Call Answering Services

[PetrolTed]

Anyone use one. I could do with something a bit more professional than an answerphone. What do they cost and how do they work?

[FourWheelDrift]

Ted, BT do a personalised voicemail service, 1571. Costs IIRC £2.95 a month. Completely fluid system you can make a "I'm on the phone or just away from desk type of message". You can also get a diversion service to any other phone (including mobiles) for another £2.

Is that the sort of thing you're after?

[DontLift]

www.yac.com/yacHomePage.jsp

Excellent Service from these guys

[Mark.S]

A friend of mine is happy with www.alldaypa.com/ so far and I'm considering them at the moment.

[condor]

PetrolTed said:

Anyone use one. I could do with something a bit more professional than an answerphone. What do they cost and how do they work?

They're usually called a secretary or PA

[PetrolTed]

FourWheelDrift said:

Ted, BT do a personalised voicemail service, 1571. Costs IIRC £2.95 a month. Completely fluid system you can make a "I'm on the phone or just away from desk type of message". You can also get a diversion service to any other phone (including mobiles) for another £2. Is that the sort of thing you're after?

Nope, I have that but many people won't leave messages on an answerphone. A personal service would help maintain the illusion that PH is bigger than it really is in terms of the 'support organisation'

[Plotloss]

Message Pad or some such.

'Er indoors use them I believe, will get you the details a bit later on today...

[jvaughan]

The Missus used to work for a company called Armchair Answercall. Based in Andover, they answer the calls and forward messages via phone, fax, email whatever... if you want some more infomation Ted, dropme a bell

[ahammond]

Hi. I've been involved in setting up an online business and we had the same issue...basically we wanted to create the impression that we were bigger than we are and to get a real voice answering the phone, taking messages, etc, while we were busy doing other stuff…and without having to pay a fortune for a secretary. After much searching, I signed up with a Virtual Office who I'm really pleased with and are extremely competitive with their pricing (they've also been doing it for 20 years or so). They can type up any messages and email them to you, or they can email the recording of the message via a wav file, or you can simply phone in and listen to any messages received. The beauty of it is, is that a real voice answers the phone with your company greeting, and either takes the message down by hand or asks them if they'd like to be put through to your answer machine. Give them a call and see what you think:

www.virtual-office.co.uk

Best of luck....and no, I'm not working on commission ;o)

[simpo two]

On a similar vein, so it's only a slight hijack, can anyone recommend a company that can do low-run telesales on a B2B basis?

[XM5ER]

You may also want to look at www.regus.co.uk

They do a virtual office service which can include an office address at one of their premises (they are all over the country). You can then use the offices for meetings etc., I'm considering them myself.

[rpguk]

If you want to give the impression of a big company then you need to open a call centre in India.