Surge in Start-ups in 2013

The UK launched half a million start-ups in 2013 with 10,000 loans totalling over £50 million awarded by the Government's Start Up Loans scheme. Entrepreneurs hoping to grow businesses in the UK can get ahead of competitors and make an impact in the marketplace by proving they have great customer service and a dedicated telephone answering service is an essential element in growing small businesses and managing larger companies.

Call answering services provide a point of contact for customers day and night with professionally trained call handlers who can accommodate a range of different services according to your company's needs. From virtual reception services to diary management, brochure sending to call centre services, franchise call handling to non-geographical numbers - Zoom Answer Call offers high quality tailored services to start-ups, SMEs and large established businesses.

With a record number of start-ups emerging in the UK last year, we hope 2014 is the year of success for your company, and if you need help managing your incoming or outgoing calls let us help you to find the perfect solution with Zoom's dedicated telephone answering service. Try a free 7-day trial to see just how effective call management services can be for your business and watch your company grow in 2014!

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.

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. 

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. 

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!

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. 

Who'll answer your phones when the snow plays havoc?!

Ahh that fluffy white stuff that brings the UK to a grinding halt – yes we're talking about the snow! Love it or loathe it the past few years have seen a significant of snowfall and it's probably not over for the winter yet. Be it an inch or several feet there is no escaping the fact that everything comes to a standstill creating a dramatic loss for many businesses, especially if your staff are having to stay at home due to schools being shut or being unable to commute. So who'll look after the phone calls should your own business need to close or you have no manpower to take the calls.

Our call answering service team are there to help. If you are unable to get to the office or you are short of staff due to a heavy snowstorm our friendly zoomettes are ready and waiting to take those all important telephone calls. Keep your business running smoothly whatever the weather with our ad-hoc service that is flexible and tailored around you as and when you require us. Call us now on 0800 583 5020 and we can have you and and running in just 10 minutes or use our onlineform to request our no obligation 7 day free trial.

New Year, New Strategy - Time to Outsource Those Phone Calls

As your business heads into another new year are you considering a new strategy to make your company run more efficiently and effectively. We have the solution to how you can make the most of having more time whilst reducing costs. Why not outsource some of your businesses activities such as answering the phone. 

It can be somewhat surprising as to how large a proportion of the working day is taking up in answering telephone calls and it can be a major distraction for your employees. By simply investing in a good Telephone Answering Service your staff can focus more on the high value work which results in making you more profit such as marketing and advertising. You will even find them working more productively in less of the time. 

Research has show that in using a Telephone Answering Service can significantly reduce staff absences and potentially save you as a business up to £75 per employee for each sick day they take off. 

Whether your a small or large business Zoom Answer Call believe that service really is everything, not only for you, but to each and every one of your clients too. We offer a range a flexible service to suit your company's individual needs. From call management and appointment booking, customer service and providing information. With highly trained phone answering personnel - the Zoomettes - each of your calls will be answered with a smile in a polite and friendly manner. 

We can also offer call centre services and virtual receptions. Why not give us a call and we can personalize a service for your requirements today - 0800 583 5020.

Call Answering Services for Franchises

Running a franchise or working as a franchisee is often hard but rewarding work. Running your own business, whether you're the owner of a franchise or a franchisee operating in your own area, is a full time job! Sometimes it's difficult to keep on top of enquiries in a professional way, especially when you may have other commitments, an additional job, or a family to look after. It's so important to keep your reputation positive, however, and having a call answering service to centralise your businesses enquiries can be a real asset.

Never miss another call again!

A call answering service like Zoom Answer Call can provide a central point of contact for your customers, allowing them to access information and make enquiries 24 hours a day, all year round. We utilise postcode locator software to help us direct enquiries to the appropriate franchisee, and minimise typos and mistakes when sending out information.

We are also able to provide you with customised reports so that you can keep track of how many enquiries you have received for each franchise area. This is extremely useful for your marketing strategy, as it shows you where your advertising is working and where it's not.

We have been working with franchises for over 10 years (in fact, we started out as one!), so we understand the needs of franchise owners and franchisees. Our call management service can be adapted to suit your requirements, so you can make it as minimal or as comprehensive as you need!

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!

Need To Save Some Money?

