A New Year is Upon Us; get an edge on your competition

As you are aware, home health is a very competitive market.  There are many options for families and their loved ones to choose from when looking for assistance.  There are many factors that influence a family’s decision to choose a specific company for the care of themselves or a loved one.  One very important one is the availability and response time of the needs of a loved one.   As an answering service, All City Communications can directly improve the chances of making sure the family looking for a home health service selects your company and additionally can make sure your current clients’ needs are responded to immediately which greatly improves the reputation of your company.

Availability and response time begins from an initial phone call when looking for services.  Did the phone get answered by a voice mail or machine or was there a friendly voice listening to the needs of the caller, no matter the time of day.  All City Communications is available to answer all your calls live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays.  We never close and we will always answer your calls as your business without the caller ever knowing that we are not in your office.  In the caller’s eyes, you will be available all the time and your response time will be excellent. 

I am sure there are many reasons a family should choose your service over any other services in your market, however, if you are not available or responsive to their initial inquiry, you will never have the chance to explain why your service should be the one selected.  If your competition is available and responsive to the caller, most likely they will start the selection process ahead of their fellow competing home health companies.

Be available and be responsive in the New Year.  Don’t let the competition in your area gain an upper hand in the selection process.  Even if your caregivers are much more empathetic and professional than your competition, if you are not available to speak to your potential clients or current customers, you will never have a chance to share the qualities of your home health service that makes a difference.          

People will always be the key to excellent customer service

There’s a story I read on the internet (so you know it has to be true!) awhile back about a major snowstorm in Pennsylvania that occurred near the holidays. As a result of the blizzard, an 89-year old man, living on his own, got snowed in at his apartment. His daughter was concerned that he would run out of food, so she called a number of stores to see if they’d deliver.

No luck… until she called Trader Joe’s. Now, Trader Joe’s doesn’t normally deliver, but after hearing this woman’s story, they agreed to do so. In addition to taking the woman’s order, the Trader Joe’s employee also suggested food items that would work for her father’s low-sodium diet. Half an hour after the call, Trader Joe’s had delivered about $50 worth of food to the man’s apartment.

And to top it all off, when the woman went to pay Trader Joe’s for the food and delivery, they told her not to worry about it and have a Merry Christmas.  Now, maybe this story has been “embellished” a bit for the internet. Maybe not. But the point I want to make is that the interaction centered on real communication between two people.

At a hotel where I once stayed, I heard about a guest who was working out in the hotel gym and pulled a muscle in his neck. A trainer at the gym recognized the injury and suggested a massage. The massage therapist knew about the guest’s problem even before meeting the guest because the trainer had already filled him in. Finally, when the guest got into bed at the end of a long day, he went to sleep on fresh, firm pillows. The hotel had switched out his old pillows, knowing the firmer ones would be kinder to his pulled muscle.

The open lines of communication facilitated by the hotel and executed by its staff created an amazing customer experience.  Both the overt and subtle forms of communication are always at work in the relationships you have with your customers. Displaying attentiveness and a positive attitude, for example, goes a long way toward creating the kinds of relationships we’re all after.

Technology will continue to advance and the possibilities of communication will continue to expand, however; the essence of customer satisfaction and success will always fall on the ability of a person to listen and communicate effectively with their customers.  Technology is helping to change the future of customer service for the better. But there will always be a place for people, especially good communicators.

The 6 P’s of a decision

I was recently sitting at a restaurant speaking to a few friends of mine about why and how people decide to buy a certain product or service and it made me think, “Why do people decide to buy?”  One of my friends claimed that he doesn’t make any decisions based on emotion but rather he avoids any wasteful spending choices by making all his decisions with logic.  His claim of having all decisions being made by logic made me remember a professor I once had and the 6 P’s involved in any decision.  Even though logic can be a part of a decision, it still boils down to these 6 P’s or needs being satisfied in the decision process. 

The 6 P’s are pleasure, peace of mind, profit, prestige, pain avoidance and power.  Every buying decision we make revolves around one of these P’s, or needs being met.  Think about the last buying decision you made and I can guarantee one of these needs is being met.  The advantage of knowing these needs in a person’s buying decision allows you as a business and as a sales person to find creative ways to address the needs of potential customers and encourage buying decisions.  These 6 intrinsic needs being met are the “So What’s in it for me” in the buying decision of the customer. 

I used these 6 P’s as a way to justify a question I had.  Recently  I was watching the Presidential debate.  I said to myself, “Who would want to be President at this point in history when the world seems to be a chaotic mess?”  Well, I decided to think about the 6 P’s and it became clear as to why someone would want to be President.  At the top of the list, the need of Power is being met.  After all, there is no more of a powerful person in the world once you become President.  The second P on the list that motivates someone to want to be President is Prestige.  The historical significance of becoming President of The United States is obvious.  You will be remembered in history until the end of days and the prestige or status associated with being President of the United States is unmatched.  Finally, there is a need that I wish wasn’t becoming so prevalent in the decision to become President, Profit.  According to a CNN analysis of 12 years of federal financial records, former President Bill Clinton had his most active and profitable year on the lecture circuit in 2012, delivering 73 speeches for $17 million from mid-January 2012 through mid-January 2013. That brought his total haul in speaking fees since leaving the White House to $106 million.  Bill Clinton is profiting from being President.

When you are selling your product or service to potential buyers, remember the 6 P’s and how those P’s impact why a customer buys.  If you can understand that, you will achieve all 6 P’s or needs being met for your business and for yourself.

