Truly horrific in nature, zombie answering services drag down each unfortunate soul who makes the grave mistake of signing up with them.
Thankfully, as long as you know what to look for, then you can avoid the perils of these kinds of monsters. So how can you tell if you’ve got a zombie answering service on your hands?
Brain dead representatives
Watch out for zombie answering services that have brain dead representatives handling your calls. They speak with no inflection and sound extremely uninterested in your callers. They get an attitude and are never in the mood to help your customers. Callers can tell when they’ve got a zombie on the line who is just there to get through the day and collect a paycheck. When people call your company, you want them to be greeted by friendly people who genuinely want to assist them and represent your business professionally.
Staggeringly slow response
A zombie answering service is painfully slow to process your requests and they drag their feet when it comes to delivering your messages. They aren’t in a hurry to answer your callers either as they let the phone ring and ring until they can be bothered to pick up. What you really want in an answering service is prompt responses in every aspect of what they do. If you need to make a change to your script, they are on it. If you want to update your on-call schedule, they will take care of it for you in a jiffy, or even show you how to do it yourself via a secure online portal. And every time your callers reach your live support provider, they should be quick to answer (3 rings or less).
Reanimated technology
One of the other aspects of a zombie answering service you should watch out for is their technology. Does it seem like it has been brought back from the dead or is it powerful, innovative, and perfect for the job? Old equipment and outdated technology gnaw at an answering service’s ability to perform at a high level. You’re looking for a live support provider that harnesses a robust call handling platform that has all the backups in place to stay functional even during the apocalypse. Make sure they offer plenty of message delivery options and a way for you to securely manage your account online. An answering service’s technology is supposed to help you, not hobble you.
When shopping for a live support partner the last thing you want is to get crippled by a zombie answering service. They will drain the life out of your business with relentlessly disappointing experiences for both you and your callers. But have no fear! Hope remains as there are certainly plenty of good answering services out there who are committed to helping your business thrive. And if enough businesses keep making quality choices when it comes to selecting call center partners, then perhaps we can finally eradicate the virus that is infecting our world in the form of zombie answering services.
