At PCN we are always on the lookout for great people. We know how important our operators are to our customers, so we take the hiring and training process very seriously. We only hire operators that we know will  be a friendly and professional “voice” of your company, and will treat your customers like you would treat your customers. This month we are happy to welcome 4 new operators to the PCN family. You can read about them below!

BRANDI CHAVEZ

Brandi graduated from high school in 2011 and she is currently looking into colleges. In her spare time, Brandi enjoys going to the desert.

ELIZABETH WOOLS

Beth is a student, and school starts up again in September. She loves animals and she works at Woodcrest Vet and volunteers at S. Roberts Adoption Center. Beth enjoys watching television in her spare time.

SCOTT BUSSEY

For those of you who know Vicky Bussey, Scott is her son. He graduated from high school in 2011 and this is his first job. Scott enjoys lifting weights, football, video games, and bike riding.

JACQUELINE LANG

Jacqueline is a senior at Citrus Hill High School where she is an athletic and sports medicine trainer. She is looking forward to graduation this month! Jacqueline likes to spend her free time hanging out with her family.

Be sure to give each of our new family members the PCN welcome!

Hearing your clients’ needs is vital to unlocking your business’s true potential; call answering services are the key to not only building clientele, but also keeping them loyal. Hiring a call answering service lets you capture business that others let slip away.

Customers Want to Be HEARD, and Call Answering Services Listen

Is this how your customers think of your phone line?

You spend good money on advertising – which is not cheap by any means – and for other necessities to put your business out ahead of others. So, what can call answering services offer you over and above that? Well, say someone is intrigued by an advertisement and gives your business a call. What do you want them to hear? – A telephone answering service right? Of course, you want them to hear a live, professional operator. This is what your client wants as well, no matter the type of business.

People want to be heard. Being heard means by a person, not a machine. A call answering service offer just that: live professional caring service. Clients know that they have a choice and the choice they make is greatly affected by the type of treatment they receive from your business. Call answering services are the best at truly hearing your customers and making sure they feel valued and heard.

You might say “but wait, I’m always courteous to my clients – they know that I really care about how I manage my business”; but what about your receptionist? OK – say you have the best receptionist ever, never a day where you have to hire a temp. What happens after hours? Usually a recorded answering machine with an “I’m sorry…” message is set up to answer calls. That’s not good enough; you need a call answering service.

Getting More from Your Calls through Call Answering Services

Answering machines are great at taking information – if they are not full. However, call answering services not only excel at gathering information and asking the best questions, but also giving back to the client. Call answering services give clients the peace of mind that their phone call was important enough for you to make sure there was a call answering service, not just a machine, to take it. This is especially important in the medical field, where a full answering machine cannot help with an emergency. Your patients need the assistance that medical answering services provide.

Call answering services go a lot further than just to your immediate callers as well. Remember, word of mouth can sometimes make or break a business. The inability to reach a business or impolite or distracted phone handling often results in a client not recommending a company to their friends and associates. A telephone answering service operator is able to concentrate on one thing: your telephone calls. Unlike receptionists or secretaries, a call answering service operator at PCN has one job and that is to handle each call as if it is the most important ever.

Call Answering Services: The Bottom Line

Every business owner has a choice: listen to the needs of your clientele and push your business strength further by hiring a telephone answering service, or do things the old fashioned way and let a machine take their calls. Making sure people realize your business cares and is ready to do business is one inexpensive and simple step away. Employing our expert call answering services here at Professional Communications Network ensures that people know you mean business.

Why a medical telephone answering service? Good question…

As a doctor, each and every patient has given you the gift of their trust and, in a way, their life. Trust is kept by open and effective communication, which is also vital for good caregiving. Does your office have what it takes to keep your patients’ trust at all hours? By hiring professional medical answering services you show that no matter what hour or day, you will make sure your patients have the best care possible.

Medical Answering Services Do What No Machine Can

You have enough to keep your hands full. Let our medical answering services take care of your calls.

