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The blog for Global Call Forwarding has articles on the latest customer service trends, telecommunications technologies, and business news.
How to Call Ireland from US
25th October 2019 blog, Business Phone Numbers

How to Call Ireland from US

Quality Assurance in Healthcare
25th October 2019 blog, Call Management

4 Ways Call Forwarding Improves Quality Assurance in Health Care

Medical Answering Service Feature Ideas for Small Business
9th October 2019 blog, Business Insights

Medical Answering Service Feature Ideas for Small Business

Can VoIP Change Your Sales Game? Tips for Sales Teams
7th October 2019 blog, Cloud Telephony

Can VoIP Change Your Sales Game?

marketing strategies for finance company
3rd October 2019 blog, Business Insights

Marketing Strategies for Your Professional Finance Company

Order fulfillment company for ecommerce
2nd October 2019 blog, Business Insights

How to Start an Order Fulfillment Company for E-commerce Business

Managing Your Professional Finance Company Sales Team
2nd October 2019 blog, Business Insights

Managing Your Professional Finance Company Sales Team

Things To Know When Starting a Medical Answering Service
2nd October 2019 blog, Call Center

Things To Know When Starting a Medical Answering Service

How to Get a Business Number
1st October 2019 blog, Business Phone Numbers

How to Get a Business Number

How to Call Ireland from US

25th October 2019 blog, Business Phone Numbers

If you’re from Ireland or you frequently need to do business with people in Ireland, you may be wondering how to call Ireland from US states. So, if you need to frequently make out of country calls to Ireland, you might be looking for an easier way. In this article, we determine how to call international to Ireland. And, provide an option for affordable long distance calling options through Global Call Forwarding.

How to Call Ireland from US Phones Step by Step

Before calling people in Ireland, first thing’s first – you need to figure out the present time in Ireland. Surely, you don’t want your call to catch anyone while they’re sleeping or super late at night. Typically, it’s best for people in the US to call people in Ireland in the mornings.

Step 1: Dialing Out

Once you figure a good time to make your call, it’s time to dial out. But, remember, calling Ireland isn’t like calling people in the states. First, you’ll need to exit the US calling code system. To do this, you need to dial the numbers 011. Anytime you want to call outside of the US or Canada, you’ll need to first dial these numbers.

Step 2: Ireland Country Code

Next, after the exit country digits, you’ll need to dial Ireland’s country code. This number is 353.

Step 3: Dial the Area Code

Once you’ve dialed both 011 and 353, you’ll then need to punch in the area code of the person you’re calling. Just like in the US, there are many different area codes for the people living in Ireland. So, you’ll need to know this number before dialing. If you don’t know the area code of the person in Ireland you’re trying to reach, check out this Ireland area code list.

Step 4: Dialing the Phone Number

Now that you know the area code of the person living in Ireland you’re trying to reach, you can dial that along with their entire 7-9 digit telephone number. So, all in all, the format of the number you’ll be calling will be: 011 (exit USA) – 353 (Ireland’s country code) – XX (Ireland area code) – XXXXXXX (full phone number).

How to Call Ireland from US
Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#162768592 ID#9993456

How to Call Ireland Cell Phone Numbers from the US

Another thing that you’ll need to consider before making your call is if you’re calling a wireless cell phone or a landline. This is because Ireland has a different area code for people with cellphones. So, after the US exit code and Ireland’s country code, you’ll dial a specific area code to a specific region. Or, the standard wireless code for the country (80 or 81). So, if you’re not sure of the area code that you’re calling, you might need to use this as the area code. Specifically, if the person you’re calling has a wireless cell phone.

Choosing a Provider for Your Long Distance Calling

If you don’t set up a long-distance calling plan with your current cellular or telephone service provider, you might want to think about doing so. Especially if you have friends or family in Ireland and you plan to call them often. If you don’t get a good plan for out of country calls, you could be looking at steep international charges on your next phone bill. However, while your current provider may offer options for international calling, it still may be a bit more expensive than you’d like. If this is the case, consider other options, like purchasing a national virtual phone number from Global Call Forwarding.

