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.

Making Life Easy with Call Management and Virtual Assistance

Zoom Answer Call's phone management services aren't just limited to handling calls - we offer a range of useful services to help your business run smoothly and reduce your workload so you can concentrate on the big ideas!

While our call handlers field enquiries and provide customer services for your customers, we can also act as a virtual reception service for your company, or a personal assistant for you! Tasks might range from organising appointments, booking meetings, reminding you of your scheduled events, managing an online diary, looking after clients and new prospects while you're busy, taking reservations and handling recruitment campaigns.

If your company sends out brochures and samples we can help you to keep on top of requests, especially during busy times or when you're out at meetings or travelling. When customers call for information we can handle their requests according to your specifications, from emails and letters to brochures and promotional content sent by post. All these little extras really help your business to run seamlessly and reduce the amount of day-to-day admin for you and your in-house staff, freeing you up for more specialised work.

For more information on all the little extras we offer alongside our professional call handling services, get in touch with us at 0800 583 5020. As always, our services can be tailored to suit your business and your needs, and we even offer a 7-day free trial so there's no need to take the plunge until you've seen how effective we are at helping your company to thrive.

Why Choose Zoom Answer Call Services

At Zoom Answer Call we pride ourselves on offering high quality bespoke business phone services to each and every client, whether they need straightforward telephone answering service or comprehensive diary management, virtual reception and call centre services.

So why should your business choose Zoom for your business phone handling? Well, here's what we think makes us the first choice for companies large and small looking for dedicated and efficient call answering services:

• We adapt to you: Our call operators are highly trained in customer service and will be trained individually on the subject of your specific services and products so they are able to provide seamless service to your customers. We offer flexible call services however you need them, whether it's call diverting, brochure sending, appointment making or technical support.
• We use state-of-the-art technology: We're efficient, fast, and reliable, ensuring that your customers receive the best possible service and you are kept in the loop every step of the way. Our SMS and postcode software can accurately retrieve caller details and our high speed internet link helps us to keep up to date with your website and carry out sales and orders securely. 
• We are professional and genuine: Our call handlers answer each call with a smile and never respond with robotic scripts; we're friendly, helpful and offer top notch customer services however you use our business phone service.

Try our 7-day trial and see for yourself how Zoom Answer Call can revamp your business phone services, boost sales and improve your customer services. 

Franchise Phone Services

Running a franchise or working as a franchisee means ensuring a consistent image for your company and helping customers to find the information they want in their local area quickly and easily. By using a dedicated franchise phone service you can boost customer satisfaction and provide a professional front to individual franchise operators as well as head office and regional areas.

As a franchisor, we can help you by offering a central call centre number which will handle individual enquiries and pass them on to the right franchisee. When you're running a small business you can't afford to miss even one call, but you may not always be able to answer the phone - that's where we come in! Zoom Answer Call handlers ensure that all your calls are answered and directed to appropriate person, or that a message is taken so that the franchisee can call the customer back at a more convenient time. We also use postcode software to allow us to quickly divert general enquiries to the right location. 

Customised reporting allow you to see how many enquiries are coming in each month according to area, so that you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly and follow up with franchisee progress. For franchisees, a central point of contact is useful to provide your business with a uniform and professional appearance, and you no longer have to worry about missing calls when you're busy with other work responsibilities and family duties.  

We are experts in franchise call handling and have been helping national franchises across the UK grow and develop for ten years. Zoom Answer Call began as a franchise so we know what it takes to be successful and manage the challenges posed by working as a regional arm of a larger business. Give us a call on 0800 583 5020 to get set up today!

Improve Your Business Call Answering Service

Have you taken our telephone tips quiz yet? See how effective your business call answering skills are and find out how to improve them. At Zoom Answer Call we are dedicated to excellent customer service in whatever we do, from virtual reception services to brochure sending, diary management to temporary holiday cover. By outsourcing your phone answering to a professional service you know that every call your business receives will be dealt with in the most effective and polite manner possible. That's why we smile when we answer every single call!

Some of the most important elements of good customer service and phone answering are plain common sense, and come down to responding to each customer in a genuine and helpful way. For example:

• We listen careful to customer enquiries, complaints and orders so that we can pass on the correct information to the appropriate member of staff, and can respond in the most effective manner.
• We are always polite, professional and pleased to receive a call, and you'd be surprised what a difference a pleasant response makes to customers. Compare this calm and collected method to a busy day at your office when no one really has the time or patience to deal with yet another enquiry. We make every single call count.
• We make sure you never miss a call, ensuring that you are able to convert as many sales as possible. And just as importantly, we make sure you are able to deal with negative calls swiftly and appropriately so your reputation remains positive. 
• We are here for you all year round, so there's no need to find extra cover or lose sales during busy periods, or if your employees go on sick leave, maternity leave or holiday. 

If you need a little extra help to get your business running smoothly and efficiently, outsourcing your phone answering is a quick, easy and affordable step to help you on your way. We tailor our call handling packages to suit your company so get in touch to find out how we can help you! You can even try our services for seven days absolutely FREE!

