Annoying Voicemails? Not with a Zoomette on board!

There's nothing more annoying for a customer or a potential customer being left hanging on the other end of the line whilst the phone rings and rings eventually going to a cold automated voice mail service. When it comes to telephone manners first impressions count on the phone just as much as they do in a face to face situation. By using Zoom's answering call service you never need worry about the possibility of not getting to the phone in time or the danger of losing a customer because they preferred not to leave a voice message.

Our professional team of Zoomettes are your very own virtualreceptionists and will answer your calls efficiently, courteously and with a smile, leaving you to concentrate on other areas of the business. We offer a flexible cost-effective service that is there when you need it, whether you require your calls to be answered day and night or during standard business hours, having a phone answering service shows that you care in a world where time is valuable. Why not give us a try with our free 7 day no obligation trial and discover a whole new way of phone answering – get in touch on 0800 583 5020. 

How Does A Call Management Service Work?

Call management services offer peace of mind when it comes to phone answering for your business, day in, day out, all year round. At Zoom Answer Call, we help businesses in a wide variety of industries to keep on top of the customer service, customer acquisition, sales and the general running of their company. But how does a phone answering service actually work? 

There are three simple steps to organising call management for your business with Zoom Answer Call, and you can be up and running in no time at all. And if you want to try a seven day trial before you sign up, that's fine too!

Step 1

Give us a call on 0800 583 5020 and one of our call handlers will talk with you regarding your specific requirements for your business. You may simply be looking for calls to be put through to you (eg: a virtual reception), or messages taken and sent via email or text to you, or you may need a more in depth service such as call centre services or brochure sending. Whatever you need, we can organise a bespoke service to suit your company's needs. 

Step 2

Once your calls have been transferred to Zoom Answer Call, your 7-Day Free Trial will begin. At the end of the week we will provide you with an in depth report including a monthly estimate and breakdown of costs based on the services you need. From here we welcome your feedback on your service and hope you choose to continue to work with Zoom for the benefit of your business!

Step 3

If you wish to continue using our Zoomettes and our award-winning call answering services, all you need to do is sign up. You can do this via our online form, or on the phone with one of our operators.

That's all there is to it!

Our sales line is open from 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, so please get in touch to find out more about how Zoom Answer Call can help your company to provide faultless customer service, increase your sales and improve your business reputation.

How to Answer a Business Call Professionally

Are you answering your business calls professionally? The way we deal with customer calls makes a big difference to company reputation, customer retention and generally efficiency within your business. Have a look at the following checklist of how to answer a business call professionally to see if you make the grade. If not, you  might want to consider employing a professional call answering service to deal with your calls on your behalf! Our Zoomettes are friendly, responsive and highly trained, and will always answer your calls in a way that ensures your customer service experience is positive.

10 ways to keep your business calls professional:

1. Be polite! Even when faced with difficult customers or an awkward situation, remain unfailingly polite at all times and sometimes the most hostile of callers will come around in the end.
2. Think before you speak. Make sure your responses are accurate and work towards a positive customer experience. If you're unsure about an answer, find out before you give information to a customer.
3. Communicate clearly. Be honest and straightforward and ensure that both you and your customer understand what's going on, whether you're dealing with an enquiry, a transaction, or a complaint.
4. If you've made a mistake, apologise. Even if it isn't your fault, as a call handler, you are representative of your company and you need to make sure that wrongs are righted and your customers feel valued and responded to.
5. Use a good vocabulary. Using appropriate vocabulary not only appears more professional, but it helps you to communicate more effectively.
6. Say "please" and "thank you"! Good manners go a long way... Ask questions politely and thank your customers for their call, their enquiry or their purchase.
7. Repetition aids understanding. Sometimes repeating information back to a customer can help keep things clear, such as phone numbers, quantities, details of products or requests for information.
8. Be friendly and make each call personal. If you have details of an existing customer, let them know your company values their business and make them feel as if you have a personal business relationship.
9. Know what you're talking about! If you don't, it's better to be honest and admit you need to find out more to be able to answer a query properly. Don't be tempted to wing it and make something up or assume...
10. And finally: Make follow up checks at the end of the call. Is there anything else your customer would like to know? Is everything clear and understood? Is there anything else you can do for the customer? Are they satisfied with everything? The little details count and going that extra mile rather than a quick, "thanks, goodbye" can make all the difference.

