Bilingual Jobs
By · CommentsThe need for bilingual employees is increasing, and employers are actively seeking out bilingual workers, or people with the ability to speak and communicate in more than one language. In fact, a recent CareerBuilder.com keyword search turned up more than 6,000 job postings seeking bilingual applicants. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos are now the nation’s largest minority group, accounting for half of the nation’s population growth since April 2001. If you intend to gain and retain these individuals as customers, you will nee dto invest quality bilingual staff members to ensure that your Latino client base is able to get the exceptional customer service that your company provides, in whatever language they prefer. With the rise in need for bilingual representatives, perhaps you’ve considered becoming bilingual yourself! We’ve included some benefits to consider -
Benefits of Being Bilingual
- Employment benefits: It offers a wider choice of jobs in various fields. Being bilingual can help you secure career opportunities in many fields, including retail, tourism, administration, secretarial work, public relations, marketing and sales, banking and accountancy, and translation.
- Being bilingual literally pays off: We recently posted a blog, “Bilingual Training” <link> and it mentioned, “In order to attract and retain bilingual Team Members, those who are proven to have excellent language skills in both English and Spanish are offered a higher rate of pay for most positions.” According to Salary.com, bilingual pay differentials range between 5 and 20 percent per hour more than the position’s base rate.
- Travel and cultural opportunities: Wouldn’t it be a great experience to spend time in another country working with the locals? Translators and language teachers often spend time teaching English in other countries to young students. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics in 2008, 22 percent of teachers and interpreters are self-employed and contract their work to coincide with their schedule.
There are many opportunities that come with being bilingual, such as career expansion and job flexibility. Bilingualism is useful in any job and creates many job incentives. Fluency in more than one language can increase an employee’s value, create potential for a higher salary, and provide opportunities for travel. If you are having trouble meeting the needs of your bilingual customers, the Team at AnswerNow can provide quality service to both Spanish and English speaking customers!
Contact us today and let us help your Spanish-speaking customers receive the service they need!
Now that you realize low flat rate answering services are not giving your customers the quality of service you desire, it’s time to consider other options. Are you thinking of choosing an answering service with an adjustable billing rate, but are a little frightened of what you’re getting into? Well don’t let the term “adjustable” scare you. This simply means there is room for personalization, flexibility and growth!
The idea behind having an adjustable rate is that you’ll simply pay for the service you use. Essentially, you are paying for the operators’ time to assist your callers. This billing platform offers numerous benefits.
For example, this would allow for much greater flexibility when staffing for your call volume, including potential spikes and long term growth. This would also mean if your call volume is consistent, your bill will be as well.
By hiring an answering service that allows for fluctuation in your call volume, customers are less likely to encounter long hold times and will succeed in giving them the impression that your company is always there for them. In the end, your business could actually save money by hiring an answering service that charges based on usage!
If you are employing any kind of marketing strategy in hopes of bringing in new customers, you must also have a sound strategy to retain them! Being able to quickly reach someone acting as your company’s representative is the best way to show customers they are important to your business. A live, knowledgeable person captures leads, builds relationships with customers and is able to close deals. Therefore, you and the rest of your employees are able to focus on growing your business in other ways (or maybe just taking a much deserved day off!). The question is not “how much money should I spend on marketing?”, it is “how do I make sure my marketing funds are being spent most effectively?” Hiring an answering service is a smart and affordable way to greatly improve your return on investment when spending those crucial marketing dollars!
Bilingual Training
By · CommentsMany businesses have customers who primarily speak Spanish, or are completely bilingual. It can be difficult for a company to employ enough staff members to make sure that their Spanish-speaking clients are serviced, let alone provided with the same level of quality service that the company aims to deliver. At AnswerNow, hiring and maintaining a team that is capable of providing exceptional quality service to both Spanish and English speaking customers is our priority!
In order to attract and retain bilingual Team Members, those who are proven to have excellent language skills in both English and Spanish are offered a higher rate of pay for most positions. Our bilingual Team Members are of great value to our Team, so when we are hiring, we make sure that our bilingual candidates are up to the challenge. When going through the application process, each candidate is given a verbal comprehension test in English. This ensures that all applicants have a strong enough sense of the English language to be able to provide excellent customer service to all of our English-speaking clients, without fear that a language barrier will become an issue. Later in the hiring process, bilingual candidates are tested on their Spanish-speaking skills. During their second interviews, these candidates engage in an additional question-and-answer process with one of our bilingual hiring managers, done completely in Spanish. This allows our hiring manager to discover whether or not an applicant’s Spanish skills are strong enough to provide our Spanish-speaking clients with the exceptional customer service that AnswerNow provides.
Once qualified applicants have been chosen, they undergo detailed training on professionalism and terminology associated with any accounts they may be assigned to work on. Bilingual candidates are given practice in both Spanish and English scenarios, in order to ensure they are prepared to handle any situation that may come their way. Approximately 60% of our staff is bilingual, and we guarantee in-house bilingual Team Members will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year! Don’t miss out on potential customers due to a lack of Spanish skills! Allow AnswerNow to help your Spanish-speaking customers receive the service they need, and never miss out on another opportunity again! Check out a few of our bilingual posts – Manteniendo sus Datos Seguros y Poniendo Las Necesidades De Sus Clientes En Primero.
