Front of house/reception is a crucial role in many organisations. Often the first voice a prospective client, staff member or supplier hears will be that of a receptionist. Receptionists are like brand ambassadors, they don’t do any direct selling. But they can give the right first impression or the wrong one. As workplaces have changed particularly over covid, many businesses no longer opt for a front desk with dedicated staff. The approach can seem outdated and expensive. For some businesses, an in-house person might be essential, to physically meet visitors, handle the post, prepare a meeting room and so on. The services provided by Kendlebell Naas, enable companies to expand staffing without increasing payroll. But what are the realities of choosing a service solution vs recruiting an in-house staff member?

If an in-house receptionist is essential, when she/he is in holidays, what happens? Staff meet their own visitors and prepare the meeting room themselves? The post is handled by the office manager and a junior staff member? But who answers the phone? And if a in-house receptionist is not essential. Who answers the phone? This is where outsourcing to a virtual receptionist can be the perfect solution. There are many advantages, particularly when the right service is used and a long-term partnership is developed. 

In Action

What does using an outsourced receptionist/call answering service mean in action?

First Impression – calls will be dealt with in a friendly and professional way. And answered as directed by you. Calls will either be directed to the right person/departments. Or messages can be taken immediately and sent out by text, email or both. This creates the perfect first impression every time. 

Cost effective – outsourcing a receptionist rather than hiring can be highly cost-effective. The recruitment process and associated costs are removed. Along with overheads in terms of workstations and so on. Plus no one needs to train a new employee. Add on sickness and holiday cover, which is managed by the answering services. Saving clients hassle and inconvenience. 

Availability and flexibility – call answering can be put in place for the hours that benefit you. This means that a business can appear to operate extended hours vs an in-house receptionist. We operate 8.30am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday as standard. In terms of flexibility, clients choose when they divert to a call answering service. Maybe it is after your main receptionist finishes for the day etc. A 24/7 service is also available.

Additional resource – when the CEOs personal assistant is away these calls can be handled too and anyone else’s! Call answering services have the capacity to cope with high volume traffic for short (or long) periods of time.

Free trial – Kendlebell Naas – offer a two week free trial for telephone answering. Enabling you to see the benefits of the service at no cost, no obligation and no risk. 

In many ways engaging our services should be viewed as a  “standard” collaboration/outsource. Check out “7 Business Tasks You Can Outsource” here or see Our Three Reasons to Your Telephone Answering here.

Time: Kendlebell Naas vs Receptionist

In terms of available hours, our service vs a 9to5 in-house receptionist. We provide 2 1/2 hours more time a day, by finishing earlier, starting later and working through lunch. When annual leave is accounted for, an in-house receptionist works 232 days a year, we operate 252 days a year (as standard). There are certain unaccounted for costs/stresses our service removes. As mentioned above: recruiting, training, providing equipment, a location and so on. But simply in terms of hours, we offer 770 hours more vs an in-house receptionist, for 70% less. We provide 2,394 hours per year as standard vs. a full-time in-house receptionist working 1,624 hours. Presuming they have no sick days, funerals and general force majeure during the year. 

Our Services & Customisation

Kendlebell Naas’ provide 24/7 call answering, but our standard times are: Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 6.00pm. Our services are totally customisable and will enable you and your team to work smarter while saving you money.

Kendlebell Naas – The Perfect Answer.

Additionally see more blogs here, including Remote Working Toolbox, Voicemail a Dinosaur and Outsourcing for Small Business. 

 

Holidays have been booked people have made plans, a week here, 2 weeks there, the world has opened back up, and people are eager to make the most of it. There are issues with the war in Ukraine and the rising costs of living for sure, plus recruitment is becoming more and more difficult. We in Kendlebell Naas do provide short-term call answering support. The benefits of our service are wide ranging, but put simply: whether little or large, big or small, Kendlebell Naas will answer the call. When with us you know that customers calls will be answered, by a professional team and will be dealt with accordingly. 

If you are a one person operation who answers your calls when you are away? Are calls answered at all? If you are a larger business with a receptionist, who answers the phone when they are away? Does the answering of the phone take away from someone else’s “core” work? Are callers passed from Billy to Jack? This is where, we come in, we can answer your calls effectively for you.

When you start to plan systems, be that holiday or sick cover, or even dealing with a fractured office of the future, understand that with us every call will be answered. Our services are flexible. Plus it is in our clients power when they divert to us, so we only answer the calls when you want us to: sick cover, overflow, relief and as your primary call answering option. We are flexible.  

Holiday Cover

One can never plan too early. An employee has a legal entitlement to 20 holiday days a year, see more here. Many people often seem to have no plan when it comes to cover. Our call answering service can be easily accessed. In the simplest terms, we provide you with a divert number, which you divert to as you need it.

Here are the three main benefits of using us for holiday cover: 

• Calls are answered – as you directed by you.
• You will get alerts as you need them – as you directed by you.
• Company image is maintained during holiday period.

