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.

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.

Why Use a Virtual Reception Service?

Sick of missing important business calls? If your company is stretched to its limit and you're struggling to keep on top of customers enquiries, a professional call management service could be a simple and effective answer. 

Virtual reception services offer a professional front to your business 24/7, seamlessly connecting customers to the right person, taking messages, booking appointments and sending out information and brochures as appropriate. Just like an in-house receptionist, Zoom call handlers are able to act as the first port of call for your customer enquiries, customer service, or technical support departments, ensuring that you never miss a call again.

In addition to virtual reception services, we also offer call centre services, telephone answering, non-geographical numbers, franchise call management and temporary holiday cover, along with plenty of little extras that help your business to run smoothly and efficiently. 

Get in touch with us at Zoomuk.co.uk  or call on 0800 583 5020 to speak to one of our Zoom operators and arrange your free 7-day trial to see just how much Zoom can improve your company's customer services.

Business Call Management Lets You Work Smarter, Not Harder...

Wouldn't it be nice to know that no matter how busy you are, your customers will always be able to get through to a professional representative on the phone? A business call management company provides you with reassurance that your customers are being looked after, your projects are being handled efficiently, and you'll never miss a call again. 

Zoom Answer Call has a proposition for you: give us just seven days and we'll show you exactly how our call handling services can boost your business and improve your customer service - you never know, having us on board may even allow you to reduce your working hours! Click here to start your free seven-day trial. 

Our business call management service options include: 

• Telephone answering
• Call diversion
• Message taking
• Appointment booking
• Brochure sending
• Virtual reception
• Call centre services
• Marketing campaigns
• Recruitment drives
• Technical support
• Customer service
• Holiday cover

And because your business is unique, our call management services are tailored to your needs and completely adaptable according to your changing requirements. Try us for a week for free and see for yourself!

Short staffed... Never again !

Finding yourself short staffed can be stressful and reduces the efficiency of your business as you try to pick up the slack. Whether your staff are on sick leave, maternity leave, or annual leave, there's no need to suffer from being short staffed or attempt to take on more work than you can handle to compensate. A call answering service can save you from stress and provide a dedicated and reliable back up for busy periods or the holiday season. When you're short on staff, the first thing to suffer is your call management - incoming calls get ignored, missed, or badly handled by untrained staff, and your customer satisfaction suffers as a result. Having the reassurance of a call management company like Zoom means that you can focus on your work without worrying about the front desk.

Temporary call management cover is available on a one-off short term basis, or you can choose to schedule your business phone cover for certain times of the year when you know you'll need the extra hands. Times when you might need cover include:

• Christmas, summer holidays, and public holidays
• Unexpected sick days or extended sick leave
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Staff training 
• Technical emergencies and line faults

Whatever the size of your company or the nature of your business, Zoom UK's professional call handling team can be flexible and adaptable according to your changing requirements. You can try out our services for free with a 7-day trial - just give us a call and we'll have you set up within ten minutes! Don't risk losing custom because you're short staffed; give your customers the best possible service 24/7 with a professional call handling management company. 

Learn to Handle Business Calls More Effectively

Not only can Zoom provide you with an expert team of call handlers to help your company run smoothly, we can also train you and your staff in what makes our techniques so successful.

Zoom business call training will provide you with a range of skills to improve your business calls and customer service, and increase customer acquisition and retention. We can coach individuals or groups in the following areas:

• Best practice for telephone operators
• Competency when dealing with enquiries and sales
• Positive attitude and polite manner
• Putting forward a good first Impression 
• Tools and techniques to handle a variety of callers
• Dealing with complaints and negativity
• How to meet customer expectations
• Adapting behaviour to win more business
• Tune-in to clients' needs, values and preferences

By carrying out simple behavioural tests, we can help your staff to see how to identify and understand customer expectations, requirements and values. With this knowledge and these skills, your staff will be able to more competently handle enquiries, drive sales and resolve complaints - working in harmony with your Zoom team of call management specialists!

For more information on our business call training please get in touch with us at www.zoomuk.co.uk or by calling 0800 583 5020. And you can even check your call handling skills with our online test!

Call Answering Cover for the Christmas Holidays

Christmas is on its way and despite being a massively busy time for most businesses, many companies find themselves short staffed as employees take their annual leave to celebrate the holidays. If you or your staff are planning on taking time off over the seasonal period you will need to think about how this will affect your business and the incoming enquiries that will continue to come in while you're off work. Will you be able to pick up the slack if employees are on holiday? Do you have backup in place to cover this busy time? 

The good news is, there's a way to cover the Christmas holidays without having to sacrifice your time off, or limit your employees' holiday time. By hiring temporary cover from a call handling company like Zoom UK, you can be assured that your incoming calls will be answered, your appointments scheduled, your messages noted, and brochures sent out. You can even arrange a virtual reception desk to divert and direct your calls, or opt for full call centre services to handle customer services, technical support, or Christmas marketing campaigns. 

Customers are never impressed by reaching an automated answerphone - they want to get through to a professional representative no matter the time or day. Don't risk losing custom at the busiest time of the year - back up your company reputation with a dedicated call management service over the holiday period and enjoy your time off knowing that your business is in safe hands. For a 7-day free trial with Zoom, visit www.zoomuk.co.uk. 

Call Diversion and Virtual Reception Services for Your Business

When you're hard at work, there are times when you just can't get to the phone, or don't want to be disturbed - wouldn't it be great to be able to just press a button and divert your call to a ready and waiting professional call handler? Oh right, you can do exactly that with Zoom Answer Call's diversion service! When you divert your calls to a call answering service from Zoom Answer Call, you can relax, knowing that you'll never miss a call again - whether your incoming calls are going straight to our professional team, or whether you decide to send an extra call through to us using your personal call diversion service. 

You have complete control over your call diverting - deciding how often or how little you divert calls to our Zoomettes. Incoming calls can be diverted to Zoom by activating the call diversion system from your phone keypad and are totally undetectable for the customer. We can set up your call diversion to be controlled in a number of ways, including:

• Automatic diversion after four rings to make sure your call is answered swiftly if you can't reach the phone in time
• Automatic diversion when the line is engaged so that your customer never hears an engaged tone
• Divert all calls for when you're out of the office, in a meeting, or simply are too busy to answer the phone!
• Manual diversion via your telephone keypad when you are unable to take a call

You'll receive a unique divert number that allows you to control your incoming calls when you're in the office, at home, or out and about. Missing calls costs your business money - never miss another enquiry with a team of dedicated Zoom call handlers waiting to answer your calls! Zoom's divert system works much like a virtual reception service - providing your business with a committed presence to handle every single call that you receive and ensuring they go to the right person as quickly as possible. For sales, enquiries, customer service, appointments, advertising, marketing, recruitment or technical support - Zoom are there for you to make sure you never miss another call.