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Key Components of a Professional Voice Greeting

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Professionalism matters when speaking to customers. Taking the time to treat customers with the utmost courtesy and respect will help customers return again and again for your business’ services. Communicating with customers over the telephone requires even more professionalism, as your voice becomes the only way information is conveyed to customers. To ensure the impression that customers get of your business over the telephone is always positive, follow the tips below!

happy woman on the phone

Identify Yourself at the Start of the Conversation

Using a professional greeting at the beginning of the conversation such as is “Hello, Finance Department, Molly Smith speaking” helps customers feel more comfortable and presents a more professional image of your business. In addition, stating your name can also aid if more information is needed by the caller later. Equally important is to address unfamiliar callers by his or her title (if known), such as “Mr. Slack.”

Use a Friendly Tone of Voice

It’s important to use your normal tone of voice when providing customer service over the phone. Avoid speaking too loudly and refrain from being aggressive or pushy. Sitting up in a chair (rather than leaning back) can help you present a professional tone of voice to customers. Always be sure to speak clearly and slowly, avoiding any broken phrases or slang.

Stay Focused while on the Phone

When someone calls your business for information, it’s important to focus on the call and to truly listen to what the caller must say. Distractions – like chewing food, rustling papers, working on the computer or speaking with a co-worker – are not only unprofessional, but can make a customer feel like they are not worth your time.

If there is a distraction that simply cannot be ignored such as another phone line ringing, politely ask the caller if you can place them on hold. Return to the caller on hold as soon as possible, or risk them taking their business to a competitor.

Always Remain Patient and Helpful

Even if a customer is irate when speaking to you, do your best to remain as polite and helpful as possible. Allow the customer to convey their issue to you without interrupting them. Let them know that their concern has been heard and do your best to find the best solution possible. Never act rudely to the caller. Remember, you are presenting the image of your company when speaking to customers over the phone. How you handle all telephone calls can make or break a customer’s business with your company in the future!

Touch Communications: Professionals at Your Service!

Using Touch Communications as your call answering service means providing customers with excellent customer service at all hours of the day. Regardless of where your business is located, we can become the voice of your business whenever it’s required. Don’t trust anyone other than Touch Communications with providing a professional voice on behalf of your company! Contact us today for more details about the services we offer or view us on our Facebook page!

Bilingual Answering Services for your Business

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woman on phone

If your business serves French speaking customers, then it is just good business to ensure that you can provide them with a positive experience from the very first time that they pick up the phone to contact your business. So, you want to make sure that whatever call centre you work with offers a bilingual answering service.

Even if you do not have any French speaking customers now, the fact is that someday a French speaking caller may want to contact you and do business with you. Having a trained bilingual customer service representative on the other end of the line can help to give you a huge advantage over your competition – who without bilingual service – will simply not be able to deliver the same kind of customer care that you can.  You’ll find yourself expanding your customer base while delivering better service.

But my employees aren’t fluent in French!

One of the arguments that many people raise against needed bilingual answering services is the fact that they don’t have bilingual employees – so while a caller may get service in French over the phone, eventually they are going to have to deal with someone who doesn’t speak the language.

The fact is, however, that even if not one of your employees speaks a word of French, it still makes sense to be able to have French speaking customer service representatives. This is because most French speaking Canadians speak some English but they will likely feel more comfortable explaining their need in French. Your service people don’t necessarily have to speak French if the customer’s issue has been clearly communicated prior to their arrival.

And if you do have French speaking employees?

All the better! Our bilingual customer service reps can forward French speaking callers directly to their lines so there is no interruption in service in French once they are transferred to your company lines.

Use your bilingual answering service as a marketing tool!

Imagine living in a community where your primary language is not the one commonly spoken. You may speak the language but it just isn’t quite as comfortable to you as your mother tongue. Then one day, you see a business not only advertising a service that you need, but they advertise that they can speak to you in your language! How much likelier are you to contact that business over the others?

