Tips for Professional Call Handling

When you're answering the phone to clients and customers, it's important to retain a professional attitude at all times - but that doesn't mean being cold or overly formal. Think about how you'd like to be treated when calling an enquiry line, customer services or technical support.

Providing a friendly but professional response to your business calls helps to make each enquiry count - it's what turns a call into a sale, or a complaining customer into a happy one. Here are a few tips from our professional call answering team on how to give your clients a great experience when calling your business:

• Remember to say "hello". Taking a few moments to greet your caller and ask how they are can dramatically affect the rest of the call. Every caller is an individual and deserves to be treated as such - it doesn't take much to be polite with a simple hello!
• Quality wins over quantity when it comes to call handling. It's far better to leave your customers feeling good about your company (even without making a sale) than feeling as if they were rushed off the phone or dismissed. Especially when generating leads, quality call answering can make a massive difference to your conversion rate.
• Have the right information at the right time. When a customer calls to ask a question, they don't want to be passed round to several different departments or end up on hold. Ensure that your call network takes your caller to the right person as quickly as possible. Our phone answering services can provide an information gathering service to determine the best department to direct each call to and simplify your operation, keeping your customers as happy as possible!
• SMILE! You really can hear the difference when a call handler answers with a smile! Our Zoom call agents answer each and every call with a smile and a friendly, polite attitude. Starting each phone call with a positive spin helps us to provide the very best call handling service we can, passing on our great customer service to your clients.

Call centre services

Call centres require a high level of professionalism and productivity to perform well. We offer call centre services by diverting your calls to our sales agents in order to help you to increase your leads, stay on top of your enquiries and keep your customers happy! Zoom Answer Call can also assist you with recruitment campaigns, marketing drives, processing orders and providing technical support to your clients. Whatever type of call centre services your business requires, get in touch with Zoom to see how we can help.

For businesses needing additional call handlers for their sales and enquiries, we can ensure that you never miss a call. Working with your existing ordering facility, we can create a process to enable our agents to answer sales enquiries and take orders smoothly and efficiently. All the information we gather will be sent to you via email, text, or fax instantly so that every part of your operation works together in sync.

If it's technical support your customers need, we are able to provide staff to gather information about each client's problem in order to forward the call to the right person. This process helps to save time and ensure that your customers find the help they need without becoming frustrated by long wait times, automated menus or unanswered calls. 

If you need an 0800, 0845 or 0870 number, we can help you to set up an advertising campaign and collect information from each call to provide you with a detailed and customised report for your service.

Get in touch with us for more information on our call centre services or try our 7-day free trial today to find out how Zoom Answer Call can make a difference to your business' efficiency!

Never miss a business call again...

Did you know that seven out of ten people will hang up the phone when they reach an answer machine? How many missed calls does your business receive per day? How many customers are you losing from not having an adequate call answering team?

With Zoom Assistants from our professional call answering service you can rest assured that your company will never miss a call ever again. Call answering services can come in handy whenever you can't guarantee that one of your staff will be able to answer your phones, for example:

• during meetings
• at busy times
• during staff absences or holidays
• when the phone is engaged

Zoom Answer Call's answering assistants provide a personal service for your company, answering calls, diverting calls, taking messages, booking appointments, sending out brochures and providing information and a friendly response to all your clients.

Our multi-line, high speed call answering service allows your customers to receive the service they are after without even knowing that you have diverted their call. This means no busy signal, no answerphone, no multi-choice touch tone menu, just real people who answer the phone with a smile every time...

Give us a try with our 7 day free trial to see how Zoom Answer Call can help your business.

Easter Call Answering Services

In need of extra cover over the Easter period? Our professional call handlers are available to cover busy periods of the business year and pick up the slack when your employees are on holiday. Try our 7-Day Free Trial to see for yourself!

"Work smarter... not harder!"

Why work twice as hard when you could outsource to our expert Zoomettes who can help you to stay efficient and on track. Having a professional call answering service can improve your customer service, your reputation, boost sales and ensure that you never miss a call - even at the busiest times of the year!

Our FREE trial allows you to test run our services for a week with no obligation. At the end of the week we will report back to you with a detailed breakdown of the estimated cost of a bespoke service for your needs. You can be on line in minutes by simply giving us a call on 0800 583 5020.

If you're anticipating the need for a little extra help this Easter, summer, or any time when staff are stretched to their limits, use Zoom Answer Call to help you stay on top of your enquiries and provide an ever-professional point of contact for your customers.

Seasonal Phone Answering Cover

Easter is coming, quickly followed by summer - one of the busiest times for employee holidays... Do you have adequate cover for weeks on end when your employees may be taking their holidays one after another? Sometimes it may seem more cost-effective to deal with the temporary loss and try to carry on as normal, but this can be a big mistake when you end up leaving your customer services un-manned and are less able to deal with the influx of enquiries and orders. Hiring temporary staff can be costly and requires forethought, planning and training - time and money that you don't want to spend! So what's the answer?