Many companies are finding they need to streamline their processes to save time and money, and enable them to focus on growing their business in the current economic climate. As a business owner it is well worth spending a bit of time considering which parts of your business really need to be carried out by yourself or your employees and which parts could be outsourced. Often you will find that you and your staff spend an inordinate amount of time answering telephone calls, many of which are not productive (the ever present sales calls in particular). This can be disruptive when you are in the middle of a project and have to pause to answer the telephone and deal with the call. Outsourcing to a call answering service lets you focus on your work when you need to, and deal with phone calls at a time that is convenient to you.

Giving your staff the opportunity to spend more of their time on the high value work that you actually get paid for has multiple benefits. The biggest is that they will be able to be more productive in the time they have available. A side benefit you may not think of straight away is that your calls will still be answered promptly and professionally, even when you have unexpected absences due to sickness. As your telephone answering service would already be set up, you wouldn't need to worry about that aspect of an absence and could instead focus on sharing out the work you do for your clients.

Successful businesses are those which respond well to change and come out of adversity stronger and even more successful. As such, downsizing is an opportunity to focus your efforts on keeping your business strong and growing within today's economic conditions.

Moozings from Zoom - Some interesting Phone Facts

Today the telephone is an integral part of all our lives wherever we are but only a hundred years ago it was struggling to secure a foothold anywhere. So here are ten interesting facts on its development:


1. Alexander Graham Bell thought the phone should be answered with ‘Hoy Hoy’ instead of Hello.

2. The first telephone exchanges were built in 1877//78 and Automatic exchanges, or dial service, came into existence in the early 1900s - eliminating the need for human telephone operators.

3. There are 149,084,370 phone lines in the world and thousands more are being added every day. (wiki lists 1.27 billion lines and over 5 billion mobile devices)

4. The first telephone answering service was created in 1923, when a bedridden woman named Margaret Smith realized that she could make money by taking calls for busy doctors from her bed.

5. Telephone operators predominately used to be young men; however they were prone to prank calling and chatting up female callers.

6. The concept of allocating telephone numbers to individual phone lines was invented by a doctor.

7. In 1667 a string telephone conveyed sounds over an extended wire but it wasn’t until March 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the sentence: "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" using a liquid transmitter and an electromagnetic receiver – the basis of the modern telephone system.

8. An operator in Milan was once fined for contacting a wrong number.

9. While the concept for hexagonal cells for mobile phones was conceived in December 1947 the first handheld cellular mobile call wasn’t made until April 1973

10. One of the early cable operators in the UK, Cable London, connected its first cable telephone customer around 1990

Problems On The Line

As telephone lines have become more and more hi-tec, the issue of problems on the line is one that has faded, but when problems do occur, they can be as debilitating as ever if you are unprepared. If you have already diverted your calls to a telephone answering service (such as Zoom, naturally!), then the only problem you will face is calling us from your mobile phone to tell us your line is down so we need to put calls through to an alternative number (such as that mobile phone, which is less susceptible to problems such as manual workers having accidentally drilled through the line!).

Of course, the modern version of a faulty telephone line is bad signal. Losing mobile phone signal half way through a telephone conversation is bad enough, but at least the client has spoken to you, and can probably tell it was a problem with signal rather than you simply not bothering to answer the phone. Sure, we know you don't always answer as you are busy, but it is worth remembering that an impatient client is likely to jump to the worst conclusion! Once the call has failed half way through, you can quickly find somewhere with a better signal (we have all stood by windows desperately trying to find the perfect angle!), and call them back, or at least send them an email to let them know you are having technical difficulties. More concerning is when you are in a bad signal area, and are perhaps unaware of it. The client tries to call, but it goes straight to voicemail every time. Again, making sure your calls are always diverted to a call answering service when the line is busy or the call unanswered, makes sure that your clients always get to speak to a real person, and they feel much more confident that their message will reach you.

Call Answering Tips

There are a variety of skills involved in telephone answering, and delivering good customer services. Our Zoomettes have years of training and experience in this, so are well placed to offer you some tips. It doesn't all come as naturally as you might think!

Active listening - imagine you are listening to someone explain something to you in person. What do you do? Do you stand there giving them no response whatsoever? Probably not! Even if you don't vocalise anything, chances are your head is nodding, or tilting, your eye brows raising, and you may even be mouthing words without sound. Much of that will not transmit over the phone, so you need to translate it into audio. A simple 'mmhmm', 'oh', 'yes' or 'right' lets the customer on the end of the phone know you are still there and you are still paying attention. Total silence over the phone worries people as they can't be sure you haven't put them on hold, or even just ignoring them!