Security with your texts and emails

All of us have the ability to communicate to anybody at any time utilizing many communication methods, including: texting, emailing, calling, tweeting and a variety of social network sites.  Communication is so easily done that we forget to remember about the hazards of utilizing so many communication methods.  The primary hazard is the lack of security in your communication.

Make sure your answering service protects your communication and your customer’s information by utilizing a cloud based app for texting and emailing communication.  This cloud based app stores all the information in email or text in the cloud, not on the phone which can be lost or on the computer that hackers can gain access.  Not only does our app protect you from possible liability but it can be an extra measure of protection to your customer’s privacy that surely will be appreciated.

The miSecure app that All City Communications utilizes will protect you and your clients while also providing an easy way to organize your communication in a mobile device environment.  The app will keep a history of all communication between our answering service and your on call staff in the password protected cloud, ensuring the privacy for all communications.

Since I am sure everybody that reads this blog locks their office and home when they leave for the evening, everybody should also secure their device and all the communications between you and your staff and your client.  Don’t leave it open to the public.  Do not wait until a security breach occurs and hurts your business.   

How to Maximize Your Marketing Dollars

Marketing campaigns such as: mailings, print advertising, social media, and radio commercials are a great way to generate new business.  Hopefully the marketing efforts cause a potential customer to move to action and contact your business for a product or service.  The marketing dollars spent to have the potential customer move to action is step 1 in the sales process but having a reliable answering service to ensure the benefit of the spent marketing dollars is essential to the growth of your business.

The only thing worse than spending marketing dollars and not generating any leads is spending marketing dollars and moving a customer to action and disappointing your potential customer by not being available to answer their call.  If the caller hears a voice mail or answering machine they immediately feel like their interest is trivial and not valued.  They get the impression that they are just a number and the company that they were interested in is too busy to help them with their product or service.  In that brief moment when they moved to action you need to be available. 

All City Communications allows you to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays.  We answer every call live, as your company, ensuring you will never miss a call from a prospective client.  Also, we can track where the potential customer heard about your service which will allow you to measure how effective your marketing efforts are so you can be more informed where to spend your marketing dollars.

All City Communications will allow you to be available to your current customers as well.  The ability of our operators to answer as for your company will greatly enhance the level of service you provide your customers and ensure that your customer needs will not be missed to a competitor that is available to answer their call.  If you are going to spend money on marketing efforts, ensure that you will never miss a call by having an answering service available.    

Tone and Inflection, Important and Essential to Effective Communication

Answering Services are not all built the same.  There are many qualities to consider when looking for an answering service.  You may consider qualities such as; experience in the industry, price, location, technological capabilities, or simply if the Account Representative you’re working with is responsive and friendly.   A quality that is typically overlooked when considering an answering service is the quality of the person answering your phone. 

Who the person is that is answering your phone isn’t too important, however, how the person is answering your phone and how the person answering your phone utilizes the correct tone and inflection when communicating with your clients is extremely important.  Inflection which is described as the modification of vocal speech patterns to express different grammatical categories such as volume, tone, pitch and/or cadence.  These speech patterns are even more important when dealing with clients or potential customers over the phone where non-verbal communication doesn’t exist.  Our operators understand that by changing their tones and cadence, they appear more engaged, excited, and interested in the caller.  Also, ending tones in a low pitch can give your customer the impression that you’re authoritative on a subject, or that you’re confident in your ability to help solve problems.  Voice inflection can be a major factor in how you and your message come across.  A few examples include:

•         Sounding monotone and/or flat can make you seem bored and uninterested in the       conversation subject or your customer
•         Having a slow cadence can make you seem depressed or unenthusiastic
•         Ending tones in a high pitch can make you seem unconfident, or unsure of yourself when speaking to the customer

In closing, when looking for an answering service, do your homework with how their people sound when answering the phone.  All City Communications trains our operators to be conscious of how they sound on the other end of the phone.  Even if tonal changes don’t come naturally, it’s something our operators train and practice to be effective communicators when dealing with your customers.  It is essential to communication.    

Healthy Eating and Exercise Increases Employee Performance

My father who is close to turning 76 years old always told me that exercise and eating right directly affects your job performance.  Every day after working many hours as the Sales Manager for Kraft Foods in Chicago, he would make sure, no matter how his day went, to go to the gym and workout.  As a younger person I thought he was foolish for wasting his precious time doing that.  As I grew older, I discovered he was exactly right and I wished I would have listened to him. 

Now in my 40’s I have made many changes in my life, including correct eating habits and regular exercise.  I have personally seen an increase in productivity and an increase in happiness while at work.  My energy level is extremely high, getting sick is non-existent, and even my sleep is generally more restful requiring less sleep during the night.  This is the magic that my father spoke to me about 20 years ago.  He was absolutely right.

Research from Brigham Young University shows that employees who eat healthy all day were 25 percent more likely to have higher job performance and employees who eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables at least four times a week were 20 percent more likely to be more productive.   In addition, employees who exercise for at least 30 minutes, three times a week, were 15 percent more likely to have higher job performance.  Overweight workers experienced lower job performance and higher absenteeism, compared to those employees who suffer from depression and other chronic diseases or conditions.  The study was based on data from three geographically dispersed U.S. companies, representing 20,114 employees who completed a work-related survey each year from 2008 through 2010.  I would have never believed this to be true but I have personally seen the correlation between a healthier me and my increased job performance and increased job satisfaction.

The benefit to the company is obvious, but the benefit to the employee is even greater.  A healthier person that is more productive and happier at work will positively impact the workers family life, economic life and self-esteem. 

