No, they're not really related, but it's Easter and we love chocolate, so this blog will be about both! While many companies will be preparing to close up shop this evening, we don't stop. Our Zoomettes will be there over the bank holiday weekend to provide our call answering services for our clients. Naturally, we will be our happy, friendly selves, always answering the phone with a smile, but we don't want to miss out on the chocolate eggs!
If you are one of our clients, we already know that when it comes to call answering services, you prefer the human touch, along with the exceptional customer service and telephone answering skills that all the members of our team possess. However, we don't know what easter eggs you prefer! If you have time for a bit of fun this weekend, post a comment telling us what your favourite easter chocolate treat is.
A few of the teams' favourites are; creme eggs (always a winner, but there are those who prefer the mini creme eggs to the standard variety), mini eggs, the eternal battle between the milk chocolate, white chocolate and dark chocolate fans, and my personal favourite is the posh Hotel Chocolat variety!
However you celebrate it, with or without chocolate, Happy Easter from all the Zoomettes!
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Planning For The Holidays
In some ways, Easter has a lot in common with Christmas. It is the only other time of year that we get two bank holidays in a row (royal weddings aside!), and as it coincides with the school holidays, it is a time that many people want to book off from work. Careful planning as an employer is needed to ensure you have sufficient staff to cover your needs, but why not consider using a call answering service such as Zoom for those services that don't require a high level of technical, industry level knowledge? That's not to say that our Zoomettes won't know anything about your industry - all our operators receive client-specific training to prepare them to answer your calls. You can even come and help train them at our Cambridge office!
Why not plan ahead for staff absences, or even let a few more people have a break than usual, and let our Zoomettes fill the gap. We cover all bank holidays, as well as offering our service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week under our "24 Hour Live" service. Alternatively, if your business shuts at the weekend and bank holidays, you may still have staff taking holidays over Easter, and are welcome to make the most of our "Business Hours" service from Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 6pm. Don't worry, there's still old fashioned voicemail to cover the out of hours times!
Why not plan ahead for staff absences, or even let a few more people have a break than usual, and let our Zoomettes fill the gap. We cover all bank holidays, as well as offering our service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week under our "24 Hour Live" service. Alternatively, if your business shuts at the weekend and bank holidays, you may still have staff taking holidays over Easter, and are welcome to make the most of our "Business Hours" service from Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 6pm. Don't worry, there's still old fashioned voicemail to cover the out of hours times!
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Calls We Can't Help With
Here at Zoom, we are experts in call answering. Our Zoomettes have the skills to take hundreds of phone calls a day, and still be happy and smiley for each one. Our message taking abilities are second to none. However, there are things we can't do for you, as much as we'd like to help.
Certain holidays, such as today, Mothering Sunday, throw into the light that which we can't do. We can take a message from your mother and send it on to you via text or email, or however you want. We can smile when we talk to her and remain friendly. But we can't make sure you call her back, or wish her Happy Mother's Day! This is why it's a team effort; we take the calls, divert them to you when we can, or take messages, and then you call them back. On most days of the year, your mother is probably more patient than your clients, but on Mother's Day, a missed call could put you in her bad books!
Our customer service skills are an area we are rightly proud of, so we will always remain professional, but if we are having to take messages from people for you, whether it's your mother or an important client, it is important that you do your part and call them back. We like to think we are good at dealing with angry customers, but there is no need for them to be angry just because they haven't been called back! Check out the telephone tips section on our website if you need any tips in making or taking phone calls. And make sure you call your mum...because what's worse than an angry customer? An angry mum!
Certain holidays, such as today, Mothering Sunday, throw into the light that which we can't do. We can take a message from your mother and send it on to you via text or email, or however you want. We can smile when we talk to her and remain friendly. But we can't make sure you call her back, or wish her Happy Mother's Day! This is why it's a team effort; we take the calls, divert them to you when we can, or take messages, and then you call them back. On most days of the year, your mother is probably more patient than your clients, but on Mother's Day, a missed call could put you in her bad books!
Our customer service skills are an area we are rightly proud of, so we will always remain professional, but if we are having to take messages from people for you, whether it's your mother or an important client, it is important that you do your part and call them back. We like to think we are good at dealing with angry customers, but there is no need for them to be angry just because they haven't been called back! Check out the telephone tips section on our website if you need any tips in making or taking phone calls. And make sure you call your mum...because what's worse than an angry customer? An angry mum!
Friday, 16 March 2012
Even Call Answering Services Need To Laugh
Here at Zoom Call Answering Service, we spend a lot of time on the phone, or thinking about phone calls, and sometimes we just need a few laughs. What's the best way to amuse someone who spends all day on the telephone? That's right, with telephone jokes!
Here are some of our favourite telephone related jokes.
* What's the cheapest time to call your friend long distance? When they're out!
* What do you call an elephant in a telephone box (remember those?!)? Stuck.
* How can you tell if a bee is on the phone? You get a buzzy signal.
* What do you get if you cross a telephone with hair straighteners? A smooth operator!
Okay, so they're terribly cheesy, but can you do any better?! It's so important for us to answer the telephone with a smile on our face, and sharing a few jokes (and, we can admit it, a few practical jokes!), is a great way to keep us smiling all day long.
Here are some of our favourite telephone related jokes.
* What's the cheapest time to call your friend long distance? When they're out!
* What do you call an elephant in a telephone box (remember those?!)? Stuck.
* How can you tell if a bee is on the phone? You get a buzzy signal.
* What do you get if you cross a telephone with hair straighteners? A smooth operator!
Okay, so they're terribly cheesy, but can you do any better?! It's so important for us to answer the telephone with a smile on our face, and sharing a few jokes (and, we can admit it, a few practical jokes!), is a great way to keep us smiling all day long.
Saturday, 10 March 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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!
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!
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)