For those with a longish memory the tagline, “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile,” will look and sound familiar. In fact, it is a line that has been paraphrased over the years to apply to a myriad of vertical markets and products as those in charge of brand stewardship look to change the perception of their products and services. Edwards Answering Service, which started life in 1954 providing as their name says, basic telephone answering services, has not adopted the tagline to apply to how they have transformed their business, but it certainly would be apropos.
It may seem hard to believe that answering services are still thriving. However, in the U.S. those of us who interact frequently with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are very familiar with the words “Doctor’s Service” or a variation depending on the services provider we are seeking to contact. The reasons answering services remain a stable of business is because the function they provide, fielding customer interactions when office staff is not available and providing alerts to their customers about such interactions, still provides those seeking service a customer experience that companies know customers appreciate. Their calls are answered by humans and not machines, and that personal touch, particularly in emergencies for many SMBs is a must have capability since those calling need to be able to trust that their message was received and will be acted upon.
Vernon, CT-based Edwards has kept up with the times in terms of expanding it call coverage and has recently added database management to its portfolio. The company says that sophisticated software allows them to upload customer’s information into their system; making managing clients more effective and efficient. In fact, the company is touting database management as something that can help streamline customer service and that clients within the database will feel at home when calling despite being redirected. Edwards says that the nice thing is that oftentimes redirects occur without calling parties knowing a call service was used.
In addition, this virtual assistant capability offers order entry, voice mail, text messaging, paging, patching, local numbers, fax and email services. It is also a great way for companies to have back-up or fall-over coverage during heavy traffic periods including as part of a business continuity strategy.
In today’s 24/7/365 world where the impression of constant touch has become a necessity because of rising expectations about the responsiveness of those with whom we obtain services from, a personal touch remains important. In fact, being able to always reach a responsible party as we all know has become a rarity when dealing with large organizations, particularly tech companies. Indeed, those larger entities could learn something from SMBs who rely on answering services.
With all of the attention being placed on improving the customer experience, it cannot and should not be lost that the bottom line really is personal.