As much as we all hate it, sometimes we still need assistance on the holidays. Maybe there was an unexpected plumbing disaster. Maybe the A/C or heating suddenly went out. Maybe Aunt Myrna blew up the stove making her famous Party Cheese Salad. Whatever the case may be, businesses often experience a surge in calls around this time of year, making the holidays a particularly busy, stressful time. Juggling the end-of-year projects, limited staff availability, and at-home seasonal matters is already tough enough without a telephone ringing off the hook.
Thankfully, there are tools to help mitigate some of this chaos and give you a leg up on managing your business during this special time. Let’s take a look at how an answering service like Dexcomm can make your holidays a little happier.
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First, let’s start with the obvious: with an increased call volume towards the end of the year, it can quickly become overwhelming for your regular staff to deal with. Oftentimes there’s just simply not enough manpower to get to every single caller, and after-hours messages are a nightmare in and of themselves. With an answering service, however, you can offload those calls to a professional, 24/7 team that can efficiently take them on. Instead of just one or two people answering the phones, your calls will be forwarded to live agents that have been trained to be a seamless extension of your business. Customers will never know that they are talking to an answering service, and round-the-clock availability ensures that no calls will be missed, even if they are after hours.
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Providing excellent customer service throughout the year is a pillar of every business, but during the holidays it can become a little trickier. Shuffling around irregular hours, employees that have called off, and the high stress of the season often results in businesses having trouble putting their best foot forward with their customers. Tensions are often high among the customers themselves as well, so maintaining a proper relationship with them is even more crucial. Being sent to voicemail or being made to hold indefinitely after a difficult day could just be the final straw needed to send them away for good. To add to that, four out of five callers do not leave a message – typically believing that no one will hear it – leaving your business with no way to return to them. The importance of connecting your callers to a live human as soon as possible cannot be stressed enough. With an answering service, however, you can be assured that your outstanding customer service does not need to suffer during the busy season. In a sea of businesses botching their customer interactions during the holidays, stand out by maintaining your professionalism and attentiveness despite whatever end-of-year challenges yours might be dealing with.
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Most people want to spend their holidays with their families or friends. It is a very special time of the year that is best enjoyed with the ones you love. The wintertime is also flu season, creating a spike in employee illnesses as the weather changes. Despite the surge in work to be done, it’s understandable that people’s schedules are often full of other matters outside the office. This frequently results in having less in-house staff than at other times of the year, which, naturally, is very stressful! Thankfully, an answering service can help fill in those gaps, even with an increased workload. You and your staff will be able to take that much deserved time for yourselves to spend your holidays the way you like!
The holidays are a magical time of the year, but they can be pretty daunting from a business perspective. There are so many tasks to be done, places to be, and people to meet. Don’t enter the season unprepared – consider partnering with an answering service like Dexcomm to keep you and your staff merry and bright.