If you can help guide your employees to a healthier lifestyle: your business will benefit by less employee sick days, increased production, happier clients through positive customer service and an overall upbeat and optimistic workforce. 

An Answering Service Is Perfect For a Smaller Company As Well

There is one advantage that a larger company has versus a smaller company.  The advantage is available resources, especially in regards to people.  Even the playing field and trust All City Communications to provide highly trained and professional people to answer your phones as a daytime receptionist or as an emergency dispatcher for after hours and weekend calls.  Trust All City Communications to schedule appointments for your business.  We will answer the phones as you would answer it without your caller knowing we are not in your office. 

Have you ever been in a situation where you are busy with a job and suddenly the phone rings.  You know how important it is to not miss any calls, especially in today’s highly competitive environment so you may stop doing what you should be doing to handle a phone call.  Sometimes it is a caller needing your services but other times it is a telemarketer trying to sell you something.  We can make sure only calls that you want are sent immediately over to you.  Any calls that are not considered service related we can email those calls over to you so you can return the call when it is convenient for you.   

Imagine if you could capture every potential customer calling into your office?  Our operators will make sure that every call is answered professionally and live that will make your potential or current clients feel secure that their message will be returned since one of our operators will be acknowledging their call.   In today’s world, nobody likes leaving messages on voice mail.  Voice mail makes the customer feel not important and typically the caller will not stop trying to find a solution to their problem until they speak to somebody.  That person who does get the call may be your competitor that happens to be available to speak to the potential customer.  You will never miss a call with All City Communications.

Even the playing field with your competitors that may have more employees than you without the payroll expense, the time to find a new employee and the training time that hiring a new employee entails.  All City Communications pricing is very competitive and will outweigh, by a large margin, the cost of hiring a new employee.  Let us answer your phones and dispatch important calls via text, email or phone until a message is delivered.  An answering service is a small cost versus the value of having more new customers and happier current customers an answering service provides. 

An answering service is as important as a tow truck for towing companies

The need for a tow truck can be in high demand during weather disasters, and that is especially true here in Wisconsin during a snowstorm.  How many calls especially valuable police calls are missed during those busy situations?  How much revenue is being lost by a busy phone line or if the drivers are out on the road, away from their phone and the call is unanswered?  There is an affordable option for towing companies versus hiring more people in their office or hiring more drivers, an answering service.  All City Communications’ phone lines will never be busy ensuring you will never miss a call and no driver can ever refuse a towing call without your knowledge. 

All City Communications has a wonderful group of trained operators available to answer the calls, no matter the time or the day.  We will make sure every call is answered and every call is dispatched, ensuring you will never miss a valuable service call or ensuring the police calls are treated as a priority.

The phone is essential to a successful towing business.  Make sure there are no obstacles to your customers contacting you.  During the day, we can act as your receptionist or at the very minimum, a back-up receptionist.  During after-hours or weekends when somebody may not be in the office we can be your dispatch center.  During the day, if the phone line is busy or if nobody answers your phone at your office in 3 or 4 rings, the call can get routed to our call center and handled as if we were in your office.  After-hours we can answer the call on the first ring and dispatch the call to your drivers via cell, text or email while also creating a report that allows you to manage your people.  We can tell you on the report when the call came in, when the call was dispatched and how many attempts it took for us to dispatch that call.  Also, since we record all of our calls, we can tell you if any of your drivers are refusing calls. 

If you don’t have a call center for your towing callers, you need one.  Enhance the availability of your business to potential clients without having the payroll expense of new employees.  Answering every call is as essential to your business as the tow truck being available to tow the vehicles.  You wouldn’t allow your tow truck to only be available some of the time to your customers.  

Traveling for Work…The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Traveling for work, for many of us, is extremely important to maintain relationships with customers and to cultivate relationships with future customers.  Additionally, traveling is rewarding by allowing you to experience different environments and local foods and to see many exciting and interesting places that you may never see.  This is truly the good of traveling.

   

As I speak about the bad of traveling, I am not complaining.  The majority of my travels can be categorized in the “good” category.  After all, how would you know what is good, if you don’t have something bad to compare it to, right?  In fact, the bad of traveling would be better described as the inconvenience of traveling, but I wanted to use the old western movie description I used in the title.  Traveling by plane can’t be described as luxury travel.  You are cramped into an ever shrinking seat with a curious stranger next to you, hoping the person doesn’t have to disturb you with bathroom issues or speak to you about his multiple medical afflictions.  As the plane takes off, you are hoping, if you have a connecting flight, that the plane is close to being on time so you can make your next flight.  After all, 35 minutes in Chicago between flights is a piece of cake, right?  After finally arriving at your destination, you deplane in a non-orderly, slow fashion and find your way to baggage claim.  Nervousness arrives as you watch the baggage carousel rotate and your bag is not appearing while a large group of people are picking up seemingly anybody’s bag and walking away.  You breathe a sigh of relief as your bag appears on the carousel and grab it to go and find transportation.  As you exit the airport and follow the direction for ground transportation you look for a taxi.  In many locations, you rush to find ground transportation only to find a line of people from multiple baggage carousels waiting in front of you.  After you wait, like cattle in a processing line, you get a reward.  That reward is a rickety taxi cab driven by a person that has trouble with the spoken language and you trust the person understands where to take you.  The drive to your location can typically be described as a cross between an Indianapolis 500 race and ride on a white water raft.  Upon arriving at your hotel and checking in you finally get to the room you will be staying at for the next few days.  This is some of the bad of traveling. 

Now I have to talk about the ugly.  These ugly situations actually happened to me so they may happen to you as well.  Beware! 

