• Dead air call: What – Operator answers the call and no one is on the line. Length – 1 second.
• Record message: What – Caller calls a business and leaves a message on the voicemail. Length – 6 seconds.
• Wrong number with no recording: What – Operator answers the call but the caller has the wrong number. There was no prerecorded greeting on the line prior to the call being answered. Length – 10 seconds.
• Wrong number with recording: What – Operator answers the call but the caller has the wrong number. There was a prerecorded greeting on the line prior to the call being answered. Length – 15 seconds.
• Gather caller’s name and immediately transfer: What – Operator documents the caller’s name and immediately transfers the call. Length – 30 seconds.
• Question about business location: What – Operator answers questions regarding the business’s location. Length – 45 seconds.
• Question about business hours: What – Operator answers questions regarding the business’s office hours. Length – 1 minute.
• Question about prices: What – Operator answers questions regarding the business’s pricing. Length – 1 minute and 15 seconds.
• Question about services: What – Operator answers questions regarding the services the business provides. Length – 1 minute and 30 seconds.
• Question about insurance: What – Operator answers questions regarding if the business accepts insurance, and what types. Length – 1 minute and 45 seconds.
• Take message with Name, Number and Regarding: What – The operator documents the caller’s name, phone number and reason for call. Length – 2 minutes.
• Take message with Name, Number, Email and Regarding: What – The operator documents the caller’s name, phone number, email and reason for call. Length – 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
• Take message with Name, Number, Email, How Heard and Regarding: What – The operator documents the caller’s name, phone number, email, how they heard about the company and reason for call. Length – 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
• Take message and reach out to on-call: What – The operator documents the caller’s message and reaches out to the on-call staff. Length – 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
• Employee call out: What – The operator takes a call for an employee calling out of work and documents the reason. Length – 3 minutes.
• Event registration: What – The operator registers the caller for a specific event and reserves their spot. Length – 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
• Process telethon donation: What – The operator processes a donation for a telethon by taking payment from the caller over the phone. Length – 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
• Cancel appointment: What – The operator cancels an appointment made by a caller. Length – 3 minutes and 45 seconds.
• Prescription refill: What – The operator documents the name and number of the prescription and submits the form to the office. Length – 4 minutes.
• Request lab results: What – The operator requests lab results on behalf of the patient by documenting their name, number and date of appointment then sending the message through. Length – 4 minutes and 15 seconds.
• Schedule appointment: What – The operator schedules an appointment for the caller directly on the business’s calendar software. Length – 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
• Reschedule appointment: What – The operator cancels the original appointment and reschedules a new one on behalf of the caller. Length – 5 minutes.
• Product recall: What – The operator talks to the caller regarding a product recall, helps answer questions and escalates their message. Length – 5 minutes and 30 seconds.
• Access outside website to submit a support ticket: What – The operator goes out to the business’s own website to submit a support ticket on behalf of the caller. Length – 6 minutes.
• Seminar registration: What – The operator registers the caller for a specific seminar and reserves their spot by processing payment on behalf of the business. Length – 7 minutes.
• Employment screening: What – The operator follows a scripted workflow to screen potential employees for the business to follow up with. Length – 8 minutes.
• Access online catalog to answer questions: What – The operator goes out to the business’s online catalog to help answer caller questions regarding products. Length – 10 minutes.
• Access online catalog to process order: What – The operator goes out to the business’s online catalog to help callers process orders. Length – 12 minutes.
• Access outside website to process refund: What – The operator goes out to the business’s website to assist the caller with processing a refund. Length – 15 minutes.
• Basic help desk call:  What – The operator follows a scripted workflow to troubleshoot a basic help desk issue. Length – 20 minutes.
• Conduct a survey: What – The operator conducts a survey with the caller on behalf of the business. Length – 25 minutes.
• Process loan application: What – The operator assists a caller with processing a loan application on behalf of the business. Length – 27 minutes.
• Advanced help desk call: What – The operator follows a complex scripted workflow to troubleshoot an advanced help desk issue. Length – 60 minutes.