When a patient calls a doctor’s office, their call could be for routine questions – such as when appointments are available – or for an emergency; a machine cannot tell the difference between the two. PCN medical answering services are staffed with experienced professionals who can tell the difference and make a difference.

Why just settle for “please leave your message at the beep” when instead you can have a well-trained medical answering service operator available every time your patient needs you? Qualified medical answering services have the ability to direct emergency calls towards the proper facilities or you, forward the most important calls directly to you, and handle worried patients who just need to know that you are available. After all – have you ever known a patient who was relieved to hear a machine instead of a caring and knowledgeable human or medical answering service?

Medical Answering Services Reassure Your Patients

Your patients deserve peace of mind that PCN medical answering services provide; after all, that is why they chose you over other doctors. Making sure that a medical answering service is there to personally answer their calls when your staff cannot is the best way to thank them for their choice.

Sometimes calls received after hours or when your office is unstaffed are the most important.  Professional medical answering services give you a fail-safe method by which you are sure to receive your messages rapidly, reliably, and accurately. When your patients depend on you, you can depend on your medical answering service not to let you – or your patients – down.
Leaving your clients in the hands of answering machines tells them that when you are not available, they are not on your mind. Alternately, phone answering services send the message that you were considerate and concerned enough to remain accessible via medical answering services – even in the darkest hours of the night or during holidays. If you yourself cannot be right there for your patient, they will still know that you made sure someone could be.

The Answering Machine vs. Medical Answering Services

If you are unsure whether or not a telephone answering service is right for your office, ask yourself this simple question: if your family were calling, which would you rather they reach – a machine, or a professional and helpful medical answering service who will help them get the care they need? Using Professional Communications Network medical answering services you will show your patients you feel they deserve the same quality of care you yourself would expect.

Missing a phone call in business today often means missing what could be the opportunity of a lifetime; phone answering services help ensure that your business will never miss a single, important call – or opportunity! Most people may not even be aware how much of an asset a telephone answering service can be – are you?

Phone Answering Services Pay for Themselves – And More

Running a business is neither easy nor inexpensive. The bottom line is that no one wants to spend money on an unnecessary service, and may wonder whether phone answering services are really worth the investment. The reality of phone answering services is that they catch the phone calls in a way that no answering machine can. The business that you get – and keep – through a phone answering service can easily outweigh the affordable cost of the telephone answering service.

Hiring phone answering services can be a lot less expensive than hiring a full-time secretary; such an employee would need a salary, benefits, and may miss days for vacation or illness. A phone answering service is like the perfect office assistant: inexpensive, always there, and willing to put in those extra hours – so you don’t have to!

Phone Answering Services Tell Your Clients That You Care

No one likes to hear that tell-tale click and message of an answering machine when they call someone; it says “I’m not available, I’m not accessible,” and finally “I am not really interested”. Phone answering services are manned any time you need, with a real, live, and caring person portraying the upscale image you want the customer to remember.

That first phone call is often the first impression your clients have of your services. Let’s face it – we’ve all experienced having to speak to a rude receptionist or operator at some point, and vowed never to call back again. Not having a telephone answering service there to serve your clients can be a real deal breaker. That where we come in.

Your phone answering service will be staffed by friendly, knowledgeable, and courteous operators who understand how important each call is to you. Our phone answering services can really make difference.

Phone Answering Services Bring Your Business to You Anywhere

As you probably know, business needs have a way of creeping into personal time. To stay fresh and effective, everyone needs time to regroup, spend time with family and friends, or even just be able to concentrate on business. Phone answering services allow you to focus on your highest priorities without sacrificing your business. Your success is important, and our phone answering services are there to help you succeed.

Your customer service is literally the face of your business; how your phone calls are handled directly affects your success. Many people underestimate the importance of who answers the phone, and as a result many businesses fail each year. Make sure your business is one of those that will thrive by taking advantage of all the benefits that phone answering services provide.

You’ll have complete peace of mind knowing that your business is in the very best hands using Professional Communications Network – a specialized phone answering service.

Yes, you need an answering service.

