"Phone Monkey" Fields Customer Service Question!

"Monkey Customer Service, can I help you?"

"No I am talking to you on a good old fashioned phone!"

"Why am I not using... what in God's name is #WebRTC???"

"err, one moment please..." *click*

#Telecom #News - June 17-26, 2013

Telephone USB Message On Hold Player Cost-Effective for Business

June 26, 2013 -- Telephone Magic now offers its own budget-oriented USB telephone on hold message player. Messages On Hold are easier than ever with new digital message unit designed for continuous audio playback.

Telephone Magic Now Offers a Vital VoIP Lifeline with Nortel 1100 IP Phones

June 25, 2013 -- Nortel / Avaya 1100 IP telephones from Telephone Magic allow owners of IP-capable Nortel phone system to extend the life of their business telecom investment.

New Avaya 9600 IP Phones Represent The Leading Edge in VoIP Technology

June 24, 2013 -- Avaya's 9600 IP telephone series from Telephone Magic is a feature-packed VoIP phone line for offices that need to harness the freedom and networking capabilities of IP telephony.

Cisco IP Phone Volume Exceeds Expectations in Wholesale Online Marketplace

June 21, 2013 -- Cisco Unified IP Phones offer the high-quality, reliable communications your business needs every day. Telephone Magic Inc. is experiencing substantial increases in sales of these IP telephones.

Mitel IP Phones Become a High Volume Seller in the Wholesale Marketplace

June 20, 2013 -- Telephone Magic Inc. provides feature-rich Mitel IP phones at wholesale prices, for use with Mitel IP-PBX platforms.

New CS500-XD Wireless Phone Headsets from Plantronics Solve High Density Issue in Offices

June 19, 2013 -- Plantronics' new cordless phone headset series is the no-hassle solution at Telephone Magic for fitting more wireless headsets in the same office.

New Avaya 1600 IP Phones Series Delivers Cost Effective Alternative for Small Business VoIP

June 17, 2013 -- Telephone Magic offers Avaya's low-cost, feature-packed 1600 IP telephone line for offices that utilize IP telephony.

Business Telephone Tips - Easy to Implement, Customer Pleasing, On Hold Messages

Ask any business what they're investing in, and most will say their website. But even though internet sites and ecommerce are growing at an enormous rate, you may be surprised to know that "telemarketing" dwarfs the amount of sales generated by websites. That's because consumers have generations of experience getting exactly what they want when they call a business. The phone is still faster that looking it up on Google and then trying to find the right answer on a website.

Right now, customer service provided by telephone is the dominant way for customers to reach businesses like yours. So before you invest everything in your website, consider how inexpensive it can be to increase sales and satisfaction with a few telephone tips for customer service representatives:

Answer the phone with a "live" person: "call centers" (especially the ones in India!) have an increasingly poor reputation. Just answering the phone with a live person starts you off on the right foot.

Don't use a speaker phone! Pick up the receiver, or use a headset (they're great for comfort and ease of use) and your caller gets a personal sound. We've all had our calls answered with a speaker phone: it sounds like they can't be bothered, the audio quality is poor, and we end up shouting to be understood. Treat your caller like you'd like to be treated

Create a "phone answering script" that is personal and polite. Don't try to say too much (Thank you for calling XYZ company, home of the widget. My name is Joe and I'm here to provide excellent service. How may I help you today?" Is that really any way to answer the phone?

If you use an automated answering system, limit the number of options: 3 or 4 should be plenty. And do you really need to have several levels of options? Put yourself in the customer's shoes. They are the customer, right?

Train your customer service reps so they know more than the customer does! How many times have you called a call center to ask questions, and the rep has had to constantly "check their sources" for "additional information"? With just a little experience you can understand your "Frequently Asked Questions." The 80/20 rule usually applies: 80% of your callers will ask the same questions covering just 20% of the information. Train, and test, your customer service reps. By the way: what are your customers' biggest problems? If you don't know, try working on the phones yourself. Then you'll be able to train your reps better!

Staff your phones properly. We've all been told "We are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls" way too many times. We all know that it's not higher than "normal." Great customer service builds great customer loyalty.

What if you do answer with an automated system, and your customers do have to wait (in a "queue" which is like waiting in line) for their call to be answered? What should your caller listen to? Some people like silence or music so they can do other things. I've had the experience of waiting in a queue for a few minutes and completely forgetting what I called for. Even when it was important. So consider giving your caller helpful information while on hold. Don't make it a pushy radio commercial, and don't try to record it yourself (it won't sound professional).

