Monday, December 13, 2010

Effective Customer Management Through Outsourcing Inbound Call Centers

The growth and improvement of firms are directly attributable to an effective customer management. Customers retain because they are well taken care of. Fresh prospects are coming after learning the benefits that they are going to get when they partner with such good-performing firms. When impressive handling continues, population of customers will rise.

Productive management is achieved when every customer is valued by answering all inquiries, keeping in touch with their concerns and giving considerations with their suggestions. However, reality says that an absolute customer service means additional capital for more employees, upgrading technological advancements, overhead costs and other expenses. To abbreviate, it entails large investment in order to maintain and increase customer satisfaction.

However, it is a blessing that inbound call centers have been built to provide excellent customer services in the company's behalf. Worries about large costs are eliminated with the low expenses incurred when outsourcing is selected. Furthermore, there is a wide range of services being offered by these third party services provider, which includes order taking, live answering service, 24/7 customer service support, overflow call management, product information requests, reservations and bookings.

Outsourcing inbound call centers offer cost-effectiveness to their clients. These reduced expenditures do not affect the performance of the service provider. As a matter of fact, they possessed the advanced technology, skilled employees and tested-and-tried customer service approaches. They may come as onshore or offshore and still offer the same high quality of work.

Partnering with call centers aids companies to save operational costs and time. The enhancement and growth that companies plans are made possible with them.

Effective Customer Management Through Outsourcing Inbound Call Centers

The growth and improvement of firms are directly attributable to an effective customer management. Customers retain because they are well taken care of. Fresh prospects are coming after learning the benefits that they are going to get when they partner with such good-performing firms. When impressive handling continues, population of customers will rise.

Productive management is achieved when every customer is valued by answering all inquiries, keeping in touch with their concerns and giving considerations with their suggestions. However, reality says that an absolute customer service means additional capital for more employees, upgrading technological advancements, overhead costs and other expenses. To abbreviate, it entails large investment in order to maintain and increase customer satisfaction.

However, it is a blessing that inbound call centers have been built to provide excellent customer services in the company's behalf. Worries about large costs are eliminated with the low expenses incurred when outsourcing is selected. Furthermore, there is a wide range of services being offered by these third party services provider, which includes order taking, live answering service, 24/7 customer service support, overflow call management, product information requests, reservations and bookings.

Outsourcing inbound call centers offer cost-effectiveness to their clients. These reduced expenditures do not affect the performance of the service provider. As a matter of fact, they possessed the advanced technology, skilled employees and tested-and-tried customer service approaches. They may come as onshore or offshore and still offer the same high quality of work.

Partnering with call centers aids companies to save operational costs and time. The enhancement and growth that companies plans are made possible with them.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Get A Life With A Live Operator

A live operator can be the difference between success and failure for some businesses. Many businesses use voice mails to allow customers perform simple tasks. While this may work for basic needs there are some situations that demands operators.

These operators that handle calls will give you the opportunity and the ability to deal with tasks that no computer system or technology can adequately challenge as of yet: human complexity. When customers and callers aren't sure who they need to talk to and not exactly sure of the services that they need from these companies, they need live phone operators.

A service like this can help businesses handle high volume of calls, you don't need to put your customers on hold for so long. Customers can't stand to be put on hold for minutes on end. You can seriously reduce hang ups from customers.

They can greatly reduce the stress and amount of responsibility that goes along with complex customer concerns. Professional service operators also make sure that individuals always get help when they need it. They ensure that clients always get through if there are questions that need to be answered.

A voice mail can offer customers a lot options to be answered, but it can never replace a human touch, the warm voice of an operator on the other end of the line. Those businesses willing to offer this strategy can expect that their company will be remembered and appreciated, by those who do business with them, by the most valuable asset of any company.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Knowing the Services of Inbound Call Center

There are two key services call centers offer- outbound and inbound telemarketing services. While in outbound the telemarketers call the prospects, it is the other way around with inbound. With appointment setting, lead nurturing and cold-calling, outbound telemarketing services have helped companies increase conversion rates of qualified leads. For the record, inbound telemarketing does have the same goal but through different approaches. It is then a necessity to gain insights on these methods.


