Speed Can Be a Strength or a Weakness By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD How long does it take you to put a new client on service? How long should it take? I’m sure you can answer the first question quickly. And I imagine there might be a bit of angst in considering your response to […]
Category: Telephone Answering Service
Telephone answering service articles by Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD We will celebrate Thanksgiving Day next week in the United States. And our friends to the north celebrated it last month. Aside from having a day off from work—not that anyone in the answering service industry ever gets a day off, especially holidays—Thanksgiving is a time for us to think […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As the telephone answering service industry continues to consolidate amid a sellers’ market, it leaves many wondering what the future looks like as they contemplate their long-term strategy. There are three general scenarios that apply to most situations: buy, sell, or stay. Buy Some large players, both from outside the […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD If you own a telephone answering service, you spend a lot of time thinking about the future. And if you’re not the owner, you should also consider what’s ahead. More on that later. Future considerations for owners may include growth, acquisition, or new technology. However, when you think about the […]
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Don’t Be in a Hurry
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Last week I couldn’t log in to one of my financial services accounts. I had three options: online help, email, or phone. I opted to call. That’s what you do when you’re in this industry. I reached their automated attendant and listened to the prompts. After a couple of button […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As we move into a warmer season, many telephone answering services experience increased call traffic during the summer months. But this bump in incoming calls is dwarfed by what many services experience at year’s end with the build-up to Christmas. Although we know these seasonal fluctuations in traffic will happen, […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD You are in the telephone answering service (TAS) industry. Notice the word telephone. Surely your TAS focuses on telephone communications, but do you process more than phone calls? Should you do more? What are the ramifications if you do? What are the risks if you don’t? As communication continues to […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Technology is exciting—at least to me. I love technology and its application. We talk a lot about the technology we use to help our telephone answering services function more effectively and provide a greater array of services to clients. It’s hard to imagine processing calls without technology. Yet without staff, […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Presently we have 135 answering services listed. Of those 68 of them, just over half, have social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Based on this, I make the following observations. Half Not Social First, half of the answering services do not have a social media presence. Though social […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As I consider business trends, specifically as it relates to the telephone answering service, three words come to mind. I think of these terms as keywords we can use to describe what we do and promote our business. Virtual An answering service provides a virtual service. It’s been that way […]