Ugly travels – The Suitcase.  I traveled to Orlando a few years back for a convention and was pleasantry surprised by the airlines ability to take care of my clothes within my suitcase.  As I waited for my luggage to come around the carousel at baggage claim in the airport I noticed a suitcase taped up with silver duct tape and thought that poor person with that suitcase.  I soon discovered that the poor person was me.  My suitcase seemed to explode in the airplane between Milwaukee and Chicago and the airline was kind enough to wrap duct tape around it multiple times.  I shrugged my shoulders and thought that at least I still received my luggage.  I arrived at my hotel and began unpacking the duct tape so I could get to my clothes in order to hang up.  I reached in and pulled out my white dress shirt I was planning on wearing the next day.  I noticed that my dress shirt had a large black tire mark across the front of it as if someone took a vehicle and ran over it multiple times.  Now I realized what happened to my suitcase.

Ugly Travels – The Entrance.  I had just checked into my hotel in Minneapolis and entered my room.  I headed over to the bed, lifted my suitcase and began unpacking it.  It was an extremely warm day of travel so I wanted to change and get some new clothes on.  I undressed to my birthday suit and began heading towards the bathroom which was next to the entrance door.  As I neared the bathroom door, my entrance door suddenly swung open and an elderly man and woman starred at me with wide eyes and mouths agape.  I was stunned that I was staring at possible attendees from my conference wearing nothing but the socks on my feet.  They rapidly closed the door and I learned from that point on to always, always dead bolt my door.

Ugly Travels – The Fuel Dump.  I was never a comfortable airplane traveler but it was the quickest way to get from point A to point B and it is safer than driving, right?  Well my trip from Green Bay to Chicago tested that belief.  We were to take off at 6:30 am to arrive in Chicago an hour later in order to connect to a flight to Phoenix at 12:30 pm.  It left me quite a bit of time to get to the connecting flight I thought.  Well upon arriving at the airport, I noticed storms developing in Green Bay and thought this could be an issue.  The airplane carrier let all of us know that the plane was delayed and would leave in an hour or so when the weather cleared.  I immediately checked a weather website I use and noticed that the storms seemed to be building at our destination of Chicago.  In an hour, as you may have guessed, they did not board the plane.  They didn’t start boarding the plane until 8:30.  I thought I still have time to make my connecting flight so it was better safe to wait.  When I finally boarded the plane I overheard the flight attendant tell another passenger that they hoped to make it to Chicago.  I didn’t like the term hoped but they are the experts.  The Captain began to speak over the intercom and let us know that they were going to add more fuel to the plane and fly around the storms.  The only drawback was that an hour flight would now be a 2 ½ hour flight and the Captain hoped to make it to Chicago.  Again, the Captain used that ugly hope word.  After the Captain said the hope word, some of the passengers began to get up from their seat and deplane.  I texted my good friend who was sitting a few seats in front of me and asked her if she wanted to leave the flight.  She texted me back and asked what I thought and I decided we should leave the flight.  We left the flight and spoke to the agent at the counter about our options and suddenly all the people began exiting the airplane.  The flight has now officially been delayed.  We decided to wait to see what happened and if we would board the plane once again after the delay.  Approximately 2 hours later they began boarding the plane once again.  We decided at this point it was the only way we would make our connecting flight so we decided to roll the dice and board the plane.  The Captain spoke on the intercom once again and let us know the same plan, which was to have extra fuel to fly around the storms.  After we took off and 10 minutes into the flight, the Captain came on the intercom and let us know that there is a window to land relatively soon, however there was an issue with landing because of the extra weight from the added fuel we were carrying.  The solution to this extra weight was to lower our landing gear at 30,000 feet and burn the fuel weight off the plane.  Also, there was going to be a large noise as this was happening.  There wasn’t anything I could do so I just decided to be happy this adventure was soon to end, hopefully successfully.  As the Captain lowered the landing gear, the plane began to shake violently and an extremely loud vibrating sound began that was akin to a blender with rocks in it.  This went on for 15 minutes above Lake Michigan.  The skin color of many of the passengers began to turn a ghostly white as I am sure my skin did as well.  I kept repeating in my head that flying is safer than driving so this is going to be just fine.  As the landing gear touched down on the landing strip a huge relief came over me.  We finally made it to Chicago and make our way to Phoenix but I will never forget the look of the passengers on that flight.  It was an ugly experience. 

These are just three of the many ugly experiences of travel I have endured.  Next time someone says how lucky you are to travel for work, remember these experiences and ask them how lucky you truly are.               

Teamwork, essential to the success of your business

People in team training exercises often want to know the key steps to get their team moving in the right direction.  Of course, any team needs a clear mission, skilled leadership, talented members, just to name a few.  If the team understands and accepts the ground rules, they can move forward in a unified purpose and function as a team.

Ground rules establish standards and expectations.  Take the time to develop a list of ground rules, keeping them visible and using them can help your team move more efficiently and effectively toward its goal while helping team members develop a commitment to each other and to the team.

Here are some tips for teams as they go through the establishment of ground rules:

Let the team establish its own ground rules – Team leaders and supervisors may be tempted to just make a list of expectations such as, start the meeting on time or complete work assignments.  But this just becomes a list of directions for the team to follow.  A team that develops its own ground rules spends time discussing and agreeing to how the team will behave. “Our” ground rules become much more significant than a list that is prepared by someone else.  Advantages to the team setting its own ground rules:

• Team members are much more likely to respect and adhere to the rules they have created.