Around-the-clock 24/7 Customer Service Support

Nowadays, services are 24/7, anytime and anywhere. Some firms, though closed at daylight, still are able to answer customer inquiries and receive their messages. This is made with the help of a call center. By having this, it would be proper to say the New York isn't just the only thing that never sleeps, services also do.

An answering service operator, either automated or live, promptly accepts and responds calls from customers, starting with emergencies to a simple message.


Order Taking

Specially trained agents accurately process customer orders. In addition recording and facilitating all data securely are properly done. This elevates customer loyalty and satisfaction by skillful call handling.

Reservations and Bookings

Still dedicated 24/7, call center gives assistance with travel accommodations. Reservations and booking to hotel, plane, cruise, car rentals, shuttle service and the likes will give convenience to clients.

Overflow Call Management

Because of the large population of prospects, sometimes firms find it hard to answer all calls at the same time. These will lead to other calls unattended. To assure that all calls are being received, call centers, through their experienced agents, will be entertained.

Other services are also being offered. These solutions are worth knowing and having a try of one or two of the aforementioned supports will be both beneficial and advantageous.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

What You Should Consider When Choosing An Answering Service Provider

A professional answering service offers many benefits to businesses. It enables them to provide service to more customers anytime during the day or night without setting up an in-house department of live phone representatives.

Answering services aid businesses in attracting more customers and converting prospects into buyers. There are several firms that offer answering services onshore and offshore but not all can deliver quality service. It is vital to learn what the key considerations are in finding and selecting the right provider to help in your business development efforts.

Round the clock service. One of the key benefits of having an answering service is that it enables any company to provide live operator assistance to inbound callers 24 hours a day. Medical offices, plumbing or towing agencies, and law offices are among those that attend to emergency situations. If your business provide services to customers who require immediate attention anytime during the day or night, it is essential for you to look for an answering service provider that operates round the clock and provide 24/7 answering services.

Highly-trained live phone representatives. Another important benefit of using a professional answering service is its ability to portray a bigger image for your business. You may own a small or start up company, but you don't have to look that way by offering your customers 24/7 customer service with professional operators on stand by to take orders or respond to inquiries. However, the success of your answering service depends on having professional phone operators on board. The way the live phone representative communicates with the caller will reflect on your business' image. Make sure that you do research on the service provider's methods of employee hiring and training. If you outsource this service offshore, consider the fluency of the operator in the English language.

Answering service methods. Prior to taking calls on behalf of your business, your chosen provider must be prepared in all aspects to handle calls. The answering service firm should spend ample time to understand the nature of your business and be willing to have their supervisors and managers work together in formulating the appropriate call guidelines. Be sure to check if their methods meet your specifications to ensure that representatives will be able to handle calls efficiently.

If chosen carefully, a professional answering service will provide value-added service to your customers and generate more business for you.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Improve Customer Experience With A Live Answering Service

For business owners operating a small company, one of the best ways to achieve success is to build an image that the business is larger than what it really is. This is necessary when rival companies are bigger and prospective customers value the company's stature.

A great way to build this kind of image and at the same time provide high-quality customer service is to use a reliable answering service. Through this system, calls are handled promptly and efficiently. Live operators or representatives make sure that all client directives are followed and calls are conducted according to company standards.

Benefits for Bigger Businesses. This is also true for bigger business enterprises with independent executives who have a need for a flexible answering service. A busy employee who travels a lot should be able to manage his or her time. This includes dealing with customers. A live answering service can manage the calls well, giving priority to those that require immediate attention, and take messages from callers who are willing to wait. This way, calls are handled in an appropriate manner and customers do not feel they are neglected or not receiving the attention they deserve.

