Hobart where we handle Virtual Reception services
FAQs about answering services

Frequently Asked
Questions

FAQs

Contact centre services rely on many systems so it can be confusing. Your business may need services configured differently to the norm.

Some standard answers to common practical questions are provided in the links below, but please feel free to make an enquiry to ask questions about how it all works and could work for you.

What are Virtual Contact Centre Services?

Virtual contact centre services are customer services provided by trained, professional agents in another location, away from your premises. "Contact" may be managed via telephone, SMS, email, system alert, or other channels in our network.

Calls that you forward to your diversion point on our systems are answered live, in a friendly professional manner. Our virtual receptionists can answer questions and follow procedures just like staff working in your offices.

How does it work?

Your preferred greeting, procedures, and scripts are set up by Client Services in a service application linked to a diversion number on our Network.

The service will be live 24x7, and any calls that come to your diversion point will be answered as per your instructions by trained agents. You control when you send calls to us, whether that is 24x7, after hours, or just call overflows during business hours.

Calls can come from any combination of landline, 1300, 1800 or 13 prefixed number, mobile or Skype to be answered. We just need to have procedures in place to handle the expected range of enquiries that our agents may encounter.

There are many advantages of having virtual contact centre services in place, depending on your size and type of business:

  • Never miss a call, or sales enquiry.
  • Manage your privacy if you are a startup, or your time as a business professional.
  • Schedule training and staff meetings conveniently with business hours overflow.
  • Cover staff shortages or BCP outages immediately without the hassle of managing temps and casuals.
  • Staff for average or minimum workloads and handle the variations with us at a lower cost.
  • Scale up without increasing the fixed overheads of your business.v
  • Add capability to cover specialist tasks or functions economically 24x7.

Who will be answering my calls?

Well Done employs agents on staff in Australia 24x7 under Fair Work awards.

Your calls will be answered in Australia 24x7 unless you choose to have some services handled at a lower cost from our International Customer Service Centre.

What are 1300 (and other) Numbers?

1300 numbers and 1800 numbers are 10 digit portable national numbers that work within Australia. They are issued by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and need to be hosted online to function.

Well Done is a wholesale telco and Client Services can provide a 1300 or 1800 number for your service and we can host this for you.

Why use 1300 or 1800 numbers?

There are several advantages that may be useful for your business:

  • Scale – if you operate from multiple sites, you can list one central number in your advertising or website. A national number can also make your business look bigger than it is.
  • Marketing edge - People calling a 1300 number from a landline pay only the cost of a local call within Australia, and calls to 1800 numbers from a landline or mobile are free. The cost of making it easy for your customers to call you on these numbers is not great.
  • Control – our 1300 and 1800 numbers are portable, which means that we can release them to you if required at some later point – you retain control over the marketing investment in your phone number.

You can also anchor or divert your existing 1300 or 1800 numbers to your answer-point on our system.

How are 1300 and 1800 numbers billed?

We bill a monthly charge for the number (including hosting) plus a few cents per minute for the inbound call usage. Usually this is just an extra on your usual invoice for the answering services. If you are pointing your own number to us, no such charges apply.

Anchor or Divert?

When you anchor a 1300 or 1800 number with us, we answer calls to it 24x7. Alternatively, you could just divert those calls business hours or after hours or put a diversion on your phone system to forwards call overflows to us at busy times.

Some people have a 1300 number pointed to their mobile; these calls can also be diverted to us using call forwarding settings on the device.

What is a Smart Number?

These are numbers that are catchy numbers for marketing purposes. They might be in a memorable pattern, have double digits, or spell out a word that aligns to your business on a phone keypad that you could use, for instance, instead of the actual number in a radio advertisement. ACMA auctions these numbers. If you purchase one you will still need to host it online to use it.

What are 13 Numbers?

These are 6 digit telephone numbers prefixed by 13 that are issued and auctioned by ACMA. They function like a 1300 number, but being shorter, can be easier to remember than even a Smart Number. Often used by large corporates and franchises, these numbers are in limited supply and expensive.

International Numbers

1300 and 1800 numbers only operate within Australia. For toll free or limited numbers overseas, you have the choice of World Numbers, which are prohibitively expensive, or toll free numbers in individual countries routed to your diversion-point on our system. Rates vary between countries, but Client Services can advise you on competitive options.

How is my Service Set up?

Your online application provides us with some basic information for initial set up your service on our systems; it is standard to have concise links to more information for agents answering your calls. Client Services will also consult with you to customise the service in more detail.

The form also provides information for administrative staff handling your service.

The Sales team will take you through some steps and provide indicative lead times for live service. Checkpoints in the process are part of the quality assurance for your service. When you have approved the set up Client Services will provide the diversion point for live service.

