During difficult economic times, it is particularly important to seize every opportunity for service excellence and competitive advantage. Organisations spend large amounts on generating calls, yet too often neglect the critical area of ensuring calls are answered with speed and efficiency.

Organisations will often have a clear strategy regarding the handling of telephone calls within a formal call centre environment. This will cover, for example, the time (number of seconds or number of rings), within which every call should be answered.

However, calls that fall outside of a call centre environment can be just as important, or have an even greater impact on the organisation’s performance, yet are often not given the same focus.

An inbound call handling strategy should cover every call coming into the organisation to ensure all calls are handled promptly and professionally so as to attain high levels of customer service. It is recommended that the strategy also covers the use of any voice mail service to guard against excessive use and ensure messages are received as soon as possible.