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Below we’ve outlined common call handling scenarios and broke them down into both good and bad practices so you know what to implement for your own answering service, and what to steer clear of.

#1. A Driving Initial Greeting

Good Practice: If you’re outsourcing, a good call handling practice is to ask a driving question up front to help steer the call. While asking “how may I help you?” would work in a regular office, it opens up a window for callers to start rambling.

A better approach is to ask a question like “are you calling to schedule an appointment?” or “is this an emergency?” so that your virtual receptionists can maintain control over the call. In addition, this approach also works to eliminate any excess talk time, which could eventually burn right through your wallet.

Bad Practice: Aside from asking a general “how may I help you?” to open the call, adding a lengthy, complicated greeting is also a recipe for disaster. For example: “Hello and thank you for calling the pediatric dental office of Dr. Lugiewicz, where we strive to make your child smile. How may I help you today?” is definitely something your answering service should not be saying.

If your service is strictly answering calls for your office only, then it may be fine to have them use that greeting. However, in most cases answering services answer for many different businesses, so they probably don’t have the time to perfect your greeting specifically. Not to mention it will also sound uber unprofessional when it inevitably gets botched.

Pro tip: If you do want your answering service to say a custom greeting, see if your service can add a custom recording that would play each time someone calls. That way you can eliminate the room for error and still make sure your callers know they have reached the right place. 

#2. Multiple Call Paths

Good Practice: Another good call handling practice is to screen callers to see why they are calling, and handle accordingly. For example, existing patients may become frustrated if they have to provide the same information over and over again each time they call, like their date of birth, their insurance, their address, how they heard about you, etc.

Now, while a patient’s address or insurance may change from visit to visit, a good practice would just be to ask “has your address or insurance changed since the last time you’ve been here?” instead of asking “what is your address?” and “what is your insurance?” That way the caller can either reply “yes” or “no” and if “yes”, they can then proceed to provide their new information.

Bad Practice: Asking every single caller the exact same information is a surefire way to tick off your patients, especially if they’re having an emergency. Imagine if an OBGYN practice asked a woman in labor what her insurance is and how she heard about the practice when a baby is literally drop kicking it’s way out. You’d have one unhappy woman on your hands and probably some not so great reviews to deal with.

Having multiple call paths for your operators to choose from is the key to make everyone happy. Not only does it make for a better call experience for the patient, but it also makes it easier for the office staff to prioritize messages and return calls accordingly.

#3. Add FAQs

Good Practice: If your answering service isn’t able to answer basic questions, they’ll wind up spending more time taking messages, which means more time you have to spend calling people back. While all accounts should be programmed with basic FAQs, it’s good practice to include other frequently asked questions that are sure to come up. For example, you’d probably want to include things like:

• Insurance information: Do you accept insurance? What insurance do you accept? Can patients pay out of pocket?
• Key contacts: Who are the doctors at your practice? If your business name is similar to other medical offices, callers may be confused and may ask if they are calling Dr. Smith’s office.
• Location: Many medical offices have multiple locations, which would be important to include within your FAQs. It’s also helpful to add in recognizable landmarks surrounding your practice just in case callers are lost and need help finding your building.
• Services: Depending on the type of medical practice you run, you may offer different services. For example, a mental health clinic may offer counseling services, massage therapy services, hypnotherapy services, etc.

Bad Practice: Not adding any FAQs to your account is definitely a good way to set the operators, and your business, up for failure. Many times people call just to ask questions, so imagine how frustrating it would be to your callers when they can’t find their answer online, and they can’t get an answer from your business, either. A good answering service experience will leave the caller feeling like they got something accomplished.

Pro tip: Adding too many FAQs is also bad practice. While you want the operators to be able to answer questions, there are some things that are better left unsaid. At least, they’re better left unsaid by your answering service. So, make like Goldilocks and find the perfect balance.

