Almost every company outsourcing to a live answering service uses some form of on-call dispatching for their after hours or business hours calls that require immediate attention. And why not! Businesses don’t want to drop the ball on potential sales, and customers with urgent requests don’t want to be left waiting until the next business day to be heard. Letting a virtual receptionist give you a buzz to pass important messages along or transfer callers is a great way to harness the power of an answering service. This leaves customers wondering, “If it’s one of the best tools an answering service can offer, is there a way we can get more out of it, and how should we structure our on-call?”

We are an answering service, so naturally, we have your answers! We looked at hundreds of accounts who use on-call dispatching as part of their script, compared it against any customer service issues for each client related to on-call, and found 6 similarities among the best performing campaigns.

1. Keep the on-call information updated

Just like you wouldn’t let your on-call schedule go outdated in your own office, you shouldn’t let your on-call schedule expire with your answering service either. In order to maintain a successful outsourcing experience, you have to make sure you are always on the same page as your  service. That means if something changes in your office, your answering service should be notified of the change as well. If you don’t, your answering service will wind up making errors that could cost you business.

2. If there’s a problem, we’ll let you know – you just need to act

Whenever our operators encounter a problem with a script, they always log the error for our support team to look into. Our support team then starts a case with the client to alert them of the error so that we can try to come to a resolution. Once our team alerts you of an error, the best thing to do is to respond with an answer, and to do so quickly. The quicker we can get the issue resolved, the quicker your customers can continue to receive the best service possible. Some examples of the most common on-call errors we come across include:

• Expired on-call schedule: If your on-call schedule has not been updated, the system is going to pull the last known configuration and use that as a guide. That means that if Paul was the last scheduled person from 2 weeks ago, the system will continue to dispatch to Paul until you can update the schedule with new information.
• Staff no longer works for the company: Often times we’ll see that businesses update their own company roster, but fail to keep their answering service in the loop. Whenever you add or remove employees, you always want to make sure your on-call staff list is properly updated and your schedule reflects the changes.
• Incorrect phone number: Just like how some businesses fail to alert us with updated employee rosters, they also sometimes fail to let us know when an employee changes his or her phone number. Keeping phone numbers updated is one of the many keys to ensuring successful interactions.
• Incorrect schedule: If you’re not familiar with making updates in our on-call platform, it can be easy to make a couple mistakes here and there. That is why we offer articles and tutorials within our help desk to guide customers in making changes. However, if making updates just isn’t your thing, our customer support staff would be happy to help!
• Schedule is not integrated: In order for our operators to access your on-call schedule, it must be integrated into your script. Many customers think that just adding their schedule to the portal is enough, but they often forget that second step. While our support staff is pretty good at making sure schedules are properly integrated, some do slip through the cracks. If you do happen to add a schedule, send a quick message to our support staff so they can double check your work!

3. Understanding what a schedule start-stop time refers to

When creating your on-call schedule in SAS’s portal, the system will require you to select a start/stop time for your on-call rotation. Essentially, this will dictate when your schedule will start and when it will change over to the next person. No matter what time you select, the start/stop time frame runs for a full 24 hours. So, if you select 8am, your schedule will start at 8am, and end at 8am the following day.

If you have the same person on-call all week, the schedule won’t technically “end” but it allows the system to know when one day has ended and another begins. If you have multiple shifts throughout a 24 hour period, you can create a custom time frame. The time frame will still run for 24 hours, but the custom setting will allow you to add multiple different time slots within the 24 hour period. For example, you could have one employee on-call from 8am-2pm, another employee on-call from 2pm-10pm, and another employees on-call from 10pm-8am the following morning. As long as you complete a 24 time frame, you can add as many time slots as you want.

4. A status update is not an on-call update

Not to be confused with an on-call update, a status update is a change you can make within your SAS portal that allows you to provide temporary instructions for the operators. The temporary instructions don’t actually change your call handling, they just add a simple note for the agents. After your set time frame for the status update has expired, the instructions automatically get removed from your script.

A status update is great to use when there are last minute changes and customer service isn’t able to make the update in the time that you need it to go into effect, or you’re on the go and can’t reach out. However, it is not error-proof, and should only be used as a last ditch effort when you need an immediate change. Otherwise, we always recommend updating your actual script or on-call schedule to guarantee your updates are followed.