OK, I get it. I am a little bit biased when it comes to whether an answering service can benefit a company. But, to be fair, I have seen how we have been able to help our customers over the past 20+ years. I have seen us have a huge impact on sole proprietors, simply needing someone to answer the phone while they are out doing their jobs. Doctor’s offices have been incredibly happy with our service because we are able to give them flexibility and peace of mind. Small businesses love us because a professional operator can make a small business feel much larger. And who couldn’t benefit from a toll free number? Really, I have seen us help every size and kind of business or governmental agency. But I have seen some stats lately that show why an answering service can be so helpful.

Some Stats That Show That You Need An Answering Service

72% of Callers Will Hang Up Instead Of Leaving A Message

And you thought that your voice mail system was good enough. I find this stat utterly amazing. Our culture is becoming so busy and impersonal in so many ways, but we still want that personal interaction. We want to talk to somebody when we call. Whether it is your voice, or the voice of one of our friendly and professional operators, it doesn’t matter. What callers want is to talk to a live person who can either answer their question or point them to someone who can.

98% Say Poor Phone Skills Leave A Bad Impression

Do you still think that it doesn’t matter who answers your phone? This is why we spend so much time training and screening our operators. Because we know how important your customers are and we know that how we answer the phone is going to leave an impression. And we are all about leaving a good impression because we want you to be happy. And we know that the way to keep you happy is to keep your customers happy.

80% of Business’ Incoming Communications Is Over The Telephone

Think the phone is obsolete? Think again. Not only is it still the most popular form of business communication, it is by a wide margin. Email is great, but customers still prefer to hear a voice. We can answer for your company and be your voice. We treat your customers like you would treat them, and we provide excellent customer service.

71% Of Consumers Have Ended a Business Relationship Because Of A Bad Customer Service Experience

In these troubled economic times, you can’t afford to lose any customers. And if we are your answering service, we will make it less likely that you will lose any due to poor customer service. We know how to treat customers, and our operators are trained to provide exceptional customer service.

You Need An Answering Service

These are four stats that show why your business really needs an answering service, and we feel like we are the best around. And we would love to prove it to you. Give us a try for free and see if we are as good as we think we are. We make it as easy and hassle free as we can- you don’t even have to sign a contract. Just give us a call, or click the free trial button below and we can get you set up. And you will wonder, like so many of our customers do, how you ever got along without an answering service.

Want To Know How To Get A Toll Free Number?

Who wants a toll? It's easy to learn how to get a toll free number. CC image courtesy of wyfurasko on flickr

Improving customer service is something that every business wants to do if they hope to stand out in the midst of all of their competition in the area. It’s difficult to make an impact and to stand out when there is so many other businesses in the area that are all trying to snag the customers from you as well. One of the things that might help you is to get a toll free number using a phone answering service. There are many benefits to doing this that we will go into detail in this article.

First of all, you are probably wondering why in the world you would want to get a toll free number, how to get a toll free number, and how that would help your business. Well, you have probably had it happen before where you made a call to a business and had the phone ring and ring before someone ever answered the phone, and even when they did answer, the person was not able to fully answer your questions and concerns, causing you to get irritated and taking your business somewhere else. This can be infuriating, and this is one of the sole reasons why many businesses do not last and why people go elsewhere.

A telephone answering service can help you out by setting you up with a dedicated toll free number with agents who are trained on your system and who are able to handle calls in a timely and friendly manner. These reps are trained so well to your system that callers will not realize that they are talking to an answering service. These companies are able to answer questions about your business, and can take orders over the phone as well. This will help your customers to feel strongly about the business and will give them a further enticement to continue doing business with you.

Another really nice benefit of using a telephone answering service is that it gives business managers more flexibility in their management, so that they do not have to spend time managing employees working the phones; they can spend more time focusing on customers and clients that come into the business, and can also focus on the other more important aspects to keeping a successful business.

Learning How To Get A Toll Free Number Is Easy

Learning how to get a toll free number is easy enough, and you can use this to get set up with a professional telephone answering service that can handle all of your incoming phone calls. This will make your customers happy about the business that you have, and will keep them coming back to you many times and will help you to continue crushing the competition. A telephone answering service can get you set up with knowing how to get a toll free number that will greatly help you improve customer satisfaction.

