Here’s something you don’t want to happen. We once had a client whose phone lines went down unexpectedly due to a power outage. This was a good sized business with a phone line that was its most important link to its customer base and to the wider world. But technical issues meant that they had no access whatsoever to incoming calls. They couldn’t even tell when a call was coming in, let alone answer it. Ordinarily that’s a pretty bad situation to be in for any length of time. Under normal circumstances it would have meant that the business’s phone went unanswered. And an unanswered phone line would send the worst kind of message imaginable to their customers and leave their clients asking all of the wrong kind of questions. Why aren’t you answering? Are you reliable? If you can’t even be bothered to answer the phone do you really want my custom? Are you even still in business or should I start looking somewhere else?

BLOG: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CALL FORWARDING OPTIONS ARE

But happily, for this business, none of those things happened.  They didn’t happen because this customer’s phone was set to automatically forward any unanswered calls to Intercon Messaging. Thanks to call forwarding the problem was avoided. The crisis never occurred. And most importantly, the customers who called that day were kept happy.  In fact, those customers never even knew there was an issue. And we were able to get all of those messages through to the right place quickly, efficiently and without any inconvenience whatsoever.  

That just one of the reasons why call forwarding is good for your business. It’s there when you need it. It’s like an extra pair of hands when circumstances threaten to overwhelm you.

If you’re busy at work it’s got to be a good thing. You don’t need us to tell you that it’s a lot better to be too busy than it is to be too quiet.  But when there’s a lot going on it can be hard to juggle all of your responsibilities as they come up and give them all the time and attention that they deserve. That’s particularly true of incoming phone calls because you have absolutely no way of knowing when they’re going to come or how important they may prove to be. In the modern business environment, your clients and customers expect to be able to get in touch with you quickly and easily regardless of the time of day or night. But keeping up with the competing demands of your business is far from easy at the best of times.  It’s especially challenging to try to arrange your schedule around something as unpredictable as an incoming phone call which will usually come out of the blue and could last anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes or longer.

BLOG: WHY ISN’T MY CALL FORWARDING WORKING?

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, it often seems that just as you’re getting down to the task at hand the telephone rings. Then you have a decision to make. Do you drop what you’re doing to answer the call? Or do you push on in the hope that the caller will either leave a message or call you back?

Let’s face it; neither of those options is anywhere close to being ideal. If you take the first course you may well find out that you’ve just interrupted your work flow for nothing more than a sales pitch from a supplier, an inquiry about your hours of operation or even a wrong number. But take the second course and you’re running the risk of disappointing a customer, missing an important message, and maybe losing out on a big sale.  Even with caller ID there’s no way of being sure what the call’s about until you pick up the phone and start talking.

What about voicemail? Well, voicemail’s better than nothing, but only just. The simple fact is that a significant number of people just do not like talking to a machine.  That’s been the case since the telephone answering machine was first invented and it’s unlikely to change any time soon. Voicemail is impersonal, often unreliable and does a poor job of representing your business. You often end up receiving messages that are garbled, incomplete or lacking the necessary information. And until you call him back your caller will have no way of knowing when (or even if) you got his message if he even chose to leave one, which leaves him wondering if he should try calling somewhere else.

BLOG: HOW DO I FORWARD MY PHONE TO INTERCON MESSAGING

So you need help to handle your incoming calls, but hiring additional staff is expensive and comes with its own set of challenges. The simple and cost effective solution to this problem is to work with a professional call answering service like Intercon Messaging. There is a great deal of flexibility in how you can go about this. You can choose to forward your calls at any time of the day or night that suits you. That means any time when you find that answering the phone just is not convenient. That could be when you’re out on the road, when you’re heading into a meeting or simply when you’re looking for a little quiet time at home with your family for the evening.  

With today’s technology you can set up call forwarding and forward your phone calls in whatever way works for you. We can be as adaptable as you need us to be.  There are a number of different ways to forward your calls. You can set your phone to forward all incoming calls, only those calls that come in while your line is busy or for all your calls if you don’t after a set number of rings. 

Your business is unique and you need something more than a one size fits all solution. At Intercon Messaging we will work together with you to craft a custom-designed program that will fully meet the specific, individual needs of your business. This is what we specialize in and we’re proud to do it well. With our team on your side you’ll be able to offer top notch customer service even if you’re not in the office.

SERVICES: TELEPHONE ANSWERING AND RECEPTION SOLUTIONS

With business call forwarding you can be sure that no important call goes to voicemail or is missed altogether. You can be confident when you give out your number that the call will be answered by a living, breathing human being whether you are personally available or not. And that holds true no matter what time of the day or what day of the week the call comes in. And you can be confident that your caller will be dealt with in a polite, professional and courteous manner each and every time.

Together we’ll create a customized script to answer your calls. And we’ll know before we answer that the call is for you rather than for one of our other clients. That means your callers won’t even know they aren’t talking to one of your employees. With your help we’ll put together the background information so we will be able to deal with any one of a number of everyday questions that may come in regarding things like branch location or hours of operation. We’ll be able to schedule appointments on your behalf and we’ll make sure that all of your important messages and queries get to you quickly and efficiently.  You’ll never have to wonder and you’ll never have to ask. Meanwhile, your caller can be confident that his or her message has been received and is being dealt with. He’ll have peace of mind and, as an added bonus, you’ll both avoid the potential nightmare of getting sucked into one of those endless games of phone tag.

Our aim is to work as a seamless extension of your business. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, so no matter what time that call comes in you can be confident that we’ll be there to answer. We believe that it’s important for you to know who’s been in touch with your business and how many calls you’re receiving each day. You’ll receive detailed message summary reports with that information via email, fax or in print, whichever is most convenient for you.

Call forwarding is the simple, inexpensive and effective way of helping you to manage your time while ensuring that your customer always feels that his needs are being met. It is flexible, adaptable and, perhaps most importantly, it’s easy to manage. 

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For more information on how Intercon Messaging can help handle your calls, or on any of the other services we offer, give us a call at 866-255-2558.