In the post “ How to Train Your Answering Service Sales Rep” we covered five options for training a telephone answering service sales associate. One of the ideas was job shadowing. While job shadowing in itself will not fully train a new sales representative, it can be a viable element of a compreh…
The telephone serves as an essential tool for most businesses. It’s the primary means of communication with prospects, customers, vendors, and employees. The telephone provides the potential for immediate, direct communication with these important groups. As far as effectiveness and making personal …
Summer is an incredibly busy time for Weyden Dozier. His company, Dozier Prop Works, offers propeller and fiberglass hull repair services to recreational boaters. Dozier’s business is nestled on the bank of a major waterway and reservoir popular with fishermen, water skiers, and vacationing families…
Many people, especially in the corporate environment, use the terms “call center” and “contact center” interchangeably. Most of the time this is okay, and no one will object. After all, both are centralized places that serve as communication centers, but from a strict definition, they differ in term…
In “ What Is a Call Center?” we defined a call center as “a centralized location where calls are answered or made.” This is the traditional, literal definition. The reality, however, is that with today’s advanced technology, a call center no longer needs to be in a centralized location. Here are so…
Leading well is a lifetime effort that managers never fully achieve, but they need to seek continual improvement. For the short term, here are some commonsense steps that will immediately improve your effectiveness as a call center leader and manager. Interact with Agents: To often the only time ag…
Setting appropriate staffing levels in a call center is a critical task, an absolutely essential one. If you overstaff then payroll costs will explode your budget, and if you understaff then service levels plummet. Finding the right balance is tricky and even the most experienced schedulers can make…
Most people in the call center industry have a general idea of what HIPAA is, but they lack an understanding of how to apply it to their call center. Ignorance is not a sound defense for HIPAA violations. Follow these quick tips now to reduce penalties and pain later. First a review. HIPAA stands fo…
In a prior post we talked about the importance of formatting marketing emails for mobile devices. This is because the majority of people now read their email on smartphones and other small screen appliances. Ignoring the reading experience of the mobile user dismisses over half of our audience. In d…
Most all businesses receive phone calls that represent a critical situation. Some businesses have many such calls and other businesses encounter them infrequently. What constitutes an urgent call varies from business to business, industry to industry. These calls can range from life-threatening emer…
Isn’t all call center work the same? It doesn’t matter if it is inbound or outbound, a call is a call, right? Wrong. There are significant differences between inbound call center work and outbound call center work, but most corporate business leaders fail to understand the distinction, putting the e…
All business owners and managers want to see their businesses grow. Standing at the helm of an expanding business is an exciting time, but it can be a trying one as well. Growing pains prevail. And you don’t need to contend for the Inc. 500 or Inc. 5000 list to experience the travails of rapid growt…
The classic definition of a call center is a centralized place where calls are answered. Though the answer is straightforward, identifying corporate call centers is not always so easy. Yes, the obvious corporate call centers are those large rooms with rows of cubicles staffed by people who spend the…
How many call centers does your healthcare facility have? While a common response might be one, this is often not the case and could be in error. Most hospital systems have multiple call centers, centralized places that handle calls for different departments, buildings, or facilities. The actual tot…
Call center agents should never complete their education. If agents claim to have finished training, either they’re deluding themselves or their call center is letting them down. Agent training isn’t a once-and-done task. It must be ongoing. Seriously.
Here are four key types of ongoing agent trainin…
So you’ve hired a sales rep for your telephone answering service. Now just sit back and watch the sales roll in, right? Not so fast. Though hiring the right person and forming the right sales compensation plan are essential elements of salesperson success, sales training is key.
Training is also wher…
Many people think of a telephone answering service as a company that takes messages. Yes, they do that, but they can do much more than just take information; they can give out information as well. This includes basic help desk services.
A help desk is essentially a call center that provides support t…
Bill Connelly, owner of Connelly’s Specialty Crane Service, relies on a professional telephone answering service to help him and his small crew serve their unique clients. Connelly’s business specializes in small, maneuverable cranes that are widely used in the motion picture industry. “We only have…
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Among other things, Title II of HIPAA (the Health Information Privacy Accountability Act) regulations mandate how personal health information may be properly transmitted. Keeping personal health information secure from unaffiliated third parties is a key concern for healthcare call centers and their…