When Rachel Bridge (The Sunday Times Enterprise Editor) tweeted last year the following regarding her new website – www.entrepreneurthings.com, I had a quick look to see what it was all about.
Very excited to get first US order for my entrepreneur mugs today at www.entrepreneurthings.com . We can send them anywhere in the world.
I was rather surprised to find no contact number, which in my opinion is rather crucial for any online website regardless of size.
I am of course biased in this matter but when the question was posed to the general twitter public, it soon became apparent the vast majority where in agreement with me.
@rachelbridge100 for your website to be legal you need a contact number and a snail mail address on it — Philippa Bowen (@philippabowen) December 15, 2011
@rachelbridge100 not necessary but if you’d have one you’d have a virtual pa / answer phone system
@rachelbridge100 I agree, I always feel more confident purchasing from a website with a telephone number and not just an email. — SophieJSpooner (@SophieSpooner) December 14, 2011
Of course the tweet that caught my eye the most was if you have a number on your site, make sure someone is going to answer.
Almost as bad as no number at all is one that forever rings out or simply goes to a voicemail.
This is of course where JAM can be of use whether it is taking an actual order over the phone, answering queries, or simply taking a message via our PAYG Answer.co.uk service.
Ironically when Answer.co.uk was launched in 2008 we didn’t initially advertise a number on the site, and instead wanted to focus visitors to do everything online.
This proved a mistake as the moment we did advertise a number the number of conversions increased.
It’s always nice to hear positive feedback from our clients, and even better to hear about the positive benefits a call answering service can provide for their business.
One such example is the theory that customers will not leave a message on a voicemail and instead go to the next person on their list. Today, we received a lovely letter from Ade Oduyemi – Maximum Inheritence Specialists explaining how the £25 worth of call credit he had purchased on our Answer.co.uk service had already led to £2,650 worth of business – simply because the phone was answered. This is fantastic feedback and we’re really pleased that we could help secure such a high value of business.
Thank you Ade for the lovely feedback, and for allowing us to share this here. Here’s to many more
Recently I posted an article on a new feature we recently introduced for our Answer.co.uk client base initially.
It is our new method of handling cold calls. The initial feedback has been really positive and a few clients have already benefited from the new feature.
From our perspective we also benefit because it helps reduce our customer service load, and potentially at the same time blocking out future calls.
A few minor changes have been made to the process.
These are shown in the screen shot below. The options for marking a call as spam now includes where a caller fails to alert the operator they have a wrong number.
This is particularly frustrating for us as we then have to take a full message which ultimately doesn’t help anyone.
A further addition is the ability not to block a number if the client doesn’t wish to.
JAM has been honoured with the exclusive 2011 Award of Excellence for the fifth consecutive year. The award is presented annually by CAM-X, the industry’s Trade Association for providers of call centre services including telephone answering and message delivery.
Independent judges are contracted by CAM-X to evaluate message services throughout the world over a six-month period. The criteria for scoring include courtesy, response time, accuracy and overall service to their clients. If the company scores 80% or better in ALL categories, they are presented with the coveted Award of Excellence. The program is now in its 22nd year.
Founded in 1964, CAM-X began as a national trade Association representing live answering services. The Canadian Call Management Association now encompasses companies across the world offering specialized and enhanced operator based services including: call centres, contact centres, inbound telemarketing (order entry), paging, voice messaging, emergency dispatch, fax, and internet services among others.
Now a five-time winner JAM earned the Gold Award for five consecutive years. CAM-X extends its congratulations to the staff of JAM on their proven quality service to their customers.
For many years we have resisted temptation to attempt to filter out cold calls unless it is a specific request for a repeat offender.
Our biggest fear was turning away what we perceived to be someone trying to sell something when in reality it was quite the opposite.
We now have a new feature which gives our clients (Answer.co.uk only initially) the power to decide if a particular message is a sales call, and have it instantly refunded.
Furthermore if the company in question has caller ID enabled, and doesn’t withhold their number in future, we will block it.
To make use of this feature login to the online panel, and select messages, browse messages, and choose the appropriate date range.
Select the appropriate message and click on more details. You will now see something similar to below. The first step is to click where it says mark as sales call.
On the next screen you will now be asked to select a reason as shown below why you want the call refunded.
As soon as you have done this and marked as a sales call, an automatic refund will now be applied.
This message will then be passed on to our quality control team to ensure it does qualify.
This new feature is not yet quite the finished article, so any feedback you may have would be really appreciated before we fully market this new feature in 2012.
At present this is only available to Answer.co.uk clients.
Below are two promotions we are currently running until the end of the year.
You may already familiar with our £40off coupon code for the £400 package.
If you want to stock up on answer.co.uk credit then simply enter £40off on the google checkout payment page. For £360 + VAT you will receive £500 call credit.
For those who wish to spend a little less we have brought back the December special package from last year. Deposit £75 + VAT and receive £100 credit.
For our final podcast of the year, we are joined by Hannah Couzens Photogrophy (see testimonial video below) and Martin Lumsden of the Cream Room once again.
The focus of the podcast is a discussion about business awards.
Hannah is a former FSB Hertfordshire county winner, while JAM also have a fair share of awards including best medium Hertfordshire business 2010. We discuss the benefits of winning, as well as some of the reasons to enter.
Following on from part one is looking at the various ways of business expansion. In the final part we touch on woman networking and the pros and cons.
We have teamed with Gower Cottage Brownies – a fellow Smarta100 winner – to offer an exciting new promotion.
If you refer a client between November 16th and December 15th that signs-up to either Answer.co.uk or pureJAM, we will send to an address of your choice a box of the most delicious chocolate brownies on us (value normally of £15.99).
To qualify* for your brownies, a new client must sign-up from your referral links and deposit successfully.
We will then contact you via the online portal with the good news and ask where and to whom you would like your brownies sent to.
Of course once a client has signed up and deposited you will also be entitled to 5% of all their future payments which you can use at any time as call credit.
Some ideas about how to promote your referral links can be found at the following blog post.
About Gower Cottage Brownies
Whatever the occasion these home-made brownies are the most unique gift, as well as arriving beautifully packaged with raffia and tissue paper, they are the Best Brownies you will ever taste. (I can vouch for this personally having sampled one, actually several). For more information about Gower Cottage Brownies – please visit their website.
*Terms and Conditions
Any referral must be via the unique referral links to be counted.
Referrals to yourself are not allowed for the purpose of this promotion
Each client is entitled to one box of brownies only to be sent to the address of their choice
New Client deposits must be via google checkout and not subsequently cancelled
Promotion ends December 15th
Some ideas can be found below how to promote our services.
Email your clients, chances are some of them might be using a service already and be glad to here about some alternatives you recommend
Twitter/Facebook/Google+ – you will see some very neat like it buttons below your referral links – please use them, only takes a second.
Blogging – there have been some fantastic blog posts about our services from clients for which we are very grateful. Why not write a blog about this competition and our service in general.
Networking - spread the word about us and follow up by emailing your referral links if any interest is shown.
If you do post links on your website or blog about the competition or the services then let us know and we may well post them on our various social media sites.
Please remember to tell anyone you refer about the following coupon code
#jamwin - £5 off any payment of £50 or more (available to anyone – limit 1 per account)
Many of our clients will already be familiar with their referral links. If not then please do watch the short video explaining how to find your unique links within the portal.
We have made a minor alteration to how you can now claim any unused referral credit. When you click on add credit from the homepage of your Admin user, you will now see two things at the top.
Your current call credit balance and Your referral account balance. With one click you can transfer whatever is in your referral balance across to your main balance.
Below is a screen shot of what you will see if you have a positive referral balance.
