Using a Live Call Answering Service to Manage your Busy Pet Clinic

If your pet clinic seems like an animal farm sometimes, a call answering service can bring back the calm and restore your animal loving soul.

A cat having a check-up at a pet clinic

If you own or work at a pet clinic, you no doubt love all furry friends. When you opened up shop to help maintain and restore health to a plethora of pets, you never thought you’d spend half your time on the phone. While a phone that rings off the hook is a good sign that your business is thriving, caring for animals shouldn’t mean spending the better part of your day on the phone. A live call answering service will get you off the phone while keeping you in touch with all the animals that come through your doors for help.

When a present or prospective customer contacts your business through your phone, they will be delighted with the answering service that will answer their questions, book their appointment, and put them in touch with the help they are searching for. There’s no need for that call to go to a busy signal, answering machine, or worse, go unanswered.

No Calls Left Unanswered

24/7 live answering services will ensure that not only will valued customers be cared for while you are serving others, but the service will expand the hours that you’re able to service all your customers. Whether you decide to let your customers know they are dealing with answering service or want them to believe they have reached your storefront, is your call. Both have their advantages. Rest assured, though, customers that reach your call answer service will be greeted with polite, knowledgeable and helpful service.

A live call answering service will fill in any customer service gaps you may have. If you are on holidays, your call answer service can take care of communications while you’re away.  Simply away from your desk? A call answer service will ensure that no calls are missed.  Call transfer is available for those days when you’re on the golf course. Yes, good pet clinic care can be given, even while improving your long game.

TOUCH Communications Provides your Clients with a Unique Experience

A great call answer service will treat your business with unique care, setting it aside from the competition. There is no generic answering of your phone and all greetings will reflect the tone of your pet clinic. Aside from the obvious choice of having a dog answer your phone, any answering service you choose should come close to this unique experience when they dial your number.

Don’t let chaos dictate the atmosphere in your pet clinic. A call answer service will take some of the busy out of your busy clinic, ensuring that customers are receiving a calm, and relaxed service as they have their pet cared for. A live call answering service for your pet clinic will restore your delight in helping animals and give you more time to do what you do best. If you still have further questions regarding a live call answering service for your pet clinic, or simply ready to sign up, contact us today and our team of experts at TOUCH Communications will be ready to help.

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Live Call Answering Service for Towing Companies

If you own or manage a towing company, then you know that when the phone rings, there is a caller on the other end of the line that needs help immediately. They are either on the side of the road somewhere with a broken down vehicle or they are an angry property owner who needs to get a vehicle removed from their premises.

Man on Phone by Broken Down Car

The problem is that it’s not always easy to answer a call. You may be short staffed or you may be on the road yourself driving one of your tow trucks. A live call answering service is an excellent solution for tow truck companies looking to provide better service to their customers.

A live call answering service such as that offered by Touch Communications can make the process of operating a towing service much smoother. Professional customer service representatives are on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – so when that distraught or angry caller gets on the line, there is always someone available to take their call.

Here are a few more benefits that tow truck companies get from using live call answering services:

1.      24/7 Service at a fraction of the cost

Most tow truck companies want to be available 24/7 – after all, a breakdown can happen at any time of day or night. The problem is – unless you have a very large company, you’re probably not going to get a call EVERY night. And paying a staff member to sit in an office – or even to be on call – 24/7 can be quite costly.

Using a call centre, on the other hand, is generally much more affordable and TOUCH’s CSRs are always ready to provide professional and friendly service.

2.      Call forwarding and dispatching

Of course answering the call and taking the customer’s information is only step one for towing services. The next step comes in actually contacting a driver and relaying the information so that they can go the aid of the caller.

Depending on how your company works, a TOUCH CSR can either forward the call on to someone else in your company, or they can take down the information and then contact one of your drivers. An online database can be created for CSRs to check drivers’ schedules, assigned area, etc.

3.      Unsurpassed customer service

Dealing with people is not just a job for us – it’s our passion. And we are really good at it. When someone requires a tow truck they may be panicked, upset, excited, frightened, or angry. Also, the manner in which they are dealt with on the phone is going to matter. For most, it will be the first impression they get of your company.

Therefore, it is important that when a call is answered, the caller is dealt with in a calm and professional way. By employing the services of a company such as TOUCH – you know that your customers’ calls will be handled by experts.

Are you ready to take your towing company’s customer service to the next level? Then contact TOUCH Communications today and learn how we can help your business.

