We’ve been answering calls and helping clients improve their customer service for more than a decade, so when it comes to telephone answering services, we know what we’re talking about.

You can read some of our case studies here.

But one thing we get asked consistently by new clients looking to improve their telephone service is – how will we handle your business’ phone calls?

We explain more here.

Your company information is displayed automatically

When someone calls your number, our PAs will automatically see your company details, so they know it’s for your business.

This includes any specific instructions you’ve left for them, including how they should answer the call, how certain calls should be dealt with and if some important calls should be transferred directly to a specific number.

This information allows our PAs to answer calls confidently for your company as if sitting in your office.

We see the call history

As well as displaying your company information, our telephone answering system allows your PAs to see the recent call history of the caller’s number.

This includes details like the last time they called, the context or notes from the previous call and what the result of the call was.

Using this information, your PAs will be more confident handling repeat callers and can add an additional level of personalisation to the call.

If the call is a sales call or falls into the category of one you don’t want to deal with, your PAs can ask you to be removed from the sales list to ensure you don’t receive similar calls from the same number.

We can talk to your customers and answer some basic questions for you

As part of your onboarding as a customer of Face For Business, your team of PAs will spend plenty of time getting to know your business, the types of calls they’ll be dealing with and the common questions your customers have.

This level of knowledge about your company allows your Face For Business PAs to have a more natural conversation with your customers – especially compared to a call centre, who are simply trying to extract a name and number.

As part of your answering service, your PAs can deal with some enquiries directly (for example, questions about your opening times or products), ensuring your time isn’t taken up handling frequently asked, basic questions.

All of this makes the customer’s experience much smoother and more effective, ensuring you get the level of service you’d expect from a professional outsourced answering service.

We can see your team’s availability

Call forwarding is a key part of our answering services (especially if you have “VIP” callers who you want to be put through whenever they call).

But call forwarding isn’t effective unless your PA knows your team is available.

With Face For Business, your PAs have real-time access to your and your team’s availability, so we always know the best person to transfer a caller to, and, that person is available to take the call.

This avoids the embarrassing situation of forwarding a caller to an unavailable number and having them looped back to your PA or, worse, met with a robotic answering machine.

We can also transfer calls across different channels depending on your preferences, including transferring callers over Microsoft Teams and other digital phone systems.

The options to finish the call

Depending on the nature of the call, your PAs will be able to deal with it in the most professional manner.

That could be taking a detailed message to be passed on to you or a member of your team to be dealt with when it’s convenient.

Messages always include the critical information you need to return a call, and this can include any specific information you want us to collect outside of the standard name, company, contact details and reason for the call.

If your team is available or the call is important, we can transfer the caller directly to you.

Or your PAs can deal with callers directly, allowing you more time to focus on your core responsibilities.

However the call needs to be handled, your Face For Business PAs are well trained to be able to deal with all kinds of calls.

You can even have your PAs take payments directly from customers or handle front-end appointment booking on your website.

Once the call is ended, you’ll automatically receive the relevant caller information, as well as the full recording of the call so you can review how it was handled or listen to the call yourself.

We’re the only telephone answering service that provides these recordings automatically into your client portal – other services provide them, but you have to ask (we like to be a little more proactive)

Give us a try free for 7 days

Now you’ve got a better understanding of how we deal with calls for our clients, give us a try with a 7-day free trial.

We’ll set you up on your own portal with a team of PAs, and you can experience the benefits of a professionally outsourced reception up close.

Get started by giving the team a call on 0330 175 8281 or fill in the contact form (on the right), and a member of the team will get back to you to answer any questions.