Oh, and one final thing - our Zoomettes answer each and every call with a SMILE. For more information on professional call handling, call centre services and virtual reception services, get in touch with us at Zoom Answer Call UK.

Virtual Reception Services

A reception is the first point of contact that your customers will reach when they call your company, but many companies find they don't really need a full time receptionist to transfer their calls. Diverting your calls to a virtual reception service can give you a more professional image by stopping calls being answered by anyone in the office and then bouncing around until it reaches the right person. Calls can be answered within the first few rings the same as if you had your own team of receptionists rather than waiting until any member of staff is free. We all know customers don't like waiting!

It isn't just a helpful service for smaller companies - if you often find that calls are still coming in during busy periods when all your receptionists are on calls, you can use the Zoom virtual reception service as an overflow to ensure that all calls are answered promptly. Whether you have lots of employees, or just a few, we can manage the contact information for all of them and make sure that we transfer calls seamlessly to the right person, even if they are out of the office! If they are unavailable, we can send a message to them via email, SMS or fax, whichever they prefer.

It doesn't matter that you are miles away from Zoom, your calls can be transferred seamlessly just as if we were in the office next to you. Just like your own receptionist would, we answer calls in your company name and always make sure we represent your company to the highest possible standard.

How To Make Customers Happy

At Zoom, not only do we answer the phone many (MANY!!) times a day in our virtual receptionist and call answering roles, we also offer a variety of call centre services. Often, people calling call centres are either already upset as they have a problem, or they do not expect anything other than adequate service. We like to prove them wrong! Here are a few tips to exceeding your customers' expectations.

• Empathise with the customer
• Putting yourself in the customer's shoes and treating them how you would like to be treated in the same situation is an easy way to keep the customer's interests in mind. If you manage to give the customer the impression that you truly understand, they are more likely to trust you. 
• Take ownership
• Customers hate being passed from pillar to post, so wherever possible you should aim to help them without transferring the call to several other people. If they have a problem you can solve, don't pass the buck just because it's easier for you.
• Don't follow a script
• Customers can tell when you are reading from a script rather than just using your own words, and they don't like it. It's not hard, just tell them what you will do and when you will do it (then make sure you do what you've promised!).
• Review things with your colleagues
• If you have had a difficult call, talk about it with your colleagues and manager. Perhaps you handled it really well, in which case other members of the team can learn from you, or perhaps other people could suggest different ways you could have dealt with it. Either way, learning from each other is good for the whole team, and the customer.
• Make things easy for the customer
• Whatever the reason for their call, the customer wants it dealt with as quickly as possible, and with as little effort required from them as possible. It's pointless to spend all your time trying to be the best call centre operator, delivering excellent customer service, if the customer gets frustrated at how long it takes for anything to get done.

Businesses in Multiple Locations

Businesses based in multiple locations are becoming very common these days; more so when you consider that more and more staff are able to work primarily from home. In these situations, deciding which location should receive the telephone calls can be a challenge, especially if there are few people at each location. Once you have answered the call, dealing with it when the ideal recipient is miles away can in practice mean taking a message and offering to ask the right person to ring the caller back.

These call answering woes can easily be remedied with a virtual reception. Our Zoomettes can easily act as a centralised reception service, ensuring calls are answered promptly even during busy periods, and calls can be transferred to the right person wherever they are based. We will answer the call just as if we were in the same building as you, and even if you are working from home, or out on the road, the call can be transferred seamlessly, giving the impression that you too are right there in the office! Message handling is also easier to keep track of, with all messages sent instantly via email, SMS or fax directly to the relevant person. Don't let multiple locations stop you from having a professional reception service.