Contacting the Right Person. Connecting to the correct person can be a challenge for any type of business. In addition, top-level executives are not the only people who are difficult to reach, even a regular employee is. To solve this problem, a live answering service has the capability to be set according to certain instructions in order to reach owners, managers or supervisors quickly and easily. The answering service makes sure that these instructions are followed to the letter by a well trained answering service representative ensuring that calls are managed properly. This provides the business a great service while also making the customer feel important and satisfied.

Toll-Free Numbers. In today's global trade, a business' customers can come from a nearby location or a distant country. With a toll free contact number for the company office, calls can be answered from locations anywhere.

With a reliable answering service, customer calls are answered in a timely manner and directed to the right person. Customers are given proper and immediate attention so that no business opportunity is lost and issues or concerns are addressed appropriately.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Effectively Running Your Business with Telemarketing and Answering Service

No matter how technologically advanced our generation has become, the way we conduct business remains fundamentally the same – regardless of products or services, businesses are still dependent on customers. By embracing these technologies and incorporating those in the way businesses are run, companies can now offer different ways of connecting with their present and prospective customers.

Of all the technologies available nowadays, the telephone still remains the weapon-of-choice for a lot of businesses as far as sales, marketing and answering services goes. Yes, face-to-face meetings still works but to maximize the number of potential customers, the telephone is still your best bet.

Whether it's answering services, order-taking or telemarketing, it seems obvious why majority of companies switch over their sales and marketing to telemarketing along with their businesses answering service. Choosing outsourcing as the most practical and cost-effective solution to increasing your profit. Management can focus better on resolving core issues without distractions because your outsourced services are being taken care of by a professional telemarketing and answering service call center.

It's important to know and understand that telemarketing is not the be-all end-all of sales strategies. Instead, it's just one method of performing the sales process. Just like other tried and tested sales method, success in closing a sale over the phone is dependent on finding qualified prospects to call.
But let's be realistic, not all telemarketing programs will be successful. Some will inevitably fail due to improper handling and execution, unrealistic goals on a short time frame, oversimplifying important concerns, and lack of top management support. These reasons just to name a few will cause good telemarketing campaigns to fail just like that. Let's not forget that in any marketing strategy, choosing a good partner for your telemarketing and answering service takes careful, well thought planning and development. It also needs nurturing and will eventually be the reason for your company's success or downfall.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Answering Service: What is it?

More often than not, when you hear the word 'answering service,' a vision of a neat and tidy doctors' office comes to mind. Actually, answering service call centers provide a whole lot more than just answering phones and appointment setting for clinics, doctors and hospitals – they also generate results for a lot of types of businesses. Your question now is 'I'm not a doctor, I don't run a clinic but I do have a business... What can this answering service do for my business?' Results from obtaining the services of an answering service call center vary from client to client, but in general, they can provide:

A Professional Reputation. Having your own toll-free number is no small feat and is not easily overlooked. You may be a local company but your presence will be felt on a national level. Callers never know that they're really speaking with an answering service operator, because of the manner and the efficiency. They can even do everything that their daytime counterparts do, from taking orders or providing caller support, to taking messages.

Affordability and Cost-efficiency. A full-time answering service eliminates costs associated with providing a physical workplace for the agents, the technology needed to maintain an answering service, hiring and maintaining additional employees including vacation planning, hiring and training, benefits spending, and paid overtime.

Value Plus. Answering services do a great deal more than just answer phones and take messages. They offer clients order taking, mail receiving and forwarding, faxing, voice mail and others that deliver support and a competitive advantage for smaller offices.

Round the Clock Support. If traditional 9 to 5 companies can earn from their sales and services given their limited work hours, imagine what a company with 24 / 7 services including customer help desk can achieve. It's true, not every company needs a 24 hour service, but any company who takes advantage of a full-time answering service will see and feel the increase in their profits thru their products and services. Order-taking is valuable to any 24 hour service; customers can safely purchase goods and avail of services at any time as the answering service securely transfers payment information for processing to the client.