How Should your Live Call Answering Service Identify Itself

Using a live call answering service such as TOUCH Communications offers business owners a number of advantages, yet there always seems to be that touchy question as to whether or not they should have TOUCH’s CSRs identify themselves as working for an answering service. There is no one right answer to this question – there are good reasons for an answering service to say they are an answering service as well as many good reasons for them not to.

In the following article, we will discuss the advantages of each.

Phone extended

Reasons NOT to let your customers know that they are dealing with an answering service

Many business owners do not want their customers to know that they are dealing with a live call answering service provider because they feel doing so makes service seem less personal. They may also wish to give the impression that they are a larger business than they actually are. Believing that a business is open and available to take calls 24/7 can give many customers a sense of security and trust in the company that they are dealing with.

In general, if a CSR needs to collect personal information from a client, they will have an easier time doing so, if the customer feels that they have reached the business rather than a live call answering service.

Reasons TO let your customers know that they are dealing with an answering service

The professional CSRs at TOUCH Communications can do an amazing job at representing any company, but they are never going to be as knowledgeable about your business and your staff as your own employees.

Your clients would have a lot higher expectations knowing they are dealing with your staff, which would lead to higher levels of frustration if your staff can’t deliver the level of expertise that was expected. However, with a live call answering service, your clients would be more understanding and wouldn’t question the reliability of your company.

Is there a middle ground?

There are a few – but no really great ones.

You may have CSRs answer the call with a script such as “Hello, you’ve reached the after-hours receptionist of Acme Corp, do you require urgent service … “. The advantage of this is that it lets the caller know your business is prepared to handle after-hours emergencies. The disadvantage is that they will probably be able to figure out that they’ve reached an answering service.

Another approach could be to have the CSR answer with a script like, “Thank you for calling Acme Corp. You’ve reached the off-site receptionist, how may I help you.” The advantage here is that the caller feels more like they’ve reached someone at the company. The disadvantage is that they may still expect more expertise or knowledge to be offered than a call centre CSR is able to give.

Nope, I still want my callers to think they’ve reached my office

Should you decide you still want your callers to believe they are speaking with your staff when they reach as TOUCH CSR, there are a number of things that you can do to help make the caller experience better:

  • Provide complete information when you set up your account through well-written FAQs
  • Only have CSRs collect basic information from callers
  • Have stock answers such as, “sorry, I don’t have access to that information but I’ll have Alan give you a call and answer all of your questions when he gets back to the office.”
  • For more complex calls, have the option for CSRs to transfer the call to someone in your organization.
  • Try to cover all likely scenarios by providing a complete list of employees and explaining which types of calls go to whom.

If you’ve never worked with a live call answering service before, it can take some getting used to, but with a little planning, it can take your business to new heights of efficiency. If you’re still unsure as to how best to set up your account, contact the professionals at TOUCH today. We can help you come up with the plan that is right for your business.

The Critical Components of Live Call Answering for Your Dental Practice

Owners of dental practices understand how hectic and busy thing can get around the office. In addition to your regular patients and emergency appointments, people are constantly calling in to schedule, reschedule and cancel appointments. While patients who are physically present in your office are clearly priority, you also can’t afford to ignore those who are calling your office. Every missed call can mean lost revenue and potentially losing a patient.

receptionist at dental office answers the phone

A call answering service can help free up time from your office’s own staff so they can be of greater assistance to your in-person patients, answering questions, helping with insurance forms, etc. A service such as that offered by TOUCH Communications can help ensure that your dental practice never misses another call.

So what qualities should you be looking for in a live call answering service for your dental practice? Let’s review:

24/7 Service

Having 24/7 answering is a great way to give additional value to your patients – especially those with busy lives or those with erratic work schedules. It is also a way that your practice can offer help in the case of a dental emergency – by forwarding patients’ calls to a number that you assign.

Secure Networks to Protect Privacy

As a medical professional, protecting your patients’ health information is of utmost importance. For most, this means being able to call in and check voicemails through the normal means. When selecting an answering service for your dental practice, you need to look for a service that can either provide a secure web portal or encrypted text messaging.

Appointment Scheduling Services

In any medical practice, by far the largest volume of calls come from those who are scheduling or changing their appointments. For this reason, it is critical to work with a call answering service that can manage a calendar for you. At TOUCH Communications, our professional CSRs use a cloud-based computer program that allows them to see your availability and input, cancel or change client appointments as necessary. Again, this frees up a considerable amount of time for your own staff to assist patients who are in your office.