5. When to use a warm transfer, and when to go cold

Since each customer interaction is different, you probably want to handle different situations in different ways. For example, if a potential customer calls who is interested in your service, you may want those calls warm transferred to your sales team to close the deal. However, if an existing customer calls with an issue that isn’t urgent, you may want to cold transfer them to your support team. If no one is available, they can leave a message for a return call. If you’re not sure what the difference is between a warm and a cold transfer, don’t worry! We broke them down for you below:

• Warm transfer: During a warm transfer, the operator would put the caller on hold, dial the appropriate contact, and see if they are available to accept the call. If they are, they transfer the caller through. If they are not, they either attempt a different number, or they go back to the caller to gather the message.
• Cold transfer: During a cold transfer, the operator would not put the caller on hold to see if the appropriate contact is available. Instead, the operator would just transfer the caller blindly. If the contact was not available, the caller would be able to leave a voicemail for a return call

6. Send it early and we’ll make the updates

If you’re not comfortable making your on-call changes yourself, our support team would be more than happy to do it for you! However, you should always send updates prior to when you actually need them done, so that our team has ample time to complete them, review them, and get them back to you.

When our team is forced to make updates in a pinch, there are more chances for errors. Additionally, if multiple clients are requesting changes at the exact same time, your updates may fall into a queue which prolongs the time it takes to get them done. So, if you need us to make updates, make sure you are sending them to us at least 2 days in advance to guarantee they are done in a timely fashion, and done right.

The post 6 Foundations of a Flawless On-Call Dispatching System appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

Since most companies can’t afford to staff 24/7, businesses who operate outside of traditional office hours need a reliable on-call scheduling system to engage employees after hours. If you’re not staffing around the clock, on-call management is something that’s handled amazingly well by answering services. If you’re already using an answering service for your on-call dispatch, congratulations! Check out our 5 tips below to take steps toward an error free on-call management system.

#1. Keep Your Schedule Updated in Advance

Whether you’re working with an answering service or not, keeping your on-call schedule updated in advance is a must. Not only does it allow your staff to plan their evenings, it also eliminates the stress of scrambling for coverage at the last minute. Having your on-call schedule updated in advance ensures that the right person is always being contacted.

If your schedule is not current, your answering service may contact the wrong person, or maybe even no one at all, which could be a disaster. Other disaster scenarios include:

• Your employee telling the service they have the wrong employee and hanging up
• Having the wrong employee handling the request when it’s someone else’s responsibility
• The employee ignoring the call because they aren’t scheduled
• Customers being upset
• Inflated answering service invoices due to the agent scrambling to pass the message to someone

If possible, see if your answering service can set up alerts letting you know if your on-call is out of date or expiring soon. Often times, companies will update their on-call schedules internally and forget to notify their service of the changes.

Pro tip: See if your answering service allows you to update your on-call schedule for a few months in advance so you don’t have to worry about it each month!

#2. Keep Your Contacts Updated

In addition to keeping your on-call schedule updated,  you’ll want to make sure your employee contact information is up to date, too. For example, if someone leaves your company, or if people are new to the schedule, the service needs to be notified. In addition, while your staff members may stay the same, their phone numbers or emails may change, so you’ll want your answering service to stay up to date with that information as well. There’s nothing worse than for an answering service agent to reach the on-call just to have them say ‘I haven’t worked there in months.’

Pro tip: Doing monthly check ins with your answering service is a great way to make sure everything’s running smoothly and is also a great opportunity to make updates if necessary! 

#3. Switch Your Protocol At Night

While some businesses just use an answering service after hours, many businesses forward their calls throughout the day as well. For example, HVAC companies may use an answering service during the day in a roll-over capacity for calls they can’t get to. Typically, customers are alerted about these ‘office hour’ messages via text or email.

However, if your answering service is simply being a receptionist and texting or emailing messages during the day, it’s a good idea to have a true on-call protocol in place at night. After hours, instead of texting and/or emailing, you’ll want your service calling your employees. 100% of studies show it’s much harder to sleep through a phone call than an email. The quicker your staff members can respond to an emergency, the better your business looks, and the happier your customers will be.

#4. Make Sure You Have Back Up

If your on-call staff doesn’t pick up the phone, make sure you have a back up protocol in place. For example, if your answering service is instructed to call Linda one time, but she doesn’t answer, should they just leave a message and call it quits or should they try calling her again? If she doesn’t answer again should they move on to a secondary person?

For companies where receiving urgent messages after hours is crucial, back up plans are a must. We recommend having at least 1 backup in place for every on-call schedule so there are a minimum of 2 employees on-call any evening.

You should also have a backup employee that knows how to navigate the answering services oncall system. If you need to make an urgent change to your schedule and the office guru who knows how to work the system isn’t there, you’ll want someone else who will know how to make a quick change. Give other employees access to the on-call system and train them how to work the software so you won’t be up the creek in a pinch.

#5. Keep Your Staff in the Loop

Your staff should be familiar with how your answering service works, how calls are made, which number the on-call calls come from, etc.

