Head-set on Embarrassing Myself

Summary:
My job is not stressful, I would say, just demanding. I answer the phone for a brokerage house on Wall Street. I enjoy my job, but I was having a problem keeping up with the volume of calls that come across my desk everyday. My supervisor noticed that I was having problems and suggested that they could provide me with a headset, if I thought it might help. I figured it would be worth a shot, so I asked for one.

Handling the Purchase of a Business Phone System

Summary:
Purchasing a business phone system is not an easy endeavor, but with the right mind set and a little knowledge about business telephones, you can find a viable, budget friendly solution to your business' communication needs.
One of the first decisions you will need to make is whether or not to go with a key system or a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system. Depending on how many individual stations you need and how rapidly you expect your company to grow, one of these two options should fit the bill.

Don't Go Cheap When Installing New Business Phones

Summary:
I recently replaced my business phone system to accommodate an increase in the volume of calls I was receiving. I own a car rental franchise and needed to have new lines and new phones installed to go along with the new customer service representative I needed to hire. By taking care of my customers and keeping my vehicles clean and available, I was able to build my business and force the closure of one of my two nearby competitors.

Customer Service for Business Phone Systems

Summary:
Working in a law office often means long hours and late nights, especially doing probate work. Getting in before seven A.M. and staying until well past business hours, I assumed that I would always be available for whoever might call me. Recently, my office switched our business phone system and I started to notice a drop in the number of calls I was receiving each day.

Cheaper is Not Always Better

Summary:
I work for a large insurance firm in the northwest, in an office with over 500 other employees.  Management recently decided to replace our existing phone system as the old system was no longer meeting our needs.  I and my co-workers were under the impression that they were going to update the system, as in "make an improvement", and that we would have late model phones with technological advancements galore.  Boy, were we in for a surprise.






Article Body:
I work for a large insurance firm in the northwest, in an office with over 500 other employees.  Management recently decided to replace our existing phone system as the old system was no longer meeting our needs.  I and my co-workers were under the impression that they were going to update the system, as in "make an improvement", and that we would have late model phones with technological advancements galore.  Boy, were we in for a surprise.

One day a few weeks ago, we all came in to find new phones on our desks.  These were not the state-of-the-art communication devices we had in mind.  Instead of the sleek, sophisticated, caller IDing, multi-line handling, LCD displaying wonders of the modern age we all dreamed of, there was a simple phone with a keypad on the receiver...not unlike what you might have had at home 15 years ago.  In addition to the new phone, there was a sheet which explained in graphically painful detail exactly which series of buttons one would have to push in order to make this thing function properly.  We had to now enter a digit to put someone on hold, enter a three digit code to transfer someone (one digit, dial tone, two digits) and enter a ridiculously long series of numbers to access our voicemail.

Needless to say, we were in shock.  I knew it wouldn't take long before the roars of complaining would drown out the usual office din.  Sure enough, by lunchtime our office manager came in to tell everyone that we were simply going to "try it out for a while" and that the company had saved thousands by choosing this option.  I and the other employees were fairly certain that we had already lost thousands in reduced productivity that morning alone.  Oh, well...it's their company, we just bring in the money for them.

For the next few days, we tried to get used to saying "hold, please, while I transfer you", removing the receiver from our faces and trying not to curse as we made a lame-duck attempt at pressing keys, listening and pressing more keys.  It was a nightmare.  We were getting pretty fed up with it, but just assumed that this was what we would have to deal with.  Then, out of the blue, we came in one day to find real phones with real features at our desks.  No more looking at the receiver while we frantically tried to key in numbers fast enough not to drop the call.  No more ten digit voicemail "pins".  No more of having no idea who was calling or where the call came from.  Ahhhh, relief at last.

Later the same day, we heard a rumor circulating around the office that the VP of operations had returned from a two week trip to New York.  His words, upon seeing one of the phones management had originally purchased on his desk were, "get rid of them".  All it took were those four words from a higher-up to set things right. Unbelievable.

Caller ID of Death

Summary:
As a broker, there is an unwritten rule that you don't steal clients from a co-worker because we all work on commission. Our office phone system works in such a way that if a desk is unmanned, the call will be transferred to another desk until it is picked up. When I get a call of this nature, I can pull up the investor’s information and see exactly what has portfolio holds and who he normally deals with.








Article Body:
As a broker, there is an unwritten rule that you don't steal clients from a co-worker because we all work on commission. Our office phone system works in such a way that if a desk is unmanned, the call will be transferred to another desk until it is picked up. When I get a call of this nature, I can pull up the investor’s information and see exactly what has portfolio holds and who he normally deals with. If the client is long term and has a preference for a particular broker, I simply tell them that I'll have their broker call them right back. The one time I decided to ignore this rule, it ended up causing a big scene.