 

Calls are answered

Our dedicated team of Personal Assistants/Virtual Receptionists will answer your calls, as directed by you. No missed calls, no new enquiries dropped. Calls are answered in a friendly and professional manner. Generally our services cost 30% what a in-house receptionist would. Plus we don’t discriminate. We provide call answering services to the small and the big. If you are a sole traders or a  multinational, we can answer your calls. 

Alerts

We will disseminate the call as directed by you. Usually by text or by email if you want instant notification. Although we could patch elsewhere either. Some customers just want the daily report which we send everyday at 6.00pm. We try to provide a service as customisable as possible. This means for some companies we simply relay the message the they will reopen on the XXth of XXXXX. Whereas others want as much detail as possible from the caller. Again as directed by you the customer. 

Company Image

We maintain your company image while you are away, our call answering service is professional and friendly. Plus for smaller businesses we really add scale. This added scale can be a real benefit, enhancing credibility. One area where sole traders seem to particularly get tripped up is their mobile phone. They list their mobile number on their website, when starting out. That might initially seem like a good idea, but long term it can make getting away from work hard to manage. More about the benefits of landlines here.

Our Services

Kendlebell Naas, can come in at various points of this cycle. As we offer a wide range of services to businesses of all sizes, primarily telephone answering and virtual receptionist services, but also phone numbers and business addresses. For start-ups our phone numbers and address offerings are of particular interest as they add legitimacy, tie them to the local community, enable a certain level of credibility.

Why do Businesses come to us?

Because of the quality of the service we deliver, with call answering for instance the average answer time is 7 to 9 seconds for instance. Operating Monday to Friday, 8.30m to 6.00pm, solidly, plus by engaging our service you remove yourself from rotas, recruitment, cover for sick days and so on. Then there is cost to the service we provide, comparing our phone answering service with a in-house receptionist, we would run at c30% the cost. Generally, for holiday/sick cover call answering we charge €20 a day (plus VAT) for 10 messages, plus €2 per message up to the next bracket. 

In Conclusion

Alan Lakein is an author, he wrote: “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Live” which has sold 3 million copies. Alan is quoted as saying “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” 

Kendlebell Naas’ provide telephone answering services that are tailored to your needs and will enable you to work smarter while saving you money. Kendlebell Naas – The Perfect Answer. Additionally see more blogs here, including Voicemail a Dinosaur and Outsourcing for Small Business. 

Did you ever hear about the business with no phone? The answer is no. Did you did you ever hear about the business that never answered the phone? Ok, you have rang a few like that, but they tend not to stick around. Why? Because customer/caller experience matters. If experience isn’t your strategy, you’re doing it wrong! According to PWC 73% of consumers point to experience as an important factor, only behind price and quality. 42% would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience. A whooping 65% of US consumers find a positive brand experience more influential than great advertising. So if someone calls your business, and a call is not answered, what does that say about your business? How would you feel if a business you called treated you like that? 

Not every business answers their phone calls. And of the calls that are answered a large and growing number are answered by call answering services. These companies include physiotherapists, accountants, solicitors, estate agents, construction companies and many more. In fact, anyone can use a call answering service. That includes you. Does your business need an answering service? If you want to make sure your callers always reach a real person, but you or your team are unable to answer every call (or just don’t want to). Then it may be time to consider using the services of a call answering service.

Call Answering

In simple terms, a call answering service is a company, that you hire to answer your business phone line for you. Answering services and virtual receptionists come in many shapes and sizes. But at the core driver for all is the same, the services are built on the same basic value, making sure callers reach a live human being representing another’s business, particularly when that human can’t be you or one of your team members.

One Person Business

For one person operations, an answering service allows your business to be available at all times, during the standard working day, while ensuring you have the time to eat, focus, have meetings and even take days off. This buffer is a plus for the reasons mentioned while also adding scale which brings a certain credibility to a business. 

Medium or Large Sized Business

If you have an in-house receptionist or a small team of receptionist who answer your calls, call answering services can act as addition support or back-up. Covering lunch times and holidays and so on, perhaps enabling a receptionist in a solicitors to do some typing undisturbed and so on. Perhaps you just want your calls answered on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, flexibility is part of what we do. 

Why use an answering service?

Why would you take on the cost of an answering service? All your information is on your website and social media channels. 65% of customers still prefer a phone call over other means of connecting with business. Plus after one bad experience, around 80% of consumers say they would rather do business with a competitor (Zendesk).

Call Answering Options

There are different call answering options (these are the definitions that we use):

• Call Answering: the standard service we provide with details taken and a message relayed, we offer customised call answering so we answer as directed by you. 
• Virtual Receptionist: which is the above, plus call transferring
• Interactive Voice Responses (IVR): we can build these systems for you, press one for support, press two for accounts, press three and so on, plus we can answer the call depending too as selected.

Add-ons: Diary Management would be one of our main add-on services which many of our customers particularly those in the medical field avail of. 