Personalized Scripting

Especially when it comes to any kind of medical information, you want your callers to feel that they can trust the person on the other end of the phone. By using personalized scripting that is specific to your practice, TOUCH’s CSRs can help your patients to feel more at ease and comfortable sharing the necessary information. Be wary of any service that uses stock scripts as these can feel cold and impersonal to the caller and negatively affect their perception of your practice. With a personalized script designed just for your practice, you can be confident that our professional CSRs are accurately representing you and your brand.

If you are ready to take your dental practice’s customer service to the next level, then live call answering from TOUCH Communications can help.  Give Us a Call today to learn more or visit us on our Facebook page.

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Live call answering for mental health and addiction services

When people think of live call answering services such as those provided by Touch Communications, they likely think of it being used for commercial purposes. And while our service is commonly used that way, it can also prove to be a huge benefit to social services organizations, such as mental health and addiction services.

woman on phone headset

The following are a few of the ways in which live call answering can help assist with these types of organizations.

Stop missing calls

When a person is in crisis, it is imperative that they are able to speak with a real person. If your organization’s crisis response staff are all busy on other calls, having the assistance of a call centre such as one operated by TOUCH could make the difference between a client staying clean, sober and safe or not.

When your staff is busy, a customer service representative from TOUCH can offer a human voice that can redirect the call to an appropriate extension or department.

Around the clock service

As a mental health or addiction services organization, you know that crises don’t just happen during normal business hours. The TOUCH communication call centre is open 24/7, so your clients will always be able to get through to a real person.

For emergency calls, you can arrange to have calls forwarded to a designated person or people in your organization. This can be done through a set schedule – i.e. different people depending on the day and time, or it can be changed via a simple communication to our office.

Professional representation of your brand

One reason why some organizations may be hesitant to hire a live call answering service for their social services organization is that they wonder how CSRs will interact with their clients. With a company like TOUCH Communications, however, those concerns can be put to rest.

At TOUCH we understand that the way we treat your clients reflects on your reputation and brand – and when those clients are vulnerable persons, professionalism and courtesy are of utmost importance. That’s why we take the time to learn about your organization and train our CSRs to answer and handle calls to your exact specifications.

When a client calls through to a TOUCH CSR, they never feel that they are dealing with a call centre. Instead, they feel that they have reached one of your representatives who is on their side and working to ensure that they get the best service possible.

See what’s new at TOUCH Communications, and visit our Facebook Page today!

Enjoy the Golf Course by Using a Call Answering Service

The summer is upon us and there is so much to do that doesn’t involve work. Most of us will be taking advantage of the warm weather with increased activities throughout the province, but closing down shop when you hit the fairways isn’t an option. Missing a call is unfortunate and with the right help, doesn’t have to ever happen. Unwinding on the golf course can be a reality when knowing your calls are taken care of in your absence. Don’t just let all your business calls go to the machine or even worse, remain unanswered. A missed call can mean a missed sale.

Answering E-mails While Golfing

Choosing a Call Answering Provider

What you need as a business owner who also has a life outside of the office is an answering service. Not just any answering service, though. It’s imperative that your call answer provider knows your business. Every time they answer one of your customer calls, they are representing you and your business. Whoever is representing your company while you get in 18 holes should be providing a personal touch. Anyone can get an answering machine. You will be able to relax this summer knowing that someone is caring for your clients while you’re taking care of you.

Call Forwarding

One service you may consider is call forwarding. Consider having your calls forward to an answering service that can provide that personal touch. A customized greeting is an option and can be tailored to suit your business. You may choose to have all web calls transferred as well. This keeps them all in one place and with consistent attention. Caller ID is important as well, this service will identify where people are calling from, which is valuable information for any business.

Personalized Greetings

A great communications company will provide a plethora of services, making time away from the office less scary. When shopping for an answering service ensure that your calls are not be answered generically. An answering machine can do that. The company you choose to manage your calls when you’re unavailable should be an extension of your business. Your customers are important to you. Allowing anyone who communicates with these customers must be trustworthy. Also, a great answering service provider should operate 24/7 so you don’t have to.

Whether you choose to transfer calls, live transfer, page or utilize message dispatch, your answering service should provide a seamless representation of your company. This will allow you to make the most of what limited time you have away from your business. Creating a line-up at the golf course because you are trying to take calls when you should be putting isn’t an option.

Here at Touch Communications, we take pride in being a trusted and experienced company that will treat your business with the same care you do. Contact us today and our team of experts will help you manage your business calls so you can make the most out of your personal time.