National Virtual Phone Numbers for Calls to Ireland

Maybe you already know how to call Ireland from US phone lines. But, you’re looking for a cheaper way to call friends, family, or potential customers. If this is the case, virtual phone numbers may be right for you. Simply, a national virtual phone number is a phone number that’s given an Ireland area code. This way, you can call people in Ireland without racking up international charges. And, your friends, family, or Ireland customers don’t have to rack up international charges either. With virtual phone numbers from Global Call Forwarding, you pay a monthly fee for the minute plan you select. This way, you can make as many overseas calls to Ireland as you want without paying outrageous charges. Plus, you even have the option to set up SMS at an additional charge.

Getting Your Virtual Phone Number Today

If you think that national virtual phone numbers may be the right solution for your Ireland phone calls, learn more about our services right from our website. And, contact us today to set up your virtual phone number so you can call your Ireland contacts today.

4 Ways Call Forwarding Improves Quality Assurance in Health Care

25th October 2019 blog, Call Management

If you provide services within the health care industry, you have to be aware of quality assurance. And, how to maintain this quality assurance for your customers. This way, they continue to utilize your service instead of looking for other providers. In this article, we discuss some of the ways quality assurance in health care is uniquely important. And, ways businesses within this field can provide the best quality assurance for their customers.

What is Quality Assurance?

Before you can go about giving the best to your customers, you have to understand what quality assurance is. Essentially, quality assurance is providing and maintaining a quality of service for your customers. But, specifically, it means providing this quality in every single aspect of your service. This means providing and maintaining quality at every stage of service; from set up through cancellation.

What is Call Forwarding?

One of the ways businesses within the healthcare industry can increase quality assurance is to invest in call forwarding. To put it simply, call forwarding is a feature of a business phone solution. It allows a call that’s made to a specific phone number to be forwarded to a completely different number. And, it can make quality assurance in health care increasingly better in a number of ways.

1. Being Available for Healthcare Patients

One of the advantages of call forwarding in the health care realm is that it allows you to be more available to your patients. For example, even if a customer service representative is out of the office, they can still take calls with call forwarding. This means fewer missed phone calls from happier customers.

2. Eliminating the Need for Voicemail

Another advantage of call forwarding is that it works to increase quality assurance in health care is by eliminating voicemail. When a healthcare patient calls, they may not always want to leave a voicemail if their call goes unanswered. This may be in fear that their needs won’t be heard. Or, that their call will never be returned. Call forwarding eliminates the need for voicemail as it works to forward calls that go unanswered to lines that reach available representatives.

3. Allows for Mobility in the Workplace

When a healthcare provider has call forwarding set up, calls can be transferrable to cellular devices. This means that even mobile devices can work to increase quality assurance in health care. It also means that representatives in the health care industry never have to miss a trip or business phone call. And, they can answer business calls from anywhere, at any time from their mobile device.

Quality Assurance in Healthcare
Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#162757250 ID#10295847

4. Ramping Up Customer Service

The final way call forwarding increases quality assurance in health care is by increasing the overall presence of customer service. Basically, call forwarding allows for the forwarding of multiple phone lines to one business phone number. This way, health care businesses can offer toll free numbers to their patients. Thus, providing a way for customers to call in for free. And, these numbers can all be forwarded to one centralized number or location. This way, customers have multiple ways of reaching your business. But, they are all met with the same great customer service they always expect from your business.

Getting a Virtual Phone Number With Call Forwarding for Health Care

Are you looking for ways to increase quality assurance in health care for your business? If so, call forwarding may be a beneficial feature for your business phone system. To get call forwarding to your business phone lines, consider virtual phone numbers from Global Call Forwarding. These numbers allow you to take advantage of all the business phone features you want, including call forwarding. And, can be set up as local numbers, toll free numbers, or even international numbers. This way, you can offer phone numbers for customers in all areas of the world. And, these numbers can all be forwarded to whichever business phone line you want! To set up your health care business with call forwarding and virtual phone numbers, contact us today to learn more.

Medical Answering Service Feature Ideas for Small Business

9th October 2019 blog, Business Insights

Medical answering services can do a lot for your medical practice. Employing a trusted medical answering service will allow your staff to focus attention on patients rather than on calls. Many features are particularly helpful for small businesses using a medical answering service. Read on to learn more about them.

What Does a Medical Answering Service Do?

A medical answering service will handle incoming calls for your practice with a high level of attention to detail. Medical answering services will also ensure that you are meeting HIPAA standards to protect client data. Using the service can free up the time of your staff and save you money on hiring a receptionist. Using the service will also help to ensure your patients feel valued.

