Leaving your business’ reputation and fate in the hands of a third-party answering service company can be a scary prospect. Will they provide adequate information and answers? Will they be kind, courteous, and empathetic? What kind of services can they offer my business? These are all pertinent questions that can really make or break a business owner’s perception of any answering service company. Below are a few of the more notable concerns people tend to have when looking to hire one for their business:

Seamless Representation

How an answering service will competently represent a business is always perhaps the greatest concern. Interestingly, this point is more about the business itself than the answering service. Since the business will need to give the necessary information to the answering service so that they can help calling customers, it is really up to the business to decide how thorough and detailed they want their answering service to be. To help make a more seamless experience, many answering services will use scripts and FAQs to help streamline their services and ensure they have the information they need readily available.

Customer Experience

This is a very understandable concern for any business owner since we all have firsthand experienced positive and negative interactions with answering services. To address this concern, you want to hire an answering service that values your business as if you were its own company. Not all answering service companies have this philosophy, but if you find one like TOUCH Communications, you can take comfort in the fact that your customers are being directed to experts in the field who are kind, caring, and helpful.

Cost-Effectiveness

Depending on your current circumstances, hiring an answering service company might be that next big investment your business needs to further its potential. Having people who can answer any call instantly without being concerned about your customers being greeted by silence or a busy line can be a huge advantage. However, pricing can be a confusing concept for most business owners. Some answering services will operate on a per-call basis while others have a time-bound model that charges for minutes. If price is a concern, most answering services are capable of offering you different rates and plans. This gives you a flexible option that can better suit your business’ particular needs.

Range of Services

Answering service companies can specialize in a broad range of services that you may find useful. Some companies may not have what you are looking for while others may provide more than a few services that you could benefit from. A few features you may look for could include 24/7 live answering support, live call forwarding customized greetings, web message review, marketing on hold, XML message format export, 24/7 technical support, and more. Some businesses use answering services for strictly receptionist purposes and some might use them for processing orders. Contacting the answering service company that interests you and discussing options is always a good idea to see if they are the right fit for you.

Looking for top-of-the-line operators to help give your business more cohesion and satisfy your growing customer base needs? Contact TOUCH Communications to learn more about how we can advance your business’ communications!

Vacations are always enjoyable, but for some businesses they can cause a new variation of stress. Who is going to take care of messages, assist clients and direct people when they have questions or need direction? Everyone needs a vacation, some time out to recharge and be refreshed, but how can we have a stress-free vacation when there is a business to run?

By carefully managing details before departure, you can easily lower stress on you and your staff while continuing to make money while you are away.

How to Enjoy Stress Free Vacations with Live Call Answering

A live call answering service such as that offered by Touch Communication can be an answer to your business and vacation prayers. If you are feeling a little nervous, don’t worry, there are many benefits to using this type of service.

Touch Communications’ live call answering service operators are there whenever you need to use them. Our operators are highly trained and professional, and are able to take care of any calls before or after your business opens and closes. In simple terms, Touch Communication extends your office hours. During summer hours, this can easily benefit any business as clients have more time to get service at their convenience.

The live-call service can answer calls that can’t be answered by an office member who is gone on vacation or may have gone home early due to summer hours. Appointments can be scheduled, phone calls can be screened and bilingual calls can be handled.

How Can Touch Communication’s Live Call Answering Service Help?

When you use our services, Touch Communications will work with you to ensure our live call answering operators will seamlessly represent your company. When a client or customer calls, they will not be able to tell the difference between us or your company handling the calls. They will receive the proper care and customer service they deserve.

Our services help your business continue to function well while you are gone. On staff members can focus on their work since they won’t have extra work or stress placed on them. Live call answering service can also schedule (or re-schedule) appointments over the phones during vacation time.

There is nothing worse than being a customer and getting an answering machine message that the person you are trying to call is on vacation. It can feel like hitting a wall as customers naturally enjoy speaking with a person, rather than a machine. An answering service continues the flow of the business, making your summer much more enjoyable while your business continues to operate smoothly.

So plan that dream summer vacation, and trust that Touch Communications is keeping your business thriving while you relax and soak up a little sunshine. By looking out for your clients and business, you are also looking out for yourself. Enjoy the summer weather with knowing there is nothing to cause you stress this by including Touch Communications in your summer business plans!

