Monday, October 31, 2016

Family moves to Houston to care for conjoined twins, living out of RV https://t.co/YgUaFabaXh https://t.co/euBkms8NlB


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 31, 2016 at 06:30PM
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Looking for amazing #customerservice available 24/7/365? We should talk! https://t.co/4erP44aAt5 https://t.co/9IldwM1UXK


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 31, 2016 at 06:06PM
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States with the strongest job growth under Obama are leaning toward Trump https://t.co/PoCyDpNRcZ


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 31, 2016 at 06:15AM
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Stevie Nicks Digs Deep Into the Vaults For Haunting Toyota Center Set https://t.co/Zbz1U4ZNb7 https://t.co/CGvknBDAhi


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 31, 2016 at 05:50AM
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Sunday, October 30, 2016

The 5 Best Moments From Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’ Visit To Houston https://t.co/R7CtMvhQmH https://t.co/OBVSkYiZSU


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 30, 2016 at 09:58PM
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The top 10 Texans tailgates https://t.co/nEV5O7Ov7I https://t.co/K3y7PrZZym


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 30, 2016 at 06:15PM
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A Recap of All The Evidence Harris County Police Have Lost Track Of https://t.co/4s50DFPhyM https://t.co/JtaRouJo2B


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 30, 2016 at 05:42AM
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Saturday, October 29, 2016

Six Power Ratios to Start Tracking Now https://t.co/sMCiXJawjF https://t.co/8Q12ZJpoRR


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 29, 2016 at 09:57PM
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PHOTOS: Baylor Bears take on Texas Longhorns https://t.co/MMs7zmiRao https://t.co/eNYx591Ods


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 29, 2016 at 06:01PM
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Best Houston Patios for You, With or Without Your Dogs, Your Kids https://t.co/iOnzoSxuK7 https://t.co/IFphTTK3Fq


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 29, 2016 at 05:37AM
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Friday, October 28, 2016

Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to our friends at In House Geek. They are amazing at all things IT! … https://t.co/qeUxMTvpuB


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 28, 2016 at 11:29PM
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Near record highs in the forecast https://t.co/3MHYU5XvUv https://t.co/kkHeY1Ur7F


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 28, 2016 at 05:49PM
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First tenant to open inside River Oaks redevelopment https://t.co/9fu7tSmAwF


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 28, 2016 at 08:27AM
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Six Perfect Nights at Rockefeller's: A Look Back https://t.co/7Hu3BIRQu5 https://t.co/NunqZDLV2z


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 28, 2016 at 05:29AM
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Thursday, October 27, 2016

We love it here in Riverside! If you're in the area let us know! https://t.co/lpCsYFdQbB https://t.co/JAp2P3Pt3P


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 28, 2016 at 12:44AM
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Episode 44 Preview https://t.co/X6ER0Ek3tQ https://t.co/ArKe2b3tug


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 27, 2016 at 10:27PM
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Running ads and missing calls? We've got you covered with our lead capture service - https://t.co/aVFPEVBHl3 https://t.co/aMCHn59leH


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 27, 2016 at 07:44PM
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Houston firefighter off the job after child porn charge https://t.co/yoWXtH7LFf https://t.co/IbGzfKKJ0E


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 27, 2016 at 05:38PM
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Houston's 15 Essential Ice Cream Shops https://t.co/haK0WTsMzC https://t.co/n9oVDUgN7f


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 27, 2016 at 12:22PM
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Houston software company raises $8 million for expansion https://t.co/SoXsKKIUn3


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 27, 2016 at 08:45AM
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Houston's 10 Worst Band Names https://t.co/p5lEbU6V0s https://t.co/hRXhW02vZd


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 27, 2016 at 05:22AM
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Wednesday, October 26, 2016

One dead after two-alarm apartment fire in southeast Houston https://t.co/1FydLELip0 https://t.co/a7Z0mSToHp


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 26, 2016 at 05:24PM
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Realtors Lose Business If They Rely on Voicemail https://t.co/lm7MrlyqdT https://t.co/Uo8N1FtkKu https://t.co/uJLL7CHxai


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 26, 2016 at 12:14PM
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Axelrad’s Newest Cocktail Specials Are A Delicious Jab At Donald Trump https://t.co/YNDUvWTotf https://t.co/P3r3vHRVz0


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 26, 2016 at 10:23AM
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More Than Jupiter Exploration Could Be Riding on NASA's Juno Probe https://t.co/KVcTACJ3mG https://t.co/hP7APcKfKW


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 26, 2016 at 05:16AM
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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Headed to the polls? Check your ballot twice to avoid messing up your vote https://t.co/JlrhEwPUGj https://t.co/rkWrNDpSom


