Picture this. You're a landlord for a small apartment complex. For emergencies, all of your tenants have your personal cell phone number. However, you're finding that your tenants are reaching out all hours of the night for every little issue that comes up. You keep telling them to contact you after hours…

Answering the phone. It’s easy, right? Maybe for a seasoned receptionist. But for someone who is new to the working world, there is a rhythm and rhyme to expert phone answering. Everyone at your business needs to know how to answer the phone professionally. Whether you’re working the front desk of a…

Tax season is here, which means accounting and tax prep firms are working diligently filing taxes, doling out financial advice, and answering the most important question - 'So, how much am I getting back?' Because this is a taxing time (pun intended) for both accountants and civilians alike, accountants often hire answering services like…

How do you take classroom training, soft skills essentials, role play, and employee shadowing, and turn it into magic when new hires pick up their first call? Have faith in the tools and education that your training team provides before an operator puts on a headset? Yes. Trust that you have hired…

In our first post, we covered soft skills training for call center agents to take the guesswork out of teaching call center staff the art of communication. While having a presentation to present is a great tool, there are a number of effective call center training techniques that can be utilized to smoothly…

If you manage a call center, then you know that exceptional customer care is the cornerstone of success in the answering service industry. But whether you're a call center professional, a retail store associate, or a plumbing apprentice, basic customer service principles are applicable across the board. There’s no better time to…

When you call a business and the automated attendant at the call center picks up and asks how they can be of service, did you ever wonder how the computer can understand what you are talking about? You could say anything from, "I need my account balance," to, "I want a refund!" and…

The holidays are a busy time for everyone, but especially so for small business owners. From filling orders and trying to get the last appointments in before the new year, to trying to remember to spend time with friends and family, it can often times be more stressful than merry. Specialty Answering…

If you're relying on someone else to take your messages, you need the information to be correct 100% of the time. Otherwise, you could wind up wasting time playing Sherlock Holmes, or worse, you could wind up getting stuck on the phone with your Nanny instead of calling back Nancy, the woman…

If you are running a small business, chances are that you are often overwhelmed and simply can’t get to every phone call. When you’re not in a position to hire a salaried receptionist, you really only have two options: let calls go to voicemail, or outsource to a live operator receptionist service…