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Posts Tagged ‘Telephone Answering Service’

Dec15

Personal trainers escape ‘voicemail cycle’ and embrace telephone answering services to capture more clients

Posted in Call Centre Industry,General Business Comments,Surveys,Tips, Knowledge and Experience,Uncategorized | No Comments

 

After researching a sample of registered Personal Trainers we found that the vast majority spend most of their “earning” hours with clients and that any prospective new clients who call at these times are  typically asked to leave a voicemail (rule number one – never answer your phone during a personal training session!).

At Office Response we have studied the use of voicemail facilities to see how effective, or not, they truly are. You might be surprised to hear that a staggering 79% of people will not leave a voicemail if they are calling to place an order for a product or service for the first time. And the majority of people surveyed expect to be called back the same day if they do leave a voicemail.

Whilst offering voicemail may be the norm for the majority of personal trainers the real question is whether it really provides the solution you need to grow your business, deliver customer satisfaction & optimise your marketing spend? That said we believe that your real challenge is achieving the optimum workload for you and your business. Clearly the busier you are training the less you are available to take valuable new business calls which will ultimately restrict your ability to grow.

One way to break this cycle is to outsource your Telephone Answering to a live Telephone Answering Service. You could employ an assistant or, more reasonably, use the services of a 24/7 Telephone Answering Service. In our experience, not surprisingly, whichever option you go for will be better than voicemail… but we’d love to hear of your experiences either way.

Please add your comments below or, if you would like to learn more about how Office Response could support you and differentiate your business from your competition please contact our Business Development Team on 0845 223 7004

Nov25

Contact Centre Apprentice of the Year!

Posted in Awards,Call Centre Industry | No Comments

 


Francesca Fry of Office Response, the 24/7 Telephone Answering Service, has been named Contact Centre Apprentice of the Year at the City of Bristol College Apprenticeship Awards 2011. The awards were held at Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium last night and celebrate the successes of both employers and apprentices from the region.

With businesses and their apprentices from a variety of sectors in attendance, we were in good company with the likes of Royal Mail, Holiday Inn and Avon and Somerset Constabulary to name just a few. Whilst Office Response was also nominated as ‘Commerce, Innovation and Skills Employer of the Year’, we were pipped at the post by local business Horseworld.

Privately owned Office Response has been working with young apprentices since 2009 and the owners, Iain McGregor and Martin Blain, take a real pride in their on-going development, with a number of apprentices rising through the ranks and securing permanent positions within various areas of the business including the Contact Centre and Customer Service Departments.

Nancy Parker, Head of Contact Centre, quoted “This is a fantastic achievement for Francesca who is now a fully-fledged member of our Contact Centre team among others who have progressed through the Apprentice academy. The event itself was really inspiring showcasing a real variety of talent all of whom are a true credit to Bristol business. Although we did not win the Commerce, Innovation and Skills Employer of the Year award this year, we are extremely proud of our achievements to date and will be back next year more determined than ever!”

Huge congratulations to Francesca who deservedly scooped first place and proudly accepted her award with Bush and Troy of Heart FM. We would also like to thank the City of Bristol College for their continued support and of course the entire Office Response team for their on-going commitment.

Jul12

Outsourced Call Handling Benefits From Recession

Posted in Call Centre Industry,General Business Comments,Uncategorized | No Comments

 

Companies House have revealed that the number of UK registered companies increased by over 7,000 during May this year.

According to The Office for National Statistics, (for the three months to April 2011) the number of employees and self-employed people working part-time, because they could not find a full-time job, increased to the highest figure since comparable records began in 1992. With more than 35,000 people delving into the world of self-employment last year, there are now almost 4 million small-business owners and freelancers in the UK. …continue reading

Jun08

Will ABS Force 24/7 Legal Services?

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In a recent Law Society Gazette article, Alastair Moyle commented on the importance of marketing management , a point that clearly resonates strongly with Joanna Goodman’s feature “Law Firms Face New Financial Management Challenges”. In her article Joanna quotes Rupert Hawke (FD of Cartwright King) who says “The key is to develop systems and processes that inform operational decision-making”.

The implied focus here being on driving internal efficiencies.

Whilst I agree with Rupert my question is how early in the business process can we start to introduce effective process and exercise real control? The subtext being… did it really need the introduction of ABS to drive consumer focussed change? …continue reading

May09

OR’s 24/7 Effort Pays Dividends For Sue Ryder’s Big Wigs Business Challenge!

Posted in General Business Comments | 2 Comments

 

As you may have previously read here on the blog, Office Response took part in the Sue Ryder Care Big Wigs Challenge which ran from September 2010 until January this year.
For those of you who may not know, the challenge involves each team being presented with a £50 note, the aim is to raise as much as possible by using …continue reading

Apr21

PPI Calls increased here by 100% in the past 24 hours! Are you prepared?

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Here at Office Response we saw a dramatic rise in call volumes for our legal services clients yesterday, with some clients seeing an increase of more than 100% in call volumes relating to PPI Claims!

The decision handed down at the High Court in London means that the potential compensation bill for mis-sold PPI claims is being estimated at around £4.5bn.
As you can imagine, calls for our clients that specialise in legal services (solicitors and claims specialists) are looking to continue …continue reading

Apr08

What’s the UK’s worst business name?

Posted in General Business Comments | 2 Comments

 

We all love hearing our names and take offence when people get it wrong. Business names are emotive too and cause problems …continue reading

Dec21

Call Handling: How to improve it.

Posted in General Business Comments | 1 Comment

 

Boy do some companies do a terrible job answering their calls!

Whilst completing my University degree and working part time answering incoming calls I estimate I’ve answered (roughly) 24,000 calls and I’d like to think I became quite skilled at what I did – perfecting the art of handling all types of calls and in all kinds of situations dealing with a range of callers from the angry to the hysterically.

Now I’ve graduated and I’ve moved on into the mysterious realm of the sales team I am now very much on the other side of the fence. I’ve now made hundreds of calls to different companies and I’m now experiencing all kinds of receptionists and they are not all doing a very good job.

I have pinpointed my top 5 pet peeves …continue reading

Dec21

Bristol Snow and Service Update

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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

Dec02

….and the winner is Richard Cheek!

Posted in General Business Comments | 1 Comment

 

Recognising staff for great work is something I always try to do within my department, however being awarded for outstanding work in front of industry representatives and competitors is even better and is something our Technical Specialist, Richard Cheek has recently experienced.

The annual CallScripter Awards were held on Thursday 18th November 2010 at The Shakespeare’s Globe in London and were attended by a range of companies who use CallScripter to create call handling scripts.

We were delighted to be invited to the awards and to be given the chance to nominate Richard in the “Most Innovative use of CallScripter” category.

Richard has been with Office Response for a number of years and during that time his technical abilities have developed to be an important asset for the Customer Services team and to the company as a whole.

We were confident that Richard would be a worthy winner for the work he has done and so we were delighted when the judges agreed and Richard was awarded the title.

It was fantastic for such a valued member of the team to be recognised in front of our industry peers and we are very proud to have an award winner in our ranks!

Well done Richard!

Felicity Clack

Customer Services Manager.

P.S. Sorry the picture’s not great, Richard is the good looking one on the left.

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