How Do I Know if My Business Will Benefit from Medical Answering Services?

Below are some questions to ask yourself in considering whether you need the help of an answering service for your practice:

  • Does your medical practice have a difficult time keeping up with incoming calls?
  • Does your office have a backlog of voicemail messages on a daily basis?
  • Are you repeatedly receiving “voicemail is full” warnings from your phone system?
  • Is your office taking time from patients in order to answer phone calls?
  • Is your office having to allow the phone to ring for long periods before answering calls?
  • Have you been considering hiring staff to manage your call volume?

If your response to any of the above questions is “yes,” then a medical answering service could be a very smart move for your practice.

How Does it Work?

With a medical answering service, incoming calls to your practice are routed to a remote receptionist. Virtual receptionists handle all types of inquiries your practice receives. This can include questions regarding office hours and location. Receptionists can also schedule appointments, manage new patient information, and forward emergency calls. If a caller needs to reach someone in your practice immediately, the virtual receptionist can forward the call to the specific person. Receptionists can handle calls to your practice 24/7, which is very important for a medical practice.

There are many other tasks that answering services can handle that will help your small business practice grow.

Medical Answering Service Feature Ideas for Small Business
Source: DepositPhotos.com – O#151705872 ID#27446420

Virtual Phone Numbers for Medical Answering Services

Using virtual phone numbers for medical answering is a no-brainer. Your receptionist is virtual and you don’t need to be tied down to a landline, so this is the ideal choice. Using virtual phone numbers also allows you to stay mobile in case you need to switch your answering service to another location.

Features to Ensure the Call Center Runs Smoothly

There are medical answering service features that will help your practice thrive. Some of these include:

  • Call forwarding: to be able to use a phone number for patients, but have those calls forwarded to the virtual receptionist
  • Extensions: to be able to route calls to the intended parties as needed
  • Call recording: to ensure quality assurance and for training purposes
  • Sequential forwarding: so that calls are answered in the order received
  • Time of day routing: in case you are using virtual receptionists in different geographic locations to answer calls at different times of day

The use of a medical phone service for your practice could make your office run much more smoothly. If you can run the office more efficiently, more attention can be given to patients. Considering a number of medical answering service options for small businesses is also a must. Many features will complement the service and, ultimately, support the success and growth of your practice.

Can VoIP Change Your Sales Game?

7th October 2019 blog, Cloud Telephony

If you have an active sales team, you know how offering any advantage to exceed your competition is crucial. Cutting edge technology – particularly VoIP — can be just what is needed to step up your sales game, for more profits and better overall efficiency.

So, if you are wondering how VoIP service from Global Call Forwarding can change how your sales team performs, we will explore such topics, including:

  • More Efficiency with Directories
  • VoIP Supports Remote Work
  • Taking Advantage of Add-Ons and Functionalities
  • Scalability
  • Variety of Phone Number Options

More Efficiency with Directories

The more efficient you can make your sales team, the better they can perform. Conclusion: Your business performs better. By including VoIP into your sales model, you gain access to a number of features that can boost your sales team’s efficiency. And instead of the hassle of dealing with redundant calls, you can use a directory system known as a PBX, or Private Branch Exchange. Aided by VoIP, inbound callers can be met with an automated service that allows callers to self-direct their inquiries.

For instance, callers that simply want to know your business hours can find that information by dialing through the directory. This saves time the time of your sales personnel that would otherwise be lost. Similarly, you can create direct extensions to your sales personnel so that recurring clients don’t have to be transferred on follow up calls.

VoIP Supports Remote Work

For your sales personnel, they may be on the road for extended periods of time. Working out of the office can be tricky, where sales personnel may be reluctant to give out their personal phone numbers. However, VoIP’s routing capabilities change this, enabling your team to use virtual phone numbers to call important clients as needed.

And for those sales members that work better on their own, VoIP can reroute calls directly to your salesperson’s device. This can be a godsend for sales personal that may be feeling “under the weather” after wining-and-dining important clients to close deals.