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Do You Have Nomophobia?

Mobile phones have changed the way we live. They are not mere phones anymore – they are our watches and our calendars and even our bank tellers. They are our cameras that we use to record our lives so that we can post on Instagram or SnapChat. They provide us access to our emails and a convenient way for us to carry all of our Facebook friends around with us in our pockets. And potential Pokemon related injuries aside; they presumably make our lives easier and safer.

Holding Mobile Phone

Being that mobile phones play such a big role in our everyday lives, is it any wonder that so many people feel naked without them? If you’ve ever gone into a state of panic because you’ve reached into your pocket or your purse and couldn’t find your mobile phone, you are not alone. The anxiety you feel even has a name – researchers of this phenomenon are calling it “nomophobia” which is short for “no-mobile-phone-phobia”.

Dependence on Mobile Phones

It is no secret that we as a society have become increasingly dependent on mobile devices. But this dependence is not without its consequences.

In psychology, there is a phenomenon known as transactive memory. What this means is simply this – the more access we have to an external source of information, the less motivated and able we become to remember it ourselves. For example, if one partner in a household takes on the sole responsibility of paying the monthly utilities, the other partner will be less likely to remember what the average monthly cost is for the cable, heating, hydro, etc.

In the same way, we are less likely to read and remember reviews about a particular restaurant, when we know that we can always consult TripAdvisor should we get a hankering for some good Thai food. While it used to be that we had to get that sort of information from magazines or recommendations from other people (or simply take a chance and hope the food and service are good), today access to information is as simple as tapping a screen.

Studies in Nomophobia

For obvious reasons, the study of nomophobia is in its early stages. Researchers at Iowa State University recently published a paper in which they created a measure called the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). The measure was created using 20 questions which they administered to undergraduate students regarding their feelings about their mobile devices and then ranking various responses from 1-7.

Degrees of nomophobia were then categorized ranging from mild to severe.

In their analysis, researchers found four main components of nomophobia 1) loss of communication 2) loss of connectedness 3) loss of access to information 4) loss of convenience.

How Serious is Nomophobia?

The work done on nomophobia to date has only been done to develop and validate the scale, and as far as we know, it is not a completely debilitating condition. Like our dependence on many other types of technology, such as cars and indoor plumbing, reliance on one’s cellphone is probably not the most terrible thing in the world. Just to be on the safe side though, it might be worth disconnecting from time to time nevertheless.

A business owner might think they have a good reason to have nomophobia. After all, if they don’t have their phone on hand at all times, they might miss out on potential clients and upset their current ones. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. TOUCH Communications offers professional live call answering service so that business owners can provide excellent service to their clients while enjoying personal time away from work. Contact us today and we’ll find the right call answering service for you.

Kickstart Your Fundraising Campaign with Live Call Answering

Fundraising is a huge component of any charitable or not-for-profit organization, but with so many deserving causes out there, the competition for dollars can be pretty fierce. Furthermore, people are – rightly – increasingly more cautious about which fundraising efforts they support. So how can you have a successful fundraising campaign? It helps to have an edge – and live call answering might just be the edge that your organization needs.

Woman on Phone

Let’s take a look at a few of the reasons why you might want to incorporate live call answering into your next fundraising initiative:

Professional Representation

If you’re asking people to donate their hard earned money, enter a raffle or purchase a ticket for an upcoming dinner dance and silent auction, it stands to reason that you will have better success if you have professional customer service representatives standing by to answer their calls.

Don’t get us wrong, volunteers are essential to your organization but when dealing with the public – however it’s difficult to stretch volunteers to cover every hour someone might call.  Plus, you may have to rent office space for this, purchase landline phones, or rely on cellphones, all which have their own disadvantages.  With live call answering, we always have a professional who will represent your organization’s brand according to your specific instructions.

27/7 Service

Day or night, if someone has an inquiry about your fundraising campaign, there will always be someone on the phone to assist them.  Using a live call answering service such as Touch Communications means that you’re always open for business meaning, you can enjoy your free time rather than being tied to the phone.  Reaching a live contact vs an answering machine, also helps put the caller at ease.

Free up your volunteers

Volunteering to help a worthy cause can be an incredibly rewarding experience, however, having them answer phones may distract them from other tasks. With Touch Communications, our services will free up your volunteer’s time, allowing you to make better use of your volunteers.  This may include tasks such as canvasing, putting together fundraising packages, or helping set up events.

