Rachael Gray invites you and a friend to join us for the Call Pal summer bash in O’Connell’s newly refurbished beer garden. Mingle with local entrepreneurs and like minded people and celebrate your SME this summer. The night will be full of laughs, chats, dancing and pizza from Dough Bros guaranteed!
The Benefits of Call Pal Call Answering / Telephone Management
Typically SME owners are busy people with hefty workloads, endless meetings, travel in some cases etc and this makes it virtually impossible to manage inbound calls from potential or existing clients. And whilst the obvious solution would be to hire a full time receptionist, the truth is there may not be a budget to hire a full time member of staff or the space particularly if your business is based from home. Call answering not telephone management as it is sometimes called is a great way of making sure that your calls are well managed during business hours and it has significant benefits not only for SMEs but for larger enterprises as well. For instance:
Picture it – you are running into an important meeting and the phone rings. And it happens to be that potential client you’ve been wanting to speak to for about 3 weeks. You answer the call but are flustered, trying to mouth an apology to the person you are meeting whilst politely delaying (yet again) the call you’ve been hoping to get for the longest time. It’s a scenario that tends to repeat itself frequently in the life of many a startup entrepreneur and can compromise the professional image you’re trying to put forward. Having a third party answer your calls in your company name can eliminate scenarios like this and preserve the professional image of your business and give it the gravitas it deserves. As the saying goes, start as you mean to continue.
Aside from the important calls you can’t afford to miss, there can be an endless stream of spam calls or potentially that have the potential to eat away at your time. A telephone management service can act as a filter for spam calls and handle more complex calls so that you are free to focus on other aspects of your business and only answer the calls you need to or not at all.
There is a startling statistic that 60% of callers will not leave a voicemail if their call remains unanswered. In terms of incoming revenue to your business, that can be a substantial amount of money. Having a call answering service handle your inbound calls will ensure that you are not missing any vital sales calls thus maintaining existing and potential incoming revenue.
Having a full and even a part-time receptionist can be a very expensive investment particularly when you are at the beginning stages of your business. And should you have any onsite staff that can answer calls, it may not be the best solution as their attention will be diverted from the tasks they should be attending to. A telephone management service is a great way of making sure you keep staffing costs down and ensuring that any onsite staff remain focused on the jobs they need to complete on a day to day basis.
There is no harm in dreaming big even when you are starting your business. With that in mind, a call answering service will give the impression that your business is a large concern with significant influence in the business world.
With Call Pal’s Smart Numbers you get to choose where you want to concentrate your sales efforts as a business. If you want to have a more local feel to your business, you can choose a number that is specific to your city or county. If you want to have a more national reach you can choose a Dublin based number or a number that is not geographically specific such as an 1890 0r 1800 number. Numbers that are not geographically specific tend to be lo-call numbers as well which may be attractive to your inbound callers.
For larger enterprises there can be periods when additional support is required such as unexpected staff absences, holiday cover or periods when an existing reception is busy with incoming calls. A service such as Call Pal Cover will act as a seamless extension of your business as calls are answered in your company name thus eliminating any customer confusion. Knowing that your reception is being supported by a professional telephone management service takes the stress of trying to find staff cover during unexpected absences away. It also means that you can enjoy any scheduled time you have off knowing that your calls are being managed by professionals.
Thank you for reading this week’s blog. We are all about supporting businesses with the range of services we offer. Why not ‘try before you buy’ with a 7 day Free Trial. No risk, no obligation, no hidden costs – just the advantage of having your calls answered by a team of dedicated, professional Call Pal PAs – and all in 3 easy steps!
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Call Pal are an Irish based call answering company that prides itself on providing professional service.
If you’ve decided to make the leap into the entrepreneurship world, then congratulations are in order. It’s a brave move that few make and yet you’ll find no end to the number of people offering you advice on how to run your business – and that can be overwhelming. Try not to over analyse or complicate matters. The simpler the steps towards starting your business and making it a success, the better. We’ve outlined a few just to get you started.
