Tagged with: creating community

Cyber Sleuth: Use Social Media to Create Connections with Your Clients!

By | 07.25.2012 |
Photo by timofeia

Photo by timofeia

Facebook, my dear Watson!

The pinnacle of Ruby service (and customer service in general) is making meaningful connections with clients, but actually getting to that point can be a little tricky. That’s where social media can help! In addition to listening for cues and asking questions, social media can help you get to know your clients and even WOW them!

Play detective! Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn…it’s enough to make your head spin. Not to mention that as of this writing, we have 1,406 Twitter followers and 1,332 Facebook “likes.” That’s a lot of folks to keep straight!

When a new client signs up, I do a quick search for their business on Facebook and Twitter and segment them with streams in Hootsuite. At a glance, I can see what our clients are talking about and what interests them, and depending on the info, we might reply via social media or add it to their account so that the rest of our virtual receptionist team can get to know them, too! 

Don’t just listen, jump into the fray! Even the term, “lurker,” seems dubious; a friendly conversation always has two sides! We try to share others’ helpful articles and add a bit of commentary whenever possible, and we always reply to folks who mention us on Twitter or post on our Facebook page. When our clients see that we’re just as real and friendly as we are over the phone, they keep coming back!

Know when to have an aside. When I post to the Ruby Facebook page or tweet from @callruby, most of the time, I’m speaking as Ruby (you know, the royal “we,” the editorial…). However, if I ever see anything that strikes a chord with me personally, it’s “Quick! To the notecard cabinet!” And of course, a little context never hurts (Saw your tweet the other day that your daughter was ill. I hope she’s feeling better!).

We’d love to connect with you, too! Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and strike up a conversation!

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Going Green with Ruby’s Alternative Transportation Program

By | 02.28.2012 |
Virtual receptionists Ellie, Tasia, and Kristin

Ellie (with the Ruby cruiser), Tasia, and Kristin

Our Core Values drive everything we do at Ruby Receptionists, including our benefits. With Creating Community in mind, we launched our Alternative Transportation Incentive to promote a healthier environment for our local community. The program encourages employees at our green virtual receptionist service to take public transportation, bicycle, carpool, or walk to work, and was one of the first benefits at Ruby!

We asked a couple of virtual receptionists about what they do to be eco-conscious and what alternative transportation method they use. Here’s what they had to say!

What’s your regular means of transportation to work and what do you enjoy most about using it?

Tasia: I always bike unless there is more than 2 inches of snow, in which case I’ll walk to Ruby (it’s really hard to break and steer in the snow). I like biking because it’s fast, I can sing and or talk to myself, and I get a guaranteed workout twice a day which means I get to have more tasty snacks!

Kristin: My main form of transportation is my bicycle. It’s great because it wakes me up for my 6:00am shift at Ruby. I think that I get through the day with less coffee because of it. I also enjoy the exercise; it’s just over 6 miles round-trip.

The Alternative Transportation Program encourages Rubys to be more eco-conscious; do you do anything else to go green?

Tasia: I compost, buy local organic produce, I’m vegetarian, bring my own containers to stores and restaurants, buy used whenever possible, up-cycle, recycle, and encourage others to do the same!

Kristin: I try to be as eco-conscious as I can, having been an Environmental Studies major at the University of Oregon. Mainly I recycle and compost, and my roommates and I are in the mist of planning our vegetable garden for the spring!

Living in Portland, it’s common to see bicyclists or a large amount of people waiting for the max or a bus to arrive. What do you think is the most effective alternative method of transportation in the big city and why?

Tasia: Biking and walking – pretty much everything I want is within a 5 mile radius, and this way I get where I’m going while getting plenty of exercise.

Kristin: I prefer my bike because I find that it’s usually the fastest. Although, I did use to take the Max [Lightrail] to commute to a job I had in Happy Valley (a city south of Portland), and I found it to be very efficient; it’s nice because you can just read the whole time.

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Ask a Virtual Receptionist! Topic: Making Someone’s Day

By | 01.20.2012 |
Virtual receptionist Ellie B.

Ellie B.

We talk a lot about Fostering Happiness at Ruby® (it is one of our Core Values after all!), and we give our virtual receptionist team strategies to make our clients’ and callers’ days brighter. However, each Ruby is unique and each has their favorite way to make connections. In today’s feature, I asked virtual receptionist Ellie B. how she spreads cheer over the phone:

What’s your favorite way to make someone’s day?

My favorite way to make someone’s day is very simple: I like to wish them a good day at the end of our call. Our clients are very busy people – that’s why we’re here! By wishing them a good day, I usually get a thank you and they wish me a good day as well, and that puts a smile on my face, too. I feel like it ensures our clients that we do care about their day, and it reminds them that we are here to help make it a good one, too!