Answering services supports a wide range of businesses. Relying on an answering service call center can provide support with customers regarding their inquiries and concerns, often save more time, money and yet, be able to monitor the increase in their profits.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Getting an Effective and Efficient Inbound Call Center Service

Inbound call center is one of the easiest ways to answer your customers’ needs. Hiring this kind of service that will handle calls about your services and products is an investment company owners must seriously think about right now. It is useful in companies with needs focusing on customer service or inquiries on product sales and even order taking campaigns.

On the other hand, the bigger challenge lies on how to align goals to better serve customers. One simple way to achieve this is to create a business plan that will identify key performance indicators for your business. Efficiency and effectiveness are the two performance indicators you can look into; let us study this two points.

Efficiency in the company has three points:

1. Productivity- comprises the appropriate number of phone operators per period who will take care of customers’ inquiries. This is most essential part in any call center industry.
2. Added value-an immediate resolution for most of the issues faced by customers should also be considered.
3. Knowledge management- try to create resources that will identify your business’s distribution and strategies; this will embody the overall knowledge of your company. Learn how to effectively use these knowledge for the company’s’ internal practices.

Effectiveness- this considers the effect of company in any aspect of delivering products.

1. Timeliness- focuses on your company’s ability to create resolution in the fastest possible time.
2. Accuracy- this is composed of the percent of correct resolutions for your customers concerns.
3. Quality- it focuses on the number of solved issues within the service level agreement between your company and the provider of the services.

If you are interested to outsource your inbound call center services consider a company that values the importance of effectiveness and efficiency. These two are the most important determinants to ensure that you get the best services from your service provider. Focusing on the two will be beneficial to best serve your customers and will give your company the best solutions increase your company’s revenue.

Why Hire an Answering Service for your Law Firm

Hiring a responding service is a great way to make sure that your clients can reach your attorney or a legal company any time of the day or night. This is vital because legal matters aren't just limited to set times of the day. Due to this, clients have to have access to their legal team at any time and a countrywide phone answering service can ensure that this happens.

Like a doctor's answering service, an attorney answering service features representatives that are specifically trained in this area of call responding and understand how to handle your clientele. In most examples, you provide the info you want to determine from your customers or potential clients that call in after hours. For top of the line solicitor answering services, they can make that call for you, if the company is a reputable one.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Callbox Connect Answering Service

Do you think your company could use more profit? What company couldn't? With Callbox Connect Answering Service, you can find services that allow you to create profit more efficiently and easily. Whether you're in manufacturing, retail, or shipping, Callbox Connect Answering Service offers live operators and superior services that could help boost your profit.

How much time are you wasting by having your staff take routine phone calls? When you have Callbox Answering Service, you can get back this time by having live operators answer your reoccurring customer and clients calls. Callbox Connect Answering Service operators answer your calls and your common customer and client questions, allowing your employees to eliminate a number of unnecessary calls. Your employees won't have to answer questions about your office hours, events, general policies, or company e-mail addresses: Callbox Connect Answering Service operators will do it for you. You can also have Callbox Connect Answering Service operators do a number of routine business phone tasks: our live operators will cover your order taking, appointment setting, customer phone surveys, employee satisfaction surveys, and much more! While other companies rely on their office staff to conduct these tasks, your business will be streets ahead by having Callbox Connect Answering Service operators taking over your every day employee telephone responsibilities.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Reason to Use a Phone Answering Service: Projects Good Image

Anyone would want to use a phone answering service for their businesses. Wondering why?

An image that others only read about in magazines can be achieved now with the aid of a phone answering service. Through effective phone answering service, small businesses can project the image of a much larger business or company. Through the use of a phone answering service, you’ll project the professionalism inherent in you’re field of endeavor. When a phone answering service receives calls, they will enhance every aspect of your company’s professional image, allowing your business to stand out from the crowd. Spend more time on delegating and doing business instead of worrying if who is doing the admin tasks with phone answering service.

