The first rule of business is to always be there when your customer needs you. But sometimes that’s not quite as easy as it sounds. People are busy and time is money. In today’s increasingly demanding marketplace your customer might decide he needs you at any time of the day or night at any time of the year.

As your business grows and the number of phone calls increases, you may find that you can’t handle the volume. A phone answering service may be just the ticket. Read on to learn about the difference between an automated and a live phone answering service.

There’s more to being a live call agent than simply picking up the phone. A skilled live call agent is a special kind of person who comes with a unique set of abilities and the right amount of training. In this blog hear from some of our front end staff on what goes into being a great live call agent.

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers: Behind the scenes at our answering service.

Whether you are running a global corporation or a corner store, your staff are your biggest asset. A core of good employees is the beating heart of any successful organization. This blog talks about what you can lose by not having the right protections in place.

As an employer you want to protect your people. It’s up to you to make sure that everything possible is done to ensure they can do their job safely. When it comes to lone workers that obligation comes with its own special set of challenges.

At Intercon Messaging we know the oil and gas industry. Our operations are based in Drayton Valley, Alberta, about an hour’s drive southwest of Edmonton. We are at the heart of the Pembina Oilfield in beautiful Brazeau County. We have spent close to two decades working to help meet the needs of the petroleum sector both in Alberta and right across Western Canada.

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?

This is the biggest set of changes we’ve seen to the Occupational Health and Safety Act in a number of years. There are a range of updates, revisions and amendments which are likely to have an impact on just about every employer in the province in one way or another.

Only you can tell exactly what the impact of that missed call is on your bottom line. It very much depends on your business. It might be as low as a hundred bucks for a retail store. For a plumbing company or an electrician though, the cost is likely to be well into the hundreds of dollars, not to mention the missed chance for possible repeat business.

Pat Vos, CEO Intercon Messaging talks about the importance of cultivating leaders in your organization. She discusses the differences between the tasks of a manager and the qualities of a leader. Intercon Messaging is a leadership organization that supports developing leaderships skills in the workplace.

Around the clock facility monitoring plays a vital role in preventing safety issues, limiting equipment damage and protecting the environment and the public while meeting standards set out by government regulators. These are many of the ways Intercon Messaging works hand in hand with oil and gas companies.

This phrase said in a not so very pleasant manner is an indication that you have an unhappy customer on the other line that is probably calling about a service provided to them that they are not satisfied with. It can also be an experience with a previous agent that they are going to complain about. It can be anything. But one thing is for sure - that the customer is not happy.

Technology is moving so quickly these days it can be hard to keep track. That’s especially true in a field like communications where it can seem as if there’s a new development every time you turn around. So what do you have to do you keep up? How can you be sure that your business is using the best technology that’s available, without jumping on every single flavour of the month tech bandwagon that comes along?

There is no shortage of competition, and ever-tightening deadlines mean you always feel as if you’re in a race against the clock. At the same time you have to deal with rising operational costs for labour, for fuel, for insurance and, well, for just about everything you can think of. Add that all together and it can make fleet management feel like quite a balancing act.

Counting on voicemail is really not a chance you want to take. Statistics show time and again that a significant number of callers will simply hang up rather than taking the time to leave a message on an automated phone system. That is something that holds true regardless of whether you’re using a traditional land line, a cell phone or a VoIP business telephone system.

Your website is your customer's first contact with your business. Integrating technology such as Live Web Chat into your website is the first step to modern day customer services. Click here to see how Intercon Messaging can help you get started today.