Understanding a Shared Phone Service
If you have ever wondered how a call center or answering service captures your calls, it all has to do with technology. When your phone lines are redirected to our center they are routed through our computer server. This is how we know the call is for you. So just how does this happen if we are not billing you by the hour but we always seem to capture the call.
It’s called a shared service. Our Answer 365 Customer Service Manager looks at the call history that includes month of the year, day of the week, average length of the calls and the hour of the day. These add up to predictive indicators as to how many phone calls we will get over a given time. Our facility is staffed based on that data. We all know the frustration when a message comes up that says all of our agents are busy. Please remain on the line. The truth of the matter this only happens around 10 or 12 percent of the time. The other 90 percent of the time you phone is answered with in three rings. Is it possible to get that number of immediately answered calls up? The answer to that is yes but it comes at a cost as we would have to add more staff to insure this does not happen. This would increase the cost of our base service. This is why it is called a shared service. This is how it is kept affordable. Answer 365 exceeds industry standards in these categories. Each industry always has low cost providers. For these low cost providers to be profitable they are left with two options. Have your calls answered overseas or reduce the performance level meaning more calls go to hold until an agent is available.
In some instances we provide our larger customers with dedicated staff that insures their line is always open. If the dedicated staff member is busy then it skips to the first available operator in our system.
It’s all very amazing how technology becomes your best friend yet your customers get to speak with a human that cares about you and your business. You win and we win as a result. In many instances companies that value each opportunity to speak with a customer are the type of customers we have. It’s a wonderful partnership.