You need your phone staff to represent you in a professional, knowledgeable manner. The hiring process needed to find the right people can be long and expensive.
Second, think about the cost of training your staff. Your employee will need to know your business and your people, and this can take time. Answering and message-taking services, on the other hand, hire highly qualified, professional individuals experienced in a high volume call center setting. People who work for answering services have proven themselves trustworthy and have shown they are the best at receiving and directing phone traffic.
Will These Services Really Save Me Money?
The answer is yes. Answering services are able to operate at low costs because they are able to spread the already mentioned costs of hiring and training, plus other costs such as investments of capital in resources and development across a much wider base then you. This is the business that answering services are in, and they excel at it. If they were not efficiently run, highly dependable entities that save their clients money, they would be disappearing from the free market economy. Instead, as more and more companies come to understand the benefits of answering services, they are gaining considerable popularity.
How Do Answering Services Work?
The first step, and the key to their success, is their employees. A high quality answering services will recruit only the best employees. They seek out people who desire a career in the industry, not seat fillers. By employing outstanding call center staff, they are able to meet and exceed the expectations of their clients.
Once the staff is in place, it's time to take calls. Answering services use an automated tracking system to register where the incoming call originates and judging by the call's origin, the system routes it to the operator with the most appropriate skill and background. You're guaranteed that a knowledgeable, professional individual takes your company's important calls.
Your company gives detailed information and instructions to the service on how to handle your calls. This information appears on the answering services representative's screen instantly as the call is routed so that person can appropriately handle the call. Depending on your instructions they might page an on-call employee, answer questions, or simply take a message.
A top-notch service will also offer catalog order processing complete with cross-selling and up-selling. The successful answering service / call center of today will amaze you with the different capabilities to help you manage and grow your business.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Growing Your Company Through a Call Center
What does a very well known, high end cutlery manufacturer do when it decides to maximize its catalog ordering business but only add minimal fixed costs to achieve a significant increase in customer orders? The answer is quite simple but it eludes many businesses currently in the catalog business.
The answer is to outsource the additional call volume (overage calls) and resulting increase in sales to a third party call center. If your research is done properly and you contract with a modern day, correctly sized call center your results can come together rather quickly.
Adding full time staff is undoubtedly one of the most expensive, time consuming and capital intensive events your company can undertake. It requires large amounts of time and expense from your HR representative. It requires time spent with your current staff to train, review and update methods to teach skills these new hires may not have in the first place. Once hired and on board who pays for their PTO, workers comp insurance, social security, retirement benefits, maternity leaves and, well, you know the answer to these questions.
Time Communications has solved this dilemma dozens of times over the last few years. It develops it’s own hiring and training techniques and has them implemented well before you may even be aware that you are in need of those assets. It recognizes who the great hires are from who everyone else may hire. When you are ready to find an economical and meaningful solution to expanding your business let Time Communications lead the way, we’ve been there.
The answer is to outsource the additional call volume (overage calls) and resulting increase in sales to a third party call center. If your research is done properly and you contract with a modern day, correctly sized call center your results can come together rather quickly.
Adding full time staff is undoubtedly one of the most expensive, time consuming and capital intensive events your company can undertake. It requires large amounts of time and expense from your HR representative. It requires time spent with your current staff to train, review and update methods to teach skills these new hires may not have in the first place. Once hired and on board who pays for their PTO, workers comp insurance, social security, retirement benefits, maternity leaves and, well, you know the answer to these questions.
Time Communications has solved this dilemma dozens of times over the last few years. It develops it’s own hiring and training techniques and has them implemented well before you may even be aware that you are in need of those assets. It recognizes who the great hires are from who everyone else may hire. When you are ready to find an economical and meaningful solution to expanding your business let Time Communications lead the way, we’ve been there.
Friday, January 8, 2010
A Great Answering Service Can Improve a Medical Practice's Bottom Line
With rapidly improving diagnostic technologies, physicians are continually challenged to learn more and do more. Patient care may be technically improved as a result, insurance companies and third party administrators may be made happy by their efforts, and the care team may take pride in efficient and effective medical treatment. However, patients may often feel as if they are only a small part of a thoroughly mechanized, automated, and impersonal process. Too often, they are right.
Studies have shown that medical litigation is greatly influenced by a patient’s relationship with their physician. The more a patient feels they have been heard and can share their concerns with their physician, the less likely that patient is to sue – even when the physician has made an error.
In the United States, medicine is practiced in a team environment. The physician is typically in charge of the team, which often includes physician’s assistants, nurses, aides, technicians, and front office staff – as well as the practice’s telephone answering service. As the practice’s primary ambassador after-hours patients may associate a poor answering service with substandard care if calls are mishandled.
Conversely, an outstanding answering service will project a practice’s focus on patient care and professionalism 24/7.
“A great answering service may greatly assist the patient/physician interface, improve and solidify patient relationships, and add to the practice’s bottom line. If your answering service is merely serving as a voicemail system with a live operator, you are missing the, boat,” stated Nancy Dugan of Apex Medical Communications. “Beyond the crucial after-hours interface with patients, a great answering service can add to office profits, patient satisfaction, and retention by providing appointment reminders, surgery or appointment cancellations, Rx refill information, and patient surveys.”
A great telephone answering service knows that they are an extension of their client’s practice. Therefore, answering service training should include both initial and ongoing instruction with a focus on patient service and client profiles. A great service will utilize current and upgraded software and hardware with backup capability in the event of power failure, severe weather, or disaster.
A great answering service will regularly communicate with their clients, keeping them abreast of opportunities to improve patient communication during and after office hours, thus increasing office profitability. “At the end of the day, a great answering service recognizes their importance to the patient care equation, understands that they are an extension of the medical practice, adds
to the practice’s bottom line, and delivers professionalism and value far beyond the expectations of the practice,” continued Dugan. “An answering service does more than just answer patients’ calls; their influence on patient satisfaction is enormous.”
Studies have shown that medical litigation is greatly influenced by a patient’s relationship with their physician. The more a patient feels they have been heard and can share their concerns with their physician, the less likely that patient is to sue – even when the physician has made an error.
In the United States, medicine is practiced in a team environment. The physician is typically in charge of the team, which often includes physician’s assistants, nurses, aides, technicians, and front office staff – as well as the practice’s telephone answering service. As the practice’s primary ambassador after-hours patients may associate a poor answering service with substandard care if calls are mishandled.
Conversely, an outstanding answering service will project a practice’s focus on patient care and professionalism 24/7.
“A great answering service may greatly assist the patient/physician interface, improve and solidify patient relationships, and add to the practice’s bottom line. If your answering service is merely serving as a voicemail system with a live operator, you are missing the, boat,” stated Nancy Dugan of Apex Medical Communications. “Beyond the crucial after-hours interface with patients, a great answering service can add to office profits, patient satisfaction, and retention by providing appointment reminders, surgery or appointment cancellations, Rx refill information, and patient surveys.”
A great telephone answering service knows that they are an extension of their client’s practice. Therefore, answering service training should include both initial and ongoing instruction with a focus on patient service and client profiles. A great service will utilize current and upgraded software and hardware with backup capability in the event of power failure, severe weather, or disaster.
A great answering service will regularly communicate with their clients, keeping them abreast of opportunities to improve patient communication during and after office hours, thus increasing office profitability. “At the end of the day, a great answering service recognizes their importance to the patient care equation, understands that they are an extension of the medical practice, adds
to the practice’s bottom line, and delivers professionalism and value far beyond the expectations of the practice,” continued Dugan. “An answering service does more than just answer patients’ calls; their influence on patient satisfaction is enormous.”
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