Choosing a Phone Answering Service: The Importance of Training
When a business owner decides to use a phone answering service, one of the most common apprehensions we hear about is how calls from customers will be handled. When you’ve spent years building a business, it’s a reasonable concern to have.
After all, you want to be sure you’re leaving customers, potential clients and other callers in capable and trustworthy hands. Fortunately, finding the right help is a lot easier than you might think: To find the best virtual assistant to handle incoming calls, take a close look at the training they have received from the virtual services provider that employs them.
With that in mind, we’re going to take a closer look at how the virtual assistants at Intelligent Office (IO) are trained to respond to customer calls.
How our virtual assistants are trained to handle your company’s customer service
IO’s virtual assistants receive comprehensive training, both from our team and from yours. On our side, we make sure every representative knows how to handle any question that arises. For example, our virtual assistants are trained to respond with empathy, confidence and professionalism. Instead of saying “I don’t know” or “I can’t help you,” they use critical thinking skills to identify practical ways to support customers.
On your end, you’ll train your future virtual assistant on the specifics of your business, including how you prefer different types of calls and questions to be handled. We even provide easy-to-use technology tools that allow you to update your company’s preferences right from your computer, so your assistant is always up-to-date.
How do virtual assistants handle angry customer calls?
Unfortunately, angry calls aren’t uncommon in the business world. People tend to be even more stressed during uncertain times, as is the current case with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. You need someone on the phones who can respond tactfully to these tricky types of calls.
Calming an angry caller down takes skill and experience, which is why IO’s virtual assistant training emphasizes conflict resolution. Callers feel listened to and understood, and you can feel at ease knowing your company is being well represented.
Does my business need a virtual assistant to help with the phones?
You might be wondering if your business even needs a virtual assistant to take over customer service phone calls. In our experience working with thousands of small business owners across North America, here are a few of the top questions and considerations to assess whether your business could benefit from customer service support:
- Are you mentally ready to delegate phone answering to someone else? Making this mindset shift can be incredibly difficult, but it doesn’t matter how well trained a virtual assistant is if you don’t trust them with this responsibility.
- Do your customers need you, specifically, to answer their calls? Be brutally honest with yourself on this one — the right person with the right training can often provide better customer support, since it’s their primary duty.
- Think about how often phone calls interrupt your work on a given day or week. Would fewer distractions allow you to be more productive? If so, consider onboarding a virtual assistant to make it easier to focus.
If you feel ready to onboard someone to take over the phones, click here to find an IO location near you. After learning more about your company and what it needs, you’ll be connected to a local virtual assistant who your customers and other callers will love speaking with (and you’ll love all the extra time you have to do more of your best work).