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 25, 2016 at 05:11PM
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CEO: Huntsman to continue expanding in The Woodlands https://t.co/ZnQteJBPJx


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 25, 2016 at 04:49PM
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6 Tips to Improve Your Employees #CustomerService https://t.co/pYLhgKWtgI via @PCNanswers


from Twitter https://twitter.com/PCNHouston

October 25, 2016 at 04:08PM
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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

5 Small Business Tips To Help You Compete With The Big Boys

The economy is getting slowly better, and with it, the fortunes of small businesses are improving as well. Many think that it will keep improving and that new jobs will be created and that small businesses will expand. Since we help many small businesses with their communications needs, we sincerely hope that this is the case. However, whether the economy keeps improving or not, as a small business owner you want to be able to compete with the big companies – of course at a fraction of the cost. Here are 3 ways that you can do just that.

Invest In Your Team

I know, I know, you are a small business. You may even run a one man show. But whatever size you are, you will never get anywhere if you do not have a team to help you out. If you hire employees, take the time to train them to do their jobs right. The worst thing that can happen is for your employees to damage relationships with your customers because they were not trained properly. If you do not have employees, you need to do two things. First, find people that you can outsource some of your more menial tasks to. And second, get a network of professionals that can help you out with advice, send referrals your way, and be a resources to your clients.

Don’t Let Your Prospects Know You’re Small

Just because you are a small business doesn’t mean you have to let your prospects (or even your customers!) know that you are small. Run your business professionally. Offer great service, make sure everything looks professional, and mind the details. Often, by having a professional logo, website, packaging and marketing materials, you can appear much bigger than your are and give a great first impression to any prospects.

Make Sure That You’re Reachable, Even When You’re Not

Do you like leaving voicemail? Of course not, no one does – and that includes all of your customers. But, sometimes you are on the phone or in a meeting when the phone rings. What can you do to make sure that your prospects and customers always talk to a live voice? It is usually cost prohibitive to hire a receptionist to handle those calls for you (and even with a receptionist, sometimes they are on a break, call in sick or are on the other line). Often, the simplest solution is to hire a small business answering service to handle the calls that you can’t (perhaps someone like PCNAnswers!), They will have a friendly and professional operator answer your calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year so you’ll never miss an important call again and your customers will never have to talk to a voicemail box!

Of course you know your business best. You know what your customers need and how you can best meet their needs. And if being more reachable and making a great first impression is something that would help your small business, we would love the opportunity to talk to you about your customer service needs!

The post 5 Small Business Tips To Help You Compete With The Big Boys appeared first on PCNAnswers.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Listen To Your Clients and Get More Business

Listening to your clients’ needs is vital to unlocking your business’s true potential; call answering services are the key to not only building clientele, but also keeping them loyal. Hiring a call answering service lets you capture business that others let slip away.

Are You Listening To Your Customers?

You spend good money on advertising – which is not cheap by any means – and for other necessities to put your business out ahead of others. So, what can a call answering service offer you over and above that? Well, say someone is intrigued by an advertisement and gives your business a call. What do you want them to hear? – A telephone answering service right? Of course, you want them to hear a live, professional operator. This is what your client wants as well, no matter the type of business.

People want to be heard. Being heard means by a person, not a machine. A call answering service offer just that: live professional caring service. Clients know that they have a choice and the choice they make is greatly affected by the type of treatment they receive from your business. Call answering services are the best at truly hearing your customers and making sure they feel valued and heard.

You might say “but wait, I’m always courteous to my clients – they know that I really care about how I manage my business”; but what about your receptionist? OK – say you have the best receptionist ever, never a day where you have to hire a temp. What happens after hours? Usually a recorded voicemail with an “I’m sorry…” message is set up to answer calls. That’s not good enough; you need a call answering service.

Getting More from Your Calls through Call Answering Services

Voicemail is great at taking information – if they are not full. However, call answering services not only excel at gathering information and asking the best questions, but also giving back to the client. Call answering services give clients the peace of mind that their phone call was important enough for you to make sure there was a call answering service, not just a machine, to take it. This is especially important in the medical field, where a full voicemail box cannot help with an emergency. Your patients need the assistance that medical answering services provide.

Call answering services go a lot further than just to your immediate callers as well. Remember, word of mouth can sometimes make or break a business. The inability to reach a business or impolite or distracted phone handling often results in a client not recommending a company to their friends and associates. A telephone answering service operator is able to concentrate on one thing: your telephone calls. Unlike receptionists or secretaries, a call answering service operator at PCN has one job and that is to handle each call as if it is the most important ever.
Call Answering Services: The Bottom Line

Every business owner has a choice: listen to the needs of your clientele and push your business strength further by hiring a telephone answering service, or do things the old fashioned way and let voicemail take their calls. Making sure people realize your business cares and is ready to do business is one inexpensive and simple step away. Employing our expert call answering services here at Professional Communications Network ensures that people know you mean business.