Good customer service means saying sorry sometimes...

New businesses, especially those that have not employed a phone answering service, are often struggling to find their place and make an impact in their area. One part of the business that is difficult for any business in the quest to grow and improve is the customer service aspect of the business. Customer service is so important to doing well in your business and getting customers to want to come back to your business many times. What are some ways that you can improve customer satisfaction?

• Spend more time with your customers face to face.
• Make call backs to ensure customers had a pleasant experience.
• Run special discounts and deals.

These are just a few simple ways that you can improve customer service, but one major way to enhance your business would be to look at some phone answering services to handle your calls.

How Phone Answering Services Can Help Your Business

Phone answering services work to handle your entire incoming phone calls from customers and potential customers. But it begs the question, why would you want phone answering services? Here are a few reasons that an answering service would greatly help your business.

• Lower staffing responsibilities in house.
• Have all of your phone calls answered promptly.
• Well-trained staff always handling your calls.

One of the problems that many businesses face is that they have staff answering the phones that do not have the correct experience to be doing do, and so this leaves questions unanswered and concerns not being handled properly. This can leave a bad taste in the mouth of your customers and potential customers, and many of them may end up going to competing businesses in frustration, causing you to lose customers. You don’t want this to happen of course, and so you will want to get a phone answering service to handle calls for you.

Phone answering services can enhance your business mainly because it makes sure that your calls are always answered promptly and efficiently, with trained staff answering the phones that have been trained to answer calls on behalf of your business, and are able to answer questions, order products, and handle customer concerns. Many times, the customers will not even realize that they are talking to a phone answering service and not directly to the business itself. This can help your business really improve in the customer service area, and will give business managers more time to focus on more important managing responsibilities, and will give managers more time to focus on customer needs in house.

Phone Answering Services Enhance Your Business

A phone answering service can truly enhance your business, and if you are looking for a way to make a bigger impact with your customers, this may be the best route for you to go. When people call businesses, they want their questions and concerns answered promptly, they do not want to have to be transferred or to feel that they reason for calling was handled inadequately. Use phone answering services to make sure that all of your calls are handled properly and given the care that they need.

Learning how to improve customer satisfaction should be the goal of every small and large business. If businesses are not constantly getting better with customer service, then they are ultimately going to end up closing their doors. Because of this, businesses are always looking for ways that they can make a big impact, and for ways that they can better their business standards by serving their customers better. One way to do this would be to have a 24 hour call center, so that your business always has people answering the phones all day every day, and so that the phone calls are always given the attention and the care that they need.

How To Improve Customer Satisfaction By Answering The Phone Professionally

A professional answering service could be exactly what you need in terms of how to improve customer satisfaction. One of the problems that many businesses face is that they do not have people answering the phones in a proper manner. They have untrained employees that are answering phones and trying to answer questions and order products that they don’t know anything about. This often results in problems with orders, and questions that are answered incorrectly. This can create issues with your current customers and with potential customers who may end up going to a competing company. By having a telephone answering service, you can prevent this problem from happening to you.

A telephone answering service can help your business make a big time impact on customer service standards. The answering service works on your specific system, and reps are trained to handle phone calls on behalf of your business. They are able to order products, answer questions and concerns, and are always available. This will make sure that your customer satisfaction goes way up, and often times the customers will not even know that they are not talking directly to the business.

How To Improve Customer Satisfaction With Less Effort

Another benefit of having a professional answering service is the fact that it takes pressure off of managing employees in that department, and your business managers can focus more time with customers, and creating that customer satisfaction that really is a lot more important in the long run than having to manage employees answering the phones.

Overall, you will find that improving customer satisfaction is one of the main goals of all businesses. Without happy customers, your business is going to fail and not succeed, and so it is very important that you always look for ways that you can improve both your customer service standards, as well as your customer satisfaction standards. Having a telephone answering service is one way that you can be sure that you have your calls answered properly and efficiently. If you want to learn how to improve customer satisfaction, then one of the main ways that you can do this is to have a telephone answering service, and be sure that every phone call to your business is given the attention that it needs.

