Achieve Winning Business Communications: Play Two

PLAY #2:  Determine the best TYPE of communications partner for your company – Answering Service or Call Center .

Every successful team has a staff of committed assistant coaches that develop, support, and contribute to the overall team’s success by improving their area of specialization. Each department has to work together to create overall team chemistry.

Now that you know the VALUE you want to provide and need, your business is ready to partner with a communications company which has the expertise to achieve your goals and provide value to your company. Most importantly provide exceptional value to your customers and callers.

The key is to determine if you need an answering service or a call center, both are very different styles and types and one will suit your needs better than the other. An Answering Service provides phone representatives that are flexible and agile to determine exactly what the caller needs. A Call Center provides representatives that will follow a script and guide the caller to the resolution they need.

If your business is driven by the needs of the caller, you want phone agents who have the appropriate demeanor for the wide range of emotions and scenarios. An Answering Service will be the best fit most of the time. Some examples include, but certainly not limited to…

• Medical Offices and Funeral Homes need agents with compassion and understanding to help with the wide range of emotions and possible life/death matters.
• Service companies such as HVAC, Machine Rentals, Oil & Gas services, Property Management companies, etc. need agents with friendly professionalism to quickly determine the need and dispatch properly.
• Law Firms need agents with the patience to deal with current clients and potential clients and all their individual needs.

It is very difficult to have a complete playbook to address all the possibilities. The Answering Service with agents who exhibit these flexible characteristics and have some basic understanding of the many individual industries they handle is an important partner to help your company grow and prosper.

If your business needs to help or guide callers and potential customers to your resolution, a Call Center is most likely the best solution. Some of the common projects include:

• Incoming Sales from Advertising and Marketing
• Scheduling Appointments
• Seminar Registrations
• Tier 1 Help Desk Applications
• Dealer Locator Services

Agents must be detail oriented and knowledgeable of the industry in order to handle these types of calls. There is a longer, more specialized education process to know how to guide callers to the desired outcome and solution. We will have a blog specifically on Call Centers later.

Good Answering Service agents are well-prepared for the unknown, and good Call Center agents are well-prepared on how to keep callers on track to accomplish an outcome. Knowing which type of communications partner is best for you will help you find the best assistants for your staff.

We have determined VALUE and the TYPE of partner you will need for success. Play #3 is how to determine the LEARNING process of your company’s ideals.