Change Your Hours And Increase Productivity

Why do we all have to work 9-5? Is this the best time to work? Some people prefer early starts and some people work best in the evening. Why not work with this and offer your team flexibility in their work hours? There are a few things to consider here- will people take advantage? Will people make sure the building is secure if they leave late? Will they get their work completed? Will your customers be affected?

We can start by answering some of the negative thoughts or problems.

Will people take advantage?

Sadly a few people will try to get away with sneaking a few hours here and there! Having worked for businesses where if one person takes advantage of perks they simply withdraw the perk, I can confirm that this is not the right way to deal with the problem! Deal with the individual causing you problems. If they are still achieving their work loads then you may want to take a different view on it! If they are struggling with their workloads and taking advantage then change their hours back to 9-5 so they lose the perk.

Will people make sure the building is secure if they leave late?

When running flexible hours it is important to make sure that you have setup core hours as part of your structure. The core hours maybe 10-2, during these hours you expect all your team to be in the office. This allows you to book in meetings etc. It also dictates the earliest and latest time that your team can start or leave the office.

Will they get their work completed?

Overall most companies that trial flexible working hours will see an increase in productivity. This is due to people able to work at a time that suits them. How many times have you heard your team say they are not morning people etc. However you may get the odd individual that struggles with the change. If this is the case you may need to change these people back to traditional hours. 

Will your customers be affected?

If your team choose to work later as this suits them, this may affect people calling you. A call answering service maybe the answer to ensure your phones calls are professionally dealt with if your team are unable to answer calls in the morning. 

Paid Search

For instant results paid search is the way forward. You set a daily budget and choose your keywords. When your potential customers type in your keywords Google will then show your advert and nine others plus the natural search results. It is vital that your advert stands out from the crowd so a powerful call to action message is the key to success. Every time someone clicks on your advert you will be charged and that person will see your site. If you are unsure of how to setup a PPC Campaign it is worth calling in the experts. A poorly setup campaign will cost you a lot more than an agency will charge you. 

So, you have paid to get someone to your site. They arrive on your website and love the message and want to get in touch. They pick up the phone and give you a call. This is the point where you can make or break the deal! However, before your sales skills kick in, you have to answer the call! This may seem obvious but if you work in a small team or on your own this can be impossible! If you are in the midst of a job and can't answer the phone, what happens then? If you have voicemail you would hope they would leave a message. How many times do you go to listen to a message and there is no message there? Lots of people just move on to the next business if they can not speak to someone straight away! A call answering service will professionally answer your calls for you in your business name. This service means you will never miss another call and will give your customers confidence that they will be able to speak to you especially if they have problems in the future. 

If you have paid for any advertising from Google Adwords to a leaflet drop, you really don't want to miss those calls. Try our seven day free call answering service. 

Freelance IT Services

Starting out as a freelancer is a challenge to say the least! You have to be all things to everyone, from accountant to receptionist- if there is a job to be done you have to do it! ...Or do you? How do you invoice a client your hourly rate if that hour has been interrupted several times with important phone calls? If you leave all your calls to divert to an answerphone machine you are sure to miss out on potential new clients. New clients are going to want to know that your are able to cope with your work load. They will want to know that you will be able to answer calls in the future should they have a question or want some work completed. If you are unable to answer the call this is a bad first impression and a potential loss of clients!

Hiring the services of Zoom is the answer. A professional call answering service that will give your company the edge over your competitors and deal with your calls when you are unable to. Our call answer service will make your business look bigger to your new prospective clients. Our clients also find that they are more productive as they can get on with their projects and all un-nessary calls can be filtered out.

Try our seven day FREE trial, click here for more information.

Call Answering Reports

Advertising is for most businesses one of their biggest costs and generally one of the most important ways to attract new customers and maintain existing customers. The majority of businesses in the past threw money at a number of marketing channels and hoped it worked. 

We have moved on and to survive it is important to get the best from your marketing budget. Testing and measuring is one of the most important stages of a businesses marketing plan. How frustrating is it when you ask your sales team where the call came from and they forgot to ask. This is not their fault! 

When they pick up the phone the only thing going through their minds when they answer that call is to close the sale! You can't blame them for this and your top sales person is probably the most guilty of not finding out where they saw or heard of the business. If you put a load of pressure on them they will just make it up and tell you what you want to hear. This could be dangerous for your marketing budget and could mean you are losing potential sales and additional business.

At Zoom we set up a new phone number for each campaign that you are running. We can professionally answer all your calls and pass them on to the correct department and will provide you will a report daily to show you how many calls you have received. This will give you the information you require in order to get the maximum impact from your marketing budget. Ask about our 7 day free trial! 

Diary Management

At Zoom we want to help our clients grow and to see their businesses empires expand! One of the most stressful parts of being a small business owner is being all things to all people! 