No one calls a business with the intent of leaving a voice message. When a potential client calls a business for information, pricing or to retain their service, they want to speak with someone that is going to help them. The last thing they want to do is leave a message. There’s a strong chance they’ll hang up the phone and call someone else, most likely the competition. People buy from other people, not from voice recordings. Never lose a sales lead again. Switch to live call answering.

Money is at stake every time your phone rings. You don’t want to lose one lead. How can you make sure you have enough phone coverage at your business without breaking the bank on more people, equipment and more phone lines. The answer is simple. A live call answering service and Touch Communications.

Touch Communications is an answering service that that works for you. We consider ourselves an extension of your business. The days of just taking a message and paging are over. We get to know your business so you can trust us with your business. We provide 24/7 live answering and our staff provides a seamless experience for your customers with the same care they have come to expect from you.

Our 24 hour live answering service allows a business to run smoothly even during peak times and after hours. A growing business will reach a critical point when they will require a 24 answering service. Let your employees focus their undivided attention on each customer without worry of getting a business signal or call waiting. They can have peace of mind knowing that an established company is handling overflow calls and taking detailed messages.

Sales calls are the lifeblood of your business. What’s the point in spending money on marketing or any other aspect of your business if you’re not accessible to your clients? Although a lot of business and sales are done online, there are plenty of people who still prefer speaking with someone on the phone. Many potential clients prefer to speak to an actual person. Getting one sale a month through a live telephone answering service
could mean that it pays for itself.

Unlike a receptionist or your staff, a live telephone answering service can be on hand all day and night, every day of the year. This is important because it means outside of regular office hours, your business has a real person manning the phones, ready to deal with inquiries and provide answers to any other aspects of customer service required. It could also mean sales when your company is closed for business until the following day.

Having a live answering service means that calls will never ring through or go unanswered. Also, during busy and peak periods the live service will be able to handle any unexpected spikes in the number of calls, meaning you’ll never lose out on potential calls.

Can you feel it? The air is getting warmer. Your employees – and maybe even you – are staring out the window more frequently and there is talk of heading to the nearest patio after work. And then, there’s the vacation requests that are starting to flood your inbox. Of course, after all the hard work they’ve put in this year, your employees deserve the break – but you also need to keep your office running during the summer months. Live call answering from Touch Communications can help keep your business operating even while your staff are enjoying Pina Coladas at the beach!

How live call answering can help you over the summer months:

Lots of businesses experience a natural slowdown – and may even close for a week or two – between June and August, but that doesn’t mean you want to miss out on a sale should a potential customer happen to call you during that time.

With live call answering services you can have your summer shutdown and have one or two employees available on call. When a call comes into your business, it will be answered by one of Touch’s professional CSRs – and if necessary, transferred to either yourself or to another designated staff person. Since there are no long term contract periods with Touch, it is the ideal service to use for a month, the entire summer, or throughout the whole year.

Even if your business doesn’t close during the summer, chances are you’ve got several people on your team that are requesting vacation time. If there are a number of people requesting the same time off, you may be forced to say no to some of them. And while saying no to your employees is sometimes a necessary evil of running a business, it can cause discontent in the workplace and may even mean that some of your best employees will start “brushing up their resume”.

Live call answer service can pick up some of the slack, meaning that more of your people can enjoy the summer that they have planned.

Run your business even while YOU are on vacation:

What if you don’t have a team? What if your business is … well… just you? In that case, going on vacation can be a challenge. Of course you’ll notify your best clients that you’re going to be away, but you might still have that nagging feeling that you’re going to miss that big deal because you didn’t answer your cell phone.

Touch Communication can help here too. When you use our live call answer service as a sole proprietor, you can specify what kind of calls you’d like to have transferred to you while you are away. Our trained CSRs will be able to answer callers’ basic questions, set up appointments for you on an online calendar for when you return.  Even further, we can even screen calls and transfer the ones that you request.

Calls can be transferred to you anywhere in the world – whether it’s to your cell phone while you are at the cottage, or to the front desk of your resort.  Just work out the details with us before you leave!

Summer is a great time to get away from it all – but for business owners, this can be difficult. Let Touch Communications help you get your summer back – with live call answer service.