Can VoIP Change Your Sales Game? Tips for Sales Teams
Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#161051176 ID#5699524

Taking Advantage of Add-Ons and Functionalities

Furthermore, VoIP service is part of evolving technology trends due to the integration and advancements in cloud computing. As the cloud evolves, so do the capabilities that VoIP can offer your sales team. Global Call Forwarding offers a number of these developments as add-ons and built-in functionalities designed to streamline your telecommunications. These include:

Time of day routing: Automatically routes calls to different destination numbers depending on the time of day that a call is received. This can help establish a positive work-life balance, particularly when your sales team seems overworked

Call recording: This add-on enables you to store and review recorded calls made with your sales team. Call recording is essential for most industries, as it can help with liability issues, miscommunications, employee training materials with direct examples, and so forth.

The Scalability You Need

VoIP enables your business to scale as its needs grow and you find better ways of processing increasing numbers of clientele. Therefore, by choosing Global Call Forwarding, you can scale by choosing different payment options as your usage increases. Therefore, this ensures that your sales team is never without open lines of communication.

Variety of Phone Number Options

As you may be aware, Global Call Forwarding offers a wide variety of phone numbers in over 150 countries worldwide. For instance, this includes countless cities and regions to access hyper-specific markets. Additionally, you can choose which type of phone numbers best suit your sales approach, including:

  • Toll free numbers
  • Local access numbers
  • Vanity numbers
  • ITFS numbers
  • UIFN
  • DID numbers
  • And much more

In Closing

Above all, VoIP offers a wealth of benefits that can drastically change your sales game for the better. For more information, contact Global Call Forwarding to get started today and reach new heights.

Marketing Strategies for Your Professional Finance Company

3rd October 2019 blog, Business Insights

Of all the tasks that a professional finance company faces, marketing consistently proves to be the most challenging. Separating your company from the pack while ensuring that your company runs efficiently is the goal. This is where virtual phone numbers from Global Call Forwarding can offer numerous strategies to capture the best customers. In this article, we’ll cover some of these marketing strategies for professional finance companies, including:

Raising Your Professional Image with Toll Free Numbers

Your finance company thrives on how well it can project a professional image to new customers and long-term clients. In fact, this is non-negotiable. After all, when money is at stake, an unprofessional image can make your customers unsure whether they should trust their financial future with your company.

Luckily, Global Call Forwarding offers the answer to this common problem facing your professional finance company: toll free numbers.

How Toll Free Numbers Can Enhance Your Company’s Appeal

Toll free numbers immediately impart a professional aesthetic easily. Because your company is footing the bill for calls as the subscriber, customers inherently trust your company’s integrity. Especially when it comes to solving their problems. Additionally, many professional organizations that deal with high-volume and high-priority clients use toll free numbers to appear more professional. Therefore, using toll free numbers imparts the same professionalism that those organizations benefit from. Third, toll free numbers give your company a type of “geographical agnosticism.” This means that your company has made a conscious effort to appeal to a national (and international) audience. Simultaneously, geographical agnosticism can help avoid negative stigmas associated with certain areas of the country where you may be headquartered.

Achieving Localization with Outbound Calling

Have you ever received an unsolicited phone call, with digits on your caller ID reading something to the effect of “V482072508XXXXXX….?” If so, you’ve obviously not recognized the phone number as being familiar and probably didn’t answer the call. Those unintelligible digits preceded by a “V” means that a company somewhere placed a call without a crucial element for using virtual phone numbers: outbound calling.

Marketing Strategies Professional Finance
Source: DepositPhotos.com – O#69202269 ID#27446420

What is Outbound Calling?

In short, outbound calling enables you to reach customers with the digits of the virtual phone number that you subscribe with. Simply, this means when you use your virtual number to make calls, the actual digits will appear on caller ID’s. For your professional finance company, this is extremely important, as you want a direct way to reach leads and clients.

Outbound calling enables you to reach customers even across international locations. For instance, if you wanted to reach customers in Dubai, having outbound calling enabled for your virtual phone number will ensure that a +971 number will appear on their caller ID. Therefore, if you’re looking to market your finance company by cold calling new prospects, outbound calling is mandatory.

Gaining International Appeal

If you’re looking to market your finance company, you’re probably no stranger to capturing new markets abroad. Even if your company is headquartered in one of the financial hubs around the world (ex. Hong Kong, New York City, London), customers typically want to invest their money with domestic businesses.

Marketing with Virtual Phone Numbers

Luckily, Global Call Forwarding offers virtual phone numbers in over 140+ countries around the world. By offering domestic and international callers lines of contact that resemble those used in their country, you demonstrate that your company is ready to do business in their country/region.

