Should a Small Business use an Outsourced Phone Answering Service?

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 Phone Answering for Small Businesses

 Never miss a sales call again.

Sales calls are the lifeblood of your business. What is the point in spending money on marketing or any other aspect of your business if you are not going to make yourself available to answer clients calls throughout the day? Many small business owners are busy, too busy to answer all the calls coming into their mobile or business phone. They should consider outsourcing their call answering to a professional service such as Kendlebell. Getting just one sale a month through your telephone answering service could mean that it will pay for itself.

Outsourcing your calls can save you money in the long run

Telephone answering services represent a huge saving in comparison to handling your calls in-house. Not only do you avoid having to pay a salary, but you also save on the costs associated with having someone in the office. If a staff person is sick or on holidays, small businesses often have to pay a temporary staff person to cover this important service. Learn more about what Kendlebell can do for you here 

Free up time for you and your staff to grow your business

An outsourced phone answering service can handle many of the day-to-day enquiries, allowing you and your team to concentrate on growing your business. The phone answering company can filter and forward calls, so that you can screen calls during busy periods or times when you need to focus on working without distractions.

Manage your Diary.

Some phone answering services can be trained to use your calendar and diary software, which means they can book, cancel, and rearrange appointments for you. This is a great way to cut down on time-consuming administration.

Personalised Service

A top class Phone Answering service, like Kendlebell, will give you a very personalised service. This means that upon calling you, your customers will be greeted with a well-informed, polite, and friendly service, which will feel like a part of your actual business. You can give them service briefings, product descriptions and information about your staff, which allows the virtual receptionists to handle a lot of basic enquiries without ever interrupting you in the office.

No more HR issues

As well as reducing a key cost on your payroll, an outsourced phone answering service relieves you of all the added responsibilities and stresses of hiring and managing a dedicated receptionist. It allows you to outsource this activity in the knowledge that you will get a quality service at a lower cost.

 Using an outsourced Phone Answering Service can make you look bigger.

A Phone Answering Service lends your business a bit of legitimacy and the illusion of size. As far as your caller is concerned, they are dealing with a business of substance and resource as every call is answered everytime.

“Pay as you Go” service

Most outsourced Phone Answering services charge on a call completed basis. You only pay for calls taken on your behalf. If you are not busy your call answering bill will reflect this  and vice versa. Use Kendlebell’s price calculator to see your estimated costs and savings by clicking here 

Free Trials before committing

If you are not sure you really need an outsourced telephone answering service or want to test how effective it will be for your company, many providers offer a free trial like Kendlebell do. A free trial means that you can measure whether a virtual receptionist really will improve your business. During the Free Trial, you can check the actual quality of the Phone Answering service and, at the end of the Free Trial, the Phone Answering service will let you know very accurately what your likely bill is going to be at the end of each month. Kendlebell offer a 1 week free trail and you can learn more here.

Calls are answered promptly and during Overflow

Having an outsourced Phone Answering service means that calls will never dial out or go unanswered. As well as this, during busy periods, you can overflow your calls to the Phone Answering service and they will be able to handle any unexpected spikes in the number of calls, meaning that you’ll never lose out on potential business.

learn about all the services Kendlebell provide here 

Kendlebell Overview

Kendlebell was set up In Ireland in 2006 and now have 4 offices providing a diverse range of services to the SME market. We provide a range of Outsource Solutions to the Business Community. Among our services are:

Business Telephone Answering / Message Taking.

We provide a personal telephone answering service for your business calls. All your calls are answered by your own PA, giving you peace of mind that you will never miss another new enquiry again. A call answering script is agreed in advance. All your business calls are answered in a professional and friendly manner as if we were part of your team. Our Business phone answering service is delivered at a fraction of the cost of employing staff, involves no administration and gives an excellent first impression. Messages are passed to you instantly by either text-to-mobile, email or you can phone in and speak to your Kendlebell PA at any time.

Virtual Reception services

The Kendlebell team will act exactly as you would expect any receptionist to operate. They will take all incoming calls and transfer them through to the direct dial or mobile of the member of staff sought. If these individuals are not available, they can give callers the option to leave a voicemail or simply take a message which the PA will send on immediately. They will do so immediately by text or email with an end of day report summarising all your calls being sent as well. All of this is done seamlessly and without the company’s customers being aware that you are suing a virtual receptionist from Kendlebell.

Diary Management Services

Our PA’s can answer your calls and make appointments, saving you up to 70% of the cost of employing a receptionist. While you are busy in meetings or with clients, your dedicated team of PA’s at Kendlebell can be taking calls and booking appointments for you as well as making entries into your online diary. We can access your online diary securely using a Username and Password. Their personal, friendly approach can really make an impact and promote a professional experience with your business contacts right from the start. You can see your scheduled appointments any time online. We can take calls to fill in gaps in your diary or change appointments while you are busy.

Customer Helpdesk / Order Taking

Services include capturing caller’s details and asking qualifying questions to get further information you may require. With each client, we agree call handling instructions to ensure our services benefit your company, freeing up your time to concentrate on running your business. We can link to your CRM /Sales Systems remotely and securely. We also provide cold call screening as part of our phone answering services. Messages will be forwarded on to you immediately by email or text, alternatively we can save and forward these messages at an agreed time. You will also receive a daily email summary of messages.

