Developing an Answering Service Protocol for Your Clients
When taking in new clients for your answering service business, it is important to set all the protocols for the clients phone call needs before beginning service. You need to have a detailed contract with each individual client spelling out exactly what services you will provide for them. The first thing you will want to do is sit down and have a meeting with the decision maker for the business. It is important to keep this meeting short and to-the-point because you are all about saving time for your clients. You should create a checklist with all the needs the client has and explain to him or her exactly how your answering service will fill those needs.
You will need to determine exactly which phone calls should be taken a message for and which need to be routed directly to the client. You will also need to discuss how often the client wants their messages delivered. For some it may be once a day, for others more or less often. Another consideration is how the messages are to be delivered. Your client may choose to have the messages faxed, emailed or dictated by phone. It is a good idea to keep a hard copy of all messages and have them filed and available should your client lose his or her copy and need to find the information about a particular phone call or customer of theirs in a hurry.
It is important to develop a good rapport with your client and gain an understanding of the goals they have for their business and how your answering service can help them attain those goals. You want to make your service so valuable to your client that they feel unable to make it without you. You will do that by carefully crafting your phone protocol and fully training each staff member to follow it. This protocol should be updated and reviewed frequently to accommodate changes for the client and keep the procedures for each client fresh in the answering service operators mind.
Each client will want his or her phone calls answered in a particular way. You and your staff will need to adjust not only the particular verbiage you use with each clients phone calls, but also your tone and energy level. A client who is having you answer sales calls will want you to have an upbeat positive tone, while a doctor or other medical professional will desire a more reserved, professional tone to be used.
These are all particulars you will want to have ironed out with your client before you begin serving them. Your client may want you to answer the phone with their business name or even a company slogan, like "Joe's Electrical, where prices are guaranteed not to shock you" or even with their current specials or other pertinent information.
Respecting the wants and needs of your client is absolutely crucial to securing long-term relationships in the answering service business. This is exactly what your client is coming to you for. Working out a detailed phone call protocol with each client will ensure your ability to serve them well and provide you with business for many years to come.
