Tuesday 7 January 2014

The Golden Rules of Professional Call Answering for Businesses

Professional call answering can be the element that elevates your business above your competitors. If customers are able to get hold of a company representative any hour of the day and always receive a consistent and high quality service, your reputation will shine! And by catching every single call that comes your way, you can be assured that you will never miss another opportunity again. A simple way to ensure that your call management is always top quality is to use a telephone answering service like Zoom UK, but if you're going it alone, here are our golden rules of professional call answering to help you stay on top of your phone enquiries:

Rule #1: Employ dedicated phone answering professionals. Your phones should not be answered by whatever member of staff happens to be passing at the time - to offer great customer service your phones need to be manned by well-trained staff who are available to answer every enquiry that comes in without fail. The person answering your calls should know how to deal with a variety of callers and who to pass enquiries onto as appropriate.

Rule #2: Answer your calls quickly. Ideally your phones should be answered within three rings - customers can get frustrated easily and an endlessly ringing phone is sure to put a negative spin on their interaction with your business.

Rule #3: Answer the phone with a smile! It might sound silly but it makes a huge difference to the atmosphere and reception of your business calls. Customers who speak to a professional, friendly and efficient representative is likely to come away feeling good about doing business with you and your reputation will naturally grow.

Rule #4: Always be polite and professional. Find the right balance for each of your calls according to their nature and reason. If you're dealing with a complaint or a problem, stay calm and do your best to help the customer to resolve the issue. If you're speaking to a long-term client on friendly terms, ensure you still stay professional.

Rule #5: Be concise and accurate. By taking down information from your business calls you can personalise your service to each customer according to their needs. Make sure any names, addresses, numbers or messages you take are spelled correctly and you are clear about what the customer needs and expects. Use the phonetic alphabet to confirm spellings professionally and avoid mistakes and errors in your data.

professional call answering for businesses

If you're unable to provide all these elements in your business calls or would like to try a professional service for free to see how it benefits your company, try a 7-day trial with Zoom Answer Call for free! Browse our range of call management services and let us help you to create a bespoke package to suit your needs and boost your business.