So you've decided to utilize an answering service for your business. Great choice! Now is the time to build your unique, customized service. It is important that you have clarity on what you expect from your service to ensure that the service plan you choose is exactly what you need. To better assist you in understanding what actually goes into creating a call handling solution, let's take a moment to walk through the three critical stages of any inbound call.

The three essential components of any call:

1.    The inbound component
(how you want your call answered)

2.    The call handling component
(how you want your call handled)

3.    The message delivery component
(how you want your captured information delivered)

 

Step One: The In-Bound Call

Every call begins with an 'inbound' caller looking for information - perhaps it is a returning customer or maybe it is a potential new client. In designing a call management solution to meet your needs, your answering service will want to know things like:

·       How do you want your inbound calls answered?

·       Do you want a live operator to answer or a simple customized greeting box?

·       Do you want callers to be instructed on how to access other members of your staff through an integrated voice response system (IVR)?

·       Would you like on-hold music?

·       How do you want the caller to feel when they are speaking to an agent?

Step Two: Call Handling/Processing

Step two of any call involves how you want your service to 'handle' or 'process' the call. We'll work closely with you to identify which option best meets your unique needs, including:

·       A personalized live greeting - Is there anything specific you would like your caller to hear when the call is answered?

·       A personalized automated greeting using a voice mail box - do you want to direct callers to either a live operator or a voicemail box? You can set up an automated greeting box to give you and your callers more options.

·       Personalized message forms - what information about the caller do you need gathered by the agent?

·       Urgent vs. non-urgent calls - how do you want different calls handled? Create different protocols for different types of calls to ensure your business is handled properly.

·       Processing calls directly into your own website - we can access your website to conduct important transactions, create service tickets, and process orders immediately for maximum efficiency

·       Other essential options that you should consider include:

• Screening your calls and transferring urgent calls to your home or office
• Setting up an on-call scheduling protocol to make sure the right person gets the right message at the right time
• A directory of names
• Do you want your service to call back your client after a designated period of time to ensure they received a call?

 

Step Three: Message Delivery

The final stage of any call involves how you want your captured information delivered. Here, we have a range of solutions that can help you efficiently and accurately receive the caller's information, including:

·       Secure messaging

·       SMS/text delivery

·       Email delivery

·       Fax delivery

·       Pager delivery

·       PDA delivery

·       Callout to your cell phone or residence

·       Patching the caller directly to your on-call person

·       Customized delivery options

·       Message delivery to multiple parties

·       Receive your messages more than one way (i.e. text and email delivery)

Let us help you answer your phones whenever you need an extra hand. Take advantage of an Alphapage answering service solutions to improve customer retention, generate new business, and improve lines of communication between you and your clients.