#4. Take Advantage of Appointment Scheduling

Good Practice: You may be using an answering service to help schedule appointments. A good practice for scheduling appointments is to use a user-friendly scheduling platform that the virtual receptionists will have no problem accessing or scheduling on. Whether the software is accessed via your website, or it’s a shared platform like Google Calendar, the easier it is to use, the less problems you’ll encounter.

Pro tip: If your practice has multiple  locations, you’ll want to set up calendars for each to avoid double booking. If you’re using your own calendar, you should implement a type of drop down that will allow the operators to select different locations.

Bad Practice: Most people are calling their doctors office to schedule an appointment. So, if you have a web based scheduling system and are not giving the answering service access to it, you’ll end up with angry patients. It can be very frustrating for a patient to take the time to call your office, only to be told they have to leave their information for a call back.

It also creates more work on your side, when you or your office staff have to call these people back to schedule them yourselves. Most answering services are capable of scheduling, so make your callers happy and take advantage of those features!

#5. Setup Emergency Dispatching

Good Practice: If you run a medical practice, you’ll definitely be receiving phone calls for emergencies. Whether little Timmy fell down the well and broke his arm, or little Suzie is breaking out in hives from eating too many cookies, there’s no telling what could come up. But, as a medical provider, you have to be prepared for it all, which means your answering service also needs to be prepared.

Setting up an on-call system is definitely a must. Often times patients or parents of patients will look for guidance from your office first before jumping the gun and going right to the emergency room. Something your callers could think is the worst of the worst may not be that bad, or they may put something really bad off when it actually should be dealt with right away. However, without a doctor to speak to after hours, they may not know! Your on-call system should be easy and straight forward so that your callers can be helped as soon as possible.

Bad Practice: For starters, not having an emergency dispatch protocol is the worst of all the bad practices fathomable. I don’t know how many times I’ve called my doctor after hours with questions or concerns and been left hanging (the answer is zero times, because my doctor knows the deal).

Assuming you do have an emergency protocol, don’t make it complicated. Complicated procedures lead to mistakes, mistakes lead to people not being taken care of, and people not being taken care of leads to no more business for you. So, set up a simple on-call procedure that is straightforward and everyone will be a-okay.

The post 5 Easy Ways Medical Offices Can Improve Their Answering Service appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

#1 Breathe through it.

If you’ve ever done yoga or meditation, you know how important it is to focus on the breath: slowly inhaling and exhaling to center yourself. While the caller is on his rant, put the phone on mute and take a good, cleansing breath. The more calm you are, the less inclined he will be to continue with the same level of ferocity as he began.

#2 Put yourself in the caller’s shoes.

Keep in mind, the angry man screaming in your ear is a real person with real issues. What may seem like small beans to you might be the whole enchilada to the caller. So put yourself in his shoes. Imagine that this issue is the straw the broke the camel’s back. How would you want to be treated if you were on the other end of the line?

#3 Smile your way through the call

Smiles can actually be heard through the phone. When you smile, it sends signals to the brain telling you that you are happy! Even in the face of the most challenging call, if you can maintain a positive outlook, the caller will hear it in your tone of voice. That lets him know you are in his corner and will do everything possible for a speedy resolution.

#4 Be a great listener.

Being a superb listener is a customer service representative’s best asset. In order to properly and quickly resolve the caller’s issue, you need to have a detailed understanding of it. That means closely listening to what he says and clearly documenting the notes in your ticketing system. The more you know about what’s going on, the better you’ll be able to help!

