Far-Reaching Repercussions

 Most answering services acknowledge that their worst, and most frequent mistakes, are the result of improper delivery of a message. Even with all the new technology and automation, we still need to THINK when we are dispatching. It’s SO important!

Imagine you are the technician on-call for a small service company. Being on-call rotates every three weeks. No one especially likes being on call; having their days and nights constantly interrupted, middle of the night service calls, unable to make personal plans for the week. It’s all a hassle to begin with, but it’s part of the job so you do it. But you don’t like it.

Now, you are on-call, hoping for a quiet night; the baby is cutting teeth, but is finally asleep. You’re ready to crash when the phone rings…it’s the answering service. As you answer the baby starts screaming; the agent begins talking, #%@&%@! THE CALL ISN’T EVEN AN EMERGENCY!

The temporary instructions say, “TEXT all ER calls” but the agent automatically called the home phone because it was after 11:00 PM. To make matters worse, the call was not an emergency that your company is willing to pay a maintenance person overtime to take care of. Is it any wonder that you went to the office the next day complaining about the answering service?

The next night the opposite happened. You’re still on-call, this time the caller asks for and is willing to pay for emergency service; however, the agent taking the call neglects to page it out and marks it, “Holding for the office”. Two hours later, just before midnight a new agent sees the message “Wow, this should never have been held! I’ll page it now!” Again, the call is made to the home and not sent by text; again, the baby wakes up screaming.

This time you call the client (an important client) and get an ear full!

The client has damage that is costly because you did not respond promptly.

The client has called a competitor who DID respond promptly.

YOU lost out on some pretty good overtime.

Your company lost some pretty big revenue.

Your company also lost a pretty big client.

The answering service lost a very big client.

Nobody won, because people at the answering service were careless. AND the baby cried until 2:45.

The next night you’re not on call; you get a babysitter and take your wife out to dinner with friends. Over cocktails, you discuss the blunders of the answering service. “Who were you using?” someone asks. ”We need a service, and we sure don’t want to get that one!” You give the name of the service.

At the next table, the comment is overheard by the owner of the largest property management company in the area. Your, now fired, answering service has been working to bring them on board for months; it’s almost a done deal. The property management company is rethinking their decision to use your company because of an overheard conversation. Never underestimate the possibility of Far-Reaching Repercussions. Consider each client and their employees your most important and be sure to correct problems right away so they are once again happy with your service.

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