3 Tips for Gracefully Handling Emergency Calls

In the world of customer service and call centers, every single phone call is different. The person answering the phone must be prepared for a variety of personalities, challenges and temperaments when the call begins. An emergency call can be especially challenging if the call agent is not prepared. For medical practices and hospitals with regular emergency calls, gracefully handling the situation is especially important. 

Here are a few tips to handle emergency calls with grace: 

1. Listen

First and foremost, truly listen to the person on the other end of the receiver. Take note of not only their words, but also how they are speaking. Are they having difficulty speaking English? Do they sound angry or frustrated? Is there panic in their words? Take deep breaths and do your best to remain calm. If you’re calm, your calmness will more than likely affect the caller as well. 

Listen to what the caller is telling you. Allow the caller to vent. Don’t make assumptions nor attempt to correct the caller. Do your best to get a good perspective of what has caused the caller to place an emergency call.

 2. Communicate

After callers vent or voice their concerns, they will be more willing to listen to what you have to say. Do your best to communicate honestly and sincerely, asking questions to verify your understanding of the situation. If the caller attempts to argue or intimidate, remember to stay calm and listen. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that the caller was already upset before the call, so do not react personally. Instead, ask what you can do to help further or offer what options you have to resolve the case. Use an empathetic and caring tone of voice when communicating with the caller. In the caller’s current state, they need to feel as if they are being heard and that their concerns are a priority.

 3. Resolve

As a call handler, you should already have resolution options available for callers. Do you forward the caller to someone on call? Do you take a message? In the case of an emergency call, the best option — if you are unable to resolve it yourself — is to get another person on the phone that can. Do not “pass the buck.” Instead, stay on the line to make sure the caller is working with someone who can truly help them. 

State specifically what it is that you are going to do to resolve the call for the customer or client. Let them know exactly what you can do, what you can’t do and what they should expect. Once the caller understands that they are in your competent hands, they will more than likely relax. Use phrased questions like:

• “Does that work for you?”
• “Am I making sense?”
• “Are you okay with that?”

Listen again and take note if the caller still feels unsettled. Again, make sure you are listening, communicating effectively and offering options to help the caller feel satisfied that you have done all that you can.

Of course, the right call center can ensure your emergency calls are being handled appropriately. Find the right one and you can feel confident that you are providing the best customer service.

Don’t Sweat It: Why HVAC Companies Need an Answering Service

The most important part of an HVAC company’s business is its customers. Specifically, customer acquisition and retention. Customer service is a huge part of that. The smaller the business, the more important each customer is to its survival, so it’s important to ensure your customers are happy after each and every interaction you have with them.

The first line to an HVAC customer is the telephone. If a phone call from a potential or current customer isn’t answered, there’s a chance the customer may call someone else. Competition is fierce and HVAC business owners can’t afford to miss an opportunity. How do you keep up? By hiring an answering service. 

The Benefits of Outsourcing

Outsourcing basic tasks, such as answering the phones, taking appointments, resolving minor problems — and escalating major ones — can help you attract new customers and keep your existing ones coming back when they need help. Not only does this free up your time to focus more on your business, but it also makes those peak periods of high HVAC demand much more manageable. Finally, it makes financial sense when you look at the number of customers you’re able to retain and attract.

HVAC Answering Services

So, what are some specific ways an answering service can help an HVAC company? The ideal one will customize their services to fit your exact needs, but here are some services an answering service typically provides for service industry businesses like HVAC companies:

• Call handling, 24 hours/day, 7 days/week
• Call overflow handling
• Backup when you’re busy or out of the office
• Appointment setting
• Call escalation
• Bilingual call answering

In the end, an HVAC company must continue to provide services to stay in business. This requires excellent customer service to keep your current and prospective customers happy. In order to continue growing an HVAC company, some administrative tasks can be outsourced so that you’re able to focus on doing what you do best. An answering service can be the first step in outsourcing part of the tasks of running an HVAC company.

Call Center Turnover: Why Employees Leave and How to Retain Them

When you hear the words “call center,” does it immediately bring to mind endless rows of people chattering away on headsets? If so, you have a pretty accurate idea of what a call center is like. One thing associated with many call centers is an extremely high turnover rate. As a matter of fact, the average time a U.S. call center representative remains at one job is about three years. 

Keeping good employees in a potentially monotonous job can be challenging for some businesses. If you’re considering hiring a call center, you may want to understand more about the employees you’ll be hiring to represent your company.

Why Call Center Employees Leave

There are a number of reasons why employees leave their call center jobs. The age of the call center employee seems to be a deciding factor in their tenure with a company, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The statistics show that the younger the employee, the shorter their stay:

• Average tenure for ages 20 – 24:1 years
• Average tenure for ages 25 – 34:7 years

Here are some other factors of call center employee turnover:

• Wages and benefits
• Lack of career opportunities
• Poor match for the job
• Training and performance challenges
• Supervisory issues
• Low morale or burnout 

Employee turnover tends to be higher in routine positions, while employees in more specialized trained positions stay with companies longer.

The Cost of Call Center Turnover

There are many costs associated with hiring a new call center employee. If an employee doesn’t stick around for long, these costs can be doubled or sometimes tripled in a single year. Some costs may also cause collateral damage to your business.