What is the Service Scope?

Each type of service that we offer has a service scope within which your service is set up as you require. Calls for each service type (Virtual Reception, WebAssist, Escalation etc.) are routed in skills-based queues on our Network so that your calls are answered by agents trained to handle them.

Services can and do evolve over time. There may be extra steps in procedures. We log to many client systems and CRMs. We may have to manage bookings or messaging to many individuals, teams, and branches.

Clients often add extra procedures and capability in services as they become more familiar with what we can do. Corporate services may have a full spectrum of customer service issues handled on the one service with a standard greeting; these are backed by agent training to cover the industry context and scope. Client-specific training can also be delivered to support a complex service.

If the additional scope needs to be routed to specialist agents or have its own greeting, it may need to be set up on a separate service. Client Services can assist you with this and make sensible suggestions to achieve the outcomes that you want.

What are the Service Options?

Beyond the essential components to provide the service (service availability and usage costs) there are some optional extras. Some are a choice between standard free inclusions and customised variations that attract modest charges. Extras are unbundled so that you are only charged for what you select and use.

Greeting

It is standard that agents will answer the call as per your scripted greeting and identify themselves by their first name.

Own Message On Hold

Calls are technically answered upon receipt with a general message before being answered by an agent; this is a free inclusion. Clients can also opt to have their own personalised automatic acknowledgement of the call; Client Services can record an agreed greeting for you or upload your professional recording in *.WAV format. Charges apply for the hosting and changing custom greetings for a service.

Call Recording

We require your permission to records calls for your service. Call recording comes with a standard announcement to your callers advising that calls may be recorded for training and quality monitoring purposes, and this is a free inclusion of the service. Charges apply for access to call recordings or automatic downloads via web portal.

Call are recorded in *WAV format and we generally store these for 2 months on our servers for quality assurance unless specific arrangements are made for a service.

Message Delivery

Services can be set up with changing and complex message delivery that varies by procedure or conditional variable in procedures. Messages can be sent via email, SMS, pager, or fax to multiple recipients; this happens automatically as the issue, or action, is logged on our systems. Emails sent with an agent on a call are free; usage charges apply to other messages delivered.

Reporting

A monthly call log report is a standard free inclusion for all services; this can be sent to multiple recipients. Daily, weekly, ad hoc, custom reports and self-service reporting options are also available through Client Services.

Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) Development

Well Done has an in-house ICT Team on-hand and on-call to keep systems running 24x7x365. They also assist the service development team with IVRs, applications and systems development, APIs, security, and provide technical advice. Ongoing systems development is a standard inclusion in our services, but we can also carry out project work for clients to support their services on our Network, for which charges may apply.

What Support is available?

Client Services is responsible for service set up and routing, general service enquiries, reporting, and provision of service extras. They manage day-to-day support as a team, and work to needs-based response time KPIs outlined in our Client Services Charter to ensure the smooth running of services.

Team members can also make further enquiries within the company or with our providers on your behalf, and project manage more complex service development and contracted services. They may also work on multiple services with different people and teams within your organisation, reporting to your nominated personnel.

We consider Support to be an important aspect of service quality assurance, so it is delivered with direct oversight by a member of our Senior Management Team.

What is the Pricing and Cost?

Services start from as little as $30.00 per month (ex GST) with our budget division at www.reception.net.au.

Well Done International contact centre services are generally more complex and customisable. If you make an enquiry, we can quote on your service brief.

What about Accounts & Contracts?

Services are billed monthly and can run on a Month-to-Month basis as per our standard Terms of Trade. Payment by EFT, Visa or Mastercard is accepted.

We just require 30 days' notice to cancel a service; this gives us time to run end of month accounts and notify the teams providing your service.

We offer discounts for prompt payment or term commitments. Contracts may be required for complex services requiring specific deliverables.

Well Done is variously a Certified Supplier, Preferred Provider, or an Approved Contractor on some panel contracts covering all states and the Northern Territory. A member of the Sales team can advise on this as applicable.

How do you manage Privacy & Compliance?

Well Done is an Australian company with contact centres in 3 states and Senior Management working from each site. Call centre operations, client services support, and IT staff handling your services are employed in Australia. Data is stored in secure datacentres in Australia.

Our privacy compliance, quality management system, and risk management are configured across our operations to meet the requirements of our private and public sector corporate clients. Even if you are a small business client, these standards underpin your service delivery with us.

A member of the Sales team can assist with any questions about this that you may have.

answering-service-enquiry

 







Head Office:
1300 551 796
Sales:
1800 935 536
Support:
1300 047 885
International:
+61 3 9895 0000
ABN 26 138 486 478
Level 5, 520 Collins Street Melbourne Vic 3000
PO Box 5010 Nowra DC NSW 2541