• Know the number texts from the answering service originate from
• Make sure the answering service originating email address is set up as a safe sender
• Make sure your employees know the phone number the service will be calling from on transfers or any on-call dispatches

In addition, if you’re using an answering service for on-call dispatch, make sure your staff knows how the service works. If they happen to miss a call, can they call the service back and retrieve the message over the phone or is there an online portal that they can access to see the messages? Can they text the service to stop a reach out? Do they need to call the service to stop the reach?

• If your service has an app, make sure everyone has it so they can access messages
• Share the forwarding number with your employees so they can call in to the service if they miss a call

The post 5 Essential On-Call Best Practices appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

What Industries Use On-Call

Medical professionals and HVAC techs will typically have their answering service use on-call rotations. For medical professionals, doctors are on-call after hours and on weekends, meaning they are available to speak with for medical emergencies. For HVAC technicians, on-call is used to describe the technician available to make an emergency site visit after hours. However, doctors and HVAC technicians are not the only businesses who use on-call rotations. Some examples of other small businesses that rely on on-call systems are:

1. Property Management Companies
2. Law Firms
3. Veterinary/Animal Hospitals
4. Locksmith Companies
5. Insurance Agencies
6. Towing Companies
7. Restoration Companies

How Do Answering Services Use On-Call?

Every answering service is different, so how each service manages your on-call data will also vary. For example, some services are able to maintain schedules years out in their software, where others may only accept a singular employee – meaning you need to inform the answering service each time the schedule changes. While the mechanism for how answering services access and program on-call schedules may vary, the premise is always the same. You provide the service with information of who to contact and when to contact them, and they contact your employees when necessary.

Once your on-call data is programmed into the answering service’s system,  the agents will know who to contact (the employee on-call), how to contact them (various phone numbers), and when to contact them (only after hours or only in emergency situations). For example, your schedule may show that on Tuesday, Dr. Stacy Brown is on-call from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM for emergencies. So, any calls received on Tuesday between those times deemed an emergency will be dispatched to her.

Pro tip: Find out from your answering service what phone number messages and calls will be coming from so that you can give your on-call team a heads up. If they do not recognize the number that is calling them, they may miss important phone calls.  

Types of On-Call

There are 6 different methods for contacting your employees where answering services can use an on-call schedule, though you are never limited to 1 of these 6 methods. Many businesses will combine some of the below examples to maximize successful contacts with their on-call personnel.

• Warm Patch: A warm patch, also known as a warm transfer, is when the answering service places the caller on hold to reach out to the appropriate on-call person. If the person does not answer, the agent would try another number. If that person does answer, the agent would inform the on-call who is on the other line and why they are calling. They would then transfer that caller through. If that second person did not answer, usually services won’t attempt to call a third number while the caller is still on the line, as they’ve already been waiting on hold for some time. However, if they still need to make contact with someone, they could then go to a reach (see below).
• Cold Patch: A cold patch, or a cold transfer, is similar to a warm transfer except the agent will not call the number first to see if someone is available. They will simply just send the caller through to either talk to the on-call or leave a message if no one answers.
• Reach: A reach on-call occurs after the answering service agent has already documented the necessary information and disconnected from the caller. Since the caller is no longer on the line, the agent can continue to call until someone picks up. If they are calling for a long period of time, usually the reach can be shared among operators so that one agent doesn’t get stuck making all of the outbound calls.
• Email: If your on-call personnel doesn’t wish to receive phone calls, you could just set up an email only on-call schedule that would simply send emails. Some services may send standard emails and some may send them as email to text (meaning that they are sent via a mobile email address but show up as a text message).
• Text: Similar to an email only schedule, a text only schedule would simply just send a text message to the on-call person or group.
• Page: Since paging has become somewhat outdated, not all answering services will offer this feature. However, answering services that cater specifically to medical accounts will probably still use paging as their primary method of reaching an on-call physician.

Does it Cost Extra?

Typically, there is no extra fee to utilize an on-call feature with your answering service. However, depending on how your service bills, you will incur more charges based on the usage that is accrued during the actual on-call attempt. For example, an answering service that bills by the call may charge you for each outbound call they make or each text and/or email they send to reach the on-call personnel.

On the other hand, an answering service that bills by the minute will charge you a per minute rate for each dial out attempt. So, while you may not see an extra charge on your regular invoice, the time spent making the reach outs will be included within your plan’s usage.

On-Call and HIPAA

Since medical offices and hospitals often use answering services to dispatch urgent messages, it’s important to make sure that PHI (private health information) stays protected. Generally speaking, most answering services are HIPAA compliant, so they abide by the regulations outlined by HIPAA. This means that no patient data can be sent via text or email, and no patient information can be left on a voicemail. So, while it does pose some challenges, there are always work arounds.