One small gesture can be a real mood booster! Sincerity shines – even through miles of telephone wire — and wishing someone well or genuinely asking how they are may make their day and yours, too!

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Customer (DIS)Service: What’s Lacking and How to Get It Back

By | 01.17.2012 |

CNBC recently aired a special entitled “Customer (DIS)Service: A Maddening Look at the State of Customer Service” where they shined a spotlight on the customer service provided by outsourced call centers, waiters, retailers, recorded menu options, and a host of other industries. Not surprisingly, most of what they found left much to be desired. Man-on-the-street interviews showed an overwhelming frustration with regards to customer service, or as CNBC puts it, “customer disservice.” For all the advancements in technology — computers, databases chock-full of information, sophisticated phone systems — it seems that customer service has actually declined over the years. But why? And why is customer service so important for businesses, anyway?

To answer the first question, we think interviewee Shaun Belding, author and CEO of The Belding Group, put it best: “All the technology was designed to connect us to each other. And that’s what we did. But we lost the beauty of connecting with each other.” Since our interactions these days are often over the phone, it’s easy to become disassociated – they’re just a name and a disembodied voice, right? However, missing that opportunity to connect is missing an opportunity to make a person’s day better, maybe even your own, and certainly make a good impression for your business. You never know who that voice may be attached to: the next evangelist for your company, someone who’s having a rough day that you could cheer up, your neighbor?

In thinking about personal connections, it reminded me of a call I took when I first started at Ruby as a virtual receptionist. We take calls from businesses across North America, and this particular business happened to be on the East Coast. In the course of taking a message for the client, I learned that the caller was from my hometown of Huntington Beach, California, and not only that, he lived at the same intersection as my childhood home! What are the odds? We had a lovely chat about the area and the lively Main Street, and we both ended the call smiling. It could’ve been a very rudimentary call; I could’ve simply taken a message, and we could’ve gone our separate ways. But I wouldn’t have remembered it nearly three years later, and my caller wouldn’t have been nearly as happy.

When people make a personal connection or have an extraordinary experience with a business, they not only become loyal to that company, they’re going to want to talk about it. They’ll tell their friends, colleagues, and family about how someone went above and beyond for them or invested in them or just plain listened to them. Word of mouth – whether it’s positive or negative – can spread like wildfire.

Making meaningful connections with callers and clients isn’t something extra, a nicety; it’s something to cultivate, and it’s imperative to the success of our business. In fact, we put it at the very top of our Ruby Hierarchy of Service Pyramid. Making meaningful connections is at the crux of truly outstanding service, and as ING Direct CEO Peter Aceto said at the end of the CNBC special, “Customer service is the new marketing. It’s the only differentiator businesses have left.”

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Tips for Gathering Customer Feedback

By | 12.13.2011 |
Jason Lander - Founder & CEO of Hively

Jason Lander - Founder & CEO of Hively

Guest blogger Jason Lander is the Founder and CEO of Hively. Hively lets your customers give you real-time feedback with 1 click, at their convenience. Ruby® will soon be incorporating Hively’s interface into our Problem Solver & Happiness Makers’ email signatures to get real-time feedback on how we’re doing. We asked Jason for his advice on what other small businesses can do to get stellar feedback.

How many times a week do you get this email? “Will you please take a few minutes to fill out our survey?” My personal email inbox currently holds requests for survey feedback from more than 10 companies. Apple’s in there, a hotel, two retailers, a car company, etc.

The key to success for any business is to keep your customers happy. Yet, measuring customer happiness can be a challenge. For over a decade I’ve worked with various methods for measuring customer happiness including surveys, public support forums, phone calls, the Net Promoter Score, etc. Over time, I watched my customer engagement rates decrease dramatically and the feedback become less and less relevant.

They main issue I’ve discovered is that customer satisfaction surveys rarely provide you the data you need to improve your business. Surveys are time consuming to administer and time consuming for customers to complete. Furthermore, the data gathered isn’t actionable because it’s often aggregated and the responses come in too far after the touch point with the customer.

So what’s a company to do? Our suggestion? Ask the right question at the right time. Here are some tips for effectively gathering customer feedback.

The first tip – ask one question and one question only. It’s always tempting to ask more, but why ask more when one will do? Ask one question with a simple answer choice and allow your customers to leave additional details if they want.

Tip number two – ask specific questions about a person or a product, not a general “how do you like our company?” General questions are too vague and are better suited for things like the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Asking specific questions about how one of your employees did resolving an issue or how your new product performed, provide you with much better feedback.

