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Previous: Are your employees robbing you blind? by Janet Attard Prospects who can't reach you to ask questions and place orders aren't likely to turn into customers. If there's no one in your office to take calls during the day, your business phone is frequently busy, or customers are likely to hear dogs barking and a baby crying in the background if they do get through to you, you're going to lose business -- potentially a lot of business. That's true, even if you sell online. Online customers often place calls to unknown businesses before they buy just to be sure the business is real and they'll be able to get help after the sale if they ever have a problem. Fortunately there's a way to get your phone answered professionally by a real person - even if you can't do it yourself and don't want to hire an employee to answer phones. The solution: Use an answering service, order-taking service, virtual assistant, or live, remote receptionist to take your calls. You can find services to answer your phone in local yellow pages or on the Internet. A virtual assistant or virtual office can be located anywhere in the country, however, if you want your phones answered during business hours in your own locality you may want to choose a company in the same time zone as you are. The services may vary from one type of answering or remote receptionist service to another, so ask what they offer. Will they screen and put through calls you want, sending others to voice mail? Will they take orders? Will they answer basic questions about your products? Check to see what other services might be offered, too. Virtual offices, such as Intelligent Office also offer shared office space, rentable conference rooms, mail receiving and forwarding and a host of other services that can be extremely useful for startups, for businesses that want mailing addresses in various parts of the country, or for home-based businesses who occasionally need office space or a conference room to meet with customers or clients. More: Make Your Business Look Bigger Posted by Janet Attard on February 18, 2008 at 9:52 AM | Comments (5)Comments After 24 wonderful years behind a desk as Co-Owner/VP/CFO for one of the Nations Top 50 Remodelers, I saw a niche that needed to be filled and I was the girl to fill it. My dream was to consult with the ever dwindling "do it all" guys... You know the ones- they're the one's that actually show up on time, do an amazing job... and after a 12 hour day they come home and maybe kiss the wife and kids and grab a quick bite/shower before heading to their second job... The dreaded "home office"... for the night. I wanted to offer inexpensive assistance and teach the art of customer service. I called it "Service, to the Power of M" (which is my first initial)... Why am I posting this blog? Because I am currently looking for a "job" to replace the career I threw away thinking I was going to save the world one contractor at a time. I had a dream... to help all of those contractors and "trade partners" out there who just needed that little extra push, some organization, help with scheduling, payroll, marketing- you name it and I can do it. I would be your "virtual secretary" and teach you how to look like a larger company, show off your work and make more money doing it without the headache of employees! Brilliant right? Wrong. Instead I found that those who have perfected their craft are the most reluctant and resistant to change: And here's the worst part... those whose workmanship leaves the most to be desired are knocking down my door, but I refuse to compromise my integrity and would never lower my standards- that wasn't the goal! And in the long run, I was going to save the world, one contractor at a time. Your magazine, online newsletters and website should be commended... I read them all religiously. Sadly I think it's falling mostly on deaf ears and what I once thought was a service to those losing out to the Home Depot's of the World may actually deserve it. Signed... Frustrated consultant. Posted by: Maija Kropp on February 18, 2008 at 7:58 PM Gee, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience trying to get this type of service started! From speaking with home contractors I've hired in the last couple of years for some things we needed done, it seems like many are still doing things the old way - in other words the way they're familiar with. But they are starting to at least ask questions about the web and other ways to improve business. When you run into problems like this in getting your own business off the ground, you need to stop and think about who really is a target for your services. You can't save people who don't want to be saved. But the skills you possess and the services you want to provide could likely be applied to many industries. So, one way to proceed, is to look at those core skills - and then consider who else could use them. There are many, many professionals out there who do need the kinds of services you want to offer and who know it. Associations, real estate brokers, architects, attorneys, consultants, graphic designers, public speakers, and lots of other small businesses are just a few that come to mind. Posted by: Janet on February 18, 2008 at 9:31 PM I think that the idea of a remote receptionist is Posted by: patricia jessup on February 19, 2008 at 6:21 AM I think that the idea of a remote receptionist is an excellent one,as I am hard of hearing and have great difficulty in communicating on the phone. Posted by: patricia jesup on February 19, 2008 at 10:50 AM |
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Disclaimer
The information compiled on this site is
Copyright 1999-2012 by Attard Communications, Inc. and by the individual authors. |
First off let me say how much I enjoy your newsletters, they are really just full of great idea's!
Like this last one for instance, as the owner of a nationwide Message Center and incoming president of our national association I can tell you that this is one of the smartest moves any small, or for that matter any business, can make. I can tell you that we serve hundreds and hundreds of business all over the USA and in most case's the caller's never know that they have reached a message center. Thats our job as an industry to make sure you callers receive the highest level of service possible and to insure we treat each and every one of your customers the way they deserved to be treated...as the most important person we talk to. Most of us offer not only live service but automated services and in some cases like ACC a combination of both so that we can provide the kind of high quality serves you demand but at an affordable price for any size business. Taking and dispatching accurate message is our business and generally speaking we can do a better job of it then our customers even. So save your self some money and make your customers happy and check out your local message center. Make sure they are members of our national association, www.atsi.org to insure you are dealing with a high quality company and make an appointment to stop by and talk with them to see what other services they offer, your customers will love you for it.
Posted by: Dennis OHara on February 18, 2008 at 12:05 PM