Achieve that professional image for your products and services now with CallboxConnect and have that picture perfect!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Multiply Your Business Profits with 24 Hour Answering Service

How much missed sales costing you for missing some calls from your prospective clients? Does your business need to answer customer calls 24 hours a day? Are you tired of answering too many calls and wished that you can have the receptionist who could represent your business on your behalf? Why not take advantage of the benefits of a live 24 hour answering service? With the economy on the tough edge, you can’t afford to lose customers and definitely lose your business sales. 24 hour answering service will definitely take you and your business on lead of the competition.

24 Hour Answering Service
doesn’t only offer round-the-clock service but also an effective approach to reach customers by interpersonal conversation. Customers usually like to get assisted by a live person who could understand their true feelings and could relate to everything they said. Offering your clients with a live answering service representative to answer all their questions and inquiries will ultimately increase customer satisfaction and efficiency of the quality of your service.

Indeed, 24 hour answering service has so many advantages. To stay competitive in this market, a stand-out and trusted 24/7 answering service is a must! You can’t go wrong with this. A clever way to keep your customers satisfied and boosts your business profits in no time!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Order Taking Service is a Key Step in the Sales Process

Making up a complete order on the phone would mean effective and quick answering service. It would always take someone’s availability to do the order taking. There would come a time that the phone rings successively and no one is available to take them all, this may suggests missed opportunity. But there are also instances by which some calls are not accommodated because all lines are busy. Order taking in other words is not just about with the availability of the call takers but more importantly with the accessibility of phone lines. There are times that customers would just walk away and not even knowing that they made a call. That would be very sad because missing a call could mean missing an opportunity. An opportunity may be a sale or order or even a simple inquiry which can be a lead.

With order taking and lead generation on the phone, you should make sure that calls are answered quickly because customers would tend to hang up after few seconds of no answer. Likewise, you should also make sure that phone lines are used efficiently because you could be missing out a lot of orders if not. Because of this, businesses would often hire a call center contact solution to do the call answering for order taking and order process fulfillment needs to secure telephone sales. With inbound call center you are assured that every business call will be accommodated properly.

Order taking services have been a major part call centers today. They are there to take people’s orders anytime of the day or night and answer queries regarding the product or service.

They take orders, process them and complete sale for their customers. Having this service from fully-dedicated inbound call center answering service would be a very relieving feeling for the businesses that often struggle from order taking and order processing. Knowing also that the call center you are into is really good in selling your product or service, would give you assurance that you could increase your sales in just a matter of time.

Order taking through inbound call centers ensures customers that their words are taken well. Whatever call they may do, rest assured that this is delivered to the right people. Whenever they have questions that need to be answered immediately, the skilled call takers would always be available to do them all. This is how the order taking service of call centers functions to help businesses in securing every sale via phone. Telephone sale requires skill and efficient use of phone that is why these centers provide professionals to have the order taking, order processing and the complete sale as a whole.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Order Taking Service for Flower Shops

Order taking is essential in managing your growing flower shop business. Calls are answered promptly that is why you are not worried about missing them. If you struggle with few staff to cover the calls during peak times, then the highly skilled representatives of call centers can manage them for you.

Trained operators are available 24/7 to take all calls. Their order taking answering service provides call coverage whenever you need it. If there are orders, they can quickly relay them to you, thus, making your service accurate. Your business can benefit a lot because you can take more calls, process more orders, and make more sales. Your business can take full advantage of their 24-hour call answering service. You can still make sales even you are not around. It expands your business because you can focus on your core business while not worrying about who will handle the order taking for you.

When it comes to order taking, not all inbound call centers can deliver efficient and accurate call takers. Choosing a partner that is reliable is also your concern. In choosing an order taking provider, consider every aspect of your product and service. You must also consider the prospects you want to reach, the brand or image you want to portray and maintain. Make it sure that the provider can give you knowledgeable operators that can handle complexities of your product and service. They should be very good in terms of interpersonal communication for them to answer even the least frequently asked questions from your customers.