The costs associated with hiring and turnover include:

• Recruitment and hiring – advertising, job fairs, human resources time and salary
• Training time – getting paid when the employee isn’t actively taking calls
• Training materials and resources – including the trainer’s time and salary
• Possible poor customer service due to low staffing
• Lower morale for other employees who may be overworked
• Lower productivity
• Risk for more employee turnover

Source: Exploring Call Center Turnover Numbers

Retaining Call Center Staff 

Retention of employees may take more effort on the part of the call center, but will soon pay off when examining the cost of turnover. Let’s consider each step of the process and tweaks that may keep employees around longer:

• Hiring: A well-examined hiring process may go far in correcting the challenges with poor job match. Assessing the personality traits and current skills of an applicant may help determine if the person is a good fit.
• Wages and Benefits: Retaining quality employees means offering a salary that is competitive with other businesses in your market. Benefits can be expensive to offer employees but compared to the cost of employee turnover, they are worth considering.
• Staff Training and Career Opportunities: A documented training plan, legacy employees and opportunities for advancement go a long way in impressing a new employee. If the employee can be ramped up quickly, they are going to feel as if they are valuable, contributing to the company sooner rather than later.
• Employee Morale: Little perks like breaks, snacks and downtime help keep employees from suffering burnout. Creating a great workplace environment allows employees to decrease stress and love their job.

In the end, keeping high quality and trained professional staff in a call center may take extra effort, but those efforts are valuable.

How We Can Help Your Company During The Holiday Rush or Peak Seasons!

It’s no secret that business picks up during the holidays or peak seasons. According to the National Retail Federation, sales in November and December of 2017 are expected to increase 3.6 percent to $655.8 billion. That’s higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent and above the seven-year average of 3.4 percent since the economy started to recover in 2009. Furthermore, NRF forecasts non-store sales to increase between seven and 10 percent to as much as $117 billion.

Regardless of the industry you’re in, it’s important to be prepared. You can make a list and check it twice, but if you aren’t ready for the number of customer calls you’ll get this holiday season, it’ll leave you feeling like a Grinch. Fortunately, we can help. 

Here are some of the services an we can provide to help your business handle the rush:

Order Taking and Processing

We can take holiday gift orders from your customers and process them on your website or purchasing system so you can efficiently deliver them to customers. This is great for customers who rely on their phones or aren’t sure about the security of online purchases. 

Help Desk/Trouble Tickets

Handling holiday help desk issues and trouble tickets is second nature to the right answering service. We handle these calls with superior professionalism, efficiency and empathy, letting you focus on promoting your business and handling new customers.

Overflow/After-Hours Support

Don’t have enough time to handle all of your customer calls? Our 24/7 answering service provides telephone support for your overflow and after-hours calls, meaning you can take advantage of every opportunity to make a sale or fix an issue — regardless of the time of day.

Customer Relationship Management

Strong Call also provides web-enabled data entry from incoming calls, meaning they go into your system and log calls, whether it’s a trouble ticket or simply ensuring you don’t have to re-enter it. This is more of a back-end perk for the holidays, but it’s still helpful. 

Ad Campaign Call Management                                 

Running a TV ad, radio ad or some other outbound marketing campaign this holiday season? We can manage calls related to it. That includes answering questions, taking messages and more.

Vacation Services 

Worried about your incoming calls while you’re on Christmas vacation? Let us take care of your telephone calls and other services while you’re on vacation. Talk about “Peace on Earth!”

Don’t let the holiday rush or peak season take you by surprise. Make sure your customers are happy and give yourself the gift of less stress by hiring an answering service this season. 

P.S. You can use us for just the holiday period or season. No long-term contract required! 

5 Things We Offer Every Legal Office That Every Legal Office Needs in an Answering Service!

Law practices can be demanding and complex. On account of this, many are hesitant to outsource customer service because of a fear that they won’t be represented properly to current and prospective clients. Fortunately, the right answering service can serve as an extension of your brand and reinforce the same qualities your staff embodies on a daily basis.

The only question is, what qualities do you want your answering service to represent? Professionalism? Trust? An experienced answering service can serve as an extension of your brand and reinforce the same qualities your staff embodies on a daily basis. Plus, hiring an answering service allows you to focus on your core business of handling your clients’ legal matters.

Here are five things every legal office needs in an answering service:

1. Specialization

Your legal office specializes in a particular area of the law and your answering service should know that area. The call center representatives should be well versed in what you do and the needs of your clients. You should also feel secure in knowing that the right calls will be escalated to the right person in your office, if needed. The right answering service will be a seamless extension of your office.

2. Flexibility

When dealing with a legal matter, there are times when clients are calling with a sense of urgency and desperation. You need the security of knowing that your calls will be answered promptly by call representatives 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

3. Understanding

Your clients should feel valued and understood by the person who answers your phone. An answering service should have a customized script or call handling procedure for assisting those who are calling your office for a legal matter. Your clients should hang up the phone confident that their message will get through and that the person who answered your phone is representative of the trust they feel with your office.

4. Bilingual Capability

A frightened prospective or existing client can become easily frustrated if the person on the other end of the line isn’t speaking their language. The right call center will have representatives that are able to help with bilingual campaigns for your legal office. This is especially helpful for businesses in the Southwest.

5. Promptness 

When someone is calling your office, you want his or her call to be answered promptly and courteously, right? The right answering service will answer your calls within one or two rings, will have a less than one-minute average hold time and will have a less than one percent average abandoned call rate.

If you’re considering hiring an answering service for your legal office, make sure they have the five characteristics mentioned above by choosing Strong Call United, Inc.