Call us on 0800 583 5020 to speak to a Zoomette today.

Cut the Costs of Employee Sick Days and Holidays

Did you know the average sick day costs employees £75 per employee? Not only that but absent employees mean the rest of your team are under a greater strain and less work is able to be completed. Hiring cover only costs extra, so how do business cut the cost of staff holidays and sick leave?

A simple and effective method of reducing the cost of unavoidable sick days and annual leave is to incorporate a dedicated call answering service into your company's operations. By having a reliable team of call handlers on hand every single day of the year, you won't ever need to worry about missed calls, unmanned reception desks or slow responses to enquiries and orders. You can even opt for extra cover during holidays and busy periods to ensure your business stays on track all year round.

At Zoom Answer Call we are committed to helping businesses big and small make the best of their time and money, providing call handling services, virtual reception desks, call centre services, brochure sending, appointment making and many other valuable services to help you manage your customer services department as efficiently as possible. Outsourcing helps you to free up time and manpower that is essential for the daily running of your business - don't keep your trained employees tied up behind a desk waiting for the phone to ring, leave that to us!

One of the best things about having a call handling service associated with your company is that there is no longer any need to worry about employees taking sick days or holiday at awkward times. With Zoom Answer Call you know that your phones will be covered whenever you need them to be, at no extra cost than usual. Try our FREE 7-day trial for yourself and see how effective and productive phone answering services can be for your company. Call on 0800 583 5020 to speak to one of of expert advisers, or email us at sales@zoomuk.co.uk.

What Makes a Great Call Answering Service?

When you call a business looking for information, to make an order or to submit a complaint, what do you look for from the person who answers your call? Most people would include politeness, competence and speed in their list of positive business call attributes. If you think your call handling isn't as good as it could be, take the time to sit down and make a list of everything you want out of a call answering service and see how your own company fairs.

Recognising what your customers want and need is an essential part of providing the best customer service possible. We can help you to identify the most efficient ways to organise your phone answering service or call centre operations, and our professionally trained call handlers are able to adapt to a variety of different situations and requirements, including:

• Call answering
• Appointment making
• Virtual reception services
• Call centre services
• Call diverting
• Brochure sending
• Customer services
• Franchise call answering
• Diary management
• Holiday/sickness/temporary cover

One of the most effective methods of creating a positive call experience is to really listen to your customers' needs and individual requirements and tailoring your response accordingly. Reading from a script does not cater to every situation and can make you appear robotic or dismissive. Personalising your calls is a great way to make each and every customer feel like their call is valued and their query is being taken seriously. Keep good records of names, times, details and previous interactions so that you can refer to them during future calls. Following up calls with a quick check up can be a fantastic way of going the extra mile, too, and having a dedicated customer support team to respond to complaints and issues as quickly as possible is a definite essential if you want your business reputation to stay golden.

At the core of great call answering, however, is the professionalism of your call handlers. At Zoom Answer Call, our expert call handlers are trained to understand customer emotions and handle them appropriately. We tailor our services to the exact requirements of your company so that we become a seamless addition to your business. Our phone answering services ensure that you never miss a call, never leave a query unanswered and never fail to respond to a complaint. Better customer service means a better reputation, which leads to boosted sales and a higher rate of returning customers!

Get in touch with us at Zoom Answer Call for a FREE 7-day trial of our business call handling services and see for yourself!

Personalising Your Business Calls

Personalising your business calls with a dedicated call answering service is a great way to boost your customer experience and your company reputation. Here's how:

• Go the extra mile. Make sure your customers can get hold of you whenever they need to. If you can't man the phones 24/7 that's OK - that's what Zoom Answer Call is for! A telephone answering service means that you'll never miss a call again. And our call agents can do more than just answer the phone, we can direct your calls, take messages, send out brochures, book appointments, provide information and customer service, and even act as a virtual reception for your business. 
• Use customer information to help streamline your call. Bring up existing customer details as quickly as possible in order to anticipate and facilitate their needs. Refer back to previous calls and queries so they know you are up to date with their business history - this builds trust and confidence in your business. If you're speaking to a new customer, take down the information you need to help them as fast as you can; no one wants to answer endless questions when they call with a simple query.
• Smile when you answer the phone! Our Zoom UK call handlers answer every call with a genuine smile - you'd be surprised what a difference it makes! Offering pleasant, polite service costs absolutely nothing but can improve your customer service and let your customers know that you care about their custom.
• Make your customer service approach consistent across all aspects of your company, from phone calls to emails to doing business in person. Define your goals for a positive customer experience and train and educate staff to handle a variety of different customer situations. Zoom call answering agents will adhere to your customer service requirements to the letter and ensure that we are coherent with your business personality.
• Ask your customers what you can do to make their experience even better. It's all very well robotically saying, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" but do you mean it? Can you go above and beyond and offer extras and random acts of kindness to make your customers' day? Sometimes the best way to dissolve a negative situation is to ask what you could have done better, or what you can do to make things right. You could even turn a complaint into a glowing reference.