Using a Live Answering Service
By · CommentsHas everyone seen the “My name is Peggy” Discover Card commercials? One of the best commercials is when the phone call gets “transferred” throughout the “office,” which is actually a shack. They’re pretty humorous, but it leaves you wondering how many answering services are possibly run out a basement, providing poor customer service. AnswerNow opened its doors 13 years ago as a comprehensive, full-service answering company, and has grown tremendously since then. Our facility is equipped not only with state of the art technology but a very comfortable and fun environment for all of our employees.
Hiring a live answering service when you are away from the office can help with managing an overflow of calls and taking of messages, and most importantly, helps promote customer loyalty. This provides you the satisfaction of knowing that your customers will always be taken care of when they contact your business. It’s important to consider what jobs the answering service will perform for your company. Services can include answering calls, taking messages, scheduling appointments, or providing help desk support for your merchandise. Whatever the job requires, you must ensure that your answering service can support your customer needs.
Using AnswerNow
AnswerNow offers you many services to choose from when creating your custom account. As your answering service, we will answer your overflow calls for you, and your customers won’t become agitated waiting on hold or repeatedly leaving messages. AnswerNow makes sure your customers are taken care of around the clock with 24-hour messaging. Our skilled and professional Team Members will take messages, forward calls, and manage your other virtual reception needs. AnswerNow also offers you bilingual answering services! Our call centers can even operate as a full-service help desk, offering knowledgeable answers to common customer questions about your products.
Don’t get stuck with a “Peggy”… contact us today for a custom quote!
When making the decision to hire an answering service, for either your entire or partial call volume, there are a variety of factors to consider. The budget may appear lacking when seeking outside help, but don’t let this be a detour. It’s all about opportunity costs here – where you choose to allocate your time and money.
It may be most appealing to choose an answering service who offers a low monthly flat rate rather than a seemingly higher adjustable rate. When doing so, you can certainly expect a consistent bill and the notion you’re saving money. But let’s not leave out the service level, which would result in poor service for both you and your callers.
Providers who offer these low flat rates do not allow themselves the resources to properly handle real-life call volume. It’s easy to list a consistent call volume on paper, but what happens when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday and your office is closed on Monday? Most people don’t think twice about a weekend holiday and inevitably call businesses like yours expecting assistance. Since you have an answering service, these callers should still be helped, at the same service level as a regular day, right? This outcome is not likely if you are paying a low flat rate.
For example, if you are paying an answering service the same amount of money, regardless of your call volume, why would they choose to incur more cost on additional staffing when it doesn’t matter how many calls get answered? Instead, staffing levels would remain the same, since that is what you are paying for. Your callers are likely going to receive poor service, due to the overwhelming stress on the operators, or they will hang up due to a long wait time. Not only do you lose that business, but you may also be harming your company’s good reputation.
The same principle applies to your growing business needs. Although you’re now getting more calls, this doesn’t mean you’re getting more operators to answer them. It’s highly unlikely that any business is going to hire and pay additional staff to support your business when it’s going to hurt their own bottom line. Plans to invest in marketing promotions, such as newspaper or television ads, are not an option. With the unpredictable spikes in call volume that marketing can create, there likely wouldn’t be the additional operators necessary to answer those calls, at least in a timely and friendly manner.
Ultimately, those running a business in such a manner are not focusing on how to best serve their clients. Employing the resources of an answering service should benefit your company’s goals for customer satisfaction, retention, and most of all. . .growth! If you’d prefer your callers to have excellent customer service, and the flexibility with your call volume to help retain those potential customers that your marketing campaign brings in, all while remaining within a reasonable cost, then perhaps you should choose an answering service which offers an adjustable billing rate!
To learn more about answering services with an adjustable billing rate, stayed tuned for Billing Methods for an Answering Service installment 2 – Adjusting for a new Era.
Hiring the Right Team
By · CommentsWe’ve recently discussed preparing your business for growth and success, and you can read about that in our two blogs “Preparing for Growth” and “Cross off Time Consuming Tasks.” In order to execute your resolutions efficiently, you need to have a dedicated team. Hiring is one of the most important activities at AnswerNow, as we require a team that is educated, knowledgeable, sincere and ready to excel.
First we look at a candidate’s application to verify that they meet our minimum requirements. Primarily we are looking for those with a strong background in customer service, but we also take into consideration qualities such as typing speed, education, and any supervisory experience they may have acquired. We also make sure that the applicant’s availability is acceptable for the position they are applying for. As a business that is open 24 hours a day, it is important that our Team Members are able to maintain a flexible schedule.
For the applicants that meet the minimum requirements, they are then asked to complete a personality type profile test. The test we use provides us with insight into the applicant as a person, analyzing their levels of patience, sociability, and other characteristics that typically play an important role in their success here. The test also contains a section on verbal comprehension which is extremely crucial to a Team Member’s ability to fulfill their job duties successfully.
