Erm, where do I start?

Well I guess the first thing I look forward to when I get to work at Message Takers is the fact that I know no 2 days will ever be the same, so even if yesterday was a complete stonker with sales call after sales call, I know today will be a million times different! There’s so much variation to each day in the office. I can take a call for an order for Incontinence Products, and the next one can be for a Chartered Accountant, jumping from one end of the scale right to the other.

 

I get so much satisfaction out of my job it’s unbelievable! I don’t come into work thinking what I need to do that day, as there is no schedule to my day apart from taking phone calls from different companies. I can be taking an order for calf hutches one minute, then taking a call for an accountant, and then making a booking for the rat man to come out, I certainly never get bored.

It’s also such a rewarding job.

 

I like the fact that we’re not just a telephone answering service for these companies, but that we also learn about them too. I enjoy learning how they operate, and sometimes can give them the info they need, to save the company calling them back at busy times as we have already sorted it out here. I forget the number of times where I’ve picked up a very urgent call for someone who’s diverted their phone to us, and have chased round ringing goodness knows how many numbers in order to get the emergency sorted. It just makes me think, what if that company only had one phone line and someone couldn’t get through in an emergency. But it makes you feel so good about yourself when they call back just to thank you for all your effort, its great!

 

When I explain my job to friends and family, that I work for Message Takers a telephone answering company they think it’s weird me pretending to be another company and they think I just answer the phone and pass on the message, but there is so much more to it than that. Yes, our main job is to answer other people’s phones, but we also take bookings; maintain databases and also we gain more business for them. Just recently I have been chasing up some leads one of our customers supplied us with, and having learnt what they do through answering their phones, we were able to get them lots more customers just by making the call on their behalf. We also take orders for large companies supplying cosmetics and sweatshirts, and even invoice and ship them out. We also send out information packs and documentation that these companies just don’t have time to do, as well as bagging up to 6000 samples of products and getting them out in 2 weeks! There’s no end to the list of how we help out other people and we’re always open to new suggestions of what we can offer.

I think some people would perhaps be a bit sceptical, like when you have a new born baby, it’s really hard to let go and let other people help, but we’re not here to interfere and tell you how things should be done, we’re here simply to take the pressure off when you have a heavy workload, giving you the opportunity to keep to your deadlines. We’re just a helping hand really, and we’re completely adaptable so we can work how and when you need us.

 

Say for instance today. My 1st phone call was bang on 8.30 from one of our customers, telling us he’d be out most of the day but will return calls as and when. This is great cuz we know where he is and so if one of his customers rang, we’d be able to tell them that rather than saying, he’s on another call, and them keep ringing every half hour. Then the calls start rolling in for various companies. Then the rat man came in to pick up his appointment sheets, as we keep their database, book their appointments and arrange his sheets for each day. Then we’d get an email of an information pack, which we’d print out, envelope and send it. We transfer various calls throughout the day so enjoy a giggle with our customers, and also we get a ‘feel’ of how their day is going, let us know of the important calls they are awaiting, and also of the ones they’d like to avoid that day! Sometimes the calls are very basic, like what times are you open, others require directions, and others are really in depth, in which case attention to detail plays a big part as we don’t like getting things wrong!

 

As I work for a very small company, we all know everything about each individual company we take phone calls for. We don’t each have specific calls in which we deal with, we all learn about each of them, this way if someone is off sick, or on holiday, we all know equal amounts so are all capable of answering every call. It’s actually as if we are working in their office, as we speak to them 2-3 times a day, we deal with all of their business, so we all know what’s going on.

We must be good at our jobs, as a few of the companies we take phone calls for also deal with each other, so as they are trying to contact them, they come through to us, and they don’t even realise who we are!