Author Archive
Working on Your Business and Not In Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsLast week, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar, sponsored by The Phoenix Business Journal and presented by Nathan Sachs of Blueprints for Tomorrow, focused on working “on” your business and not “in” your business. The day before the seminar, I started typing an email to the Phoenix Business Journal to cancel my reservation because I have been so busy recently that I just wasn’t sure it was a good idea to spend the time at this seminar that I could spend getting my tasks done back at the office. As I was typing the email, I laughed at myself as I realized this was exactly the reason I needed to make sure I attended the seminar.
I attended the seminar and walked out feeling like I was ready to go back to the office, delegate my tasks and start working on the business. A lot of the concepts I heard during the seminar were a refresher of things I already knew, but hadn’t taken the time to focus. Others were interesting ideas I wanted to immediately implement after driving back to the office. Here I sit a week later, just now starting to go through my notes for the seminar. What happened?
I let my task list get the best of me, and I came back to the office and immediately started running around addressing any immediate issues that needed to be fixed. When speaking with a potential customer this morning, I realized they were a step ahead of me in working on their business. The potential customer had contacted me looking for some help with their call volume. She told me she didn’t have time to focus on building her business and meeting with her clients with the phones constantly ringing. This individual had been referred by a friend of hers who stated we had been able to provide them with virtual reception services, allowing their office to focus on building their business while they outsourced a business process that wasn’t making them any money, and wasn’t their strong suit.
I now realize that I need to start doing exactly what it is all of our clients pay us to do. We are here to be their partner in business, answer their phones in a professional manner and provide the highest level of Customer Service to their telephone customers so they can focus on growing their business. After writing this blog, it’s time for me to focus in on what our core business is and see if I can’t work on delegating or outsourcing all the items that get me tied up IN the business.
One of Phoenix’s Best Places to Work – AnswerNow
Posted by: | CommentsWe did it again! For the fifth year, AnswerNow has earned the honor of being ranked one of the best places to work in the Phoenix Business Journal’s Small –Sized business category. We worked hard at maintaining a supportive, engaged and fun work place for our employees, and our employees have spoken! The “Best Places to Work” list, which was started in 2003, recognizes Valley companies who, through a third party administered employee satisfaction survey, rank their respective companies as being the best places to work. The areas surveyed are varied parts of employee life, including workplace environment, leadership direction, culture, and management practices.
What makes us so special you ask? Our commitment to our clients starts with our commitment to our employees. We know that in order to procure the best customer service, we need happy employees. AnswerNow has been local to the Phoenix Valley since opening in 1997; our newly built office in Phoenix provides a safe and comfortable work environment where our Team Members can feel at “home.” There are several break areas where our team can enjoy video games, air hockey and satellite television. AnswerNow also provides healthy incentives to our team members, such as discounted gym memberships and since our facility is a non-smoking environment, we offer incentives for people to quit smoking. Our leadership is hands-on with day to day operations and everyone in management has worked their way up from entry level positions. There is room to grow for everyone!
AnswerNow! is proud to win this award and to also be able to provide a coveted work environment. For more information on working at AnswerNow or to apply for a job, please visit our employment page.
The Art of Context Switching – and how to avoid it if possible!
Posted by: | CommentsAs a business owner, you already know that it’s easy to take on all the responsibilities of a business and hard to pass them off. Delegate? That’s not even in your vocabulary. When was the last time you were able to specifically list out how your hours in a day were spent? Context Switching, defined as quickly switching from project to project and then back to the original project, is a problem that never seems to go away. However, it can be alleviated. Do you hate when you are in the middle of a task and the phone rings? You don’t want to miss it in case it is a prospective client or another important phone call, but it is also hard to unwrap your mind from the duty at hand.
This is where AnswerNow fits into the puzzle. Allowing us to handle your inbound calls will allow you to concentrate on your business without losing any. Following customized instructions given by you, our Team Members handle each call for your business how you deem fit. We send detailed messages via email, text message or voicemail allowing you to return messages at your convenience, but your customers never have to have a machine answering their calls. We can also patch your VIP calls directly to your phone so that you don’t miss a thing.
