Not everyone is a fan of outsourcing, and of course, some people are critical of the practice. The outsourcing variant known as “offshoring,” which saw many thousands of contact centre jobs with multinational companies such as banks migrate overseas, was especially controversial.
Low-cost labour in developing economies was essentially used to cut costs by replacing people employed in developed nations and their higher wages.
When it comes to outsourcing call answering services, criticism is less about undercutting labour costs and more about the quality of service that is provided by an outsourced call answering service.
These are some of the most common issues and here we explain how Simply66 solves them.
1. Answering service receptionists do not know your business – as part of our onboarding process, we use a questionnaire to gather all the required basic information. Our systems are VoIP (Voice over IP) which means the call system runs through a computer and is linked to CRM. When a call to your number is detected, a pop-up appears on the screen of the receptionist providing all the information needed to answer a call to your business confidently and in keeping with how you want us to greet callers. We can provide the answers to all the basic enquiries.
2. Answering service receptionists don’t pick up calls quickly enough – plain and simple this is resource management. Simply66 ensures adequate receptionist staffing to cope with the anticipated call volumes across all our customers. This means we avoid the long ringing and on-hold times that are associated with poorly resourced services that fail to provide adequate staffing to meet their commitments. Our IVR (Interactive Voice Response) feature can pick up calls automatically should a call exceed the maximum ring time you prefer.
3. Answering services receptionists don’t always have great English – this is a common criticism, however, it’s more associated with offshore outsourced answering services. Simply66’s entire operation is UK-based and a high standard of English is spoken by all our receptionist team. This avoids language issues and communication problems.
4. Answering services don’t gather the right information from callers – we avoid this sort of sloppy practice that often results from bored, disengaged answering service receptionists and managers. Simply66 is a close-knit, stable team that is well-resourced and managed. We are in a competitive industry and we know we have to deliver on every call. We provide full information about every inbound inquiry, and you get an email with a recording of every call we answer on your behalf.
5. Calls are not transferred to the correct employees or there are long delays – our onboarding questionnaire ensures we gather all the critical information about your key contacts and internal departments. Our on-screen pop-up technology equips receptionists with all the information to transfer calls as quickly as possible without needing to ‘ring round the houses’ of internal numbers to try to find out who should take the call.
6. Receptionists can’t answer common questions about products and services – when you need receptionists to do more than ‘just get the phone’ and do the basics, our Service & Support Desk plan is designed to provide 1st line support for products and services. Just provide the answers to the 15 most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) callers have, and our on-screen pop-up system puts the information right in front of our receptionists. This enables them to provide 1st call resolution to more calls and shields your internal team from interruptions posed by routine questions.
With Simply66, you are in charge. You tell us how you want your calls handled and our team will switch your number over to us (or give you a new one), configure the inbound call ringing and pickup arrangements, and start handling calls on your behalf.
The best way to see what Simply66 could do for your business is to sign up for our free 14 day trial.
To find out more simply call us on 03333 4415 66 or email sales@simply66.co.uk