Moreover, the call takers that handle the order taking should be good communicators. By their good marketing skills, they can secure telephone sales for you. They can assure you of an effective way of promoting your product and service. Every call is important. The professional call takers make it sure that all calls are taken and all customer queries are accommodated. If you will be able to take more calls then you can take more sales for the day.

Having a good order-taking service means having a good telemarketing tool. It can boost your sales and establish good selling products. Trained call takers take down orders and process them effectively. They are capable of clearing out every customer’s query and turning every call into a sale. If you can not afford loosing a sale by missing a call then perhaps you need a call center that can offer you an excellent order taking service.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Proper Ways of Answering Telephone Calls

Telephone is very important for b2b companies. The manner of answering it determines the success and failure of a business. Here are 10 tips that you can use for answering calls appropriately:

1. Answer the call on the third ring. Do not answer too quickly or too longer. You may catch your caller off guard or he may leave you hanging.

2. Greet the caller with a warmth tone of your voice. First impression really lasts.

3. Introduce yourself and your company clearly. Assure them that they made the right call.

4. Observe the clarity of your words. Make sure that they understand everything that you say.

5. Be optimistic and kind. If you can not help the caller, offer someone that can help him.

6. Always have a telephone message pad with you. You will need it in taking down notes, time of call, name and company of caller, who the message is for and the nature of the call. Clarify anything that may confuse you.

7. Make sure that all messages are delivered to the right people promptly and accurately.

8. Always ask permission whenever you will put a caller on hold. If you will do that, just make sure that it will not take longer than 30 seconds.

9. Do not use your speaker phone. The caller may think that someone else might be listening in. It may confuse him.

10. Return all calls from messages as soon as possible. Make it within one business day. If you fail then, offer your apology and hand help with their queries.

In reality, most small businesses struggle from missing important calls. You may be with customers, in a meeting or out of office. Yes, answering machines and mobile phones can help, yet many potential customers dislike leaving messages to them. Better employ a telephone answering service, with your assigned contact number and live office support, they will take every call as if they are your own receptionist. They can handle calls exactly as what you have told them and they will relay messages to you accurately. These service providers also offer secretarial services that will get your post and correspondence handled, and your filing complete.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Benefits of Outsourcing After-Hour Calls

If you’re doing business over the telephone you can’t leave any call unattended. There’s no such thing as a stray call. It is said many sales calls come in long after office hours.

To solve this, businesses resort to hiring receptionists and virtual assistants. They are hired to take in and handle calls on long holidays. There’s no doubt about how receptionists can help your company. The question is, how much can they increase sales?

But examined closely it’s not an issue about cost either. It’s you knowing which answering service company can best handle your company’s needs. For starters, BPO companies offer their clients a well-trained team that handles calls 24/7, all throughout the year. This set up works best when your company is engaged in order taking, appointment setting, order processing, complaint handling, reservations, or handling calls and taking down messages.

In terms of specialty most answering and call processing specialists have pretty much the same level of expertise. Some offer customized services while others offer superior technology. Basically, BPOs have these things in common:


1. They have well trained representatives who handle calls professionally. Answering service providers hire customer service associates who deal with clients the way you your own team would deal with them. This personal approach to call answering guarantees that your company reputation gets across to your clients just the way you want it. This goes so seamlessly that it increases your customer’s trust.


2. Customized services. There are companies who hire members of their team according to the needs of their clients. For example, if a client is a part of the software industry, BPOS hire IT graduates to make sure their customers get credible answers to their questions.


Outsourcing hour after hour business calls, then, is an effective way to boost your company’s image. At the same time it increases performance, customer confidence and satisfaction.


The economic side of outsourcing after hour calls

Hiring a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm to handle your calls costs cheaper than hiring and training your own team specifically for that purpose. You need to use your own office equipment for that; while an outsourced team has its own hardware and software, working in their own office.