Take the example of an electrician working with a small team covering one or two large towns. As well as being a sparky and managing his or her team they have to manage their marketing, accounts, calls, customers, stock etc. 

At Zoom we can remove the stress from the business with our professional call answer service. We will answer the call politely and professionally using your business name. We can then either take messages for you and pass them on or divert the call to you if you are available to receive it or we offer a diary service! Using an online diary service we will book your customer into the diary taking all the details that you may require. You will have full access to the diary and will be able to send out your team directly to the customer. This provides a professional service to your customers and we act like an extension of your business. Ask us about our 7 day free trial! 

Unsure of the answer?

Dealing with numerous callers each and every day requires a large array of skills. Patience, politeness and having a vast amount of knowledge are just to name a few. You learn how to direct calls to the appropriate place, solve various issues and answer many many questions. However, there will be instances when you just don’t know what to do with the caller on the other side of the phone, how to solve the problem at hand or answer their questions. When this sort of situation occurs, it’s easy to become panicked, but there are ways to deal with these issues when situations like this occur.  

No matter what issue you face, hanging up the phone in a panic is never going to be the solution, this would only annoy the customer and put you in a very bad light! There are many techniques to ensure that the customer on the other end of the phone has no idea that you’re struggling. If you don’t quite understand what the caller is after, there’s a certain limit to asking the caller to repeat themselves. Before you do this, try and read whether the caller is getting impatient. If so, then it might be worth trying to find someone who can help, or pass the caller onto someone else who you know is available and can help, this doesn’t mean you’ve failed the call, people interpret things differently. If you find that the caller is quite patient, it might be worth asking them to clarify what they’re after.  There’s nothing wrong with simply asking them to clarify, just as long as it’s done with a polite and professional manner.  If you have a vague idea of what the caller is after, try and quote that instead. For instance “So you’re interested in purchasing our new product?”. It’s best that you don’t actually say you that you don’t understand, this leaves the caller in an awkward position, and reflects badly on you and the company you’re representing. 

If you find that you’re becoming a little bit panicky because you’re just not understanding, then it’s worth jotting down key phrases the caller is telling you. You can look back on these notes at the end of the call and have more time and less pressure to understand. If you find that you simply can’t help the caller, then there will be times when someone else will have to contact them. Yet again try not to make any false promises with regards to who will call them back, people’s schedules can change on a day to day basis. 

At the end of the day, the key point is to not panic. Becoming increasingly worried and nervous about a situation will only put stress on yourself, and will most likely make the caller a lot more stressed too. Not all calls will be smooth sailing, but at least you know you’ve done everything possible and properly in order to correct the situation. 

Give Zoom 7 Days and we’ll will show you how to improve customer satisfaction, increase profits, improve efficiency, and reduce your working hours...

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Telephone Vocabulary

There’s a fine line when it comes down to using vocabulary over the phone. You don’t want to come across as too intimidating to the caller, or even too inarticulate. It’s all about finding the right balance, and using appropriate and professional vocabulary when talking to someone and answering the phone.

We’ve all been there. You’re having a conversation with someone and they use a word you’ve never heard before, and you honestly don’t have a clue what it means. You’ll most likely spend the rest of the conversation trying to figure out what it actually means and as soon as the conversation ends, you quickly rush home to look the definition up. It’s not a great experience when this sort of situation occurs. You can end up feeling insecure, foolish and a little bit intimidated. This is exactly what a caller on the other end of the phone can feel if the person they’re talking to is throwing difficult and intricate words their way. It may be tempting to try and come across as the all wise and knowledgeable one, but most people don’t like the feeling of being outsmarted, it can belittle them and make them feel a little apprehensive about the call. 

People tend to use perplexing words in two ways. They either know exactly what they mean, or they’re just trying to sound smart and actually have no idea what they’re saying. If you’re a little self conscious about your vocabulary over the phone, don’t memorise complex words for the sake of it without actually learning the meaning of those words in the first place. Chances are these will be used in completely the wrong context, and although it can seem amusing to the caller, it will only make you seem silly and a little unprofessional.   

Most people who use the telephone are aware of the English phonetic alphabet and it can actually come in use as a pretty handy tool. Don’t get disheartened if it doesn’t come to you straight away, chances are the caller will still be impressed that you know the English phonetic alphabet. Using the phonetic alphabet can actually give you the chance to clarify certain spellings over the phone, and although it may seem like a lot to remember, it’ll most definitely prove to be useful when talking over the phone. 

It’s important to remember that when speaking on the phone you remain professional at all times. Taking on the phone with a prospective client isn’t the same as talking to your friends over the phone. Try and avoid using terms such as “uh’, “yeah” and “maybe”. These aren’t exactly promising or professional terms from the callers point of view. 

If you’re unsure about how to speak in the correct professional manner over the phone, there’s nothing wrong with practising. Whether this is carried out with a friend, or by yourself, it’s true when they say that practise makes perfect.