Call centers handle thousands of interactions with their customers.  For call center personnel, that call is their product.  As with any product on the market, consistency is one of the keys to product longevity.  Take fast food for example.  When you order a hamburger from McDonald’s, it is the same whether you purchase it in Chicago or Los Angeles; it will be a .10 lb. hamburger patty, cooked on a grill with a bun, ketchup, mustard, two pickles and rehydrated onions.  McDonald’s brand depends on consistency through quality.

One of the most critical metrics for call centers is Average Handle Time (AHT). This measures the call time from beginning to end between agent and caller. AHT is one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that assesses efficiency of the call center.

Without help, being available 24 hours per day for your customers is unrealistic. If you are a one-person company, it is exhausting and demanding. If you are a multi-person company, the additional staff required can end up costing more than it is worth.

You expect your answering service to respond to customers exactly the way you would, and we understand that. Stay on top of your time and incoming communications by utilizing the benefits of an answering service and tools they offer.

Five quick business tips to keep you connected with your customers:

1. Proactively communicate. Answer incoming calls quickly and provide thorough answers with as many concrete specifics, like facts and dates, as possible.
2. Technology doesn’t always equal productivity. Customers prefer a live person answering questions on the other end of the phone, they want to feel heard and to receive confirmation they’ve been understood.

Winter and the weather it brings can cause disruptions in your life. But it also can affect your business or practice. While you’re stockpiling salt and digging out the snow shovels at home, it’s important to also consider the havoc winter weather can bring to your business – and then prepare accordingly

Some considerations before hiring a HIPAA-compliant business. One way to ensure your practice or business maintains the highest privacy and security standards is to be certain the other companies you contract services with are HIPAA compliant.

Look for an answering service to meet your company’s specific needs. When a person goes out shopping, he or she is presented with choices. Whether it’s choosing between brands of peanut butter at the grocery store, styles of jeans at the mall or levels of data plans for a cell phone, people are presented with options to heighten long-term customer satisfaction. By hand-selecting the product that fits best with a person’s lifestyle, he or she is less likely to have buyer’s remorse and more likely to come back for repeat purchases. And since we’ve grown so used to this type of society, why would you settle on anything less for your business or practice?