Telephone Answering
Never miss an important phone call or sales opportunity with Northern Communications. We operate 24/7/365 and act as an extension of your brand responding promptly and politely to your callers. Whether as a full-time, back-up, or overflow reception service we treat your incoming callers as if they were our own.
Does your business have a heavy call volume? Northern Communications strives to ensure the calls you receive are handled in a professional manner, while also providing several technology-based solutions to ensure your business runs smoothly at all times.
After Hours Call Out
In today’s fast-paced environment, your customers want around the clock service. So how do you balance staffing and your bottom line? Let us help. Our after hours call out gives you the ability to log every call, dispatch to a cell phone, email, pager, or fax. Our operators follow your directives to ensure your clients always receive consistent, timely services.
Backup Telephone
Be ready in any situation. Our backup telephone service will leave you confident in knowing your phones are being covered while you are away. After hours, power outages, or in-house line failure, you can feel confident your clients are handled 24/7.
Conference & Event Registration
Event production is already a grueling process. After planning, promoting, and setting up, when do you have time to handle inquiries, book attendees, and track event growth? Similar to our “Appointment and Event Scheduling” service, we are able to offer a dedicated line that responds to inquiries and bookings for your event. We can schedule attendees, track who’s canceled, and take payment information right from our always-online databases.
First Level Customer Support
We dedicate our resources to engage with your customers directly. When dealing with First Level Customer Support, our goal is to strengthen your bond between you and your customers. We work with your company to develop proactive contact methods (FAQ’s, procedures, and complaint management) which then becomes available to our operators immediately upon answering a call.
Virtual Reception
One of the most vital pieces of your business, the receptionist, is also digital. We believe a receptionist is one of the key players in your field, and by using our Virtual Receptionist Service your business becomes more efficient while reducing overall costs.
Order Taking Service
Don’t have time to take every client’s order? Our operators are trained in the procedures and product knowledge to ensure your orders are placed instantly and efficiently with our Order Taking Service. Our Order Taking system has an intricate processing system that shows information instantly when a call comes in. A prearranged script then ensures the right questions are asked, and correct information is placed from our live databases.
Voicemail and Call Screening
In addition to our live receptionist, we provide voicemail and call screening services that use the latest technologic features. Our voicemail can also be configured to your company’s needs. We give you the ability to decide how many lines are required, flexible answering time options, greeting customization, and various reporting abilities.
What Is an Answering Service?
Clients hate it when you put them on hold. All they want are fast, effortless solutions to their problems.
An answering service can help you deliver that efficiently. Are you running a business? Is effective communication with clients one of the challenges you struggle with most? Then you need to hire an answering service. By now you’re probably thinking, “What is an answering service anyway?” Read on and find out everything you need to know.
Types of Answering Service
Answering services come in various forms. The following are examples of different answering services:
Live Answering Service
This type of answering service is highly rated by consumers due to how effective it is. With this method, your callers get to talk to a real person on the other end of the phone in real time.
With this type of answering service, your clients get the feel of speaking with someone in your actual office.
Online Answering Services
Most web-based business use this type of service. However, this type of answering service can serve businesses that are not web-based too. Such a service makes processes such as making inquiries and order processing easier for clients.
Some companies use this type of service and the live answering service interchangeably. If the nature of your business demands that you do most things online, then this might be the best choice.
Automated Telephone Answering Services
This type of service is excellent for the individuals that want 24-hour call answering services. In this case, the caller does not talk to a live person.
The technique makes use of an automated voice with prerecorded prompts for your clients. An example might be, “Press zero to talk to one of our agents.”
Call Center Telephone Answering Services
Industries that have multiple clients benefit a great deal from such answering services.
The call center answering service is efficient for a business that receives high volumes of calls at any given time. An example of this is the telecommunication industry.
Answering Service Features
Call answering services are different. It’s critical that you find the right service with features that work best to enhance productivity and improve communication at your company.
Some of the features of call answering services are:
Appointment Reminder
This feature helps retain clients and reduce the number of people who don’t show up for their appointment. If you’re a dentist or in the health industry, this is a must-have.
Lead Capture
The ability to capture leads is also another important feature of answering services. This feature helps companies bring in prospects to your business. This is a huge benefit to your company because the call answering service will be capturing leads for you.