Feeling Trapped? A 24 hour call center can get you out of the office.

Have you been wondering how your business can have a 24 hour call center? Having phone support for your business at all hours is one of the main ways that you can greatly improve your small business customer service standards and is one way that you can stand out and make a huge impact. There are a few ways that a business can benefit from having a 24 hour call center, and lets spend a moment discussing some of these ways.

A 24 Hour Call Center Lets Customers Call At Any Time

For one, it gives your callers the opportunity to call the business at all hours of the day. Now, for some businesses this is going to be a bigger benefit than others. If your small business offers medical information or other time-sensitive information or products, then having a 24 hour call center set up will greatly increase your business and the satisfaction that people get from coming to your business. A professional answering service can give you the ability to accept phone calls 24 hours a day, so you are never unable to take an inbound call from a client.

A 24 Hour Call Center Makes Staffing Easy

Staffing can be difficult and needs to be managed, and this is another benefit of having a 24 hour professional answering service that is able to always handle your calls. Reps are trained on your system to be able to handle your calls for your specific business. They can take calls, place orders, order products, answer questions and concerns, and many times the callers will never know that they are not talking directly to the answering service. This eliminates the need to have an actually staffed set of employees dedicated to answering the phones. This will help with your payroll and will save money, time, and resources, as the time spent managing those employees can be set aside to manage and work on other top priority things going on in your business.

Having 24 hour call center support is also good because each call to your business is answered quickly and efficiently. Nothing is worse than calling a business and hearing the phone ring forever and ever before finally, someone answers it; the only problem is they aren’t trained to handle your inquiry or have to transfer you somewhere else. Keep this from happening at your business by hiring a 24 hour call center answering service that can always handle your calls efficiently and correctly.

There are many benefits to having a 24 hour call center professional answering service for your business or small business. It is important that each phone call is treated with the highest urgency and will help to leave a very strong impression about your business to your customers who call in on a day to day basis. And that is exactly what you get with a 24 hour call center like PCN.

Small business customer service is vital, no matter how busy you feel.

For small businesses, customer service is one of the main ways that they are able to stand out as a company in the face of their competing companies. It is difficult for these companies to find out and determine how they might be able to make an impact in terms of being a popular business choice in the midst of a crowd of competition. One of the things that might assist these companies with succeeding and making this impact is an answering service. Below are a couple of reasons why you need an answering service for small business customer service.

Small Business Customer Service Benefits

One of the main benefits to having an answering service for your small business is that it ensures that all of your phone calls are answered promptly and efficiently. One of the worst parts of trying out a new business is when you call them and the phone rings for a long period of time before someone ever answers the phone. You need to up your customer service in this regard (you can read my last post on how to answer the phone professionally here), and this is why an answering service for small business customer service can help you. These professional answering services have reps that are trained to take inbound phone calls on your system. When the caller calls in, the computer screen pulls up the customers information and the rep at the answering service is able to answer and talk to the customer of behalf of the business, is able to answer general questions, and is also able to place orders if needed. Many times, the customer on the line won’t even know they are not talking directly, and this leaves a great first impression for the caller about your business. As with most things in life, when it comes to small business success, you only get one shot at making a good first impression, and generally if you do not succeed at doing this, you will more than likely lose the customer to a competing business.

An Answering Service Improves Small Business Customer Service

Not only does an answering service improve your small business customer service, as we have discussed, but it also helps to alleviate some of the burden of staffing in phone personnel, allowing your small business managers to focus the time spent on staffing that department to other areas of the business that could benefit from the extra time being able to be spent on. Customer service is important, very important, but having a happy staff and a well-managed business is just as important, as without them, your business will not last long enough for you to showcase those great phone skills.

So as you can see, there are some great benefits to having an answering service for small business customer service, and you can be sure that by having this, your business will have a great shot at making a huge impact that will leave a great first and lasting impression, and keep your clients coming back to your business many times in the future.