• An added bonus is the team building that takes place as team members discuss ground rules.

Usually, teams can come to a consensus on ground rules fairly easily and quickly. This small, early success can pave the way for the team members feeling confident about proceeding with the team’s work.

One way to facilitate development of ground rules is to create an affinity diagram by posing the questions: What gets meetings off track? What do you dislike about meetings? What goes wrong with meetings?

 1. Have team members write answers on sticky notes, one item per note. No discussion is made at this point.

2. Put all the sticky notes on a chart on the wall. Have team members silently sort the notes into categories.

 3. When the notes are grouped, have team members discuss and label each category. Use these to define and document the team’s ground rules on a flipchart for all to see. Date the flipchart and post at every meeting.

Post—and use—your ground rules ­- Without ground rules, team leaders can start to feel like the “Team Police.” They call the group to order, refocus discussions, step in to smooth out disagreements, and catch up with team members who miss meetings.  By developing base expectations, the leader doesn’t always have to play the authority figure. The ground rules give the team the power to call attention to problem situations. The flipchart on the wall reminds team members of the agreements they’ve made together, and allows every team member to participate in facilitating the team. A brief review of the ground rules will usually eliminate annoying problems like chitchat during group discussions and delays in getting meetings started. Keeping ground rules visible is also helpful in bringing new team members up to speed. Ground rules give a new person a quick snapshot of how the team goes about its work.

Evaluate the ground rules after time - As your team spends more time together, the members will change how they behave.  They will develop norms, learn how to manage conflict, and figure out ways of working with each other.  In short, they will grow and become better at being a team.  As this occurs, team members need to decide if their original list of ground rules still fits and make changes if they find it necessary.  All teams, whether they’re brand new or longstanding, can benefit from ground rules.  Take a look at your teams and help them get “grounded.”

The Impact of Poor Communication without an Answering Service

Recently my father had a total knee replacement.  I wanted to share my personal experience when his doctor’s office didn’t have an answering service and the impact of not having an answering service had on my father and my family.

My father who is 76 years old and an avid walker decided to go ahead with a total knee replacement.  Since my father was in great shape for his age, the doctor thought it would also be a great idea.  The main concern I had was the few medical issues he had such as C.O.P.D. and P.T.S.D.  and the medications he took to treat those issues.  Since the doctor was aware of those medications and I hated seeing my father in pain during his walks I was 100% behind the decision.

After surgery my father spent a week in the hospital and was released on a Friday to go home.  He was prescribed a narcotic and Tylenol for pain and settled in at home with my mom.  My mom who is 74 years old had no medial experience.  After my father’s release, the doctor gave my mom instructions of what my father needed to avoid and a printed schedule of when to take his medications.  Everything seemed to be going well and we all anticipated his healing to progress smoothly, until Saturday morning.  Saturday morning my father woke up very confused and had slurred speech.  He almost sounded drunk when I spoke with him on the phone.  I then spoke with my mom to find out what medication he had taken.  My mom said he was sleeping most of the night and he didn’t take any other medication than what was listed on the schedule that was sent home from the doctor.  I asked if she could please call the doctor’s office and speak with them about his symptoms.  She agreed to call.  I waited 20 minutes and since I didn’t hear back from my mom, I decided to call to see what the doctor’s office said.  To my surprise she said that she left a message on a recording.  I asked her if she was sure she called the right number and she said she did.  I asked her if I could have the number so I could try to call and she gave me the number.  I hung up the phone with my mom and immediately called the number she had.  I also received a recorded message and it was in fact the doctor’s office.  I tried to hit zero but it didn’t go anywhere.  Since I am in the answering service business and we answer for many doctor’s offices, hospice companies and home care companies, I couldn’t believe I was getting a recorded message with such a serious procedure.  I immediately called my mom back and asked if my dad’s symptoms improved.  She said no.  In fact, she said he is more confused.  I was a former E.M.T. and Nursing student so I knew the symptoms of stroke and when medication interaction problems occur.  I asked if my mom if she could please call 911.  She said that they are way in the country and it will take the ambulance 30 minutes to get there.  Maybe she should wait for the doctor’s office to return her call.  She didn’t want to be a bother on a Saturday to the volunteer E.M.S. that supports her area.  I was extremely frustrated and worried by the lack of communication.  I thought we needed answers quickly.  I decided to hop in my car and make the hour long drive to their home, hoping that someone would return the call to my mom.  After a half an hour went by I called my mom again and asked if the doctor’s office had called back and she said no.  She even left another message.  I pleaded with her at this point to call 911 and she finally agreed.  As I was pulling in their driveway, they were loading my father up in the ambulance.  I then took my mom in my car and we followed the ambulance, which was an hour away.  We rushed into the emergency room and asked how my father was doing.  We were led to his bed and my father was sleeping.  We wondered what was going on.  The nurse came over to his room and explained they believe my father had a drug interaction.  I asked if his doctor was contacted and she said no, they have the on call doctor taking care of him now.  The on call doctor came over to us and said my dad would be fine but he believes his P.T.S.D medication and the narcotics were interacting with each other.  He wanted to know the schedule of when he took the medications and my mom told the doctor.  The doctor discovered that my mom read the instructions incorrectly and gave my father a double dose of his narcotic instead of giving him the medication twice a day.  My father ended up recovering that day and was back to normal, except for the pain from his knee surgery.  My mom never did hear back that weekend from the doctor’s office.  I was extremely upset by the lack of available communication with his doctor.  I thought, all the doctor had to have in place was an answering service.  Sure, I would have liked it to be All City Communications, but on a personal level I didn’t care who would answer the phone, as long as it was answered.  My mom agreed that she wished she would have been able to speak to someone from the doctor’s office to discuss what medication she gave my father over the phone without having to have my father brought to the emergency room.  A simple phone call would have been so much better.