Appointment Management
Organization is a critical factor in your business. With this feature, you can ensure that all your appointments are arranged the moment they have been scheduled–each one in order of priority.
Phone Answering
Phone calls ought to be answered consistently, especially if you want to retain clients or get new ones. You need a service that will answer your callers with a professional greeting, a friendly tone, and any other requests you have for the service provider.
Industries That Make Use of Answering Services
Many industries and businesses would be great fits for answering services.
They include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Dental
- Medical
- Legal
- Sales professionals
- Insurance
- Real estate
- Marketing
- Contracting
- Health and beauty
- eCommerce
Choosing a niche-specific answering service is quintessential
Benefits of Answering Services
Hiring an answering service comes with numerous advantages. The benefits outweigh the cost you might have to incur when choosing one.
The following are some of the perks that come with having such a service working for you:
Round the Clock Answering Services
Unless you’re a robot, it’s impossible to manage phone calls 24/7. However, you can hire a call answering service that offers various call answering solution packages around the clock.
Customer Retention
There are many ways to give your business the desired popularity you yearn for. Having a good reputation is a key factor in doing so. A call answering service will help you maintain a good image with your clients.
If your clients call in and all they hear is boring hold music or a prompt to leave a message, you can be sure you will lose them. It gets worse if you haven’t returned any of their calls either.
Hiring a call answering service helps you create a good relationship with clients. This ensures loyalty to your business.
Keeping Track of Your Appointments
Another advantage of such a service is that it helps you stay organized. If the nature of your business requires clients to schedule appointments, hiring a call answering service helps you keep track of the appointments without losing your mind–or your clients.
Helps Save Your Cash
Some answering services come in packages. If you were to hire more receptionists working full-time to handle your calls, you would have to pay them more.
In addition to that, an answering service firm may allow you to chose a single package from the many they have. You can pick the one that best suits your budget.
Saves You Time
As a small business owner, keeping track of your calls, replying to messages, and scheduling appointments can be a headache.
However, with such a service, you will have more time on your hands. Then you can deal with a variety of things you just can’t seem to find enough time for otherwise.
Enhanced Productivity
If you don’t have time to deal with certain elements of your business, things will fail. Hiring a call answering service will enable you to have a balance, which ultimately allows you to enhance the productivity of your business.
Helps You Lure Prospective Clients
Clients are very particular about what they want. With this fast-paced society, you will lose many prospects any time a potential customer calls and they do not get an answer to their call.
For instance, if you are a legal firm, you may end up losing a client that needs representation from you simply because you were busy elsewhere. Hiring a call answering service helps you capture the prospects by being available when they are in need.
What Is an Answering Service?
An answering service is what you use to help you receive and respond to information from your clients. Such services are provided by customer service professionals. These are professionals trained to speak to clients served by various industries.
Unlike a traditional receptionist, an answering service provides more functionality where many clients are concerned. This is a service that will help you handle your business’s phone calls, customer inquiries, and appointments remotely.
Answering Service Features
Call answering services are different. It’s critical that you find the right service with features that work best to enhance productivity and improve communication at your company.
Some of the features of call answering services are:
Appointment Reminder
This feature helps retain clients and reduce the number of people who don’t show up for their appointment. If you’re a dentist or in the health industry, this is a must-have.
Lead Capture
The ability to capture leads is also another important feature of answering services. This feature helps companies bring in prospects to your business. This is a huge benefit to your company because the call answering service will be capturing leads for you.
Appointment Management
Organization is a critical factor in your business. With this feature, you can ensure that all your appointments are arranged the moment they have been scheduled–each one in order of priority.
Phone Answering
Phone calls ought to be answered consistently, especially if you want to retain clients or get new ones. You need a service that will answer your callers with a professional greeting, a friendly tone, and any other requests you have for the service provider.
Does Your Business Need an Answering Service?
Knowing what an answering service does is not enough. You might also be sure that your business is a good fit for one too.
However, you may be struggling with the thought of whether you should hire one. If that describes you, here are some signs that might be time to hire an answering service:
- Several missed calls on a daily basis
- Numerous voice messages
- Inability to concentrate on work because you have to answer calls
- Dealing with several clients on the phone daily
- Worries about losing business due to missed opportunities
- Negative feedback from clients regarding your communication problems
You don’t have to make your business suffer. This is an investment you will never regret. If anything, it will help you retain clients and even attract new ones.