There is no way around this one and yet it is surprising how often people launch into business without having a plan. The fact of the matter is, you need a detailed plan that clearly maps out the challenge ahead of you. Your plan should include your mission statement, highlight any openings you have noticed in you chosen market/field, contain measurable goals and set deadlines for reaching each goal along the way.
Yes, you will need the right mentors and partners to help steer your ship so to speak but having a great team around you is equally important. They have the power to effect positive change that will transform your company and accelerate its growth. Bringing in employees with a positive can-do attitude creates a culture where team work takes precedence. If everyone is encouraged to participate, you can celebrate your successes and discuss overcoming your failures together.
Having the right team around you work wise is imperative. But so is networking with other members of the business community around you.Establishing your business could take time so until that happens, you’ll have to be your own brand ambassador and explain to people the benefits of working with your business as well as why they should give you a chance. Get the momentum going by finding out what events, trade shows and networking groups exist that will strengthen your business to business relationships. Those initial contacts can become future clients, mentors, even key partnerships that have the ability to grow your business.
The day to day running of your business will be important but getting stuck in the present is a mistake you can’t afford to make. You need to keep one eye focused on the future. It’s absolutely essential because failure to do so may mean you miss the next big thing for your business. The most successful business people prioritise the study of trends and can foresee what’s coming around the bend. This allows for constant, successful adaptation and evolution of your business. Make sure you are constantly reading trade magazines and websites so you can stay up to date with developing trends in your industry. Being current and relevant will keep your finger on the pulse giving you the advantage of being able to predict what your customers will want as well as what direction your competition might take.
Whilst having a new business that you are passionate about is exciting, it dies take an extraordinary amount of time and energy. For that reason, it’s crucial to find a healthy work-life balance and that can be tricky.It’s very easy to start letting work take precedence in your life. Don’t. Taking care of your health and well being should be at the top of your list because your business cannot run without you especially in its early stages. Being constantly caught up in the work hustle with no let up can and will burn you out and put a cap on how much you can achieve sooner or later. Make it your business (excuse the pun) to find ways to keep a healthy life perspective and safeguard healthy relationships that exist outside your work environment. Setting aside time to exercise, catch up with family and friends or just relax will keep you energised and motivate you to persevere and continue to dream big.
At Call Pal, we are committed to making sure your startup grows by making sure you never miss sales calls from potential or existing clients. To find out more about the call answering services we provide, contact us on 1890 511 400 or email us at lucia@www.callpal.ie.
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With 2016 falling fast into our rear view mirror, most of us have begun 2017 with a greater hope and renewed confidence. We might even be ready to take a few risks in our businesses. Not all risks, however are the equal. There is a massive difference between risks and foolish risks. Foolish risks essentially are those taken without doing any research, due diligence or taking any possible negative consequences into account. Don’t get us wrong, foolish risks CAN deliver positive returns – but the fact that you are entering a situation blindly and don’t know exactly what’s waiting on the other end, you are fundamentally rolling a dice. Calculated risks are backed by larger amounts of research and though the results won’t always be positive, enough homework will have been done to know if the chances of success rank higher than the chance of failure. Though we often shy away from risk for various reasons, understanding how to zone in on calculated risks will mean have no problem taking chances.
It may not have been one of our favourite parts of being in school, but having your homework done is important to taking any calculated risk. You have to understand every detail and subtlety of the decision that you can. This allows you to discover any dangers or potential issues that may arise. Taking calculated risks is much like being a sports bettor. Contrary to the common belief that successful gamblers are just lucky individuals, they actually conduct lots of research and never make emotionally based decisions. Let’s just say a sports bettor wants to place a bet on a football match – a seasoned bettor would never just look at previous matches or a current league position and place a bet. They would always review picks from a handicapper of good repute and analyse the trends. As a startup CEO, you need to do the same thing. Even when taking a calculated risk, you need to enlist a trusted advisor, go over the number and negotiate the best deal. That wayou can ensure you’re taking a calculated risk.