This also helps alleviate anxieties about possible language barriers. After all, if your company has a non-domestic line, chances are your company has also taken the initiative to hire staff that can speak their language. Because virtual phone numbers instantly route calls, it is easy to market these phone numbers and then reroute calls to a call processing center. Once redirected, employees located in the same time zone and with the same language can transact and assist callers with their inquiries.

Conclusion: Get Marketing Solutions from Global Call Forwarding

So, if you’re ready for marketing strategies for your professional finance company, consider subscribing with Global Call Forwarding. As a telecom provider for more than two decades, Global Call Forwarding has helped SMBs and large enterprises to achieve their marketing goals. Visit www.globalcallfowarding.com today to begin marketing your company more effectively with virtual phone numbers and related tech solutions!

How to Start an Order Fulfillment Company for E-commerce Business

2nd October 2019 blog, Business Insights

Year after year, an increasing number of retailers take their businesses online. Recent data indicates e-commerce accounts make up close to 10 percent of all retail sales. However, research anticipates growth around 15 percent annually in this sector. In other words, the precedence of the Internet has customers worldwide shopping online. So, to keep customers happy, a business owner must ensure accurate fulfillment of orders, quickly, and efficiently. Optimizing e-commerce fulfillment strategies is the key to success.

To clarify further, this means order fulfillment companies are in-demand and the demand will increase. Below are steps explaining how to start an order fulfillment company for e-commerce business and what to expect in the process.

What is Order Fulfillment?

Order fulfillment refers to the method that is used to fulfill customer orders. For e-commerce, companies may choose to manage their order fulfillment in-house, while other companies may choose to operate using drop shipping or third party fulfillment. For third party fulfillment, some companies are solely dedicated to fulfilling the orders of their clients (other businesses). This offers businesses the ability to devote more of their time other aspects of the business, while still being able to access data regarding inventory and sales. Third-party fulfillment is often chosen because it decreases costs related to packaging and shipping.

Deciding Which Type of Fulfillment the Company Will Offer

There are a number of roles your fulfillment company can play. A business owner decides whether the fulfillment company holds responsibility for storing, packaging, shipping, tracking, and more. Based on this decision, a business owner will make other decisions regarding equipment, facility, and staffing.

Phones and Communication Systems

Most notably, a fulfillment company is a high-tech business. This means there is a strong need to respond in a high-tech fashion. A business owner must understand this is not the place to cut corners. The right access to websites, operational equipment, and phone systems is critical.

Staffing a Fulfillment Company

A business owner can launch a fulfillment company with two or three people. A business owner will name a fulfillment manager, a warehouse manager, and a fulfillment specialist. The fulfillment center manager should have the ability to make sales calls. A fulfillment manager will also be responsible for walking clients through the initial setup. The warehouse manager is responsible for installing any warehouse management system. Furthermore, this person is in charge of writing all back end procedures and training personnel.

How to Start an Order Fulfillment Company
Source: DepositPhotos.com – O#190330960 ID#27446420

Sales

It is imperative that a fulfillment company makes a consistent effort to market and sell its capabilities. A business owner must focus on sales efforts to add more customers and grow. One method is to use sales personnel to generate leads and then have the fulfillment manager drive the sale moving forward. A larger fulfillment company may need a specialist to come in and provide advice including selling skills.

Marketing a Fulfillment Company

A business owner must provide a basic marketing campaign to take an order fulfillment company’s messaging forward to the current client base as well as potential clients. A business owner should not solely rely on existing sales personnel to develop accounts. Sales representatives are, at times, reluctant to offer new services to their clients. Because of this, marketing campaigns can prove to be very useful.

Pricing Matrix For Order Fulfillment Services

Establishing a pricing system for the fulfillment company may present challenges at first. The company’s pricing system must include all services that are completed. Therefore, fees may include storage, customer service, and more. Some pricing options may include:

  • Storage charged at a price per pallet, per month
  • New product set up fee
  • Warehouse fee
  • Receiving services fee
  • Order receipt fee
  • Shipping materials cost
  • Reporting fees
  • Customer service
  • Initial set up fee

Challenges Faced by E-commerce Businesses

E-commerce businesses face challenges, which include competition, finding the best products to sell, reaching a target audience, generating traffic, retaining customers, choosing the right technology, and achieving long term growth. Understanding these challenges will help you run a successful order fulfillment company.