The post 4 guidelines for how to deal with angry customers. appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

If you work at a professional call center like SAS, phone manner training is an integral part of your job. You can count on management to review your calls and give you pointers on how to be Ms. Susy Sunshine in every transaction, even when callers are trying to rain on your parade. Below are the top 4 most important tips to get you sounding amazing on any phone call:

1. Smile before you pick up the phone. Research shows that when we smile, there is a change in brain activity resulting in a happier mood. You don’t even have to be smiling for real. Faking it has the same effect! And did you know that the way you smile affects your tone of voice? Uh-huh. So, when you pick up the phone, smile. The caller will definitely “hear” it!
2. Work on your enunciation, which is a fancy way of saying speak clearly. Practice saying “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” Make it a point to appropriately stress each word’s syllables, and consonant and vowel sounds. This makes a big difference while on a headset, speaker phone, or on a cell where the connection might not be so hot.
3. Remember basic etiquette. Good morning, afternoon, evening, etc. How are you today? How is everything going? Good to hear from you! How can I help you? What can I do for you? Would you mind…? Would you please…? Thanks for calling! It was good talking with you. I really appreciate your help. Have a great morning, afternoon, evening, etc. You get the idea.
4. Be a great listener. In customer service, listening is way more important than talking. What is the caller really saying? What can you discern by their tone of voice? Listen closely not only to capture details that will help you solve their dilemma, but also for clues about their mood, the urgency of their needs, etc.

The post 4 tips for good phone manners. appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

If you are struggling with professionalism and telephone etiquette at your business, follow our 8 tips below. Never answer your telephone while:

1. Chewing: Even though you’re enjoying your meal, callers won’t.
2. Finishing a conversation: From the second you pick up the receiver, it’s all about the customer.
3. Multi-tasking: The caller will sense whether or not they have your full attention.
4. Drinking: A sip of water to keep your mouth from drying out, ok. A giant swig of Dr. Pepper, not ok.
5. Angry: Your tone of voice says it all. Make sure it says that you are ready and willing to provide the very best customer service.
6. Coworkers are shouting in the background: Callers hear more than just you. They hear background noise, too. Maintaining professionalism is essential.
7. Waiting for your computer to boot up: If you aren’t immediately able to access a customer’s data, then wait until you can. It’s better to have a coworker answer than to put the caller on hold and make them wait for you.
8. Out of the office: It may seem like a good idea to answer your phone while at your son’s soccer game, but it will be distracting for both you and the caller. If you need additional phone support, hook up with a telephone answering service.

The post 8 ways not to answer a telephone. appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

But we really don’t mind. Here’s why:

The fact is call center etiquette focuses on statistics and metrics.

Numbers. Methodology. It’s fairly black and white with no gray area in between for variables. You either hit positive key metrics, or you don’t; and if you don’t, your call center suffers.

Take that knowledge and apply it to how operations must proceed when dealing with difficult – or as the title says, grumpy – callers. No matter how efficient call centers are, a percentage of calls will most definitely be negative in nature.

So, how do you apply this knowledge? Simple. Here are the standard call center metrics utilized industry-wide to measure success:

Quality scores.

This is a term typically used to determine overall caller experience, and it’s measured through quality control recording. What’s that? Well, every time you’re on the phone with a customer service representative (CSR) and they say, “the following phone call is being recorded for quality control purposes,” that’s what quality control recording is.

A business’ quality control team measures level of service, candor, personality, and adherence to scripts or certain words. The emphasis falls on conformity. If all callers conform to the same system of speaking, it provides a high-quality overall score for the call center.

They score each call based on a system specifically derived by the company. It could be letter grades, number grades from 1-10, whatever the company chooses to use as its measurement. Careful analysis will determine just what kind of service the caller experienced based on those scores.

Now this does not mean that a “grumpy” caller will ensure a low quality score. Rather, it’s those grumpy calls that may determine the high scores depending on how the operator responds.

That’s the first thing to keep in mind: getting the grumpy calls doesn’t necessarily mean your operators aren’t servicing effectively. The truth of it is, if grumpy calls come in here and there, with high quality scores, those callers are kept to a minimum, and they don’t escalate to the point of requiring the attention of a supervisor.

Subverting the need for a supervisor’s involvement is ideal. So observe the quality scores.

First call resolution.