This situation happened to us personally and we became extremely frustrated and upset as a family because communication wasn’t available to us.  Also, more importantly the level of care for my father suffered because of the inability to contact the doctor’s office.  My mom said she would not recommend the doctor to anybody because of the inability to speak to someone.  She said it seems that the doctor didn’t want to be bothered with my father on a weekend.

The cost of having an answering service greatly outweighs the impact of not having the proper communication for your patient, client, or customer.  Poor communication, as shown in this example, could have been avoided by simply having an answering service.  Every time my brother, my mom, or I spoke to somebody about my dad’s condition from the surgery we always mentioned the trip to the hospital because of not being able to speak to the doctor.  Avoid the negative impact of poor communication and invest in an answering service.  

The Impact of Live Answering on Customer Service

I was recently at my parent’s house discussing how they believe modern technology has taken the customer out of customer service with all the automated phone systems and voice recordings they have to deal with on a daily basis.  My dad, who is in his 70’s, explained that his recent encounter with his satellite television provider was a prime example of how the customer is not the priority anymore.  My dad explained, “Last week our television kept losing its signal so I decided to call our satellite provider.  I dialed the toll free number and immediately I was connected to an automated system.”  He said, “I tried listening to what the computer voice said and it told me to enter my telephone number or account number on the system.  I proceeded to enter my telephone number using the keypad on the phone and then the automated system wanted me to say what issue I am currently experiencing.”  I said, “No signal.”  There was a pause and the automated system said, “What issue are you currently experiencing?”  I again said, “No signal.” Again, there was a pause and the system said, “New Service.”  I said, “No new service, no signal.”  The system responded, “You are already a customer, main menu.”  My dad continued, “I tried hitting zero and hoped to speak to a person to explain my issue but then the automated system said , “Invalid entry, main menu”  My dad said, “I hung up.  I couldn’t handle this anymore.  I decided at that point I am cancelling my service.  I have had them as a satellite provider for over 12 years but I felt I wasn’t valued.”  “I found the mailing address of my satellite provider, and I sat down and wrote a letter.   Indicating that I no longer want their service.”  “After I completed my letter I called a cable provider in my area and to my surprise a welcoming person answered the phone and discussed my needs.  I was impressed.  My dad then went on to tell me, “Get rid of your satellite provider because they don’t value me as a customer. “  I didn’t change but the situation my dad experienced will not be forgotten. 

My father, like many people today, get frustrated with the inability to speak to someone immediately regarding their concern.  Also, many people like my father, make their buying decisions based on the level of service they receive.  Live communication is essential to satisfying the needs of your customers.  A recorded phone system or voice mail not only provides poor service to your customer but it will frustrate and irritate your customer as well.  The impact of the customer not buying from you because there is not a person answering and listening to your customer’s concerns is huge, but the impact of that same customer telling their friends and neighbors, via social network and word of mouth, can be even larger.

When you start thinking of customer service, think of the customer first.  What needs does the customer have?  Will the customer be more or less satisfied having their concerns addressed immediately?  Obviously, we all would be more satisfied if our concerns are addressed immediately.  Live answering on every call doesn’t require a large investment in labor as many would expect.  The solution is much less expensive, an answering service.  An answering service, like All City Communications has a large number of highly experienced, professional customer service associates ready to answer your calls live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The customer service associates are highly trained in many different industries, and they can begin answering for your customers or prospective customers immediately.  Think of your customer first and utilize an answering service.  Stop frustrating your customers and start valuing them. 

An Evolving History of an Answering Service

In the late 1970’s as communications grew, so did the need for a live answering service.  The need and demand of an answering service to support businesses coincided with the reduced cost of telecommunications and increased costs with labor.    The operators for the answering service would act as a receptionist for the business and dispatch the messages to extensions within the company.  All City Communications provided this service for many companies.   The message center had a revolving wheel above the operators where messages were stored after being written down.  This wheel would be accessed by spinning it to retrieve the message when the person who had a message called in for it. 

In the late 1980’s wireless communication began the next phase of communication with the pager.  Pagers were given their own telephone number where the caller could dial in and send a numeric message like a telephone number.  The next technological advance of the pager was the ability to alphanumeric page.  Alphanumeric allowed operators to type in a message and send to the pager utilizing radio towers.  All City Communications helped many businesses with their paging needs.  All City Communications would handle incoming calls and dispatch via pager as well as repair paging devices.

Voicemail became popular in the 1980’s as a way for businesses to stay in touch with customers; however it lessened the personal contact needed for businesses.  Voice mail displeasure began to increase the need for businesses to have a person answering the calls instead of a machine or voice mail  system.  Businesses discovered their competitor had a competitive advantage with a live answering service and began to reduce the use of an answering machine in lieu of an answering service.  Businesses realized the small cost of an answering service outweighed the cost of fewer customers.

In the 1990’s computer and cell phone use increased and so did the variety of ways communication was achieved.  Email and text messaging was introduced.  The operator behaves as a bridge for the message to be dispatched utilizing these new technologies.  Character limits were increased on cell phones versus alphanumeric pagers resulting in more complete messages and email began the replacement of the traditional mail service.  Communications became faster and more accessible no matter where the recipient of the message was.  All City Communications was at the beginning of the emailing and texting evolution.  All City Communications began emailing and texting messages to multiple businesses making communications available in multiple ways.