In Closing

In essence, order fulfillment is the backbone of an e-commerce business. The strategy for order fulfillment for customers directly affects everything from customer satisfaction to profit margin. Therefore, a business owner must consider this carefully. Another thing to be considered carefully is scalability. A business owner who starts a fulfillment company has a goal to grow. Likewise, having a plan in place that outlines how you will grow and keep up with the growing needs of clients as well as adding new clients is very important. As a result, providing customers with the best value through order fulfillment is key to an effective operation. Above all, a business owner that helps clients to maximize profits and efficiency is destined to succeed.

Managing Your Professional Finance Company Sales Team

2nd October 2019 blog, Business Insights

In this blog, we will cover various ways to manage your professional finance company sales team, including:

  • Using virtual phone numbers throughout your organization
  • Inspiring competition in your professional finance company
  • Maximizing training
  • Using a directory system as a regular part of your professional finance company

Let’s begin. 

Using Virtual Phone Numbers throughout Your Organization

Part of managing your professional finance company’s sales team is by providing them with the tools to succeed. Thanks to Global Call Forwarding, this is possible in a myriad of ways.

First, virtual phone numbers are available in a wide variety of types. These include geographic numbers, toll free numbers, vanity numbers, and more. Geographic numbers can be especially useful when assigning sales teams to specific regions and countries that are part of their territory. Because geographic virtual phone numbers are identical to “regular” phone numbers, your sales team gains the benefits of localization and authenticity in those regions. Toll free numbers, on the other hand, lend a “geographical agnosticism” to your sales team, which can be useful for fielding inbound sales calls by available staff members.

Inspiring Competition in Your Professional Finance Company

Enabling your sales team to reach strategic goals often takes invoking a competitive spirit throughout your organization. To do so, you can offer incentives to top-performing employees such as direct lines to long-term clients. This can be achieved by using a popular function of Global Call Forwarding’s virtual phone numbers called “whitelisting.” Whitelisting enables only inbound calls that have been preapproved to go through. And as many sales teams involved with a professional company know, having warm leads and repeat customers is a recipe for guaranteed commissions and further success.

Time of Day Routing for Around the Clock Service

As another example, you may have some especially motivated salesmen that want to be available 24/7 to maximize their earning capabilities. Another popular add-on for virtual phone numbers, “time of day routing,” can make this a reality. When a call is placed outside of predetermined hours, the call is routed to a different destination number. Using time of day routing, you can redirect calls to their personal cell phone number.

Managing Your Professional Finance Company Sales Team
Source: DepositPhotos.com – O#187198574 ID#27446420

Maximizing Training for New Hires

One of the biggest expenses, in terms of both time and money for a professional finance company is training staff effectively. With various regulations and company protocol to follow, many employees are left to educate themselves on how to close with clients properly. Training sales team members with “call recording,” a popular add-on from Global Call Forwarding, can help ease this process and provide clear examples of what (and what not) to do during sales calls. Like the name implies, call recording records and stores inbound/outbound calls made between staff members and clients. This can be an effective tool for training, as these calls can be referred to repeatedly to train employees uniformly.

Using a Directory System as a Regular Part of Your Professional Finance Company

At some point in time, your customers are going to want to speak with the sales rep that they’re most familiar with. Whether this is out of personal preference or by continuing a business relationship, it can be cumbersome to have customers constantly transferred to staff members’ phone lines.

To manage this more efficiently for your professional finance company, Global Call Forwarding offers a Directory PBX service. Short for Private Branch Exchange, a PBX enables you to offer direct extensions for departments and individual staff members. A PBX not only creates direct access to your sales team but also reduces the number of misdirected callers or those seeking readily-available information located in your directory (i.e. operating hours).

Virtual Phone Numbers for Your Finance Company Sales Team

As you can imagine, these are only some of the many ways that professional finance companies are using the versatility of virtual phone numbers to manage their sales teams. Be sure to learn more from the informative articles at www.globalcallforwarding.com. Subscribing is easy, and your professional finance company can begin using them within 24 hours of signup.