Our third tip – ask the question at the right time. There are several touch points you have with your customers that offer excellent opportunities to ask for feedback. For example:

After a product demo or training. It’s always good to get feedback after a demo or training to make sure your audience understood the information presented.

After initial set up. Once a new customer is up and running with your product or service, it’s an excellent time to ask for feedback. Talking to a new customer here can help overcome any initial frustration that might naturally exist when getting started with something new.

After the first 30 days. After your customers have been using your product or service for 30 days they should be in full swing. This is a great time to get initial impressions. If there are any issues, you’ll be able to address them quickly without the risk of losing a new customer.

After any phone call. Any time you speak with a customer on the phone, especially if they’re asking a question or reporting an issue, it’s always a good idea to send them a follow up email. In this email, give them assurance you’ve understood them be summarizing your discussion and take this opportunity to ask for feedback.

After cancellation. Losing customers is not something anyone wants to talk about. But let’s be honest – it happens. When it does, don’t run from it. Instead, take it as another opportunity to improve by asking for some final feedback. Who knows, you might just win them back!

Our final tip – provide your customers with a way to provide you real time feedback at their convenience. If you’re just asking customers for feedback when it’s convenient for you you’re missing a lot of opportunities. Be sure the mechanism you’re providing delivers customer feedback to you in real time and that you follow up in a timely manner. This helps your customers know you take their issues seriously.

Asking the right question at the right time gains you invaluable insight into your customer happiness. You’ll learn things about your customers, products and services that have a major impact on your business as a whole. So start asking your customers for more feedback, at the right times and start improving your customer happiness.

Learn more about Hively at http://teamhively.com/. Readers of this blog also get a chance to try Hively free for 60 days with any subscription plan by entering the code ‘CALLRUBY‘ (without quotes) during the payment process.

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Ruby’s Virtual Receptionists Volunteer at the Oregon Food Bank!

By | 11.18.2011 |

One of the remarkable things about Ruby’s team of talented virtual receptionists that they all have in common is compassion for others. They commit each day to fostering happiness and making their callers’ days brighter, so when given the chance to brighten the days of our local community members, our team jumps on it!

Last night marked the fourth year that our virtual receptionist team has volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank. We had an amazing night working together in the food recovery center! The food recovery center part of the food bank that processes all of the food drive donations and packages them up to be sent out to food pantries around the state. Visiting the Food Bank each year is a really great opportunity for us to connect as a team, get our hands dirty, and lend a helping hand. Twenty of our remote receptionists and administrative employees worked with several other teams to pack a total of over EIGHT TONS of food! That is 12,360 meals that will help ease hunger in thousands of families.

Want to learn more about the Oregon Food Bank? Find out more, set up a time to volunteer, or discover other ways to give here. If you’re not in Oregon, Feeding America has a Food Bank Locator to find local ways to get involved!

Here are a few pictures of the Rubys volunteering up a storm:

Ruby gals Desi and Rachel R showing off some teamwork while building boxes!

 

Virtual receptionist Jennifer, Ashley, and Janel

Ashley, Jennifer, and Janel can make any task a fun one

 

"The Stephanies" - Stephanie C. & Stephanie S.

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3 Easy Ways to Welcome a New Employee

By | 11.08.2011 |
Welcome gift

A welcome gift can also set the stage for a great first day!

We’re all about great first impressions at Ruby®, and making every new member of our virtual receptionist team feel welcome on day one is especially important to us. If you work one-on-one with a new hire, you have a great opportunity to establish a connection from the get-go. But you don’t have to be a new employee’s trainer or manager to connect — in fact, it takes just a minute or two to make a positive impression. Here are three easy ways to welcome the latest addition to your office:

Say more than “Hello.” When you’re introduced to a new employee, don’t stop at “It’s nice to meet you!” Try asking a get-to-know-you question or two when you meet. Anything that sparks a bit of dialogue will do — it can be as simple as asking “How is your first day going?” or “What do you think of the office?” You may be having a busy morning, but take a moment to learn a little about your new teammate. A quick conversation will establish rapport and help the new employee remember your name.

Offer to help. Being the new kid on the block isn’t easy, but you can help put a new employee at ease by letting your teammate know you’re happy to lend a hand. You don’t have to offer anything grand to show you care. Here are some examples:

“If you have any trouble with the copy machine, I’d be happy to help you!”

“Let me know if you’re looking for good restaurants nearby for lunch!”

“If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to let me know!”

Check in. After you’ve met, make a follow-up visit to your new teammate. It’s as easy as swinging by your newbie’s desk to say hello and chat a bit. This is a great opportunity to offer help, if you haven’t had a chance yet. A quick conversation will mean a lot to your teammate, and ease new-hire jitters. You might just get a new friend out of the deal, to boot!