Fill the silence - similarly, if you need to do anything that leads to prolonged silence, you should have a few uncontentious questions to ask ("did you have a good weekend") so that there isn't a silence lasting longer than about 10 seconds. You do need to be careful that you don't end up babbling or sounding nervous - you want to portray the image of a friendly, confident company!

How Do You Handle Snow Days?

It's snowed! A source of excitement to young and old alike, snow can also be a cause for big problems for businesses. When staff and deliveries can't get to where they need to be on time, business can end up stopping altogether. Now, here at Zoom we can't do much about any deliveries that you need to get in or out, but staff not making it into the office? That, we may be able to help with!

We offer the ability to sign up to our call answering services as an ad hoc service. You become a member for life and can use the Zoomettes as short term cover whenever you need to. That includes snow days as well as illnesses, emergencies, bank holidays or even just those extra busy times. We can even route certain calls to any number you like, so even if you're stuck at home, you can still speak to important clients as if you were in the office.

We know you can't plan for the unexpected, so we don't need you to predict the weather or anticipate staff illnesses, all you need to do is give us a call and our telephone answering service can be on line in as little as 10 minutes.

Expanding Your Business In 2012?

Firstly, everyone at Zoom hopes you had a fantastic Christmas, and are ready to bring in the New Year tomorrow night. As a business owner, you will have already been making plans for 2012. We think you should consider using our call answering services to help your business expand in the new year.

Your time is best spent on the work your business does for its clients, and on growing your business, whether that's through networking or meetings with clients. Answering the phone, on the other hand, is not something that needs to be done by you personally, and by outsourcing to a telephone answering service like Zoom, you are freed up to do all the things that do need you. With our personal service, and highly trained team, your clients will never notice the difference. And you won't have to deal with any more annoying sales calls!

Zoom's Virtual Reception service is another option which enhances the image of your business and allows your calls to be put through to the right person, just as an in-house receptionist would. Even when you're out of the office, your clients' calls can be put through to you, as if you were still in the office, truly allowing you to get on with expanding your business without your current clients suffering.

Winter - The Perfect Time To Use A Call Answering Service

We all know that as well as a feeling of winding things down and taking things easy, Winter brings with it a host of illnesses. Not many offices escape cold season without one or two staff absences due to illness. And with the Christmas festivities and the bank holidays, many of the working days that are left will be cut short with Christmas celebrations. While the party atmosphere means a happy workforce, it can also lead to staff being slightly more relaxed than usual. A call answering service can help fill the gaps in this busy time period.

As far as the staff are concerned, business may be winding down for the end of the year, but actually, most businesses will still have the same workload. Unfortunately the bank holidays, Christmas parties and staff illnesses mean there are less people available to do that work in less time! By outsourcing your telephone reception or your call centre services, you can make the most of the time you do have available.

Zoom offers an ad hoc service so that you can use our telephone answering service whenever you need it to cover staff illnesses, holidays or bank holidays. We can even cover your phones over the Christmas period if your business closes down. No matter how unexpected, the Zoomettes will be there to help!

Common Telephone Answering Myths

We all know good customer service when we experience it, but do we really know how to achieve it? Telephone answering can be a particular challenge when it comes to delivering excellent customer service as so many of the signs we use to read people's reactions are gone. We are left with only the tone of voice and the words used to figure out what the customer is feeling.

One common myth about delivering good customer service over the phone is that it has been achieved if everyone understands what has been decided and what will happen next. In actual fact, this is not effective communication. Good communication involves discussion rather than simply informing. Discussion helps build understanding on both sides, as well as comfort and commitment from the customer.

Another frequent mistake is to think that being frank is always the best policy. The difficulty is that what one person feels is frank, another person may find insulting. It is important to consider how you come across to other people.

Little changes to your telephone answering skills can make big changes to how your customers see you. At Zoom UK we are always striving to improve our telephone answering service and customer service skills.

More Than Just Call Answering

I'm sure you know by now that Zoom is a call answering service with a difference. We care about our customers and are always looking for new ways we can help. Whether it is simple telephone answering or a virtual reception you need, the little extras we offer are there to make your working life that little bit easier.

If you know that many of your calls are requests for information such as brochures, rather than forwarding these requests on to you for you to deal with, we can send out the brochures for you. The brochures will be sent out with your preferred letter and stationery, ready stamped with either first or second class postage.

By taking over this task, we can ensure that potential customers' requests for information are always dealt with promptly, even when you are out on the road all day.