Things To Know When Starting a Medical Answering Service

2nd October 2019 blog, Call Center

For decades, medical professionals have relied on medical answering services to provide after-hours telephone support to their patients. Many medical offices even use answering services during office hours, to allow their staff to focus on patients while a virtual receptionist handles incoming calls. As a result, a great answering service adds value to medical practice. With that said, there are many things to keep in mind that separate a medical answering service from other types of answering services.

Why Start a Medical Answering Service?

Medical providers give countless hours of care to their patients each week, but their work doesn’t stop outside of office hours. Therefore, patients often turn to the phone for questions and emergencies after business hours. Even during business hours, medical care providers are seeing patients and juggling phone calls. This is not optimal.

A well-run call center helps a medical practice increase efficiency, improve patient care, and reduce overall costs. This fulfills the ultimate goal of every patient-focused, growth-oriented, forward-thinking medical practitioner today. This type of business provides much-needed support to medical practitioners. Patients benefit from the support given to their doctors.

Services Your Medical Answering Service May Provide

Services offered may include:

  • Answering incoming calls
  • Giving responses to general questions
  • Transferring calls to a staff member, as needed
  • Handling new patient information
  • Scheduling appointments
  • Ensuring the medical practice is HIPAA compliant
Things To Know When Starting a Medical Answering Service
Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#160702298 ID#48158333

Hiring Highly Trained Staff

The cornerstone of a medical answering service is its staff. A business owner must continuously invest in training and workforce development to ensure every call center agent responds, empathizes, and engages with patients in the most effective way. Medical answering service staff will handle sensitive information. A business owner must ensure the staff is highly trained and training is supplemented regularly. These are critical aspects to this type of business.

Customer Service is Important

You may not think of serving patients as customer service, because you are not selling a product, per se. However, the truth is that the principles of great customer service very much apply when dealing with patients. Communication skills are extremely important. Medical answering service staff should aim to always interact with patients in a friendly, helpful, and positive way. Pay close attention to things like the length of hold times as this is also a great way to ensure patient satisfaction. The goal of a customer service agent is to exceed expectations with patience, attentiveness, knowledge, time management, and the ability to read the needs of customers and fulfill those needs.

HIPAA Compliant Standards for Business

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Several aspects of HIPAA relate to doctors, their medical practices, and the care of their patients. The key element concerning HIPAA and medical answering services is protected health information (PHI). Medical practices and their service providers must safeguard protected health information at all times. PHI requires secure storage and secure transmission, as well.

Under HIPAA, a medical practice is what is referred to as a covered entity or CE. The medical answering service is a business associate (BA). Both the CE and BA must adhere to HIPAA regulations. The fines for not adhering to HIPAA regulations are significant. Being HIPAA compliant is extremely important for a medical answering service’s credibility.

Cost Savings Provided to Medical Practitioners

We have all heard the saying time and time again – “time is money.” Every minute that a medical practice staff member spends on the phone is a minute that they could have devoted to more important tasks. Taking care of patients is always the most important task of a medical services provider. Medical answering services help medical care providers to refocus attention from phone calls to patients. You can also provide service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A 24/7 response time ensures a call is never missed and this helps patients feel they always have the attention they need.

By outsourcing duties related to inbound calls, your answering service will help medical service providers reduce employee costs, increase efficiency and profitability, and reduce potential liability by being HIPAA compliant.

Best Communication Systems for a Medical Answering Service

A business owner starting a medical answering service will most likely start small and grow over time. You may think you have to invest in heavy-duty telephone equipment and the installation of numerous phone lines. Though that is always an option, there is a much simpler and cost-effective way to go about setting up communication systems. With advances in technology, virtual phone numbers have been in place for some time now, and they are quickly becoming more widespread.

A  business owner can avoid the cost and hassle of equipment by using virtual phone numbers. Virtual phone numbers also offer mobility and cost savings that surpass traditional phone lines. In the case of an emergency, such as a weather-related incident or power outage, an off-site medical answering service acts as an emergency phone system and is extremely helpful.

Where to Buy Virtual Phone Numbers

Virtual phone numbers allow for medical offices to provide a phone number for their patients and calls to that number are easily forwarded to the number of a virtual receptionist. With virtual phone numbers, a business owner modifies call forwarding numbers quickly and easily. You can also opt for other features, such as adding phone extensions, time of day routing, and call recording. Features such as these will help your medical answering service run more smoothly and efficiently.