Call Answering Benefits

What can a high quality answering service do for you and your business:

• Answer calls quickly & professionally
• Optimise the caller experience through empathetic and personal call handling
• Ensure calls/messages get routed to the right people at the right times
• Help you grow and scale your business on your own terms
• Give you time away from the phones to tend to other aspects of the business or for down time
• Allow you to not lose business to sick or holiday days, your phone is always attended
• Filter or screen junk calls
• Provide a structure in terms of how calls are answered and handled, that is systematic 

The Pro and Cons

As with any choice you make with your business the decision to use an answering service requires careful though and consideration. One of the reasons we offer a two week free trial for call answering is to enable businesses to see how our service works for them in action. You are investing in your customer’s experience and your business’s future after all. And although any business can use an answering service, not every business should. 

The Cons

Answering Service Cons:

• Costs more than voicemail or an automated tool
• Limited to the call answering instructions and information you provide to the service
• Variable quality between providers (the cheapest is rarely the best option)

The Pros

Answering Service Pros:

• Flexible and customisable
• Is more cost effective than hiring a full-time or part-time employee
• Ensures callers can reach a real person when you or your team are unavailable
• Reduces the number of callers reaching out to your competitors
• Captures more opportunities
• Allows for outsourcing or flexi-work in relation to other work often done by a receptionist

Are you unsure? 

As with any choice Your business’s customer support reputation and growth potential are on the line. Moreover, the wrong provider can create more headaches and work against you in terms of problem solving. Look for a provider with a stellar reputation for customer care. Companies large and small use answering services to answer the phones. Larger companies with customer service teams or departments using answering services as support or backup. Smaller companies and one-person businesses rely on answering services some or all of the time as their primary receptionists.

Not sure if you need a call answering service? Here are some questions to think about.

Do you have the budget for a full-time or even part-time employee? (Don’t forget about costs such as hiring, holidays, providing a work space and so on)

Who covers the phone if the in-house staff are out of the office?

What days and times of day do your calls tend to come in?

What type of business do you run? Are you in a high-touch industry such as healthcare, law, home services, where responsive, personal service can make or break your business?

What are your long-term goals for gaining and retaining customers or clients? 

The Bottom Line:

If it is important that your callers reach a real person – but your business is unable to ensure this happens – you should strongly consider using an answering service. 

In Conclusion

Kendlebell Naas’ provide telephone answering services that are tailored to your needs and will enable you to work smarter while saving you money. Kendlebell Naas – Here to help. 

To see the benefits of our services for yourself, get the ball rolling on a Free Trial here.

Work has changed over the last couple of years. Zoom is the new normal for a meeting, people are doing school drops and collections as part of their standard day – while working. In particular the location of where people work, when people work: earlier mornings, later evenings and bigger breaks for instance. These changes have not been without their own challenges. And this is where we in Kendlebell Naas come in with our “Remote Working Toolbox”: phone numbers, business addresses, call answering and much more. You could call our “Remote Working Toolbox” a “Work from anywhere Toolbox”, why? Because our services can work for you whether you are in Ballydehob or Bali. We have clients from across the globe using our services to enrich their offering.

Through the various services provided by Kendlebell Naas, you can deal with the various challenges presented by remote and/or hybrid working in a seamless way. Whether you are an established business or a start-up. Our services can be utilised long-term or short-term, as overflow, sick cover, holiday cover for instance or as your front of house permanently. 

Set-up

Through our services we can pull your team back together while enabling them to remain decentralised. Or add scale if you are a one person operation. Setting up phone numbers and Telephone Answering/Virtual Receptionist with us is usually straightforward – less than 4 hours. 24/7 call answering is also available set-up generally takes 24hrs, depending on complexity of calls. The turnaround on Diary Management can be a little longer perhaps 24hrs. We have staff trained on Cliniko, TM3. Google Diaries, Citrix, PPS & Jane App. There is some anti-money laundering documentation required for the registered business address but we would normally confirm in less than 24hrs.  

Prices

Prices do vary upon which services are opted for. Telephone numbers are from €20 per month, Telephone Answering is from €55 per month (plus a flat rate of €35 if call transferring), Diary Management is €30 per diary and a registered business address is €360 per annum, plus postage (you can also opt for collection or scanning if you so wish). Prices are ex VAT. All in all you could centralise you office with us, starting from €135*. If to fully immerse yourself in our services you may be able to go fully remote, saving huge premises related costs, plus huge environmental benefits, see more here. 

Free Trial for Telephone Answering

We offer a two week, no cost, no obligation, no risk free trial to all new prospective Telephone Answering/Virtual Assistant customers. Why? To let them see the benefits of our services for themselves. The trial can be easily set up here.

Our Services & Customisation

Kendlebell Naas’ provide telephone answering services for 30% the cost of an in-house receptionist, with more hours covered. Our team of Personal Assistants catch your calls to to your exact specifications and requirements. Plus our services are totally customisable and will enable you to work smarter while saving you money, Kendlebell Naas – The Perfect Answer. Additionally see more blogs here.