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Northern Reaching People When It Counts Most SUDBURY • NORTH BAY • TIMMINS June 2003, Issue 17
1) Combine Live Operator Services With Our New Enhanced Voice Mail System You subscribe to our live operator messaging service because you want to have your calls handled by a real person the way you would in your office. 24-hour service helps you get new customers you might not otherwise have gained, as well as service and retain existing ones. Sometimes your callers simply want to know basic information about your company such as hours of operation. We repeat the answers to this kind of information request over and over. There are other times when we take messages for you after hours that are not of an urgent nature and you have instructed us to hold the message until the next business morning. You pay us for valuable live operator time. With our new Infinity Message Service System we can now provide live operator services for you in a more efficient and cost effective manner by combining those services with the system’s voice mail option. A typical greeting for a client using the voice mail system could run as follows: " Hi thank you for calling ABC Widgets. Our office hours are Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. However, we are available outside these hours for any sales and/or service requirements. If you wish to reach us now, press "0" for a live operator."This call will go directly to our operators just as your calls do today. They will handle the call with the instructions you have given us. "If you wish to leave a non-urgent voice message for us, please stay on the line and we will pick up the message on our next business day at 8:00 a.m. sharp." Every morning you will simply dial in to pick up whatever voice mail messages have been left for you. The above example is one of many ways that your message service can be set up. Each company’s requirements are different, and all have to be handled on an individual basis. When it comes to after hours service to your clients and prospects, you cannot beat a live operator. People like speaking to people. However, there are occasions in which voice mail is all that is needed. The rates for live operator services are higher than the rates for voice mail time. There definitely are possibilities for cost savings. If you are interested in knowing more about this, please contact us to have one of our representatives call you to discuss your voice mail options. Technology is available to enhance your after hours message needs and save you money at the same time! 2) Use Our New Check-In Lines to Check for Messages Without Paying for Operator TimeO ur new Infinity Message Service System is allowing us to offer you more features and services than ever before. One such feature, allows clients to call in to check for messages without having to speak to an operator. Anything you can do to reduce non-necessary operator time translates into a smaller bill for you! It’s fast, it’s easy and it will save you money! There are times when you dial in to check for messages, only to find out that you don’t have any messages. It cost you money to find out you have no messages. Our "Check-In Line" feature allows you to call in and let our computerized system tell you immediately if you have any messages holding. If you don’t, then you just hang up. If you do, you can stay on the line and be directed to the next available operator.Here is how it works:
Sudbury (705) 662-5000 North Bay (705) 497-6500 Timmins (705) 360-8699 Enter your account number and pass code (if applicable) when requested. Our friendly voicemail system will tell you if you have any messages. At this point you can be connected to an operator to pick up the messages. There are also other features/options (changing your status, checking multiple accounts etc.) that you can address when calling our "Check-In Line". If you would like to know more about these features, please request a call from one of our account representatives the next time you are talking to one of our Message Service staff members. Remember, using the "Check-In Line" is fast, easy and will help to save you money! 3) Call Forwarding Tips to Save You Time & Money Certain times of the day are busier for our Message Service staff which can sometimes translate into incoming calls being placed on hold for a short time or busy signals being received when attempting to call forward your lines. One such example of a busy time is 5pm. In addition to our regular call volume, many of our clients are closing their office for the day and are calling in to forward their lines to us. Here are two tips to help expedite the call forwarding process during these busy times: 1) If you call in to forward your line to us during a busy time you may hear the auto answer music before speaking to an operator. Instead of waiting for the operator to pick up your call only to tell him or her that you are call forwarding, stay on the line for 5 seconds and then hang up. Your call forwarding has been activated. 2) If you get a busy signal when attempting to call forward your line to us, hang up, and repeat the process. Repeating the process a second consecutive time activates your call forwarding.
Northern Communications management take pies to the face to raise money for The Sudbury Regional Palliative Care Association.
CAM-X Award of Excellence KICK OFFThe Canadian Association of Message Exchanges (CAM-X) is a national organization that is continually striving to improve the level of service its members deliver to you, the clients. Every year, CAM-X make numerous anonymous calls over a six month period to participating call centres and evaluate the service provided against a strict set of guidelines. This year’s contest kicked off on May 7. When a test call is made, our operators are not informed that the call is being placed for the purposes of the CAM-X competition. We provide them with the same service that our clients receive. These calls test our operators’ ability to handle difficult situations in a proper, timely and professional manner. The Award of Excellence is then awarded to companies that meet and exceed the established guidelines. Our goal this year is to build on our past success and to once again have the award bestowed on our three offices. Our staff have proven that they have the skills, abilities and professionalism to win this award and we have no doubt that they will be successful once again. MISSED CALLS COSTING YOU MONEY? Don’t Let it Happen! How do you safeguard against missing calls, you ask? Have a history of all messages taken by the Message Service staff e-mailed or faxed to you weekly or even daily if you wish. The cost of this service is $15/month. A small price to pay if it helps you get one extra sale or ensures that you help to keep an existing client happy. This service also has some other important benefits. Many of our Message Service clients carry pagers. Despite our paging system being the best in the area, it is impossible for it to be perfect and messages may not reach your pager. For many of our clients, when a message is in regards to a service issue, we often page the on-call person. If he or she gets the message and takes care of the client but forgets to report this to the billing department, you’ve provided after hours service that should possibly have been billed to the client, for free. A review of the calls we’ve taken for you could help bring this to light and ensure that your after hours calls are being billed. Some of our clients use this service in order to help administer their payroll. They can verify that a call-out has occurred and pay their on-call person accordingly. The list of reasons to have a history of your Message Service account sent to you could go on endlessly. Each business we take calls for probably has its very own reason that this service would be of value. If you want to have your account history sent to you on a regular basis, please call your local Northern Communications office. Quote of the Month "Evaluate, improve, adjust. In these continual actions are the seeds of success." Author Unknown
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