Friday, September 30, 2016

Get A Competitive Advantage Over Your Competition

Do you want an easy way to get some new business ideas? Take a look at what your competitors are doing and compare it with what you are doing. I know it sounds obvious, and I know it sounds simple, but when was the last time that you took a comprehensive look at your main competitors to see how you stack up with them? If you are like most business owners, it has probably been a little while.

And that makes sense. You are busy dealing with customers. You are busy dealing with employees. You are busy with your sales team. You are busy with accounting. And payroll. And… There are so many things to deal with and oversee as a small business owner that we often do not take the time to really evaluate where our company fits in the market as a whole. There are always opportunities available if you know your market and you differentiate yourselves from your competitors.

We Can Give You A Competitive Advantage

One of the things that we hear from our clients is that they appreciate that we give them a competitive advantage over their competition. There are a few common themes as to how, which we will get into below.

1. Your Customers Never Get Voicemail
This one is bigger than you think. Imagine if you never had any missed calls without a voicemail left. Any one of those could be a potential client that decided to call one of your competitors because you were not available. In today’s instant gratification society, no one wants to leave a voice mail any more. With our live answering service, your clients will get a friendly and professional voice any time they call.

2. You Are Always Available
How great would your customers feel if they could call you any time, day or night? While that doesn’t sound appealing for most business owners – having to be available all the time – but your customers will appreciate it. With our 24 hour answering service, we can answer your calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our operators will follow your script, so they are able to answer frequently asked questions (that you provide the answer to), give directions, give hours of operation, schedule appointments, or simply take a message. Whatever you and your customers need, we will figure out a way to help.

3. We Are a Lot Less Expensive Than A Receptionist
Of course, you could hire another receptionist to take some of the load off of you and you would get many of the benefits that we offer. However, that would be a lot more expensive and a lot more hassle. First you have to advertise for a job opening, then interview, then train the new employee, pay their salary, the payroll taxes, benefits… According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a receptionist will cost (on average throughout the country, so a lot more in California) over $27,000 for salary alone. This doesn’t take into account all of the other expenses that you will incur. Or, you could hire us for a low monthly rate and know that we will handle everything for you.

The post Get A Competitive Advantage Over Your Competition appeared first on PCNAnswers.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Why Your Small Business Needs A Virtual Receptionist

So, you run a small business. If you are like the other small business owners that we work with, you feel that there just are not enough hours in the day. Between managing your business, managing employees, answering the phone, and actually doing your job, the time runs out quickly. In the past, this would be at the point that it would be time to bring in a receptionist to help take some of the stress off of you. But is that still the best way to go?

With our ever changing world of technology, you now have options. Instead of paying a receptionist to sit at a desk in your office, waiting for the phone to ring, you can hire a company like ours to be your virtual receptionist. So what is a virtual receptionist, and why do you need one?

A virtual receptionist is exactly like a regular receptionist, only they do not sit in your office, cost you a full salary (and benefits, workers’ comp, etc.), or require you to add an extra phone line or an expensive phone system.

Be Available 24/7/365:
At PCNAnswers, our operators are available to answer your calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with our 24 hour answering service. Whenever a customer calls, they will reach a friendly and professional voice who follows the script that you provide and then promptly either connects you to the caller or texts or emails you your message. Whether you need us to answer frequently asked questions, give directions, schedule appointments, or handle your common customer service issues, we can help – and for a whole lot less than a receptionist would cost.

Call Forwarding:
Just like with a real receptionist, we are able to forward calls to you or your staff when it is appropriate. You will let us know who is on call, give us reasons for that person to be connected with a caller, and then we handle the rest. If it is an issue that we can take care of, we will without disturbing you (you will get a notification of the call so you know what calls we have taken). If the call requires either you or a staff member, we will call your number, let you know that you have a call that needs your attention, and then connect you.

You Set The Script:
The best part about having us as your virtual receptionist is that you get to choose how we answer. No having to train your receptionist on how to answer the phone professionally (we take our training very seriously, and our operators are the best in the business). You simply write out a script for us (we are happy to assist you with this!) and when we answer the phone for you, your script and all of the information that you have given us about your company will pop up on our computer screen. We will follow the script exactly and we will handle all calls just the way you want them handled. Our most important job is to be your representative to your customers. We will do that exactly like you set out in your instructions.

The post Why Your Small Business Needs A Virtual Receptionist appeared first on PCNAnswers.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Your Smart Phone – Indispensable or Major Distraction?

Everyone has a smart phone now. You can’t travel a few feet without seeing somebody staring at their phone. So why is everyone staring at their phones? Because they have become an indispensable part of our lives. You need to find out how to get somewhere? You get on Waze and have directions and know how long it will take to get there. Bored? Pop out your phone and start catching some Pokemon with Pokemon Go. Looking for a great place to eat? Pull up Yelp and find an amazing restaurant right around the corner.