Today an answering service can utilize an API (application programming interface) that allows call center functionality to be integrated with cloud-based customer relationship management, leads management, and other applications.  An answering service such as All City Communication can function as an employee sitting in the building of their customer.  Seamless integration is achieved for the answering service allowing the business to keep the largest cost of business, labor to be lessened while increasing the availability of the service or product.    

An Answering Service is a must for any Service Company!

I was recently reading an article by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration news regarding how a call answering service is still relevant.  Of course being in the answering service industry I completely agree with the article but I wanted to share some points from the article. 

According to Mike Agugliaro, owner of a HVAC company in New Jersey, he was able to generate an additional 5.4 million in revenue from using an answering service.  Mike began using an answering service 3 years ago not only to help with after-hour and emergency calls, but to answer over flow calls during business hours.  Overflow calls are handled when a call can’t be answered during the day due to either nobody in the office or if their phone is busy.  The call after a certain amount of rings will forward to the answering service.  Mike stated, “Nobody’s calling a plumber, HVAC company, or an electrician solely to chat about their weekend,”, “Something bad is really happening. When you’re in the middle of something really bad, the worst thing is to call and get an answering machine.  We recognize when people are in a time of need, they need a human being to talk it through, calm them down, and help them through the situation.”

Mike also saw a huge impact to his business when hurricane Sandy hit and their phone lines were down but the answering service was still answering his phones.  “If we didn’t have this backup system in place, we would have lost millions of dollars,” Agugliaro said. “But since we did, when our phone system dropped out, the call center was picking up, and we were able to survive.” 

An answering service can help your business in many ways and these two examples show how invaluable the answering service is to this heating and cooling company.  Once you understand the reason why an answering service is invaluable to your company you must determine which answering service fits your business needs.  Just like the HVAC industry, no two answering service are alike. 

Some of the criteria you should use when searching for an answering service includes; does the answering service you are looking at answer every call live?  This is important because some answering services claim to answer the calls in 2 rings, however they don’t claim to answer the calls live within 2 rings.  If an operator doesn’t answer every call live, some services use a recorded greeting to answer the calls within 2 rings only to tell your caller to stay on the line for the next available operator.  This is a tremendous difference.  Does the answering service you are looking at meet the needs of your employees with how they like to receive a call?  Make sure the answering service can dispatch the way you and your employees like to be dispatched.  Texting, emailing and calling should be able to be done for every individual that may take a call.  One employee may prefer a text after hours while another employee doesn’t like texting, but rather receive a call.  Make sure the answering service meets the needs of your business.  Does the answering service have people answering the phones that sound professional and empathetic to the needs of your customers and treat your customers like you would expect your own employees to treat them?  Ask for references from the prospective answering service and call their references.  Ask the reference about the people answering the phones.  Does the person answering the phones exceed your expectations in terms of tone and professionalism?  Ask the answering service if they record their calls and then ask for a sample recording of their operators handling an emergency no heat call.  The person answering the phone is the face of your business.  Make sure the impression that is left with your callers is positive.

One answering service that should be considered for your call handling needs is All City Communications.  All City Communications exceeds the expectations of their customers’ needs in terms of ring count, dispatch customization, and operator quality and has done so since 1979.  Don’t lose revenue by not being available to answer your phones or by settling for an average answering service.  Exceed your competition and your customers’ expectations by utilizing the perfect answering service, All City Communications.   

Being Eco-Friendly as a Funeral Industry Supplier

We recently exhibited at the ICCFA conference in San Antonio and had a wonderful time meeting our current customers and introducing our answering service to other funeral directors.  As I was looking around the convention I kept seeing the words eco-friendly and green with many exhibitors.  I began to speak to companies within the funeral industry about what those words mean to their product or service.  I found that there is a movement within the industry to go green.  Some of the products I learned about included; eco-friendly caskets made from 97% recycled materials, eco-friendly urns that are water biodegradable and even natural/green embalming chemicals.  This made me examine how an answering service can be eco-friendly as a supplier to the funeral industry.

There is many simple strategies a funeral industry supplier can do to be more eco-friendly.  Most eco-friendly strategies take little effort that any office can adopt.  Some of the changes we have adopted to make us more eco-friendly includes;

11) Become more digital oriented.  We have focused on becoming a paperless environment.  Contracts are emailed over to our potential customers.  We do not need to print out a contract or price list to get it to our potential customers.  We can email over the digital copies.  Sure you can purchase greener, recycled paper which I encourage everybody to do, however there is nothing greener than no paper at all. The more you do online, the less need there is for paper.

     

22) A simple change during lunch can go a long way to reduce waste.  Bring your lunch in a reusable container instead of purchasing a new container from a restaurant.  A statistic to put it in perspective is “Once: the number of times that most of the more than 25 billion cartons manufactured in the U.S. are used.“  

33)  Reduce power consumption.  In our office the computer is used regularly for call handling.  A positive change for a computer is to utilize a green hard drive.  A green hard drive will have a spindle speed that is slower but will perform the same as a higher speed non green hard drive.  Another eco-friendly computer change is to use an eco-friendly power supply.  Some eco-friendly power supply providers can reduce power consumption by 33%!  Also, you can shut down lights that are not in use to reduce power consumption.  If office workers forget to turn off the lights, put a little reminder on the door so they see it on the way out.  Finally, replace your bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs qualified with the energy star.  These bulbs use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs.   

44)  Recycle.  Start a recycle station at your work.  Make sure there are recycle bins for copy paper, newspapers and envelopes.  You should also make sure you have bins for cans, soda bottles and sandwich bags. 