If you are running a fundraising campaign for your organization, there are many good reasons to enlist the help of a company such as Touch Communications. Give us a call today and see what when can do for you.

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Screen Out Calls and Increase Efficiency

Hoonnnnnnkkkkk! Congratulations – you’ve been selected to receive an all expenses paid cruise in the Caribbean on the S.S. Bigfatscammer.

Call Answering Centre Employees

We’ve all got those automated messages before – and they’re annoying enough when we get them at home, but it’s even worse when they come to our place of business, slowing down productivity and potentially interfering with real customers who are trying to get through.

Of course, not all messages are automated. There are sales calls from people trying to sell your business all sorts of things from fixing viruses on your computer (that aren’t even there) to database to tax services. Many of these callers know nothing about your business and can tie up your precious time.

The good news is – you don’t have to deal with them.

One of the great advantages of live call answering with Touch Communications is that our professional telemarketers can screen out the calls you simply don’t have time for.

Never Leave a Real Customer Hanging

When you rely on an in-house phone system, you may have a single line or you may have 10. But there will always be a limit to how many calls will be able to get through. Unwelcome sales calls and automated messages can take up your limited space.

But with live call answering, you can be confident that your real customers will be able to reach a real person to help them with their problem, book an appointment, or help them with a purchase.

No More Wasting Precious Time

When you are in business, time is money. It’s important to make time for your customers and ignore the time wasters.

When you contract live call answering from Touch Communications, not only do we screen out the calls that you do not wish to take, but we also direct the important calls to the people that they need to go to.

For example, if you have a staff member or department that is designated to take certain types of clients or calls, we make sure those calls go through to the right people. That way, your clients are happy with the seamless service, and your staff remains productive.

Flexible Arrangements

If you have certain staff on call during certain days or hours, we can make sure calls are screened and directed according to your company’s schedule.

With live call answering from Touch Communications our professional customer service representatives will screen out all those unwanted calls – and we’ll also screen the calls you do want in order to efficiently direct them to the right person in your organization.  Because saving time is saving money!

Do you need to change things up? Is someone away, making it necessary to transfer that person’s calls to their back-up? Are you looking at screening your calls to increase your business’s efficiency and save time? Just contact us today and we can make sure that your calls are properly screened and redirected.

Never Miss or Drop a Call Again

Many businesses today are becoming increasingly mobile. We work from our home offices and it’s possible to take a call from an important client no matter where we are, as long as we have our cell phone – that is, as long as we have good reception.

Frustrated at Cell Phone

The problem is, it’s not always possible to have good reception. Remote northern or rural areas can still be a challenge if there are no cell towers nearby – and even in the heart of the city, if a tradesperson is working in a basement, it’s still possible that they could drop a call or miss it altogether. And this can ultimately mean lost business and lost revenue.

Live call answering service from Touch Communications can solve that problem.

How Live Call Answering Works

When someone calls your business number, if you have live call answering then the call automatically goes to one of our professional and courteous customer service representatives. Don’t worry – as far as the customer is concerned, they are speaking to one of your staff members!

Once a call is received there are several courses of action that our CSRs can take depending on your preferences. We can answer the callers’ questions, book appointments through online software, take their information and have you or one of your staff get back to them, or we can transfer the call to a number of your choice.

How Your Customer Perceives Poor Cell Reception

Consumers today are not known for their patience. When someone calls your business and ends up getting static through the phone or gets disconnected, it can be extremely frustrating. Even though the dropped call is not your fault, the likely result is that the customer will have a negative experience – and therefore a negative perception of your business.

While there is a chance, they might try calling again later, it is much more likely that they will simply call your competition instead.

On the other hand, if the call is answered by a cheerful yet professional “assistant” who can politely inform your caller that you are “on a field call but would be happy to call them back within the hour”, the experience becomes a much more positive one. At this point, the caller is much more likely to be willing to wait for you to get back to them.

Give Your Customers Faster & Better Service With Live Call Answering

Many trade businesses start out as one-person operations, but as they become more successful, they start to take on additional staff. Another advantage of using live call answering is that if you are on a field call, Touch Communications can redirect calls to one of your employees who can then proceed with helping the caller and converting them into a customer. No need to worry about the risk of missed or dropped calls that come directly to your cell phone either.

With Touch Communications, you can be confident that your callers will receive an efficient and friendly service, with a clear connection every time. Contact us today and our team will help you get started or view what’s new with us on Facebook.