Everywhere I go, people ask me the same questions. What does it take to have a successful business? Why does it come so easily to some, while others seem to struggle and fail? And how do I build a successful business doing something I’ve always wanted, something I’m passionate about?

The reality is that, in spite of their dreams, most businesses are struggling to keep up with the competition. The facts are that 50% of new start up businesses fail in the first two years and 80% fail within 5 years. So what’s missing in this equation?

Some businesses work smart and use all the resources available to them but make sure the cost is kept down. They use virtual services as and when they need them so they can get the competitive edge and achieve their goals of sales and profitability.

Nearly all successful businesses large and small make sure their clients are always taken care of and that they can communicate with them quickly and efficiently. Yes they make it look easy don’t they, but behind the scenes they have a large back office that supports them like virtual telephone answering with on-line diary management as well as all the other resources that businesses needs to be successful.

That’s how they make it look easy, by working smart to ensure success in their businesses. You would be extremely surprised to discover who uses virtual services, it’s not just used by small businesses!

For more information please call me on 0800 0776131 or email me on jet.shah@kendlebell.co.uk

An affordable monthly fee can buy a free phone number and fax number and a virtual receptionist to answer your phones and we can even give you a customer services and even sales team.

You can give the impression of being a larger organisation without the overheads.

For more information please call me on 0800 0776131 or email me on

jet.shah@kendlebell.co.uk

I was talking to one of our newly acquired clients who started with our service a few weeks ago. Before they became clients they came to ask us if we could answer their calls with people actually answering the phone!! – we said that’s what we do, we’re not answering machines we’re humans at the end of the phone,  we answer their calls professionally in their company name, how else does a telephone answering and messaging service work? When discussing with them what their requirements were they said they wanted us to take the calls and evaluate if it was a sales call or one of their clients, if it was a client they wanted us to transfer their calls to the relevant person in their company. Well that’s what we do for all our clients so it’s really easy for us. 

Anyway they then asked me why with all the technology in their offices are their clients so much happier talking to their personal assistants in our office. Well the answer to that is easy, I have yet to meet a person who likes talking to those answering systems, you know the ones with the long unappetising menus that just fill you with dread and frustration and can make a grown person cry!

Well that’s what their clients had to put up with and that’s why they were not too happy, the client went to admit their call volumes had actually dropped because people became frustrated with their automated system and that as soon as they switched to using our human service they have noticed call volumes have increased again. We know that human contact is always better than a digital system with a voice menu that just frustrates the caller.

Let’s face it we are all in a business of some form or another and the name of the game is satisfied customers who buy regularly, so why put barriers in their way with phone menus, all they want to do is speak with someone and get the job done.

Although we are a virtual telephone answering service many of our clients have ask if we can follow up leads for them, so we have done this for them after all we are the only virtual telephone answering service in the UK that offers a truly personal service.

Last week we had a telephone call from a business that needed some advice and help. They have done lots of shows and demonstrations for their products and services. The directors had files that were full of estimates but they did not have the time to follow the leads up. They wanted to know if we could do this for them. Of course we can, we don’t just handle incoming calls we can make follow up calls for clients. These clients use our virtual services for virtual telephone answering and outbound calls on a monthly basis.

I could not guarantee good results, as some of the leads were very old, I mean over a year old! We did the work, first of all we had to build them a database so they could add future leads to the list. I was surprised that they didn’t already do this.

We did the calls and guess what we got some business that they would otherwise have lost. Some of the older leads actually turned into new business for the company as they required other services. So even old leads can turn into new business. We only did thirty calls as a trial and we got six sales. Now that was surprising to us as well. This client has now signed up for our virtual service of both telephone answering and outbound calling, on a weekly basis he now emails over the latest estimate details and we follow it up for him and as soon as we have a hot lead we contact him and he converts that into a sale.

Now I do wonder how many businesses don’t follow up their leads or even keep in touch with their old and regular clients. We all know that we have to keep in touch with our clients but what about all the past clients who may just need another service that you also offer.

For more information and an informal chat please call 0800 077 6131 or email jet.shah@kendlebell.co.uk

I met a business owner who is very active with his business and we were just talking about the types of services that are available to all businesses. One of my business friends then went on to talk about what we do and you know when someone has that confused look – “Virtual telephone answering services?” He went on to say that he hates what we do and when he calls a business who have these systems he gets so annoyed at the press 1 to get such and such department or press 2 to get so and so, and when you select a number you go to another menu with a lot of numbers and he just hates them.

My friend just laughed and then went on to explain what we do is provide a human service that answers the phones. This just made the business owner think about how uninformed he was about all the resources that are now available.

He was not convinced so my friend called one of the businesses he knows that uses our office and asked the person to take the call and listen to the answer. He was astounded at what we do and then he asked how many businesses use virtual telephone answering services. I explained to him that it’s still a very new concept to the UK and most businesses are unaware of virtual services.

He asked how much our virtual telephone answering service costs and when I gave him the prices he was even more shocked. All he kept on saying was WOW! “I could save thousands just by diverting my phone to you and reducing my staff”. He said that he would like to take us up on our FREE trial for a week so he can be sure that we do as we say. Well on Monday his business will be active with us.

 For more information or even a free trial please contact us on 0800 0776131 or even email me on jet.shah@kendlebell.co.uk