Although we all have stocks to push, there is a degree of flexibility in what we recommend our customers buy that differentiates each of us. Therefore, what I recommend may be in stark contrast to what the guy sitting next to me might recommend. One day a call comes across my desk from a big client. This client is so big, in fact, that he is the primary bread and butter for one of my co-workers. The day the client called was the last day of a weeklong vacation my co-worker had taken, so I knew he wouldn't be able to call him back until the next day. By coincidence, I was pushing a stock that had just reached it's one month low, but that I knew was primed to resurge. I was as sure of this stock as any I'd ever recommended before. Still, I knew I would catch major hell from everyone for making a commission off of another broker's primary client. I decided I couldn't let the opportunity pass the investor by so I simply told him that his broker had instructed me to tell him about the stock I was sure of if the client called, and that his broker would be back tomorrow. The client bit on the stock and made a major purchase. I thanked him, filled out a commission sheet with my co-workers information on it (so that he would be the one to benefit from my work) and forgot about it. I figured I might get a nice "thank you" upon his return...especially if the stock performed as I expected and the client was happy. At the end of the day, I checked the stock to find it had climbed an astounding three points. I wasn't thinking of the sale to my co-worker's client as I, myself had made several sales of it to my clients and was happy that they were going to profit handsomely from my recommendation.

The next day, I came in to find my co-worker (yes, that co-worker) standing at my desk. He had seen his client on my caller ID and proceeded to throw a "class A" fit in front of God and everybody. I simply stood there while he lit into me as though I had just devoured his firstborn.  Not only did he scream at me, several others joined in, thinking I had sold to his client on my behalf. I didn't say a word. I knew that he, nor they, had discovered that I put the sale under his name and that the stock had performed extremely well. He said his last and stormed off back to his desk.

Every morning, we get a printout of the previous day's activity around 9:00 am. That's usually about the time I go down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee. When I returned, there was my co-worker, standing at my desk and smiling from ear to ear. Not only had he made a nice commission without even being at work, his client called to thank him while I was getting coffee. I just smiled right back, knowing he had to be feeling about two feet tall.  I had lobster for lunch that day, and guess who paid.

I love caller ID.

Business Phone Blues

Summary:

I work for a specialty after market auto parts retailer. We have no showroom, so around twenty percent of our business comes from the Internet while eighty percent comes from the telephone. We send out catalogs to those who request them or anyone who has placed an order in the last year. We also advertise in the back of automotive magazines.  Needless to say, telephone sales are truly the lifeblood of our business. As of late, however, I've been wishing that weren't the case.

Article Body:

I work for a specialty after market auto parts retailer. We have no showroom, so around twenty percent of our business comes from the Internet while eighty percent comes from the telephone. We send out catalogs to those who request them or anyone who has placed an order in the last year. We also advertise in the back of automotive magazines.  Needless to say, telephone sales are truly the lifeblood of our business. As of late, however, I've been wishing that weren't the case.

My company's business phone system has what I would call, the absolute most annoying hold message ever produced. My boss, the owner of the company, is a really nice guy.  Unfortunately, he is a really nice guy with a very pronounced speech impediment. One day he decided that instead of the traditional hold music, he would play a repeating digital loop of him announcing our weekly specials. We are a very busy company. In fact, most days find our sales reps on the phone from the time we get in until the time we leave. As you might guess, 

Business Basics for Catalog Retailers

Summary:
Catalog retail is a world all it's own.  Many considerations that other retailers don't have to deal with are of utmost importance to a catalog retailer. To name a few, the ordering process, warehousing and shipping must be streamlined for maximum efficiency. Maintaining a top notch inventory control and receiving department is also very crucial to business success.  Above all, however, a catalog retailer must have a quality business phone system.






Article Body:
Catalog retail is a world all it's own.  Many considerations that other retailers don't have to deal with are of utmost importance to a catalog retailer. To name a few, the ordering process, warehousing and shipping must be streamlined for maximum efficiency. Maintaining a top notch inventory control and receiving department is also very crucial to business success.  Above all, however, a catalog retailer must have a quality business phone system.

Considering the fact that the majority of customers will reach you over the phone, it is paramount to be able to not only handle call volume during peak times, but also to provide your customers service representatives with the features they need to do their job well. Business phone systems should be capable of not only putting your customers in touch with you, but also offer routing flexibility, voicemail and forwarding options for the administrative side of your company. Often, the difference maker for catalog retailers is not the products they sell, but the service behind those products. People who want to buy will have questions regarding an item that a simple picture and brief description will not answer. Most companies have service reps who take orders and product specialists who are familiar with the inventory.