Using a bilingual answering service is a smart move – but advertising that you have French speaking customer service representatives is pure genius. For some would be customers, the fact that someone can speak their language may be the main reason that they call your business and not the competition.

Let Touch Communications help you say bonjour!

At Touch Communications, we employ many professional customer service representatives who can provide service in French to your customers. We can provide a wide array of services to those customers including answering basic questions, setting up or changing appointments, and call forwarding to name a few.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you!

Learn More about Live Call Answering

Elevate your Business with an After Hours Call Answering Service

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Maybe your business doesn’t operate 24/7. Perhaps there is no need for it to. Even if this is the case, there may still be benefits to having live call answering in the evening. Working with a call centre like TOUCH Communications allows customers to contact your business any time of day, and this can often be the difference between making the sale or giving the sale away to your competitors.

business man in the kitchen talking on the phone

The following are just a few of the ways that an after hours call answering service can help your business:

Create a Better Work-Life Balance

Many professionals like real estate agents and financial advisors work independently or are independent contractors with a larger firm. Since they are on commission, they often feel tied to their phones. This can put quite a strain on personal and family time when someone wants to reach them in the evening.

You definitely do not want to be THAT person who spends their child’s entire little league game on their phone!

Using TOUCH Communication’s night service can take away some of that burden. When someone calls, a professional customer service agent takes the call, answers basic questions and lets the caller know when they can expect to hear back from you.

Provide More Value for Your Customers

In business, ones who provide the greatest value to their customers win. Since customers want service when they want it, it makes sense to at least provide some basic services to your customers even after hours.

Services that could be provided with TOUCH’s night service include providing basic information and answering questions, scheduling and canceling appointments, as well as taking payments and registrations.

Offer Emergency Services

Perhaps you own a business that would benefit from offering emergency after-hours service. Dental offices, plumbing companies, and auto repair shops could all fit this bill. Since emergencies don’t happen every night (thank goodness!), it might not make sense to pay someone to be on-call.

But you’d still like your customers to be able to get through to someone. TOUCH Communications’ night service helps to solve that problem. A TOUCH CSR can answer the call, determine whether in fact, it is an emergency, and then transfer the call either to yourself or to the appropriate person in your company.

Project a More Professional Image

Starting a business has never been easier – sometimes all it takes is a website and a handful of business cards. But you don’t necessarily want to let your customers know how small your business is.

Whether you are a freelance website designer, a bookkeeper, or running your own e-commerce store, making use of an after hours call answering service can project a more competent and professional image to your callers.

After all, if it’s just you, you can’t possibly answer the phone every time it rings!

These are just a few of the benefits to having an after hours call answering service. Just because you are not working at night doesn’t mean that your business can’t be accessible to potential customers and project a professional brand image. Ready to elevate your business? Contact us today and our team of experts at TOUCH Communications will help set you up with an after hours call answering service right away.

Enhancing Your Brand Perception With Live Call Answering

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Answering calls, scheduling appointments, sending messages, and providing live customer assistance are more than just core functions of your business – they’re also opportunities to enhance brand perception and customer loyalty and expand your client base.

The Touch Communications Logo

A virtual assistant lends your business a bit of legitimacy and the illusion of size. A telephone answering service is important even in your company’s infancy because it gives you a good brand perception. Because with many services you can provide your virtual receptionist with custom scripts, you can maintain any brand voice and personality you may have already created online or elsewhere.

Here are a few more reasons why your small business should be using a telephone answering service.

Never miss a sales lead

Sales calls are the lifeblood of your business. What’s the point of spending money on marketing or any other aspect of your business if you’re not going to make yourself accessible to your clients? Getting just one sale a month through your telephone answering service could mean it pays for itself.

Save money on hiring a receptionist

Telephone answering services represent a huge saving in comparison to handling your calls in-house. You not only avoid paying a salary, you also save on the costs associated with having someone in the office.