Holiday Cover

You do not want to miss an important call because the signal is bad on the beach or up in the hills. Our Kendlebell PAs will take your calls, answer them, and let you know as per your instructions. For the messaging service, a Kendlebell PA will answer your calls with your company name and take the caller’s name, number, and a brief message. These messages will be emailed to you daily at the close of business and you can decide whether to review while on holiday or at the end of the holiday. To provide a booking service we need to know what is already booked. If you already use an online diary, we will need access. We will ensure that your diary is kept completely up to date, dealing with new appointments, cancellations or change of time / date of other appointments daily while you enjoy your holiday.

 

Overflow Call Answering

An overflow call answering service helps your organisation during periods of high call volume. To prevent callers from being forced to wait for an available staff member, or to leave a voicemail or wait for a return call, excess calls can be routed through to your Kendlebell Call Centre PAs who are trained and available to assist. This will, in turn lead to faster service and result in higher levels of customer satisfaction. By not missing a call, you will not lose out on a potential new customer. Potential customers who do not get through to the office could possibly just ring another supplier / competitor as they want an answer fast! Outsourcing your overflow calls will reduce training costs and everything else that goes along with hiring new staff. It will also allow you to increase sales by being able to handle higher volume of calls. There is no requirement to hire part time staff for sickness cover and annual leave. A good overflow call answering service can act as an extension of your office. The Call Centre PA’S will be trained to deliver service to the same standard as the company employees.

 Telemarketing / Appointment generation

Kendlebell can follow up a direct mail shot or an email campaign by making a call and attempting to set up an appointment on behalf of our clients. This is a proven sales strategy and can be a very cost-effective method to grow your sales. We will agree a script with our clients in advance of the calls which can be adjusted depending on the success levels of the calls. In the case of Diary Management, we can call those on waiting lists and fill the gaps so fees can be generated while the client is busy with appointments.

Customer Surveys by telephone

We will work with our clients to agree a suitable script / questionnaire before undertaking the telephone survey work. Using a suitable contact list (usually provided to us by our clients), we will conduct the telephone interview and update either on the clients or our own systems. We can identify ourselves as making the calls on your behalf or we can say it is by an independent agency. At the end of the project, we will supply the client with a summary of the information sought in the survey in an agreed format.

Database cleansing services

Typically, we will be provided with a database from our customers that may be out of date, not checked recently or the contact person is not clearly identified. Our team will then take this data, phone the various companies, and verify the data on the clients’ database. Sometimes, where we do not have telephone numbers, we will verify the data by way of internet search. At the end of each project, our clients will be provided with an updated database.

Back Office Processing

Are your back-office processes damaging your effectiveness and proving too costly? Does it take up much of your time doing basic administration? Is it routine work that could be outsourced? Do you have difficulty scheduling work when it is very busy? Kendlebell can lower your costs and increase your productivity today. Whether you require help logging enquiries, need orders or data processed or outbound mailing we can assist you. We help clients provide training to their nominated Kendlebell PA’s, so we not only cater to your needs but exceed service levels. Kendlebell will agree a detailed specification of the services required with our customer and then agree a detailed modus operandi as how we will deliver the services on behalf of our customer.

Virtual Business Address

Your new localised address can be used on all company stationery, letterheads, business cards, web site and any other promotional material. This will enhance your corporate image and ensure you give that all important professional first impression. We will collect all your new mail at this localised address, and we will have it forwarded anywhere in the world, to any private address. Alternatively, if you are passing by you can drop in and collect it. Our team will sort and forward your post efficiently and proficiently, ensuring that your mail is forwarded on to you as quickly as possible. If you want to look local, you need a localised business address.

Localised Telephone Numbers

Area call numbers

Kendlebell provide true local numbers e.g., Dublin 01, Cork 021, Limerick 061, Galway 091. We can provide this service for a wide range of customers both located in Ireland and abroad. Using these local numbers can increase the effectiveness of your localised adverts as you will appear to be in the same area as the customer.

  • local telephone numbers – all 107 local telephone area codes covered
  • UK, Northern Ireland, and international numbers are also available
  • Ideal for expanding your local reach in publications

Non-Geographic numbers – Kendlebell can also supply you with an 1800 (freephone number) or an 0818 Universal numbers).

We provide a very Personalised and Cost effective service. Kendlebell in Fairview currently have circa 200 customers ranging from quite large companies for whom we provide a range of the services listed above often connecting remotely to their in-house systems to start -ups and smaller companies where we are typically acting as their message centre of Virtual reception. We pride ourselves on providing a professional and effective service.

We have recently received a Business All-Star Accreditation

This accreditation is an outstanding achievement and recognises the hard work and dedication of our team in providing a best in class service to all our customers. Business All-Star accredited companies are defined as; progressive, indigenous Irish businesses which meet the highest standards of verified performance, trust, and customer centricity. We would like to thank our customers who validated the mystery shoppers of the Business All Star Foundation who acknowledged our customer focus and continuous high standards.

The award is recognising best in class and Kendlebell are proud to hold this Accreditation and will continue to deliver high standards of professionalism and customer focus as these are the reasons that attract new customers and continue to hold onto existing customers. In achieving this accreditation, we join a unique group of businesses and we believe this continues to demonstrate our commitment to improving our service to our customers and suppliers. The three pillars of All-Ireland Business All-Star accreditation are Performance, Trust and Customer Centricity. Read our blog about winning this award here