The end point of any calculated risk can be months, even years away. To stay the course of the inevitable process involved, you need to carefully identify and put into action checkpoints and goals. Goal setting is often discussed at length with focus either consciously or subconsciously revolving around long term or ‘end’ goals. Short term goals are often left by the wayside – and yet they are more important as they keep you on track. The path of any calculated risk is marked by several goals and checkpoints and they should be in place well before making a decision.
Before making any decision, consider the positive outcomes but pay particular attention to the negative ones. Examples of things you need to think about include ‘How would your business respond if the deal lost money?’ ‘If project deadlines are missed, how will you make up the time in order to meet them?’ ‘If partnerships are broken, what course of action will you take?’ Intelligent risk takers preempt potential mistakes and account for them. If you foresee too many mistakes, it probably means the risk is too high and you should consider moving in a different direction.
Business decisions rarely go exactly to plan. While you cannot always control whether the outcome will be better or worse than anticipated, you can control how you respond. Say the budget gets slashed significantly – slamming your head into your desk will more than likely doom you to failure. If, however, you’re willing to pivot, you’ll head back to the drawing board to find a solution. We often hear about entrepreneurs who took serious risks and found success but you rarely hear about what went wrong behind the scenes. In every success story, the decision makers are willing and ready to pivot in order to find success.
Learning to say ‘no’ in your personal life and career is a fantastic skill to adopt especially when it comes to risks and opportunities. Jumping at every opportunity that comes across your path will leave you with no time or space to take the risks that have a high probability of succeeding. Psychologist, executive coach and speaker Camille Preston puts it perfectly – ‘Whatever the psychological back story, whatever the reason, the fact remains that saying yes to too many things is overwhelming and counterproductive. By saying yes to too many things we may, we may be saying no to some very important things. If your plate is too full, there’s no room for the unexpected or ideal opportunity.’
You’ve done your due diligence, run the figures, looked at what could go right and wrong with your risk…and yet you’re afraid to pull the trigger on your decision. That’s understandable and you wouldn’t be the first entrepreneur to feel that way. All we can say is, if you’ve done your homework and the water feels good so to speak, take the plunge. There comes a point when you have to jump in spite of the unknowns. Trust your instincts, rely on your research and with a bit of luck, it will all work out in the end.
The Call Pal team would love to make sure you never risk losing calls from potential or existing customers. Let our professional secretarial team take your calls for you. Want to give it a try first? Then call us on 1890 511 400 and we will give you free 7 day trial!
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Starting a business is a brave move. Period. Launching on social media can be even more daunting given that there are multiple social media platforms to choose from and countless add ons within those platforms. With that in mind, we decided to launch a blog series to help simplify the launch of your business on social media.
What’s your Identity?
It’s really important that you have a specific set of goals for your business and these should correspond with your social media plan. For example, if you have a newly opened takeaway, your initial plan would be to increase the number of walk in customers. Therefore, your social media goals would be to create more awareness of your takeaway and drive more people to your location.
Defining who you are as a business is imperative. How people perceive your business will be as a result of the vocabulary you use, images you post and the types of campaigns you run. A good starting point for creating your online persona would be to write down a list of adjectives and terms that you want people to associate with you. Keep those adjectives handy as you create a voice for your brand.
Lastly, define your target audience. Your campaigns and their success will rely heavily on how specifically you define your audience. Most social media platforms allow you to create campaigns that target potential customers from specific age ranges, occupational segments, key interests and geographic areas. Understanding these segments will help you design campaigns and create content that captivates the right audience, the right way.
We hope this post has been helpful. Be sure to follow us on all our social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Or give us a call directly on 1890 511 400 for more information on our nationwide service.