When this is taken care of, the only thing you need to ensure is the quality of the answering service staff that handles the call. You get the upper hand in that because you are part of the hiring and selection process.

Outsourcing has given businesses far-reaching mileage their sales campaign, at a reasonably low price. Small wonder then that most back office and support operations are being outsourced today.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Why the Order Taking and Processing Industry Is Growing

To be candid about the whole thing, it’s not like orders have grown to overflowing. The order taking and processing service industry continues to evolve because of ever changing customer needs. Imagine calling in to ask about your favorite lunch combo and talking to someone who knows next to nothing about it. Between your question and the answer rolls crucial time and this gap shouldn’t be left yawning without a fast solution. One mishandled call equals one lost customer--and possibly more, if you go by word of mouth.

Thus inbound call centers were born to fill in this gap. When calls (read: orders, inquiries, etc) are handled well, this translates into high conversion (read: sales and revenue). Now, the world knows how vital is the order taking and processing industry.

Who’s to take overflow calls?

And that’s just fast food we’re talking about. Big and small companies today go through peak hours at certain times of the day (in fact, most times) where their staff can’t have their hands full of calls. You’d miss out on a lot of potential sales when you don’t stick to the “No call left unanswered” policy.

For this, you need expert help of an order taking and processing specialist. An avalanche of calls is what experts call “overflow”. Unless your staff has extra body parts and appendages, she can’t attend to these calls all at once. Enter answering service specialists. They save the day by taking in and processing calls while working seamlessly alongside your own staff. In due time, it all comes down to satisfied customers, brisk sales and one big happy family.

Telemarketing wonder

Which is why many of the world’s leading companies outsource their customer service department to call centers. Today the order taking and processing industry is viewed as a telemarketing and service provider wonder that returns investments in double figures.

This is how it works. The associates are trained in handling all sorts of customers to satisfy their needs and keep them loyal to your company. They take in and process calls minus the wasted minutes or seconds. This way your work goes without glitches and you can reach your daily goal’s full potential.

Why is that? Your best kept secret (read: your most efficient staff) can work on other core functions so everything gets streamlined. If you put your own team in an area where they’re good at you can keep up with the rat race.


Sale Order Processing vs Order Taking

Inbound call centers offer customer service features of all sorts, but two of the most sought after are sale order processing and order taking.

Sale order processing works best for online businesses. An sale order processing specialist offers your company remote sales staff that uses a secure Internet-based sales and order solution. This makes order taking faster, simpler and more precise. Since the software and skills required are very user-friendly, you’d have no problem training your own team in it.

But in a strict sense order taking and order processing covers pre-selected associates who are trained to take in inbound call for purchases. They basically work with customer information in matching names, address and credit card numbers with a database to process the purchase. They offer various solutions to give callers a smooth and worry-free online purchasing experience.

In order taking and processing, people are looking for the right blend of technology and talent. Above all, they choose an inbound call center that offers superior customer service.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Top 7 Qualities of an Answering Service Specialist

by: Mel Turao

Not all outsourced answering services are created equal. Some are better than others. And these are those that offer not only superior customer service experience but also smooth and seamless order taking features.

The buzzword these days isn’t about reducing cost and customized service. These are clichés. What business people are looking for is the right mixture of technology and talent. Before you sign up with an inbound call center to handle your answering service needs, look for these fool-proof qualities:

1. Up to par English. We’ve heard of language and cultural issues that result in customer frustration. This shouldn’t have any place in answering and order taking service. If it’s to be customer-centered, no confusion should arise from things as basic as vocabulary and sound. When there is a disconnection between associate and customer no order or processing can ever go forward. Taking in calls and processing them is pretty much a communications issue. See to it nothing gets in the way of clarity.

2. Excellent overflow call management. You can’t afford to put your service on the line by bumping off calls and putting your customers on hold for minutes. There’s such a thing as an average hold time, and it varies according to which inbound call center standards you follow, but no call should be left out. All calls, however bad, are potential sales.

