2010 November | Answering Service, Legal Answering Service

Cloning People with Personality Tests:

Organizations with the worst customer service will have a few customer service superstars. Great Organizations will just have more superstars. Do you wish you could Clone a few of your best employees and get rid of the worst employees?

A business’ hiring process is just like when you’re rebuilding a sports team. You need to trade, waive, fire or retire the wrong players and bring in those that are more like your superstars. A sports team never considers bringing in a bunch of average players. Championship teams analyze, measure and obsess about bringing in superstars so they can win the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, World Title, Nascar or Gold Medal. Great Businesses have discovered that investing extra effort in the hiring process is more fun and more profitable.

If you believe the purpose of business is to make money and the purpose of money is to do good keep reading.

Ten years ago while attending a business conference there was a session on Personality Tests. The presenter held up the results of a 1 hour personality test taken by 2 air plane pilots. Both pilots were very good at their jobs. Test results from the 2 pilots were vastly different. One pilot was a fighter pilot. The other was an Airline pilot. Pilot A scored high in manageability, accommodating and sociability. Pilot B scored low in these areas. Pilot B had a higher energy level, higher assertiveness, higher decisiveness and was more independent. Pilot A was the successful Airline pilot. Pilot B was the successful Fighter Pilot.

They both fly planes. One is a people person. The other enjoys being by himself and the adventure of blowing things up and confronting dangerous situations.

At this meeting I invested $2,000 for this program and we tested 3 people at Business Connections that I’d like to clone. All new applicants take the 60 minute test and we compare the applicants results with our 3 model employees. At our Call Center we want people who score high in Accommodating, Manageability, and Attitude. Since our Call Center handles inbound customer service calls, our best employees are not highly assertive, decisive or independent. The program has increased our profits, customer satisfaction and made it more fun to run the business. The people we’ve hired over the past 10 years have had that “Customer Service Gene”.

To find out more about personality tests, call 214-484-2010 and ask for Bernie or Brenda of Profiles on the Web. To find out more about having your clients greeted by a Friendly, Professional Person 24 hours a day call 1-866-601-6115 and ask for Dirk or Stu.

Call Forwarding Service Tips

Call Forwarding is a service from your telephone company and enables your telephone calls to be answered at a different location. The two most popular types of Call Forwarding are Call Forwarding Variable or Call Forward Busy/Don’t Answer. Here’s an overview:

Call Forwarding Busy/Don’t Answer: Calls are automatically transferred to Business Connections when all of your lines are busy, or after a preset number of rings.

(+) Everything is automatic. You never need to activate or deactivate Call Forwarding. If all of your lines are in use, calls will be transferred to Business Connections. I prefer Call Forwarding Busy/Don’t Answer because once the phone company has it programmed correctly, I never need to turn anything on or off….it’s all automatic….Set it and Forget about it. Anything to simplify my life is a winning situation.

(–) Unanswered calls will ring 3 to 4 rings at your office before transferring to Business Connections.

(+) A great safety feature in the event of a problem at your location (i.e. power outage, flood or fire)

Call Forwarding Variable: Allows you the option of choosing a number to which all incoming calls will be directed. Once this feature is activated, calls cannot be answered by you. When activated, multiple calls can be answered by Business Connections, even if you only have a single telephone line.

(+) Calls are immediately transferred to the Answering Service; therefore your customers are greeted A.S.A.P…fewer rings means better service.

(–) You need to remember to activate and deactivate Call Forwarding whenever you leave your home or office.

To Activate Call Forwarding Variable:

A) Dial “*72” or “72#”; after you hear the dial tone, dial the number you wish to Call Forward to.

B) You will hear two short tones, then the normal ringing signal. As soon as you hear normal ringing signal hang up and dial “*72” or“72#” again. This second time you’ll hear 2 short tones and a dial tone. This confirms that Call Forwarding has been established.

To Deactivate Call Forwarding Variable:

A) Dial “*73” or “73#”. You’ll hear two short tones followed by a dial tone. This confirms that Call Forwarding has been de-activated.

Please Note:

1) When utilizing Call Forwarding Variable, as a reminder signal that your service is activated, your telephone will ring a half ring each time an incoming call is forwarded. The call cannot be answered at your location.

2) Your telephone can still be used for outgoing calls even though we are answering your incoming calls.

3) When activating Call Forwarding Variable, you must dial from the phone number that you wish to Call Forward calls from. (FYI – some phone companies offer Remote Access where you can call a toll free number from anywhere to activate or deactivate call forwarding)

4) All calls will continue to be forwarded until you deactivate your service.