Professional call answering services can bridge the gap for companies requiring seasonal cover without the need to take on new staff. We can divert your calls automatically so that you never miss a client - our professional Zoomettes will field your calls professionally and efficiently and your customers will never know that you are outsourcing.

We offer:

• call answering services
• reception overflow (virtual receptionists)
• sales agents
• temporary cover for employee holidays, bank holidays, seasonal holidays, employee sickness, maternity leave, and emergencies
• extra call handlers and sales staff for busy periods
• customer service agents
• recruitment and marketing response teams
• brochure sending
• call centre services
• diary management

Let our highly-trained call agents keep your business running smoothly no matter how busy or short-staffed you are! Our flexible holiday cover service is totally flexible and bespoke, and we can have you set up within 10 minutes!

We promise the highest level of customer service along with articulate, well-trained personnel and efficient technology to help your company and your customers. Our ad-hoc service allows you to sign up to our services for life, with short term cover available whenever you need it - whether planned or unexpected!

Get in touch to find out more about our holiday and seasonal phone answering services.

Improving Your Customer Service - Part 3

At Zoom Answer Call, customer service is one of our greatest strengths - we believe that your customers build your business, and it's important to treat each one as well as possible. If you need professional assistance to help boost your customer service department, our call answering services can help! Or if you're simply in need of a few pointers and tips to raise your customer service game a little, then read on... (You can also read part 1 and part 2 of our customer service series for more advice.)

1. Say "yes" whenever you can. This means finding a way to help your customers no matter what. If you can't do exactly as they ask, then offer a suitable alternative or compensation - the fact that you've tried to accommodate their request will serve as a big positive for your customer service reputation.
2. Know when and how to apologise. Sometimes things go wrong - everyone can understand that, and even the grouchiest customer can be appeased if you handle it the right way. Apologise, admit your error and - most importantly - deal with the consequences professionally and quickly.
3. Make things easy for your customers. This includes finding information, organisational systems, transactions, enquiries, returns and complaints. If your customers can't get hold of you, or become confused and frustrated trying to negotiate your system, website or customer service line, they will either become angry or simply give up. Keep a reliable human element in your business and make sure there's always help at hand for your customers. This may mean implementing a phone answering service to ensure that there is always someone professional and knowledgeable at the end of the phone.
4. Go above and beyond. How can you improve on your competition and give customers more? How can you offer a better and more reliable service? How can you surprise and delight your customers? A big part of this can come down to customer service - customers like feeling like they are valued and respected on an individual basis. Take the time to show your appreciation. Ask if there's anything else you can do. 
5. Train your employees well and include them in the daily workings and development of your customer services. Having happy and knowledgeable employees means that they will pass these benefits onto your customers. Show them the importance of your customer service department and work together to find ways of improving it.

We hope these tips have been of help to you and your business in improving your customer services. If you need practical help with customer service management, call answering services, a virtual reception,  seasonal cover and more, get in touch with us at Zoom Answer Call.

Improving Your Customer Service - Part 2

Does your company's customer service need a boost? At Zoom Answer Call, customer service is our first priority and we strive to improve the customer experience for every business we work with. If you need a few pointers on how to raise your reputation and polish your customer service skills, you'll find some tips below. You can also read part 1 of our customer service series here.

1. The moment you pick up the phone or are approached by a customer on the shop floor, give them your undivided attention. Distraction and preoccupation are the enemies of good customer service! Your customers need to feel as though they are genuinely being listened do, and you need to pay attention so that you are clear about their enquiry or problem and can help them appropriately and effectively. If you are unable to set aside time for this kind of focus, consider employing a phone answering service to do it for you. 
2. Anticipate potential problems or additional needs. Communicate with your customers during and after sales to find out if there's anything else they would have liked from their interaction with you, or if there are any follow-ups you should be carrying out. Anticipating what your customers want from the overall experience with your business helps you to provide a better service, boost your reputation and reduce complaints.
3. Treat customers as individuals. Ask for their name and use it. Always make a note of any information they give you so that you can refer to it later and show them that you have been listening and taking in what they're saying. One size does not fit all in customer service - what one customer is happy with, another may find insultingly lacking. Determine how best to resolve an issue on an individual basis and tailor your customer services to each customer you deal with.
4. Be sincere. There's nothing worse than knowing that someone who is supposedly trying to help you is being fake. Customers value sincerity and a genuine effort to make them happy. Even if you can't fix their problem, approaching it from a sincere and apologetic starting point can pave the way for a positive interaction. Our Zoomettes are trained to answer each call with a smile and handle every enquiry with professionalism and genuine care.
5. Say "thank you". Remember that your customers are what keep you in business! Thank them for their time, their business and their enquiries. Customers remember bad customer service and they remember excellent customer service - make sure you're on the right side of that coin!

For more tips and tricks to boost your customer services, keep watching our blog for part 3 - coming soon. For customer service management and call answering services, Zoom Answer Call can help you to ensure your customer services is always of the highest quality and professionalism.