To keep from beating a dead horse, our phones have become an integral part of our lives, and there is nothing that is going to change that. So why is this a problem? If you are the boss at work and you walk in and see half of your staff looking at something on their phone you start to wonder how productive your employees actually are. Is the ease of entertainment found on a phone keeping your staff from being as efficient as they should be?

Here are 3 Tips To Help You to Get the Most Out of Your Employees in the Smart Phone Era

1. Turn off non-essential notifications
The last thing that you need is your employees looking at their phone every 15 seconds at a new notification. Of course some notifications are necessary. If they text with clients, you cannot have them turn off their texting notification. If they monitor Twitter for the company account, those alerts must come through. However, productivity would go way up if the amount of notifications would go down. Just think about what we do when we get a notification on our phone… we look at the notification, unlock our phone, and do three or four tasks that we were not thinking about doing before the notification.

2. Have official cell phone breaks
It is one of those things that is just going to happen. Your employees are going to check Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram whether you let them or not. You would be much better off setting aside 15 minutes a couple times a day for cell phone breaks. Let your employees get their fix, and then bring them back to the task at hand. A couple of short breaks are good for productivity in general, but it will be even better if you can cut down on most of the unofficial social media breaks that your employees are already taking.

3. Cut down on office stress
One of the main reasons that people use cell phones is as a stress reliever. You will find that the more stressed your employees are, the more they will want to use their phones for something mindless. If you can keep the morale up and the stress level down, you will find that there will be much less use for your employees to use their phones for non work related tasks. At PCN, our supervisors are always available and make sure that we are getting the training that we need. One of the most stressful parts of our job is when there is a caller with a medical emergency and medical office has not given us updated information. Of course we have procedures in place to handle that particular call, but our management is very good about making sure that we feel supported and that we get the information that we need updated so that it is available the next time. With just these little changes, it not only makes the quality of our medical answering service better, it makes us as operators feel valued and our stress levels stay low.

The post Your Smart Phone – Indispensable or Major Distraction? appeared first on PCNAnswers.

4 Customer Service Tips from A Telephone Answering Service

Customer service is an uphill battle. I don’t know if it has something to do with society today or if it has always been this way, but customers have incredibly high expectations. Often impossible expectations. And they are all too happy to post all over social media any time a company is not perfect. So what is a company to do in 2016 to try to provide excellent customer service even when their employees may be feeling like they are fighting an uphill battle.

Here are four tips that help us to keep our employee morale high and our service scores excellent.

1. Be a Team
Everything is easier if you are a part of a team. If you feel like your boss and your coworkers have your back, it is a lot easier to take any complaints that come your way. Of course if you deserve the complaints you should own up to your mistakes and take responsibility (another way to provide great customer service), but I am talking more about when a customer is complaining about something that you have no control over. If you foster an environment among your employees where everyone feels like they are a part of a team, not only will they enjoy work more, but they will be able to provide better service as well.

2. Be Efficient, Not Fast
Of course we all know that there are always more calls to answer. It is pretty tempting to go for speed and to let the service that you are providing suffer. However, while this might be OK in the short run, it is not going to work out well for you in the long run. Of course you should not be wasting any time or shooting the breeze with your callers. You need to be efficient – hear their problems, answer their questions, offer assistance, give them the information that they need – and then hang up and move on to the next caller. But you do not want to shoot for speed alone. In my experience, the callers that end up feeling worst about the service that they receive are the ones that do not feel heard. They end up feeling like the operator rushed through their call and didn’t take the time necessary to solve the problem. Take the time, but be efficient.

3. Have the Information that You Need
Working at an answering service (PCNAnswers Phoenix is the best!) is great because as we answer the phone, all of the information that we need about the customer that we are answering for pops up on a computer screen. However, we do run into trouble if a client does not give us all of the information that we need to answer questions. It is so much more efficient if you have all of the information right their with you. Make a sheet of frequently asked questions and have all of the answers right there. That way, no matter who answers the phone, you can be sure that they will give accurate information quickly.

4. Don’t Talk Down to your Customers
Your clients are usually calling because they have a problem. Many of them may be confused about something. Don’t be condescending or talk to them as if they are stupid – remember, you know it so well because you work there! The worst thing that you can do is make a customer feel like you think that they are stupid. That will raise the emotions and frankly leave a very bad taste in their mouths. Be patient, be kind, be friendly, and your customers will thank you!

The post 4 Customer Service Tips from A Telephone Answering Service appeared first on PCNAnswers.