Perhaps you have others in your office answering phone calls for you. Have you thought about how much time is wasted due to context switching in your employee’s days? A lot of businesses assume they only need an answering service when their call volume is high; however, whoever is answering your phone calls in your office has to stop what they are doing, answer the call and take care of whatever the person was calling for, and then switch gears to get back into what they were doing. It may not seem like a big deal, but as I recently read in another blog post “Nobody gains anything from loading up [employees] beyond their capacity to perform the work, both employer and employee stand to lose their reputations at every turn when work is performed poorly.” (Source: Changebowl) Outsourcing your inbound calls to a provider can help you avoid wasting time and poor customer experiences. No matter how many or how few calls you receive, you will notice the difference an inbound answering service will make in the quality of work your company puts out.
Keeping Your Data Safe
Posted by: | CommentsWith each passing year, criminals are finding new ways to tap into accounts, hack codes, and find out even the most secure data and information. I’m sure 2011 will be no different with new phishing schemes, viruses and security breach stories in the news. This puts pressure on answering service companies to keep information safe and available only to the people who pertain to the project they are assigned.
We at AnswerNow! would like to think of ourselves as more than just an answering service. We are a trusted business partner that you can safely put your most important projects and data with. AnswerNow! takes all steps necessary to protect any information and data that is provided by you and your customers. Our Team Members are put through extensive training to learn the importance of confidentiality. We use only the most secure software and programs to maintain databases and customer information. We maintain those programs and keep up to date anti-virus software and firewalls on all computers used within the company. Team Members are only allowed access to the Operations Room via access card and leave all personal items, including purses, cell phones and other items in lockers while they are working.
What we are trying to say is AnswerNow! has your business’ best interests at heart and we work very hard to treat your business like it is our very own by protecting you and your customer’s sensitive information.
Email Services: A Business Process Outsourcing Service
Posted by: | CommentsThis month, AnswerNow! would like to focus on our email services that will assist with your day-to-day business processes. The goal of using an answering service to outsource some of your business processes is to make your daily operations easier and for your business to run as smoothly as possible. AnswerNow’s email services provide many benefits to you and help provide a stress-free workday. There is no need to worry about if you are missing an important message from a potential client, or even your spouse!
There are three ways AnswerNow’s email services can help your business processes.
- Text Email Services – You may not always have your computer with you, but for the most part, people never go anywhere without their mobile device. However, it is not always an opportune time to answer a phone call; say, in a meeting with a client or at a seminar. No worries, AnswerNow! can text important email messages to your phone so you never miss a beat!
- Voice Email Services – Prefer to avoid text messaging? Like having a human voice to give you your messages? AnswerNow’s team can record all your messages and then email the sound bite for you to listen to anytime on your computer or wireless device.
- Fax Email Services – While there are people out there who still fax in documents, this does not mean you need to store a bulky fax machine in your office. AnswerNow! can supply you with a fax number and receive all your faxes in house, where we then put them in tidy-email format and send to the email address of your choosing. All paperless, all convenient, all the time.
There are many business processes you can outsource to AnswerNow! We are committed to making your business successful, so please contact us, and let us work together to help you!
Put Your Customer’s Needs First!
Posted by: | CommentsAs a small business owner, it’s hard to be everywhere and do everything all at once. There are times where certain aspects of your company might be sacrificed in order to keep up with other items that take higher priority. Your customer service should never, and doesn’t need to, be sacrificed. You are able to put your customer’s needs first while still handling all the other day-to-day challenges of owning a business.
AnswerNow! is available to handle all your calls all day, every day. You never have to have a phone call come to you first. Our professional Team Members act as an extension of your business to take messages, patch calls and even answer questions as needed. Your customers will be handled with care and they will never know that they are not directly calling into your office if you choose. You will also never have to worry about scrambling to cover increased or overflow calls as your company expands. As you get busier, we simply schedule additional Team Members to cover your calls. It’s easy for us and saves you the time and money it takes to hire on a new employee.
In a day and age where customer service is more important than ever for retention, please don’t sacrifice quality. AnswerNow has got it! Call us at 1-800-226-0491, or contact us using our form, today and let us get started on helping you keep your customers needs first.