For help with tailoring your call answering service to reap the most benefit for your company, get in touch with us at Zoom Answer Call and our experts will help you to create a bespoke package for your business.

Keep Clients Happy and Boost Your ROI with Call Answering Services

A call handling service can be a integral part of your customer service, helping every aspect of your business run smoothly and boost your ROI. Customer services is a never-ending task that requires commitment and a perpetual smile... But it's worth the effort - efficient and effective customer service can keep your clients content and increase your sales, giving you an edge over local, national and global competitors. After all, no one returns to a company they have had a bad experience with, but excellent customer services creates loyal, lifelong clients.

If you think about it, everything in your business comes down to good customer service. Your front-of-house staff and call handlers are the first point of contact for new customers, provide information and support for existing customers as well as dealing with complaints and problems. Your customer service and sales departments are essential to your ROI and can make or break customer relations. There's no point investing in marketing and promotional plans if you don't have the proper resources to deal with your enquiries in an efficient manner.

Customers are fickle, impatient, and can be very vocal when things go wrong. If someone calls you and cannot get through immediately, or is directed to an automated answer service, or if the wrong person picks up and is not able to deal with the enquiry, nine times out of ten, the customer will take their business elsewhere. Missing calls loses you business. Dealing with a call unprofessionally loses you business. Leaving customers lost in a maze of "press 1 for XYZ" automated systems loses you business. On the other hand, having a dedicated call handling department for your customer services ensures that your company is always available, always polite, always knowledgeable and always giving the best service possible.

An easy and affordable way to keep ahead of your competition is to ensure that your customer services department is the best it can be. That means providing a committed in-house team of call handlers, or outsourcing to a professional call answering service like Zoom UK. The benefits of outsourcing include:

• Freeing up employees for other tasks
• Never needing to worry about staff absences, holidays or emergency cover
• Professional call handling whenever you need it
• Diary management and virtual reception services
• Call centre services
• A service so seamless that customers will never know your call handlers aren't in the office with you!
• Brochure sending, appointment making and message taking
• Quick and efficient call handling
• Call directing and diverting to the appropriate department
• No missed calls! No answer phone! No automated system!

Customers really appreciate a human response to their enquiries, and with our brilliantly efficient call handling team, they will also get the highest quality, polite response to each call they make. 

Try our free 7-day trial to see how Zoom UK call handling service can improve your business.

Cut Costs and Boost Customer Satisfaction With Call Centre Services

Choosing a call centre service for your business can help you to reduce costs while improving your customer services. Finding the right call centre for your company's requirements is essential if you want to maximise efficiency and promote the good name of your business.

When looking for a telephone answering service, it's important that the one you choose provides the following attributes:

1. Fantastic customer service with a smile. Your call handlers are the gatekeepers to your business, and are the forefront of your customer service. Everyone who answers a call for your company should do their best to ensure that the customer on the other end of the line is well looked after in the most professional way possible. 

2. Fully trained to handle your specific business. Call centre agents should be able to answer customer enquiries politely, confidently and knowledgeably, or to quickly divert the call to someone who can. At Zoom Answer Call, our call handlers are trained to provide professional responses suitable for each client, and are able to take messages or redirect calls if necessary. 

3. Offer complementary services to optimise your business. At Zoom UK, in addition to call centre services and phone answering, we also provide a virtual reception service, downsizing and outsourcing, diary management, telemarketing, brochure sending, seasonal cover, and franchise call handling services. A varied choice of services help you to streamline your operations with a company that understands your business requirements and your brand.

Call centre services help you to cope with large numbers of incoming enquiries as well as outgoing telemarketing requirements. Professional call handlers are cheerful and polite when they answer a call, offering a positive and efficient response to your customers' needs. At Zoom Answer Call we understand the importance of cutting business costs wherever you can and we offer affordable plans tailored to your individual needs. 

When you have Zoom's call centre services as part of your customer service division, you'll never miss a call again!

Business Extras - Brochure Sending

We know how busy running a business can be, and sometimes it's impossible to juggle sales, calls, enquiries, travelling, meetings, deliveries and information requests. Often it's this last item on the list that gets left behind - sending out brochures, information, samples and letters in response to enquiries - but keeping on top of your information requests can really make a difference to your company. When a customer fails to receive your info or samples, or has to wait weeks (or months!) for their delivery, it makes for bad customer service, and they may question whether they have the time to deal with you again. Keeping your reputation golden and responding swiftly to ALL requests is a real asset to your business, and Zoom Answer Call can help!

Did you know we don't just handle calls? We're also able to help with sending out information to your customers in response to the enquiries we receive while acting as your call handlers. When we receive a call asking for a brochure or additional info, we will send them out promptly by 1st or 2nd class post, along with your company stationary or a cover letter provided by you.

We're always looking for extra ways to help each company we work with to maximise their efficiency, increase their customer base and retain their customers for the long term. Brochure sending is just one little added extra we offer as part of our telephone answering services - get in touch to find out how else we can help your company thrive and grow!