Like it or not when it snows here in the UK it does seem to have a paralysing effect and businesses can struggle to function as workers stay home and the forecast always seems bleak.

Indeed if the Daily Mail is to be believed we are only ever a few minutes away from the worst snow storms since time began! However, here at Verbatim, The Phone Answering Service, we have yet to be troubled by snow – although during that last bad spell we did have someone trek in on skis!

We have always had a can do and get it done attitude and that means we know how to help businesses blighted by a white out. If your calls are diverted to us we can connect them to the relevant member of staff wherever they are stranded courtesy of the British weather.

We have kept the home phones ringing with work calls for clients who cannot get into the office through to simply answering overflow calls when a business is short staffed due to the weather.

Some of the best feedback we have had comes from businesses who have told us their clients had no idea the snow had closed their physical office as they never had a problem getting through on the telephone.

Here’s what Gary Perkins, MD of MAS in Worcestershire said:

“This service has been of tremendous benefit to us, particularly a few years ago when we experienced a lightning strike in 2009 and all calls to MAS were quickly diverted by BT to Verbatim, The Phone Answering Service, whilst we had to source and install a new telephone system.

Then again in the severe winter of 2010/2011, this service proved enormously beneficial as even getting into the office sometimes took longer than normal. I am sure that having the team at Verbatim, whom we know well, helped to ensure that our ability to service our customers and giving them the knowledge we were operating (almost) normally created confidence to our overall level of service.”

The same approach that allows businesses to use The Phone Answering Service to cover holiday absences or other pinch points that can be anticipated and planned for, so can it be used when snow, or indeed any severe weather, frustrates running a business.

So, before your business struggles, why not explore how using the professional phone answering approach of Verbatim can stop you being frozen out of the marketplace when the snow does eventually fall on Berkshire and beyond.

Please contact Graham Hill at Verbatim Call Centres on 0800 656 9590 or learn more about its Business Continuity services

We wish all of you and your staff and loved ones well in these difficult times. I have been awake all night worrying about my sons and daughter who live in south London. They tell me some of the steets are like war zones. I was really pleased to hear that the spirit of Londoners is still stong and that people are gathering together for the clean up.

Keeping your business open

My firm Verbatim is supporting Workspace Plc and Homefinders of Hackney with a call answering and overflow telephone answering service. They can send staff home early knowing that their business can remain “open” because their calls are routed to my dedicated team of telephone receptionists in Newbury.

Let me know if you or any of your friends need support to keep their business going.

 Verbatim the telephone answering service will be delighted to support them during this period just to keep them up and running until sanity on the streets return!

Indian Call Centres driving down costs by employing Jail birds!

We kid you not! We are flabbergasted having just read an article quoting the Indian call centre, Radiant Infosystems, who are planning to implement this bizarre idea to staff a telephone answering service. This Indian call centre has plans to help rehabilitate criminals and offer them employment while getting dirt cheap labour by employing them to staff an inbound call answering service at the Hyderabad Cherlapally Central Jail.

Jail Bird

The plan is to hire 250 of the inmates, who can earn up to £1.50 per day,( note upto £1.50 per day,) to do things like handle bank account applications and insurance claim forms.

The plan is raising interesting questions among those who handle inbound telephone answering services for things like lead generation, and handling bank forms and insurance claims. No doubt.

Data protection is becoming the new oxymoron. Would you trust your business or your bank’s calls to a bunch of convicted criminals? We expect some of them will be serving sentences for fraud, maybe even telephone fraud!

The company claims that prisoners won’t have access to any sensitive data or information about the callers. Ho Ho pull the other one. There is already so much fraud and identity theft to worry about without a bunch of criminals being paid getting their hands on our data.

Meet some of our inmates!

Rest assured our telephone answering service is based in Newbury, Berkshire in the heart of the Thames Valley and all of our ‘inmates’ are free to come and go as they please and earn much more than £1.50 per day to professionally handle calls!

Indeed many have been working here for ten years or more and we celebrate their tenth year with an early release scheme and parole!

Ann, one of our superstars, keeps on re-offending and is on a long stretch having already served thirteen years in our call answering service for small businesses.

Once upon a time back in the dark old days of the last century The Viscount Leverhulme of Lever Bros, fame said

“50% of my advertising is wasted but I don’t know which 50% it is!”

This was so true for all businesses large or small; those with the deepest pockets could take the 50% punt, but for business owners like you and me the odds were stacked against us.

In the 21st Century that’s all changed with the advent of a liberal telecoms market.

Now you can save a fortune on your marketing budget by using cost effective Marketing / Call Tracking Numbers.

Nigel Botterill, one of UK’s most respected entrepreneurs and Founder and Director of Bestof UK , advocates separate 01( not 08 they cost mobile phone users too much to call ) Call Tracking Numbers for every piece of marketing material that you produce.

Nigel recommends unique numbers for your website, brochures, leaflets, every publication you advertise in, even your business cards.

Why would you want to do this I hear you asking?

By tracking each marketing channel you’ll know exactly what it is that’s making your phone ring, and that’s hugely valuable information that can save you a fortune with your marketing budget..

As Nigel says, “Call tracking is a no-brainer for any business owner who wants to be super-successful. It’s a must’. It allows you to know for certain how many calls each piece of your advertising/marketing generates for your business.”

Putting you back in control of your marketing will save you £ thousands a year.

Here’s our story…

We binned Yellow Pages and saved £1,800 pa, using the money elsewhere!

In the days when Verbatim, the phone answering service, advertised call answering in Yellow Pages we were persuaded to take three ads under different categories. The YP rep designed the ad, suggested headlines to pull, which got us really excited about the promises of lots of new enquiries. We supplied three different tracking numbers, unique for each ad.

The next year the YP rep called in to rebook our three entries with talk of increasing our enquiries if we took bigger and better ads. As always the pitch was very persuasive with talk of increasing the 30 to 40 new enquiries a month that our listings normally generate.

We declined the offer to continue advertising and you can imagine the reps reaction when we told her that our ads generated a grand total of 7 calls for the year, and three were test calls from us!

Now You Can Measure Your Marketing ROI…

…for less than the price of a coffee in Starbucks.

If someone had given me this tool when we first started Verbatim back in the dark old days in 1997 I would have bitten their hand off and had more time to enjoy a coffee with my clients.

For information on Marketing and Call Tracking numbers please call me, Graham Hill, on 01635 813280 or leave a comment here or via twitter.com/GrahamOnCall