Act like a blowfish

Known as the blowfish effect, making your business look bigger and more professional is a great way to stand out in a crowded marketplace. For micro businesses, this is especially helpful in enhancing the perception of having a fully manned office. With brand perception high on the agenda for many small businesses, replicating the sleek and seamless service of a larger organization is becoming increasingly desirable.

Impress every single caller

In a competitive market, it’s important to “WOW” each and every client. As consumers, we seek and expect to be wowed, and as business owners, it’s our job to compel customers to talk, tweet and share their experience with us. Our receptionists have the confidence, knowledge and positive can-do attitude to make an unforgettable experience.

Free up time for your team to generate revenue

Even during office hours, dealing with the flow of inbound calls can be extremely time-consuming and distracting. A phone answering service can handle of the day-to-day enquiries, allowing your team to concentrate on growing your business.

Personal touch

Answering machines should be banned for small businesses. It can reflect poorly on your business, while making it look disorganized and can even turn customers off before they’ve had the chance to even get through to you. A call answering service means that whenever they call, potential clients get through to an actual person.

Increase productivity of your staff

Research has shown that calls are the single biggest distraction people face in the workplace. When you are constantly having your workflow interrupted, it breaks your momentum. The time wasted isn’t the time it takes to answer the call, it’s all the time it takes to get yourself back into the swing of work.

Book appointments and manage your calendar

Many telephone answering services can also do other tasks, such as acting as a switchboard to transfer calls to the appropriate people. Even better, some virtual receptionists can be trained to use your calendar and diary software, which means they book, cancel and rearrange appointments for you. This is an excellent way to cut down on time-consuming administration.

Contact Us if you’re interested in enhancing your brand perception.

Winter Weather Calling

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It may have taken a bit longer to get here than usual this year, but the Canadian winter in Southern Ontario now seems to be fully upon us with many areas experiencing heavy snowsqualls and just plain nasty weather. And while we are a hearty bunch, there tend to be a few days each season that are bad enough that trying to dig your way out your subdivision and slipping and sliding all the way to the office are just not worth the risk.

Snow Covered Car

Car buried in snow.

But since these storms can happen unexpectedly, how do you relay the message to the rest of your team, or to your clients and customers that they should sit back and enjoy that second cup of coffee because the inclement weather has shut down operations for the day?

If you have a very small team, you could call everyone individually, but that takes time and effort that could be better spent curling up on the sofa with a great book, listening to howl of the frigid winds from a safe distance. And besides, wouldn’t it be better if you only had to make one telephone call or send a single email that would let not only your employees know you were closing for the day but also any customers or clients that were planning on coming in?

How Touch Communications can help

With call answering services from Touch Communications, it is easy to let all the right people know that your business is having a snow day. Simply let us know about your company’s closures and delays and that information can be passed on to anyone who might be calling in to inquire about your business’s status.

Why use live call answering for inclement weather closure notices?

While it might be tempting to rely on company voicemail to relay notices of closures and delays, there are several good reasons why live call answering makes sense. Here are a few of the benefits to employing the help of the professional customer service representatives at Touch Communications:

  • Simple to arrange – even the best voicemail systems can have glitches. Make sure your employees and customers get the message, by having real people convey it to them.
  • 24/7 Service – As soon as you know that your business will be closed or delayed, you can let us know and we can relay the message to callers – it doesn’t matter if it’s Sunday night or at 4:00 am on a weekday.
  • Reschedule appointments – If you operate a business or organization that relies on appointments, our CSRs can not only let your clients know that you are closed, but we can also reschedule their appointments.
  • Call transferring – Even though your physical doors are closed for the day, as an entrepreneur, chances are you are still working. You may wish to have certain calls transferred to you by landline or cell phone. The CSRs at Touch can screen your calls and transfer the ones you still want directly to you.
  • Emergency service – The weather outside may be frightful but you may still want to provide emergency services. Should an emergency call come in, we can give appropriate advice or transfer the call according to your instructions.

