GREETINGS FROM TAHOE CALL CENTER:
Located in Nevada, Tahoe Call Center is a small family-run business with a big heart, ready to help with your communication needs. Since 2012 we have assisted clients coast to coast in varied economic and emergency climates: wild-fires, blizzards, ice storms and unforeseen events (with affordable, competitive pricing that didn’t add further trauma).
Rain or shine, short-staffed or no staff, we help keep your business going: Answering phones / taking messages / providing information / Taking credit card orders / collecting and transmitting confidential information via email, SMS, or API (linking with existing systems). Our agents are trained to process sensitive information with courtesy, respect and maintain the strictest of confidence. We also help with those intermittent overflow call surges during business hours and cover your customer inquiries when you are closed. “Always here so you don’t have to be” – We help keep things running smoothly 24/7, 365 days a year.
Introductory Blog: May 2020 M. Hines
Unlike my kids who grew with ‘all things electronic’, my integration into much of today’s technology was not as seamless…
I grew up in a time machine. The technology in my grandparent’s house stopped with the radio. Not the battery kind, but the glass-tube, heavy cabinet with a wonderful deep sound resonating from within its dark, mahogany encasement (it had to be turned loud enough so everyone in the house could hear). They had one phone in their endless hallway, used sparingly (call time was charged by the second and expensive), whose ring was responded to quickly and anxiously. It rested on a gray cabinet with a glass knob; situated just outside the single bathroom entrance. Practicality ruled the decorating of this house.
The limited technology my grandparents had was valued, though archaic by today’s standards. Survivors of the turn of the century, two World Wars and the Great Depression, nothing was purchased or discarded lightly, leading to some interesting discoveries when cleaning out their home of 40 years.
My grandfather was a photographer. But despite technology’s advances, he preferred using his accordion-style Kodak camera. It collapsed neatly creating a slim case; converting better than any transformer-toy my son received later in life. He quit developing his own photos before I was born and sent his tightly wound film rolls to Mr. Hunter’s drug store around the corner for processing.
They owned a record player and received monthly albums from ‘Stories and Music for the blind’. My Great Aunt could no longer see by the time I was born. As military bands performed various marches, we were encouraged to exercise both limbs and imagination (depleting surplus energy). For classical records, we were required to sit still and listen with an appropriate serious concentration and demeanor.
It was the 1960’s and a radio, telephone and record player were pretty much the extent. No Television. They weren’t opposed to technology, and progress was always acknowledged. They weren’t hermits, but they’d reached a balance between daily life and the technology available, understandable and affordable.
Personally, I prefer the pace and the humanity of the ‘time machine’ but not because I have an aversion to progress. I miss paper copies, but I appreciate computer files over paper clutter. I miss the simplicity of dials and knobs but appreciate the specifics of codes and key combinations. I miss the nostalgia of handwritten correspondence, but appreciate the instantaneousness of email. Nostalgia is only part of the reason. My main concern rests with how quickly we trade humanity for technology, especially when it needn’t be an ‘Either/Or’ choice.
Tahoe Call Center – bridges the efficiency of technology with the human touch, retaining the quality of service from the past to combine with the progress and expectation of today (the best of both).
We’re all raised with certain expectations. Infused into our psyches, a phone or phone number implies a person will be available to assist us:
“Enough! I’m just going to call someone to help me…”
A common reaction, and then it happens. At the peak of our frustration our phone call is answered by… a machine. The blood pressure rises, anger corrupts our ability to hear correctly as a recorded voice demands we:
‘…press one for… press two for… or press 3… I’m sorry I didn’t get that…’
Your customer has now spontaneously combusted.
Phone trees are sold for their efficiency and economy.
The savings of not having to hire people to answer and route your calls more than pays for this system, right?’
Not when you factor in lost business. It’s not the machine’s fault. It’s a case of a technology not being used wisely. Phone trees and automated answering programs are efficient -to a point- but they can’t interpret a caller’s needs, or courteously address them. That’s what people do. When you cannot relay why a delay of service is occurring it leaves the explanation up to your (now disgruntled) client’s imaginations:
- “Their problem isn’t important.”
- “Your business is in volume, not individual sales”
- “You’re quick to take my money but slow when I need help”
- “You’re a scam/not a legitimate business hiding behind an answering machine”
- “It’s just the way business is run now, so deal with it”
No business can afford to be complacent, lazy or take shortcuts when it comes to customer service and communication. There’s too much competition today. What will make people do business with you? Human Contact.
After investing time and effort developing a rapport with your clients, why trust those efforts to a machine’s first response?
Tahoe Call Center helps you maintain your human touch; offering customized quotes and an assortment of affordable packages for your new or existing business. We can integrate our staff and technology with yours for seamless messaging. Need a toll-free phone number but think the cost is beyond your start-up business’s budget? We can provide that to help your business grow nationwide. Were you recently forced into closing your physical address or reducing your hours of service? We keep communications going between you and your customers 24/7 – 365 days a year, reassuring clients that you will still be there for them long after this temporary pandemic is over.
The ‘human touch’ – That voice is found at Tahoe Call Center