A Tale of a Phoenix Winter
Posted by: | CommentsDespite the mythological stories about Phoenix that you have been told such as frying an egg on the concrete, or the inside of the oven being cooler than the desert heat, Phoenix DOES have winters (occasionally). The end of December gave the Valley of the Sun a taste of what our colder neighbors experience for months on end. By no means are we saying that we were near as wintery, but for our thinned out blood, 20 degree mornings is darn chilly and our roads, plants and pipes are not used to it!
One particularly “cold” day (yes I will use that term loosely for you folks under 10 feet of snow), Phoenix experienced below freezing temperatures and even snow flurries in certain parts of the valley. You can probably imagine the excitement of the natives! I know I was thrilled to actually break out my winter coat. AnswerNow’s Team Members felt the effects of this weather too. Our team members answer calls for the water and streets departments of a few municipalities, and the influx of calls that morning was incredible. People called about frozen pipes and also slippery, flooded roads and power outages at traffic signals all due to the weather. While most of the valley was unprepared for our wacky weather, AnswerNow is proud to be prepared for any circumstance and we are always fully staffed to handle your phone calls any time, day or night.
Custom Database Compilation: A Business Process Outsourcing Service
Posted by: | CommentsImagine a seamless way to collect customer information without being overly invasive, but creates warm sales leads for your sales force. How would that look to you?
AnswerNow provides many business process outsourcing services, including database compilation and lead generation. Our professional representatives are pros at making sure appropriate information is collected without sounding like a sales pitch or being harassing to the customer calling in on your phone line. Our custom database compilation works in three easy steps:
- Your company creates a marketing plan that includes advertising (via Internet, email or print) that creates a call to action for customers to call a phone number set up for your company specifically for this campaign.
- AnswerNow! representatives professionally collect caller information which will allow for you to convert them to customers later if they don’t immediately make a purchase or book an appointment.
AnswerNow! representatives compile collected information into a tidy database to route messages to the correct person or department in your company, meaning your potential customers won’t need to wait as long to receive a response, which in turn creates more revenue for you. If you are interested in this service please call our sales department at 1-800-226-0491.
Business Process Outsourcing: What is it?
Posted by: | CommentsThere is a new buzz word out there in the business land: business process outsourcing. But what is it exactly? And why should a business owner consider it? The technical definition of business process outsourcing is “a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the day-to-day operations and responsibilities of specific office functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider” (Wikipedia). These functions or processes can include anything ranging from graphic design, human resources, payroll, appointment setting, and much more. It basically is anything that you can get help with that will make your day-to-day operations run smoother and allows you to focus on your customers and the product or service you sell.
At AnswerNow! Inc., we live to be an extension of your office. We train our employees on every aspect of your company in order to fully understand your business operations. As a business owner or manager, your first job is to care for your clients and customers and second is to run the business. AnswerNow! is here to help you run the business part as smoothly as possible with efficiency and professionalism. Business process outsourcing is more than just taking on functions or processes to us; it’s our passion and we take your company very seriously. At AnswerNow! we are a full service company able to assist you and your company in whatever services you need: answering services, appointment scheduling, virtual reception, 24-hour messaging and more. Please call us at 1-800-226-0491 for more information.
5 Ways Virtual Reception Services Will Maximize Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsAnswerNow! first and foremost is a quality answering service company in Phoenix with professional and courteous representatives who answer every phone call like it is their own business. However our services for your business can go above and beyond simply answering the phone. Virtual receptionists will also provide customer service, schedule appointments, take messages and forward them on in the appropriate manner, plus many other duties a typical receptionist would handle in an office setting. Hiring AnswerNow as your virtual receptionist provider can maximize business in the following ways:
- Efficiency – Our team members are trained extensively on handling your business in the manner you see fit. Your receptionist duties will be handled efficiently and professionally, while saving your business time and money.
- Cost – By outsourcing your receptionist duties, as an employer you will save on the cost of health insurance, taxes and benefits.
- Coverage – AnswerNow! is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – meaning your customer’s calls will be answered by a live person any time, day or night.
- Flexibility – Having a virtual receptionist in a remote location answering your calls will give you the flexibility to be mobile. Our clients can receive their messages anywhere they can carry their wireless devices.
Discretion – Our team members are trained on every aspect of your account so that they are virtually an extension of your office and your customers will never realize that the person answering your phone is not sitting at a desk in your office. If you are interested in our services please call us at 1-800-226-0491.