How do you and your teammates welcome new employees? Comment below with your suggestions!

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Monica Wofford Inspires Confidence at Ruby!

By | 10.14.2011 |

Last night, Ruby®‘s virtual receptionist team came together for our final staff meeting in 2011. In addition to eating Hot Lips pizza, Creating Community, and chatting with coworkers, we had a special treat! Monica Wofford, Master Trainer and CEO of Contagious Companies, Inc., came to speak to our team about confidence. Her accolades are tremendous: Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), Certified CORE MAP® Coach, college professor, author, a degree in Speech Communication, an MBA, President of the Central Florida National Speakers Association, just to name a few.

We have enjoyed working with Monica and getting to know her over the years, and we had a blast meeting her in person and hearing her speak. Answering phones for public speakers, attorneys, plumbers, and more, means that our virtual receptionists speak with a wide variety of people every day. We’re known for connecting with our callers and clients, so it was fun to get a refresher on what a difference confidence can make and learn even more strategies for building relationships.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Monica for coming out and inspiring our team! We’re energized and looking forward to spreading your “contagious” cheer!

Check out Contagious Companies and Monica’s book Contagious Leadership (which Ruby’s book club is reading next!) to learn more!

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Ruby Answers Phones at the Oregon Humane Society’s Telethon!

By | 10.11.2011 |
Ruby's virtual receptionists taking calls

There's our team, always answering with a smile!

Our team of virtual receptionists is great at cheerful, professional phone answering and many of us also have a soft spot for animals (as you might have noticed when we walked in the Doggie Dash benefit!), so we were delighted to be able to lend our skills to help the Oregon Humane Society with their annual telethon this year! On Sunday, eight of Ruby® Receptionists’ finest (and two honorary Ruby pooches, Ellie and Bernie) volunteered to take calls at the OHS phone bank.

This year, our phone answering skills helped the Oregon Humane Society take donations of over $328,000 — $8,000 over the goal! Those donations will help OHS provide financial support for rescuing abused and neglected animals, finding homes for abandoned pets, and preventing animal cruelty through education and advocacy. The telethon was also instrumental in inspiring over 70 adoptions at the shelter!

Rubys at OHS

Suzi, Eve, Katie, Stephanie C, Jewel, and I are proud to support OHS!

My dog, Ellie, approves of our volunteering!

My dog, Ellie, approves of our volunteering!

We were extremely proud to be involved and help this worthy cause! To learn more about the Humane Society, please visit their website!

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Meet Jennifer Sullivan, Ruby’s Newest Problem Solver & Happiness Maker!

By | 10.04.2011 |
Problem Solver & Happiness Maker Jennifer Sullivan

Nothing better than a lil' phone humor!

Our insightful Client Services department makes it a cinch for a variety of small and medium-sized businesses to use our friendly, professional virtual receptionist service. Each day, our Problem Solvers & Happiness Makers update our clients’ call handling instructions, help with call forwarding, and generally make sure everything’s working well. We’ve recently added another wonderful, charming team member, straight from our virtual receptionist ranks (in fact, every member of our Client Services team started at Ruby® as a virtual receptionist!).

If you’re a current or soon-to-be client, you may soon be speaking with the ever-cheerful Jennifer Sullivan! What better way to get to know Jennifer than to have her answer a few questions in her own words? Without further ado…

 

What appealed to you most about a position in Client Services?

I love the idea of being able to build relationships with our clients while simultaneously getting to solve support “puzzles,” (I love puzzles, Boggle, Wheel of Fortune…gotta keep the mind sharp!) As a virtual receptionist, it was always the highlight of my day when I got the opportunity to share a brief conversation with a client. Now, I get to speak with clients regularly, and I have even more opportunities to WOW them. I also get to spend the day thinking critically and finding solutions. It’s very rewarding!

What do you think makes Ruby’s Client Services department so special?

My coworkers! They truly embody the Ruby spirit. They are all professional, creative, and intelligent ladies who impress me, and our clients daily. I have great mentors.

You’ve traveled all over — you’re originally from Alaska and Hawaii, have lived in Cape Town, South Africa (studying sea urchins at their Government Research Aquarium), and have been SCUBA diving off Madagascar. What about Portland drew you here?

Portland is a unique metropolis. It has all the luxuries and excitement of a big city, with the personality and warmth of a smaller one. I like that you can drive a short distance (relatively short, I’m from Alaska) and be on the coast or in a desert or on a mountain! I wouldn’t be able to survive without a good balance of rural and urban life.

What are some of your favorite things to do when you’re not at Ruby?

I like to rollerblade, sing karaoke, eat/make/share fantastic meals, play dress-up, build forts, go backpacking, collect and create art, and pretend that I live underwater.

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