Telephone Magic USB Message On Hold Player

A Message On Hold System can make all the difference in the world, as it plays CUSTOMIZED messages about YOUR business with appropriate background music. The latest digital On Hold Message player type utilizes USB Flash Media stick to easily transfer On Hold Messages from an emailed file. Telephone On Hold Messages will inform and entertain your clients when they have to wait On Hold for your business staff.

Try different recording for different groups of callers. For sales lines, feel free to talk about product features and benefits. "Cross marketing" can be very profitable (increasing you average order size) and helpful to the caller. Talk about product features, and educate your caller about how to understand the difference in features and what it means to them. Use the opportunity to show how you're different (and better) than your competition. 

For customer service or tech support lines consider answering FAQ and offering advice on fixing the most common problems. Do you list this information on your website? Tell your caller exactly where to look. Don't just assume they'll hang up. They can just look while they're waiting for help.

You thought PRISM was pretty Amazing... meet MAINWAY, MARINA, and NUCLEON!

"One Of Them Intercepts Telephone Calls And Routes The Spoken Words To A System Called ­NUCLEON."

You thought PRISM was amazing... meet MAINWAY, MARINA, and NUCLEON.

Two of the four collection programs, one each for telephony and the Internet, process trillions of “metadata” records for storage and analysis in systems called MAINWAY and MARINA, respectively. Metadata includes highly revealing information about the times, places, devices and participants in electronic communication, but not its contents. The bulk collection of telephone call records from Verizon Business Services, disclosed this month by the British newspaper the Guardian, is one source of raw intelligence for MAINWAY.

The other two types of collection, which operate on a much smaller scale, are aimed at content. One of them intercepts telephone calls and routes the spoken words to a system called ­NUCLEON.

For Internet content, the most important source collection is the PRISM project reported on June 6 by The Washington Post and the Guardian. It draws from data held by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley giants, collectively the richest depositories of personal information in history.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, 29, who unmasked himself as the source behind the PRISM and Verizon revelations, said he hoped for a systematic debate about the “danger to our freedom and way of life” posed by a surveillance apparatus “kept in check by nothing more than policy.”

For well over a week, he has had his wish. Startling disclosures have poured out of the nation’s largest and arguably tightest-lipped spy agency at an unprecedented pace. Snowden’s disclosures have opened a national conversation about the limits of secret surveillance in a free society and an outcry overseas against U.S. espionage.

From: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-15/news/39993852_1_comey-national-intelligence-intelligence-collection

Businesses on the other hand can, in most cases, record phone calls for customer service and training purposes. There are some states that require both parties to consent to phone call recording but most only require that one party be aware of the call being copied. You can easily buy and setup an inexpensive but highly sophisticated USB computer call recording system for your office phone system extensions. Call 1.855.929.9199 today for more information on recording phone calls within your business.

On Hold Messages from Telephone Magic are produced for your business phone system – why does your business need one?

Here's 5 GREAT REASONS why you should MARKET YOUR BUSINESS and provide TELEPHONE CUSTOMER SERVICE with a MESSAGE ON HOLD system from Telephone Magic:

USB digital On Hold Message Player

1. Keep your customers informed

While waiting for your staff to pick up their call, On Hold Messages will inform your customers about the latest news, weather, and updates from your brand – new products, services, messages and more. This is achieved using pre-recorded messages on your message-on-hold system. It’s also a good way to make sure the customer doesn’t hang up during long wait periods. 

2. Keep them entertained

Some businesses playback jokes and social messages while customers are on hold; this helps entertain the customer and has a positive effect on your brand image. It also ensures that the customer won’t hesitate to call if they have an issue, because they know they will be entertained while waiting.

3. Keep them busy while they wait

Customers get impatient while waiting for staff to take a call – businesses can use this wait time to prompt the customer about pending tasks such as paying a bill or verifying an account – things like this engage the customer while they wait and portray your business as efficient and professional.

4. Promote your business

Message on hold systems are great for promoting your business – let the customer know about all the good things going on in your company – new products and services, new marketing ideas, events and promos. This provides engagement as well as marketing conversion value.

5. Create a big-business impression (small businesses)

Small businesses can also cash-in on the benefits of message-on-hold systems by creating a big-business impression, which helps portray a small business as professionally and credibly as possible.


To learn more about Telephone Magic's cost-effective On Hold Message system hardware and customized message productions Call us TOLL-FREE @ 1.855.929.9199 for a complimentary quotation.