3. Keep it out in the open. By all means private policies should be kept private. But for your business to optimize its outsourced answering service, you and the inbound call center should maintain a high level of transparency. That also covers your customer’s personal data. So, sit down and thresh out the privacy policies and choose an inbound call center that offers the most see-through terms.

4. Back up plan. It’s not a rosy picture all time, so you need to protect your operation from any unforeseen event such as fires, power outage, hacking and so on. When one of these happens it results in disruption and it’s going to cost your investment. Choose an order taking specialist that is secure from all forms of risks.

5. Solid and stable. Work with an outsourcing partner that has a proven stability, management and cutting edge equipment. You can’t seem to choose from too many players on the market today, but getting referrals from experts helps a great deal. Your outsourced answering service should have the tech support features that can route and direct calls to breathing and speaking associates.

With superior equipment comes superior training and customer service features. You have a right to know about how quality control is carried out because how the inbound call center conducts business speaks volumes about its expertise. You need to look into financial issues as well.

6. An outsourced partner that delivers on its promises.
The key word is trust. When your relationship is built on trust it reflects in your customer service. And this can’t be more obvious than in appointment setting, order taking and order processing. In short, listen to customer’s comments.

7. An inbound call center that understands your business. A successful answering service is a result of synergy. This can only happen when your company and the inbound call center work on clear terms that are mutually observed. More than the exchange of knowledge, technology and skills, there seems to be no limit to the exchange of information. So you need to make sure your outsourced partner sees where you’re coming from.

It’s pretty easy to find these qualities in most inbound call centers that specialize in answering and order processing. But the supreme test is how they put these into action to widen your customer base, and ultimately, to give you a slice of the pie.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Good Telemarketing Company Characteristics

Telemarketing is one of the activities in sales and marketing that have been used for generating business sales leads. Appointment settings and sales lead generation are the two of the most popular telemarketing activities. Telemarketing services arises from a conflict because telemarketers need to make calls to prospects despite the fact that these calls are scrutinized by most people. At the same time, it is with these calls that a company establishes vital contacts and generates leads that will keep the business moving forward. It is the role of the telemarketing executives to deal with this conflict with professionalism.

It is essential for a telemarketing company or outbound call center to hire and train their callers with high level of professionalism, confidence and the right skills to perform the difficult task of making effective calls that will generate sales leads and increase in success conversion.

Identifying yourself is a telemarketing practice that is not only applied in making calls in appointment setting and sales generation but it is to show politeness and professionalism even during the start of the call. Remember that unidentified calls are always perceived with suspicion by the recipient. Giving out your name and last name is one way to practice professionalism when making a business-to-business call or calls to prospects in telemarketing company business.

Another characteristic of a good telemarketing company is providing convenience their customers. You can provide convenience to your customer by calling them at their most convenient and preferred time. Instead of being in a hurry to in getting the essential message and information over the first call, it is best to inquire if the recipient would like to have the conversation or preferred to be called at a more convenient time. This is to give the client a good impression on the company that the caller is representing. And also this increases the chances of closing a sale or lead.

Telemarketing companies that conform to rules and regulations of the National Do Not Call Registry is a characteristic of a good telemarketing company on compliance with the rules and regulations. Any conflict on the regional or national rules can harm your company’s reputation and business. A company that builds a database is one of the factors to be considered when looking into outsourcing with a telemarketing company. Future calls can be more productive when information that is already collected is on track. This can strengthen your business network and streamline your efforts.

Telemarketing companies that give priority to quality is one of the essential things that you need to consider when outsourcing your sales lead generation. Considering a cost saving method is always an option of most businesses for their telemarketing needs. However it should always be kept in mind that lesser cost can often prove to be counter-productive. And unprofessional callers or automated calls may do more harm than good to a company’s repute. In choosing a telemarketing company quality should always be prioritized in your options.