We all love hearing our names and take offence when people get it wrong. Business names are emotive too and cause problems …continue reading
Posts Tagged ‘24 hour’
Another great day’s peddling yesterday as the 24 hour sponsored ride ploughs on. …continue reading
Dec22
“Big Wigs” 24 hour cycle challenge, 120 miles done.
Posted in General Business Comments | No Comments
Visit Office Response in the next few days and you’ll be surprised to see somebody spinning away on an exercise bike. The “Big Wigs” team are entered in a inter business challenge to raise money for cancer charity, Sue Ryder Care. The sponsored bike will be peddled for 24 hours …continue reading
Over the past week planes have been grounded, trains have been delayed and roads have been made hazardous. The snow could not have come at a worst time for people who are planning long journeys to spend Christmas with family and friends but at Office Response it’s business as usual.
As we offer a 24 hour service we know we play an important role in contingency planning for our customers. This has been demonstrated over the past week in the call volume increase from our customers for reasons ranging from callers chasing orders which have not been delivered due to poor road conditions, offices closing early to allow staff to make it home safely and increases in the demand for maintenance services.
Whilst we pride ourselves of being able to support our customers in this way, Bristol, like many parts of the Country, received enough snow to slow public transport and affect the roads resulting in our staffing resources being reduced by half.
However we know the only way we could successfully manage this was to view it as a challenge rather than a problem and look at how we can ensure our service level is maintained.
During bad weather spells in 2010 we have had members of our Sales team, Customer Services team, Senior Managers and even the Managing Director taking calls in the Contact Centre which proved a great opportunity for team building throughout the business!
We have also made sure our customers know what we are doing to ensure they can continue to rely on us to support them.
Over this week we have received really positive feedback from our customers and we are pleased to report that yesterday we answered over 96% of all calls within 20 seconds.
Felicity Clack
Customer Services Manager
The title ‘Entrepreneur of the year’ is usually associated with businesses rather than charities however it is this award that Office Response and 17 other Bristol based teams are competing for in the Sue Ryder Care, Big Wigs Challenge.
Sue Ryder Care is a charity that provides end of life care for people with long-term conditions such as Cancer, Huntingdon’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia to name a few.
The Big Wigs Challenge is a Sue Ryder Care fundraising event and the aim is to enlist teams of local businesses and entrepreneurs to compete in a money making challenge!
Each team is presented with a £50 note with the aim of raising as much as possible by using their initiative to come up with fundraising ideas. After 4 months each team must return all profits, along with the £50, to the charity.
The Office Response team consists of 9 people from different areas of the business, including the Managing Director, and we are using the diverse skill sets and joint determination to raise as much money for Sue Ryder Care as we can.
So far we have sold cooked breakfasts to Office Response Staff, with members of the Big Wigs team being volunteer chefs, wrapped up warm and braved the recent cold weather to fundraise in a local Sainsbury’s, acquired generous gifts from local and national companies to be sold in our Christmas auction and we have created the ‘Call Centre Cup’ which will see Office Response and 4 of our friendly competitors carry out a sponsored 24 hour bike ride.
The ride will take place in the week before Christmas on a stationary bike and the company who clocks up the most miles in the 24 hours will be crowned winners of the Call Centre Cup 2010!
While the overall aim of this challenge is to raise as much money for Charity as possible it has served as a great team building exercise and also offered personal development for the individuals involved. The competition element of the challenge has meant everyone involved has stayed really motivated to get the best return on our £50 and to be crowned ‘Charity Entrepreneur of the Year’.
If you would like to support us in our challenge please visit our Just Giving page;
www.justgiving.com/officeresponse and check out our team blog for more information on our events www.mOReforcharity.wordpress.com
Felicity Clack
Customer Services Manager
May28
How to manage your calls whilst away on holiday
Posted in Tips, Knowledge and Experience | No Comments
With half term next week, many people will be packing up the camping gear or jetting off abroad. If you are a business owner, or have responsibilities that involve having to be available on the phone, what options are there to manage your calls whilst you are away?
Divert calls to your Mobile phone – It won’t be much of a holiday if you’re lying on the beach talking business all day, but technology now allows your calls to follow you wherever you are. You need to consider what the network coverage, reception signal and diversion costs are going to be. If you are holidaying with family you can also expect some moans…
Divert all calls to Voicemail – If you leave a voicemail message explaining that you won’t be available then at least they have an expectation of when you will be able to respond. This could work for you if your caller’s needs are not critical and can wait. Most voicemails have the option to ‘dial in’ remotely so you can pick up your messages and deal with them.
Get someone you know to ‘man the phones’ – This solution can work for you if you have competent employees, business associates or friends that can represent you and your business. Brief them on common call types, what to say and who to contact if there is an issue.
Divert your calls to a telephone answering service – If you already use an answering service it’s a simple case of letting them know how to handle your calls whilst you are away. If you don’t have one you might want to call us.
By Steve West
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Jul27
Service Delivery Managers – 3 Top Tips to outsource your telephone calls stress free
Posted in Tips, Knowledge and Experience | 2 Comments
For Service Delivery Managers providing your service or product to customer’s expectations is a skill that needs constant tweeking. Add to that a constant pressure to reduce your operational costs and you may start investigating what can be outsourced. The high cost of answering calls in house, especially outside of normal business hours, means that outsourcing them to a trusted partner for financial reasons is a bit of a ‘no brainer’ and is something you should consider.
But a question many Service Delivery Managers ponder is “how painful is this going to be?”
Let’s try to calm your nerves:
“I’ll lose control of service levels” – No you won’t. Make sure your outsource partner provides these as standard and you will keep control:
- Accurate and timely Reporting and Management Information.
- Credible recruitment, training, coaching and quality procedures.
- Scheduled reviews of call scripts / call handling guides.
- Procedures that measure service quality and deliver continuous improvement.
“They’ll never be able to do it as good as we can” – Talk with your outsourcer about what standards you expect from the start and what to work towards. Remember most outsourcers spend all their time managing other people’s procedures and technology so they will have a good idea of what you are trying to achieve. As long as you can provide all the information that a call handler will need to manage the caller’s expectations, and agreed procedures so they can then act upon that information, you will be surprised how well they can represent your business. You might even end up duplicating your outsourcer’s processes within your own business.
“The handover will be a nightmare!” – With all the project management experience in the world there could be something you may have overlooked. A good outsourcer will look for teething problems in the early days and sort them out quickly. Talk with your outsourcer to share best practises and discuss any concerns you may have. Again, remember that they will have managed many migrations from customers systems and procedures to their own and should have lots of hands on experience to share with you. In short, they can probably help you more than you think.
By Steve West
Marketing & Business Development Manager
OUR FLICKR FEED
