HOW A TELEPHONE SERVICE MAKES BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE

We e-mail, chat and stay connected to the internet all day in one way or another. You might think that personal contact and being available by telephone play a secondary role for the modern consumer, however, this assumption about the digital age has proved to be wrong. This is why many companies have made the decision to extend and optimise their availability by telephone by outsourcing their call handling and other office tasks to a telephone secretarial service and save office costs.

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS IMPORTANT

A survey by Fittkau and Maaß Consulting showed that poor availability by suppliers does not just lead to frustration in consumers; it leads to two thirds of those surveyed to switch to another supplier. Hence the importance of being available by telephone. It can be perceived as having high costs and expenses, especially for start-ups and SMEs, since full time secretarial staff cannot be used to full capacity and is seen as a luxury.

FIXED COSTS EFFICIENCY BY OUTSOURCING

Companies are now finding a solution to this and find that in outsourcing the telephone a cheap alternative to secretarial staff not being fully utilised. Call handling packages start from around £40 per month, virtual secretaries take calls as required by individual specifications. Additional costs only arise from incoming calls and no term of notice is generally required for termination.

Avoiding this kind of fixed cost has been recognised in the start-up scene and in entrepreneurship theory at least since Günter Faltin’s book on success “Brain Versus Capital”. Modern entrepreneurs have been showing how you can deliver the best quality at the highest efficiency by outsourcing to professional providers, while keeping your own head clear for the further developing the business model and coordinating the various processes.

Time is valuable and by outsourcing the call handling to a virtual secretary service, it is still allowing a company to have the personal communication consumers need as well as making more time to have less interruptions and be more efficient.