Who Needs A Holiday?!

I don't know about you, but this heat is getting to be too much! If you are stuck in the office while the temperatures soar, it can be hard to concentrate. While most larger offices have air conditioning, many smaller businesses can't justify the expense when the weather in this country can be so erratic! The school summer holidays are often a time when the offices are a bit emptier than usual anyway as some people jet off on holiday, so along with a professional call answering service to pick up the slack, you want to make sure your employees are working as well as they can. So how can you keep them cool?

Drinking cold drinks and foods will help. Instead of doing coffee and tea rounds, make up some cold drinks and keep them in the fridge. You don't need to do anything fancy - a jug of water that is kept topped up is good for cooling people down and keeping them hydrated. As for lunch, salads and sandwiches may seem like the healthy, boring option, but who really wants a steaming mug of soup when it's 30 degrees Celsius outside?! If you have a cake or biscuit day each week, why not switch to an ice cream day instead?

Keeping the blinds closed on the windows, but with the windows open will help to keep the office cool, but unless you have big windows, you will probably also need to invest in some desk fans. The quieter the better as the noisy ones can be distracting, but when the sun is blazing, anything will do! If you have a dress code that requires people to wear warmer clothing such as suits, and you are struggling to keep the office cool, you may need to consider relaxing the dress code for a while. Unless your employees are customer facing, they should be able to do their job just as well in casual attire - better in fact if they aren't sweltering hot!

The Importance of Training

Whatever career you are in, you almost definitely needed training to start with. If your job is simple, that training may have been a supervisor walking you through things for an hour, while for more complex job requirements you may need to spend years at university (doctors certainly need more than an hour or so of training!). Surprisingly, many employers don't feel that call answering skills require any training. Naturally, we at Zoom would disagree strenuously with that!

As an employer perhaps you feel that offering training is too expensive, or unnecessary as it is 'just answering the phone'. Unfortunately, lack of training is often the reason why employees fail to deliver the expected level of customer service. Both customer service and call answering are skills that need to be taught and practised; all our Zoomettes have extensive training, covering Customer Service NVQ Levels 1, 2 & 3.

As well as training our own staff, we also offer coaching for either individuals or groups on Competency, Attitude and Impression with regards to telephony skills. These are important skills to learn if you want your staff to handle calls in the best way possible, leaving your customers satisfied and seeing your company in the best possible light.

Are You Watching The Olympics?

The Olympic Games being held in your home country is one of those experiences that may well be once in a lifetime. As such, many people will want to take time to watch it, whether live at one of the venues or just making sure to catch their favourite sports on TV. This means that as an employer, you may find that you have multiple members of staff wanting to have time off. Zoom's call answering service can help provide the extra support you need when your staff are away from the office.

Obviously, the people who are attending the Olympics live will not be able to get any work done while they are there, but for those people booking time off to watch it on the television, why not suggest they can work from home for the duration. They have the benefit that they can fit their work in around the one sport they really want to watch while still getting their work done. For you, the benefit is that you don't have to find someone else to do their work, or risk falling behind on deadlines. Using a call answering service, any calls can be diverted to their home, or their mobile numbers.