The post Listen To Your Clients and Get More Business appeared first on PCNAnswers.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Why An HVAC Company Needs An Answering Service

No matter what business you are in, profit margins matter. As an HVAC contractor, you know that you need to provide excellent service to all of your customers, but you also know that you have to do it inexpensively. You can’t afford a big staff to answer all of your calls for you so you have been answering all of your calls on your own… or at least trying to. If you are like most HVAC contractors that we talk to, there are times when it is no problem to answer all of your calls, and there are times when there is no way that you can keep up.

Tell me if this sounds familiar… you climb up into the attic… and your phone rings. Do you answer it in the attic? Do you climb down and answer it? Do you hope that they leave a voicemail (hint – no one leaves a voicemail any more)? Any way around it, would it be nice to have someone available to answer your phone for you whenever you were on a job? That is exactly what an answering service can do for you. We can answer for you 24/7, after hours, or only when you are busy so that your customers are always cared for and you don’t pay for calls that you can answer yourself.

So How Does an Answering Service Work?

When we set up your account, we will talk with you and come up with a script that we will use to answer your phone. You can give us answers to simple questions that come up frequently, and we can also set appointments for you if you would like. When one of our friendly and professional operators answers the phone for your business, they will instantly have all of your company information in front of them on a computer screen. They will use the script to answer the phone and they will follow your instructions to assist your caller. When appropriate they will forward a caller to you, but otherwise, they will take a message and text or email it to you immediately.

Make Your Advertising Count

Of course you run ads and leave a phone number in your ad. Sometimes an ad will run and not much happens – no phone calls, no new business. However, there are times when you get your ad just right and your phone starts ringing and you get an influx of new business. You don’t want to waste a single call because you know that you have a much better chance of converting the caller to a customer if they talk to a real, live human being. Our answering service will make sure that every caller is greeted with a friendly voice that will represent your company well.

Try Us Risk Free

We know that we can help your HVAC company and we would love the opportunity to prove it. Give us a try, risk free. You can call and talk to one of our operators at 888.528.5678 or you can fill out the form here to get started!

The post Why An HVAC Company Needs An Answering Service appeared first on PCNAnswers.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

The Long, Sad Decline of Voice Mail

Voice mail used to be an absolute business essential. A decade ago it would have been hard to imagine any business without a voice mail box (though Shawn Hakl the Verizon business division’s head of new products estimates that 80% of business phones had voice mail before the digital age). Now however, usage of voice mail have dropped to the point that many business (even large businesses) are dropping voice mail for the vast majority of their employees. Coca Cola recently gave employees the option to keep or get rid of their voice mail. The results were stunning with only 6% opting to keep their coverage. And while it was a bit of a cost savings measure, their Chief Information Officer Ed Steinike said that the change was “to simplify the way we work and increase productivity.

Of course you could think that we are being melodramatic. That voice mail is still a big part of the communications landscape and will continue to be. That the companies ditching voice mail altogether are not trail blazers, but outliers, simply looking for a way to cut costs. It would be a valid criticism if this hadn’t been predicted by the techies for years, and if this did not mirror the consumer usage of voice mail.

People Actually Hate Voice Mail

Of course this isn’t everybody, but a lot of people, and especially millennials, hate voicemail and refuse to listen to it. With the rise of text messages, they figure if it is important enough to need a reply, then the person will text. I have actually heard people get angry at a caller for leaving a voicemail. It’s strange, and it is a lot different than only a few years ago, but voicemail is something that has the capacity to bring scorn rather than goodwill.

People Get Anxious When They Have To Leave A Message on Voicemail

I have to admit that I giggled a little bit when I first read this. But then I thought about it and it made sense. I have always hated leaving voicemail messages. It always made me nervous and I would usually stammer something out and regret what I said instantly. For people that view voicemail with contempt, they simply won’t leave a message at the beep. Think that won’t cost you business? Imagine that you are unavailable and your voicemail kicked on. How many millennials do you think are going to brave their fear of public speaking to leave you a message. Every single one of them is a missed opportunity (which coincidentally is why we offer our live answering service so that you never have to miss another call again…).

Voicemail is a Waste of Time

This is the one that hits home for me. I hate when I get a voicemail because it simply seems like a waste of time to listen to it. If the person had texted me, I could read it instantly and reply. But with a voicemail, I have to click and swipe a few times, actually listen to the message, then call back to reply. That takes a lot longer than a simple text.

The post The Long, Sad Decline of Voice Mail appeared first on PCNAnswers.