These are just a few simple steps that we use at our answering service that any office can utilize.  After all, greener workplaces are not only efficient; they send a message of resilience, diligence and care to everyone at your business and to every customer you provide a service or product to.  

The Value of an Answering Service to a Funeral Director’s Life

An answering service is essential to a funeral home in guaranteeing that every call will be answered at any time and on any day.  Most funeral directors have nightmares of missing a call from a family they have developed a relationship with and promised to be there when their family’s loved one has passed.  A good answering service, such as All City Communications will answer all your calls live, without a recorded greeting allowing us to immediately listen to, empathize with, and comfort a family member calling in with a death call or a concern relating to a loved one. 

The benefits of an answering service that’s available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to the families of a funeral home are easy to understand, however the benefits of an answering service to the individual funeral director or owner of the funeral home may not be as obvious.  The work schedule of a funeral director is very fluid.  Anticipated time with the family of a funeral director can change at a moment’s notice.  Time for a funeral director for sleep or to spend time with their family or to simply enjoy a movie is as scarce as getting a hole in one in some cases.  Not only does a funeral director have to be available for death calls but also they have to be available to answer questions such as; service information, obituaries, florists, directions and billing questions. 

The solution for a funeral director to help with time is an answering service such as All City Communications.   All City Communications will answer every call live with a compassionate, empathetic voice and only dispatch calls such as a death call or a family that really needs to speak to the funeral director.  We can handle all other calls such as service times, obituaries, florists, directions and billing calls.  There is no need for a funeral director to be available for every call, 24 hours a day.  An answering service is a needed resource that a funeral director must utilize to free up time for their family and for themselves in order to provide a little normalcy to the hectic and unpredictable nature of their lives.         

Answering Service Cost: It's More than Price

There is nothing more expensive than a cheap answering service.

Many times throughout a day, the first words out of a prospective customer looking for an answering service is how much do we charge and how do we provide accurate billing?  It seems like the quality of our service is secondary than the pricing.  I am more than happy to share our pricing with anybody; however it is important for the caller to understand the differences in the quality of service versus the price.

Price is a one-time purchase; Quality is a life time purchase

Answering services are not built alike.  A good analogy is when you shop for a vehicle.  We all can head to a car lot and ask the car salesman, “What is the cheapest car in the lot?”  Most of us and I would assume all of us don’t ask that as the first question.  The reason we don’t ask that question as the first question is because we want to get the highest quality at the most reasonable price.  Not the cheapest without considering the quality.  We want a vehicle that is reliable that doesn’t have you in the garage monthly for an issue.  We want a vehicle that has the highest rated crash test rating to protect your family.  We want a vehicle that has the best gas mileage.  There truly is value we want that goes beyond price when buying a vehicle.  There should be no difference in how you look at an answering service.  Just like a vehicle that has many different amenities you can purchase, an answering service has many value added services that benefit your business versus just looking at price. 

All City Communications Value Added Services

All City Communications will answer all your calls live.  Your customers will have their needs immediately addressed.  There is an increased value to addressing your customers’ needs immediately versus an answering machine, voice mail or an answering service that tells your caller to remain on the line for the next available operator.  All City Communications employs the most skilled, professional customer service associates to handle your calls in the industry.  The person who answers your call is the face of your business and the ability of our operators to consistently and effectively communicate with your callers is essential in growing and maintaining your business.  Anybody can answer the phone; it takes a professional, experienced customer service associate to communicate effectively with your callers.  Our people will do just that.  All City Communications will ensure you actually receive all your messages accurately with correct spellings and with detailed messages.  There is no reason, no matter how cheap an answering service is that you should be with an answering service that doesn’t take detailed, accurate messages.  How much money will you lose if you don’t receive detailed messages from current customers and potential customers? 

Contact All City Communications

The Importance of Understanding Billing with an Answering Service

Knowing what you are being billed is only a part of understanding the cost of an answering service to your business.  The real key is understanding how you are being billed.

An important question you must ask your answering service is what is their billing periods.  Is it a month to month billing cycle or is it every 28 days.  There can be a huge difference over the course of a year between the two.  A 28 day billing period accounts for a partial billing period for every month.  In a typical non leap year, six months of the year have 30 days and 6 months of the year has 31 days.  In a 28 day billing cycle you will have 6 months of the year with 2 days unaccounted for and you will have 6 months of the year with 3 days unaccounted for.  The total of all the days unaccounted for is 30 days.  Those extra days will be billed as an extra invoice during the course of a year which also means you will receive an additional base rate during the course of the year.   All City does it differently.  We bill you on a month to month basis with 12 invoices in a 12 month period.  There are no hidden costs with us.

Another question you must ask your answering service is what their rounding rate is.  The rounding rate is the fraction that the call is rounded to.  An example is a call that lasts 34 minutes.  Is it rounded for billing purposes to 40 seconds or is rounded to the next full minute which would be 1 minute.  Some services do the next full minute of rounding.  This would greatly affect your usage rate so you wouldn’t be comparing apples to apples when deciding on an answering service.  At All City Communications we only round to the 1/10^th of a minute, so a 6 second call will only be rounded to 10 seconds.  This can be a great savings for your company. 

Finally, review any additional line items for services that you currently use.  Examples of additional line items may be texting charges, patching charges, and any term a specific answering service may use for an additional surprise service charge.  All City Communications is upfront with pricing and offers an extremely competitive rate.  We have many customized packages that will fit your needs so you will not be paying for additional minutes you may never use.