Comments on: Mailbag: International Selling, Tax Deductions and Answering Services http://mywifequitherjob.com/mailbag-international-selling-tax-deductions-and-answering-services/ Building Wealth and Entrepreneurship When Your Wife Wants to Stay at Home With the Kids Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:31:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Steve http://mywifequitherjob.com/mailbag-international-selling-tax-deductions-and-answering-services/comment-page-1/#comment-2904 Steve Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:22:50 +0000 http://mywifequitherjob.com/?p=7170#comment-2904 @Tony I've had similar experiences. People generally don't like to leave voicemails and they seem reluctant to answer a callback because they don't recognize the number on their caller id. Our situation is a little different than yours. We only have about 250 products to worry about (non configurable for the most part). Everything except for personalized items ship the following day because we don't let anyone complete an order unless it's in stock. We'll see how everything goes. Thanks for sharing your experience! @Tony
I’ve had similar experiences. People generally don’t like to leave voicemails and they seem reluctant to answer a callback because they don’t recognize the number on their caller id. Our situation is a little different than yours. We only have about 250 products to worry about (non configurable for the most part). Everything except for personalized items ship the following day because we don’t let anyone complete an order unless it’s in stock.

We’ll see how everything goes. Thanks for sharing your experience!

]]> By: Tony Pro http://mywifequitherjob.com/mailbag-international-selling-tax-deductions-and-answering-services/comment-page-1/#comment-2903 Tony Pro Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:49:30 +0000 http://mywifequitherjob.com/?p=7170#comment-2903 We used an answering service for 4 months or so, but we didnt bother training them we just had them send an email and a text message of the persons question, name and phone number to us. It worked out ok, but was a bit more spendy than we liked and eventually we went to a PBX based 800# with extensions to forward calls to different people because we have several people involved now, fulfillment in someones garage, shipping from another residence etc. I found that my customers will leave a message with a real person who cant answer a question way more often than they will leave a voicemail, plus they answered 24x7. Also with a voicemail my potential customers often duck me from then on, so I had only one chance to sell them and I blew it, this was not true of the live answering service I could almost always make the sale if I called them back fairly soon. One issue with an answering service taking an order is how do you obtain the credit card info? I certainly dont want to get it by email, so I guess if you trained a contractor as suggested by Jace you could train them to enter orders in a virtual terminal as well. Another issue is shipping questions, our products have 200 possible configurations, we could never train the people to know what is in stock and when it will ship. if they can get a rush order on time etc. this is another reason we didnt bother training because the customers almost always ask when will it ship, and there is no standard answer to that for my product line unless I invest $250,000 in inventory not happening any time soon. Love the site! T We used an answering service for 4 months or so, but we didnt bother training them we just had them send an email and a text message of the persons question, name and phone number to us.

It worked out ok, but was a bit more spendy than we liked and eventually we went to a PBX based 800# with extensions to forward calls to different people because we have several people involved now, fulfillment in someones garage, shipping from another residence etc.

I found that my customers will leave a message with a real person who cant answer a question way more often than they will leave a voicemail, plus they answered 24×7.

Also with a voicemail my potential customers often duck me from then on, so I had only one chance to sell them and I blew it, this was not true of the live answering service I could almost always make the sale if I called them back fairly soon.

One issue with an answering service taking an order is how do you obtain the credit card info? I certainly dont want to get it by email, so I guess if you trained a contractor as suggested by Jace you could train them to enter orders in a virtual terminal as well.

Another issue is shipping questions, our products have 200 possible configurations, we could never train the people to know what is in stock and when it will ship. if they can get a rush order on time etc. this is another reason we didnt bother training because the customers almost always ask when will it ship, and there is no standard answer to that for my product line unless I invest $250,000 in inventory not happening any time soon.

Love the site!

T

]]> By: Steve http://mywifequitherjob.com/mailbag-international-selling-tax-deductions-and-answering-services/comment-page-1/#comment-2862 Steve Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:01:37 +0000 http://mywifequitherjob.com/?p=7170#comment-2862 @Jace That is an excellent point and one that my wife and I still are having a hard time with. Every answering service charges you an initial setup fee in order for you to train their staff. During this trial period, you are supposed to write down every possible question, product trend and product issue that you can think of so they can enter it into their database. When a customer call comes in, this database as well as your website instantly pops up onto their screen. In theory, if you are thorough enough, the operator can answer customer questions based on this database. Otherwise if they encounter a question they can't answer, they can transfer the call directly to a number that you choose. That being said, my wife and I plan on using this service as a supplemental system. We'll try to answer the calls when we can, but if we're too busy or don't feel like picking up the phone, then we'll let the service take care of it. We're still not actually 100% sure we are going to go through with it. It just depends on how things are with the second child and whether having a mother's helper will be enough. @Jace
That is an excellent point and one that my wife and I still are having a hard time with. Every answering service charges you an initial setup fee in order for you to train their staff. During this trial period, you are supposed to write down every possible question, product trend and product issue that you can think of so they can enter it into their database. When a customer call comes in, this database as well as your website instantly pops up onto their screen. In theory, if you are thorough enough, the operator can answer customer questions based on this database. Otherwise if they encounter a question they can’t answer, they can transfer the call directly to a number that you choose.

That being said, my wife and I plan on using this service as a supplemental system. We’ll try to answer the calls when we can, but if we’re too busy or don’t feel like picking up the phone, then we’ll let the service take care of it. We’re still not actually 100% sure we are going to go through with it. It just depends on how things are with the second child and whether having a mother’s helper will be enough.

]]> By: Jace http://mywifequitherjob.com/mailbag-international-selling-tax-deductions-and-answering-services/comment-page-1/#comment-2860 Jace Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:00:01 +0000 http://mywifequitherjob.com/?p=7170#comment-2860 What's the cost incurred by brand degredation though? We used a phone service for a short time and it was horrible. We had so many customer complaints because the phone staff is not trained on your product, cannot offer helpful suggestions and represents your company according to the guidelines setup by the answering service. If they are just taking messages, that's fine, but for taking orders, I fear you're going to do more harm than good. If you had an individual (note that I didn't say employee, you can contract out individual answering services to someone who is at home in another state), you could train them on your products and policies. Best of luck, let us know how it turns out. What’s the cost incurred by brand degredation though? We used a phone service for a short time and it was horrible. We had so many customer complaints because the phone staff is not trained on your product, cannot offer helpful suggestions and represents your company according to the guidelines setup by the answering service. If they are just taking messages, that’s fine, but for taking orders, I fear you’re going to do more harm than good. If you had an individual (note that I didn’t say employee, you can contract out individual answering services to someone who is at home in another state), you could train them on your products and policies.

Best of luck, let us know how it turns out.

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