Yes, winter is finally here, and closures will happen, but with a little help from your friends at Touch Communications, it will be much easier to weather the storm.

Touch Communications checks out Winter Fest

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We checked out Winterfest 2016 at the Hamilton Central Library! Local History and Archives staff have gone into the vaults and selected some amazing images of Hamilton during the winter. ?

Winterfest is full of local events, entertainment and exhibits every winter and we’re happy we got to check out some of these rare photos!

 

Winterfest collage

headset on globe

An Outstanding Answering Service

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TOUCH Communications Inc. is a reliable and professional Answering Service that can provide your business with the upper hand on investment. We can provide your company with outstanding customer service, appointment handling, data processing and connecting all parties involved as one. Our experienced and well-trained customer service representatives will act as your company’s ambassador, protecting and enhancing your brand while either resolving client issues, or messaging and leaving callers confident that someone will get back to them as soon as possible.

One thing we’re very familiar with is Emergency Services, such as immediately escalating urgent matters according to your emergency protocol ensuring your service level agreements are always adhered.

That is just the beginning of what we can do for you! – Get in TOUCH with us today to find out what else we can do for your company!

Address: 118 James St N, Hamilton, ON L8R 2K7
Phone:+1 888-667-5750

Contracting a 24-Hour Call Centre for Your Business

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Being accessible to your customers whenever they need you is a great way to gain an edge over your competition. But realistically speaking, it’s not very practical to hire a night shift if you only have a small team; or to sleep with your cell phone under your pillow if you only receive nighttime calls a few times a week. The solution to this problem is making use of a 24-hour call centre. This way, your calls will always be answered and your customers will always be served no matter when they decide to call you.

Phone Unanswered

Why 24-hour access is important

In today’s digital age, customers have grown accustomed to having instant access to just about everything. They can make purchases online regardless of whether it is 3 am or Christmas day. This desire for instant service has spilled over into telephone service as well. If a caller gets a voicemail instead of a real, live person, there is a good chance she will simply hang up and call your competition rather than leaving a message.

Another reason to consider offering a 24-hour call centre for your customers is that some calls are urgent and service can’t wait. For example, if you run a medical office it’s important for people to get assistance in the event of a medical emergency; or if you’re a plumber, you’ll want your customers to have access to you in the event of a middle-of-the-night flooded basement.

And then there’s the fact that some of your target customer base just might not be able to easily call you during the day. They may work odd hours or may even be calling from a different time zone. These calls may not be emergencies – they may simply be calling to set up an appointment or to get more information about a product they saw on your e-commerce site. If your business is accessible to them, while your competitors’ businesses are not, that can give you a huge competitive advantage.

Who can benefit from 24-hour call centre service?

While just about any type of business can benefit from this type of service, here a few types of business that find it especially useful.

  • E-commerce sites – If you sell any products online, your retail operation is accessible to the entire world – and, therefore, all the different time zones. While customers may be able to purchase items online, some customers will invariably have questions and want to talk to a real person.
  • IT Services and Computer Equipment – the 9 to 5 workday is quickly becoming a thing of the past. If you supply corporate clients with software and computer equipment, it will pay off to always have someone accessible who can offer support.
  • Medical Offices – whether someone is calling to book an appointment or is having a medical emergency, 24-hour call centre CSRs can help them – booking their appointment in an online calendar or helping them get the emergency service that they need.
  • Tradespeople – Especially if you’d like to offer 24-hour emergency services for plumbing, electrical, etc., then you’ll need someone to answer those emergency calls. Since these calls may not come in every night, it makes sense to use 24-hour call centre service rather than paying a dedicated staff person to man the phones.

Making use of 24-hour call centre service will let your customers know that you care and it’s a great way to set yourself apart from the competition. To learn more about this affordable and convenient way to gain a competitive edge, contact Touch Communications today.