In regards to messaging, answering services that are HIPAA compliant can either fax messages, or they can give you access to a secure online portal that stores all of your messages in one place. Then they would just send you a text or an email that alerts you of a new message, with instruction to log into your portal. In regards to leaving messages, agents won’t be able to say who called or what it was about, but they can either leave a call back number so you can contact your answering service back to retrieve the information, or you can just log into your portal for the details.

Problems You May Encounter Working With On-Call Schedules

• Forgetting to Update the Schedule: If you forget to update the on-call schedule, chaos may ensue. Your answering service may default to calling the last person who was on-call, or they may not call anyone. Usually there is some sort of back up for emergencies, but you always want to make sure your on-call schedule is updated. We suggest updating or sending your schedule a month in advance to the answering service (if you can) so that you don’t have to worry about it until the next month rolls around. It’s also helpful to set a reminder for yourself so that it does not fall through the cracks. The last thing you want is to be woken up at 3am when you’re not the one on-call!
• Forgetting to Update Contacts: While you may remember to update the schedule itself, you have to remember to update the contact information as well. From our experience, often times we’ll see that we are calling the right person, but their number has changed. Or maybe an employee no longer works for the company yet we are still calling them. So, treat your answering service as an extension to your business and make sure that whatever changes occur on your side, also occur on their side.
• Setting up Improper Procedures:  If you’ve never used an answering service to dispatch urgent messages, you may not be using all of the methods available for outreach. For example, some companies may just set up a text schedule and then wonder why they missed urgent messages throughout the night. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wake up in the middle of the night when I get a text, and chances are your technicians don’t either. So, perhaps you can set up a texting schedule during the day, and then a calling schedule over night, or set up both a texting and calling schedule to work in tandem, just in case.

Benefits of Using an On-Call System

• 24/7 Customer Support: Letting your callers know that they can still reach you after hours gives an added sense of security, even if they may be in a crummy situation. When your customers or patients know that you are there for them to take care of their emergency, they will return the favor by giving you more of their own business, in addition to recommending you to others.
• Quick Resolution: No one likes waiting for their issue to be fixed, especially now when technology allows users to receive information within seconds. When your callers are stuck in a predicament after hours, they may not want to wait for you to be available during business hours. They are going to call other businesses until someone is able to help them. This means a potential loss of business for you, which leads us to our next point…
• More Business: If a caller knows your company offers after hours service, you open up the door for way more business opportunities. In addition, many companies use after hours service as a way to charge extra for their techs to go out, which means more money in the bank. All in all, being available after hours will leave a lasting impression to your customers.

The post On-Call Definition: What is On-Call and How Do Answering Services Use It? appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

Problem: It takes too long to recreate a schedule over and over.

Solution: Why fret? Use Quick set.

• Quick set applies the schedule you create to predefined dates and ranges. This option is perfect if you are building an on-call calendar that rotates daily, by weekday, by weekend, or monthly. Quick set can be utilized up to 3 months in advance.
• For example, Joe D. Tech is the on-call plumber every Monday.  Choose Every Monday from the Quick set menu, and then set how long you’d like this change to take effect: This month, Next month, Next 2 months, Next 3 months.

Problem: I wish I could just glance at the schedule and know who is on-call.

Solution: Color your world with Label settings.

• Keep yourself organized by selecting a color block when setting your call rotation. Choose a color from the Label settings palette, complete the Contact settings details, and then save your schedule. The color you selected will show on the full calendar for the date or dates you selected.
• For example, assign the color pink to the on-call physician Dr. Wilma Headhurt. At first glance, you will know what days she is the on-call doctor.

Problem: It would be much easier if I could use an on-call schedule template to add multiple contacts at the same time.

Solution: Don’t fly solo. Join a Group.

• Creating an on-call Group will help you build out your duty rotation schedule in one click.
• For example, add a group called “Support – Doug A. Ditch / Ivana Brake.” Set up the protocol (reach, warm patch, cold patch, email only), assign a color, and let us know what to do if we reach voicemail. Then, use the Choose group drop down when building your schedule to instantly populate the group list.

Problem: I might forget to update my schedule.

Solution: Expiration alerts will keep you on your toes.

• Once an Expiration alert is set, you’ll receive an email daily for X number of days prior to the expiry date, and X number of days after the schedule expires or until you’ve updated it.
• For example, add an email address to receive a notification when the schedule is about to expire. You can set the alert for anywhere from 1 to 10 days before and after the expiry date. If you need a backup, just add multiple email addresses, and the system will automatically alert everyone.

The SAS on-call rotation software is a free scheduling software for all Specialty Answering Service clients. Next time you update your on-call schedule, lend yourself a hand by testing out one of the convenience features above. And happy scheduling!

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