Question: I am struggling with how to get the right mix of technology to minimize costs and your staff to give my business that personal touch.  I know that you addressed this in the past, but can you give some specific examples?

Answer: Typically, this involves combining aspects of voicemail with our staff.  Here are some examples:

The owner of a small company wanted his enterprise to appear larger to callers.  He asked our staff to personally answer every call in his company’s name.  If the caller wanted to leave a message for him, we were to transfer the caller to the client’s voicemail.  If the caller had a question, then our staff could look up the answer, just as a receptionist might in his office.  This gave callers a corporate but friendly impression.

Another client wanted all routine calls routed to voicemail and all non-routine calls handled by our staff.  Therefore, we answer every call with a voicemail recording, telling callers, “To leave a message for the office, press 1.  If this is an emergency, press 2 or stay on the line.”  In this way, routine calls were handled via automation, while urgent calls received human interaction.

Other clients receive many calls requesting the same information.  This can be addressed with a “preamble” recording.  The recording answers every call on the first ring and plays a message containing the information.  After the recording, they are instructed to “stay on the line to leave a message.”

A popular alternative is for callers to interact with our staff and for clients to retrieve their messages via voicemail.  There are various ways of accomplishing this.  One is for our staff to answer the line and take a message as normal.  After that caller hangs up, our agent then records a summary of the call in voicemail.  Alternatives include recording the entire conversation in voicemail or the concluding verification.  These methods offer cost-savings to the client, while also providing “no-hold, no-wait” message retrieval.

Many other combinations are also available and limited only by your imagination and our creativity.  Contact us if you want to integrate an aspect of technology with our agents’ personal attention.

Learn more about telephone answering services and discover how the might be able to help you.