How do we specifically measure quality scores? One of the first things to evaluate is something called first call resolution (FCR).

It’s a systematic analysis of calls per day, or per week or more, to determine which calls have been “handled” properly on the first call.

They measure this by noticing repeat callers from the same number, suggesting that the issue or problem wasn’t initially resolved, or the question wasn’t initially answered. What does that mean?

Inefficient time management. Ineffective productivity. The longer operators are spending with the same callers, the less time to handle more calls. And that’s bad for call center business.

The same applies for the grumpy callers out there with big problems. Operators need to focus on trying to solve the problem immediately. There’s no “call back,” no “transferring.” Handle the issue. Be straightforward and solution-minded.

This doesn’t mean the end-result is a happy caller! In fact, more often than not, the caller is still a little peeved, or even a lot peeved. But the point of trying to resolve the problem is that to some degree, the problem itself has been solved, even if the caller’s disenchantment has not.

There is, however, a direct correlation there. The study of call center psychology reveals that even if a customer is getting crabby on the phone, when the problem is resolved efficiently, the customer will actually be satisfied in the long run, and will resolve that grumpiness in his own time. That’s key.

Again, the emphasis for your telephone answering service here is on time management. Whatever time the call center spends is money, basically. And the end result is an exceptional FCR metric percentage.

Calls per hour.

This is undoubtedly more black and white than anything else; but it doesn’t discount the validity and importance of the metric. Statistically, the more calls handled, the more effective the call center.

Why? It touches on a variety of different aspects: conflict resolution, productivity, sales.

If an operator does handle a comparably sizable number of calls per hour, it’s safe to say from an analytical standpoint that the operator is resolving the issues in a timely and favorable manner. Excellent conflict resolution typically will result in higher call volume.

Productivity obviously is a no-brainer, as the more calls an operator takes will inevitably mean more business for the company. This is especially true if the call center has an element of sales strategy and planning involved. The more calls, the greater the potential for increased sales and profitability.

If a call center’s strategic administrative division is researching ways to improve the calls-per-hour metric, one might consider in-depth conflict resolution training. Better training will keep your employees less stressed when confronted by displeased callers. Another possible improvement is to have the information technology department update software and hardware to increase efficiency. Call transfers would be expedited, and signals and transmissions would be sharpened.

Last but not least…

Stay calm.

Truthfully, this is probably the most important metric (and it’s not even really a metric, per se, but a guideline).

Strict, methodical and almost mechanical without being impersonal: that’s the key. Your operators must literally not take anything personally. Letting every insult, every snide comment glide past will not only deflect further dragging of the conversation, but it will reduce the amount of time spent per call, increase the potential for resolution, and will thus lead to favorable results.

In essence, if the operator is grumpy, the caller will be grumpier. Plain and simple.

The operator’s goal is to stay focused and aim toward resolution against all odds, putting the needs of the customer first. Concentrating solely on getting through the call and addressing the needs of the customer may change the caller’s mood from appalled to appreciative!

In other words, allow the caller to vent. Let them be grumpy, let them talk out their frustrations. And keep your cool no matter how tense it gets. It’s the single most important guideline of basic counseling methods.

An operator’s main service to a caller is to simply listen. And only when the caller is completely done, respond. In many cases, after venting, callers actually feel better! We see this repeatedly in several other fields, such as healthcare, and the small business arena, among others. The ability to listen is crucial. It is a learned skill that leads to exemplary communication of information, assimilation of ideas, the application of those ideas in the real world, and interaction with others.

In the end, all of this does make all the difference. It’s the cornerstone of excellent customer service in a call center, hands down.

It’s not an exact science.

But it’s close enough. The key is remembering that there is a person on the other end of the line. And that the operator is also a person listening, not a machine, not a recording.

Keeping that in mind along with industry metrics will ensure that you have a call center dedicated to weathering any grumpy storm, and appreciating the “textbook calls” praising excellence of execution.

In other words: practice makes perfect.

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