It is essential for the product specialists to have access to a phone system that will accurately and easily allow them to receive and transfer calls between departments. After the initial contact by the sales representatives, the most common transfer of waiting customers will be to product specialists and hopefully back to the sales reps. A customer who is dropped accidentally during this transfer is likely to not call back. Additionally, customers who are made to hold for extended periods of time without an automated message thanking them for their patience are a primary example of lost revenue that could be curtailed by the proper business phone system. All in all, a well thought out business phone system is an integral necessity for any company, but it is especially important for catalog retailers.

A Phone by Any Other Name...

Summary:
I recently left the company I was working for and took a new position with a new employer at a much higher salary.  My business is IT, and I left the comfort and stabilty of my old job to work for a startup firm which I think will be a big success.  They knew they were going to have to pay for quality personnel so they had no problem meeting my demands in terms of salary, benefits and stock options.  What I didn't realize is that while they aren't skimping on compensation, the office environment they provide leaves a lot to be desired.






I recently left the company I was working for and took a new position with a new employer at a much higher salary.  My business is IT, and I left the comfort and stabilty of my old job to work for a startup firm which I think will be a big success.  They knew they were going to have to pay for quality personnel so they had no problem meeting my demands in terms of salary, benefits and stock options.  What I didn't realize is that while they aren't skimping on compensation, the office environment they provide leaves a lot to be desired.

I can put up with the miniscule cubical.  I can live with the lack of natural light (although I feel like a cave troll).  I can even do without the cafeteria, water cooler, and coffee maker.  What I really miss is my old phone.

You see, my old phone was indeed, not an "old" phone.  It was a multi-line handling, LCD displaying, caller IDing monster that gave me more options than a new car salesman.  My "new" phone has none of those amenities.  There is no transfer or hold button, no screen to display who is calling, no headset and no electronic directory.  In short, the only difference between this phone and a Garfield phone you might buy at Spencer's Gifts is that this phone isn't shaped like a cartoon cat.  My job would be so much easier and my days so much more productive if only we had a real office phone system in place.  The current system is so poorly automated that only a very small percentage of the calls I get are actually meant for me.  Likewise, I get several E-mails a day asking why I haven't returned phone calls in regard to messages I never received.

I guess the old addage that "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" really holds true in this case.

Since I came here, I have actively lobbied to have the old phone system replaced, but to no avail.  I think I may be the only one here who knows what he's missing.  Oh well...I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has experienced this.  Maybe you too have lost a beloved phone in a career move.  I sympathize with you.  I'd leave my number so we could comiserate, but you'd probably never reach me anyway.

A Call to Action

Summary:
Because of a recent boom in business, my company needed to update our office phone system.  We had a very nice system in place already, but our business had tripled within a matter of months.





Because of a recent boom in business, my company needed to update our office phone system. We had a very nice system in place already, but our business had tripled within a matter of months. Since we rely on phone orders for the vast majority of our sales, we needed to upgrade in order to handle the increase in call volume. We were lucky to have a great relationship with our telephone equipment provider, as within days we were able to have a new system ready to put in place. It's not often that businesses find themselves in situations like this, but when they do come up, it's important to know that the companies you have chosen to do business with are capable of meeting your needs in a timely manner.

Prior to this happening, we had a trunk study performed, after which we were told that we were losing business as a result of not having a new phone system in place. Anyone who has ever run a business knows that losing money because you are ill equipped to handle your customer's needs is the worst way to lose money. Being able to make a phone call and knowing it would be taken care of quickly and efficiently was a great relief to me. I knew that with every passing day, thousands of dollars were being lost and that's something I couldn't afford to let happen. The whole situation made me think about the importance of knowing qualified vendors who can get you the products you need, when you need them.

I soon began looking into other areas where we were dependent upon other companies for goods and services to see if we were utilizing vendors who could facilitate the changes our growing business was experiencing. After a long, hard look, we decided to switch shipping companies and to switch to a new overnight call center operator. It's not that our needs weren't being met at the time, but that if things continued to grow, we would likely outpace our current vendor's ability to provide service. Being proactive in your business relationships is just as important as being proactive about your business. After all, most companies depend on other companies to make their operations run smoothly. I encourage all business owners to seek out the service providers and vendors that can handle your needs both now and in the future. When your business grows, you'll be happy you did.