With time of day routing, you may have a virtual receptionist in another time zone answer the calls at certain times of day or night. This is the typical solution when providing around-the-clock service.

Call recording acts as a tool for quality control and training purposes. A business owner can go back and listen to how certain situations were handled. Call recordings provide valuable insight, specifically in regards to the handling and processing of calls.

When dealing with information as sensitive as medical records, it is important to keep the medical practice safe. Calls made through an answering service that records calls helps to provide accurate and irrefutable records whenever needed.

In Closing

The sheer fact that you are handling the important personal information of patients makes this service stand apart from other answering services. Doing your research will help you to prepare to offer your services with excellence.

The benefits you bring to a medical provider with your answering service will help to create a more satisfying patient experience. It will also help medical caregivers to do their job to the best of their ability. A medical answering service represents a win-win for everyone involved.

How to Get a Business Number

1st October 2019 blog, Business Phone Numbers

Need to know how to get a business phone number? Whether for a large business or a small one, Global Call Forwarding offers virtual phone numbers to meet your needs. In this article, we will take a look at a few aspects to consider when purchasing a phone number, including:

  • Types of phone numbers available
  • Choosing a location
  • Enhancing your phone number with add-ons
  • Subscribing to a service for a business number

Types of Phone Numbers Available from Global Call Forwarding

Perhaps the primary consideration you should keep in mind when thinking about a business phone number is the type that fits your needs. Global Call Forwarding offers the following varieties of numbers:

These virtual numbers can be augmented with mobile accessibility, enabling cellular phones to reach them, and vice versa. Also, it should be noted that virtual phone numbers are based on current inventory and availability.

Choosing a Location

Second, to the type of number that you will be using, choosing a location is the next important step. You will want to consider two location-based aspects:

  • Where you want to be reached
  • Who you want to reach
How to Get a Business Number

Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#160601922 ID#43026961

Location-Specific Phone Numbers

First, a virtual phone number serves as a type of location marker for your business. A business that uses a Canada local number will be perceived as having Canadian origins. Of course, thanks to the routing capabilities of cloud-based telephony, your business can be located anywhere in the world and still be reached instantly.

Canada’s virtual phone numbers are identical in function and appearance to “normal” Canadian phone numbers. The only difference is their added routing capabilities. Having the same country code and corresponding region/area code helps with the localization process of your business, while also circumventing typical long-distance calling obstacles, such as:

  • Long-distance fees
  • Service blockages
  • Customer preferences to deal with only domestic business entities

Gaining Freedom of Location with Toll Free Numbers

Another location-based concern is whether you want to be based on a certain region or remain geographically agnostic with toll free numbers. Considering that toll free numbers not only make calling free for your customers but they also work nationwide. As a result, you can use toll free numbers as a way to obscure where your business is headquartered. Instead, toll free numbers impart a nationwide quality. This encompasses different states, regions, provinces, and so forth based on the toll free prefix you select.

Enhancing Your Phone Number with Add-ons

Now that you’re aware of business numbers from Global Call Forwarding, you should know they can be enhanced with add-ons. These add-ons can completely change how your phone number functions, opening up new possibilities of usage and profitability.

One of these is rollover minutes. This add-on allows you to retain any unused minutes each month, so they are available for future use.

Another popular add-on is call recording which, as the name implies, records and stores calls made using your phone number. This can be effective as an aid for on-the-go entrepreneurs. Additionally, it’s also useful for managers that want to create training materials from prior calls.

Subscribing to a Service for a Virtual Business Number

Now that you have a good idea of the benefits of business phone numbers, it is time to subscribe with Global Call Forwarding. The process of purchasing is simple and easy. You will begin by navigating to their home page at www.globalcallforwarding.com.

Once there, a series of dropdown menus will appear at the top of the page. At that point, you can select your new phone number (including location and type) choosing from a list of currently available phone numbers.

Second, you will enter your destination number (where calls will be rerouted to and from). This will include the country code, area/region code, and remaining digits. After this, you will choose a payment plan and add-ons that fit your intended usage. The process is similar to most online transactions, requiring billing info, contact info, and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions.

Once completed, a customer service rep will contact you within 24 hours or less to assist you with setting up, enabling you to begin using your phone number immediately. Now that you know how to get a business number with Global Call Forwarding, you can purchase as many as needed. Feel to contact them today if you have any questions or issues.