Once our Human Resources team has reviewed an applicant’s testing results, and the applicant appears to be a good fit for the position they are applying for, they are then scheduled for a phone interview. This interview includes a list of standard questions including information on experiences the applicant may have had, and what their approach would be to certain kinds of tasks. This information is generally used to see if a person’s problem-solving abilities are where we would like them to be, that they have a strong inclination to provide excellent customer service, and that there are no inconsistencies between what is on their application and the information that they provide while speaking to one of our interviewers.
The applicants who come across as professional, friendly, engaging and seemingly ready to work are then called in for a second interview. At this point, the individual in charge of the phone interview has already formed an opinion of the applicant, so another interviewer runs the second, in-person interview, in order to get a fresh perspective of the candidate. If both interviews go well, the two interviewers will compare notes and make a final decision. If an applicant is selected, they must then pass a drug and nicotine test, as well as a background check.
Unlike many other businesses with a tangible product, it’s the quality of work and the dedication of our employees that makes our customer service exceptional. Do you have what it takes to join our Team? Give us a call today or fill out our online application!
Preparing Your Business for Growth
By · CommentsYou have probably seen some improvements in your business so far, but how will it thrive and become much more successful this year? Growth can definitely be stressful and bring many new challenges, but growing is a necessity for your business’s survival and your economic well-being. How prepared are you for growth? Do you know how hard you are going to have to work? Are you ready and willing to do what it takes?
Ways to Grow
More than likely, you have many repeat customers, and they stick around because you have developed and maintained strong relationships with them. Use this to your advantage and ask for referrals! Ask your satisfied customers if they know anyone else who would be interested in your products or services. Getting new customers is just another approach to growing your business. Another fantastic way to grow your business is to find innovative ways to promote new uses for your products and services. This is a great way to keep your existing customers interested and an even better way to attract new customers! AnswerNow understands the importance of building trust with clients; we study their product which enhances the services we provide for them. We go above and beyond for our customers, and that gives us the opportunity to confidently seek and retain referrals.
Most importantly, take care of your people. It’s your team that keeps you successful; recognize and respond to the hard work your employees do. Create an environment in which people want to work. Also, take care of everyone who can have an effect on your operation. The typical turnaround for call center jobs is 90-120 days; here at AnswerNow it’s 6 years! We value our people by giving them respect and providing them with enjoyment in their job.
How AnswerNow Can Help
AnswerNow would love to help you grow your business by becoming a part of your team. We make sure our Team is up to date on all your products and services. We also handle every call and customer inquiry in an efficient manner and are available at all times of the day. To eliminate any confusion, we assign each customer with an account manager as the point of contact. With our extensive training and management skills, we guarantee your customers will experience only the best service.
Do you feel your business is devoting a lot of time scheduling appointments? Let AnswerNow manage this for you! We can schedule incoming appointment requests, as well as make outbound calls to schedule appointments. Not to mention we also offer automated appointment reminders that integrate with any scheduling software, reducing no-calls and no-shows!
Let AnswerNow help your business grow and become successful; call us today for a custom quote!
Cross Off Time Consuming Tasks!
By · CommentsLet’s reminisce for a moment; your mom just put a plate of steamy, unappetizing food in front of you for dinner, and instead of inhaling the stinky mess, you swirl it around on your plate to make it look as if you’ve at least tried a few bites. Did it work back then? That sneaky trick definitely doesn’t work in the case of a long to-do list. Aside from answering hundreds of emails and returning call after call, you also have clients to communicate with, orders to place, assistance to provide, and possibly appointments to set. That’s a lot of tasks to accomplish on what seems like a long, daunting list, so instead of swirling them around and making a mess, it’s time to cross them off!
AnswerNow Can Help!
The Team at AnswerNow is highly trained to handle the tasks you and your staff just can’t find the time to accomplish; we like to think of our team being an extension of your own. Our call center services include order entry so we can process orders over the phone, as well as help desks and hotlines to provide answers and technical assistance. We can also help you gather leads and serve customers more efficiently with our custom database services.
AnswerNow understands the importance of your business, and we want to help you grow. Give us a call today to build your customized answering service! 1-800-226-0491
2012 Business Planning
By · CommentsBelieve it or not, the New Year has finally arrived. Are you ready? We recently wrote a blog titled, “Preparing for the Holidays“, which discusses preparation tips for the busy holiday season and your business. In this blog, we will discuss preparations for the New Year. A successful business plan is a comprehensive, written description of your business and what better time to make this plan than right before the New Year? You’ll need to make sure this plan includes detailed reports on products and services, marketing strategy, human resources, organization, financing requirements and sources and uses of funds.
How can AnswerNow Help
Our answering services will help your business maximize efficiency and productivity. Our Team makes sure there is always someone available to you and your customers. We will handle an overflow of phone calls, manage order entry, and we even offer automated appointment reminders and scheduling. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By choosing AnswerNow to help with your business plan, we allow you to outsource your customer service needs to a team of qualified (and bilingual) professionals who can process telephone orders, answer pre-sale questions, and even respond to routine customer support inquiries. This saves you time and assists in increased productivity!
Contact us today to begin your customized plan!
