5 Questions To Ask Your Message Taking Service
Like
every small business we like to keep an eye on the competition - and,
more often than not, our potential clients keep us up to date with what
other companies are offering, in an attempt to get "a good deal"
from us. Recently I was asked by a potential client why our call answering
was £100 per month, when other companies offered a cost-per-call
deal or low cost monthly charges. Being upfront about it, we are more
expensive, so what is the difference between services, where (on the
surface) one costs £50, £65 or even £100 less? Well,
here is the definitive test for hiring a call answering company:
1. Who's answering your calls?
What do they sound like? What sort of impression will your clients form about your company from speaking to them? Call in and talk to the call operators (not the sales guy!). Is there background noise like an obvious call centre or children screaming and washing machines whirring. Try us - Virtually Sorted Virtual Assistants Glasgow 0141 255 0101 during 9am-6pm Mon-Fri.
2. How many calls can they take?
Make sure the company has enough cover on the phones by calling them on two separate lines and checking that both are answered. We know one very central call centre who confidentially admitted they have one member of staff operating ALL the phone lines. Test it - Virtually Sorted Virtual Assistants London 0203 397 0590.
3. What are they charging you for?
Do they charge you for any sales calls you get? What if you go over your allocation? One of our clients joined us after getting a bill for £181 from his previous message taking service - when he was expecting one of £35, as he hadn't actually received any messages from them - yup, those extra calls were all telesales calls asking for "the owner of the business". Sales calls are not included in your call allocation.
4. What information do they take?
You are trying to save time using a call answering service, so if you get a message like "Bill called from XYZ Company pls call him back", you will need to call him back, find out what he wants, go do the work, then call him back again - how much better would it be to get a message which said "Bill Jones from XYZ Company called - he needs a copy of his latest invoice emailed to bill@xyz.com". Even better, how about if your assistant just sends you a message saying "Bill Jones from XYZ called to request a copy of his latest invoice, I have emailed this to him and CC'd you on the email." Or maybe you want to collect where all new leads came from? We can record this and send you a breakdown at month end, along with a complete list of all your calls. Ask us to collect relevant information from your clients.
5. How long have they been established?
If you've spent time and effort training your call answering team, you want them to be able to continue in business and grow with you. The extra money you spend goes towards marketing, staff retention and making sure your clients get the best customer service possible. Ask about their staff turnover and whether you can have a dedicated team. If you go for a very small facility, bear in mind that one person is not able to answer your calls on an ongoing basis, as they will inevitably need time off and breaks. Virtually Sorted offers a small team to answer your calls and cover absences so the service will always be excellent.