Why in the world would I pay a call centre to take my calls when I have an answering machine or voicemail that works just fine? That’s a question that we get asked a lot.

And sometimes, even if it isn’t asked out loud, we know people think about it.

In this article, we cover a few of the reasons that switching to a live call answering system just might make sense for your business:

Reason #1: Missed calls cost more than you think

If you compare the price of Touch Communication’s service to a $30 answering machine, then we really can’t compete. But what is harder to calculate is the cost of all those missed calls – from the potential clients that simply didn’t leave a message.

In today’s age of Internet and instant access to just about everything, consumers have become a rather impatient bunch. MANY callers won’t bother to leave a message and wait for you to return your call. They will simply hang up and call your competition instead.

For many businesses, when you calculate the cost of missed calls, a live call answering service can actually be a revenue generator.

Reason #2: Be there for your customers during an emergency

In certain types of business, it is common to offer 24/7 emergency service. Plumbers, electricians, tow truck operators, etc. might even gain more business in non-emergency situations if the client knows ahead of time that they’ll be able to call on them any day or the week, day or night.

But of course, an answering machine is woefully inadequate to handle an emergency! And since emergencies don’t happen every day, it can be expensive to pay an employee to sit by the phone all night.

Live call answering from Touch Communications provides the ideal solution.  When an emergency call comes into our centre, we can ensure that the caller gets transferred to you or another designated person within your business.

Reason #3: Be there for your customers on a whim

Ok, so maybe your business doesn’t help clients with flooded basements – maybe it sells unique jewellery online. Now, no one NEEDS to order to a pink glass pendant at 3:00 AM, but what if they WANT to?

If you have a wonderful e-commerce site, sometimes online shoppers have questions and would prefer to speak to a real live person before making a purchase. Live call answering service makes that possible.

Reason #4: Always look professional

No matter what type of business you operate, you always want to give a good impression. And in the business world, voicemail and answering machines are quickly becoming considered “old technology.” It can give the impression that your business is small potatoes.

When one of your callers is greeted by a friendly and professional Touch CSR, it is a positive experience for them. The caller will feel that you have someone “on the job” who is ready to take care of them.

Live call answering CSRs can perform a number of tasks for your business including answering basic questions, scheduling appointments, and transferring calls to specified personnel within your organization – all things that an answering machine can’t do!

As the weather starts to warm up, it is hard not to get excited about the upcoming summer festival season. Most of us love to enjoy festivals and other events but only a select few really understand all the hard work and people hours that go in to making one of these events a success. Experienced event planners discover “hacks” along the way – tools and strategies that help to make the job easier. One of these hacks is to use a call answering service such as Touch Communications.

Let’s take a look at a few of the ways that Touch Communications can help make your festival or event run more smoothly.

Volunteer Coordination

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many festivals and other big events – and the bigger the event, the more volunteers that are needed. Touch Communications can help you manage this festival army by helping coordinate schedules. Volunteers can call in to our centre with their availability and our CSRs can input them into an online schedule.

They can also call in for information or with any questions they may have.

24/7 Information Line for Vendors and Performers

If your festival includes vendors and/or performers – especially from out of province, it’s important they can have a number they can call at any time in the weeks and days leading up to the festival. They may need to inform the organizers of special needs or request information.

Since they may work at odd hours or reside in a different time zone, having access to a call centre that is open round the clock will be a huge bonus for them – so don’t be too surprised when they want to come back to your festival next year!

Emergency Access to Event Organizers

If you’re busy with all the logistics of running your big event, the last thing that you want is anybody and everybody calling you with matters that they can either handle themselves or delegate to someone else. You do however want to be reachable if there is a legitimate emergency.

You can arrange with Touch Communications exactly want kind of calls you want to be put through to your personal cell phone and who you’d like to take calls from. Our professional and friendly CSRs will put through the calls you want – and for the calls you don’t want, we can professionally answer any questions or direct the call to someone else on your team.

Organizing a large event such as a festival takes a lot of coordination, but a call centre such as Touch Communications can make that coordination easier. And since we don’t require you to sign long term contracts, we are the ideal solution whether you need to use our services for several weeks or only a few days. Yes, the weather is getting warmer and all of us are looking forward to festival season – and here at Touch Communications we are looking forward to helping you make your event a success.