Outstanding Service Brings National Award

Outstanding Service Brings National Award

MedCom Professional Services, Inc. Wins CAM-X Award of Excellence

TOP TEN

MedCom Professional Services, Inc. of Levittown, PA has been honoured with the exclusive 2011 Award of Excellence for the fourth consecutive year. The Award is presented annually by the Canadian Call Management Association (CAM-X), the industry’s Trade Association for providers of call centre services including telephone answering and message delivery. MedCom Professional Services, Inc. was presented with the Award recently at the CAM-X 47^th Annual Convention and Trade Show held at the Hyatt Regency, Montreal, QC.

Independent judges are contracted by CAM-X to evaluate message services throughout North America over a six-month period. The criteria for scoring include courtesy, response time, accuracy and overall service to their clients. If the company scores 80% or better in ALL categories, they are presented with the coveted Award of Excellence. The program is now in its 22nd year.

“Every business needs an answering service” says CAM-X president Tom Sheridan. “Participation in the CAM-X Award of Excellence program helps make for a great first impression for all callers, even when contact is made after regular business hours. A live agent simply provides a better customer service experience than automated systems or callers having to wait until the office reopens for business. The CAM-X Awards of Excellence program raises the bar for the best customer service experience possible. We congratulate MedCom Professional Services, Inc. for their achievements.”

Founded in 1964, CAM-X began as a national trade Association representing live answering services. The Canadian Call Management Association now encompasses companies across North America offering specialized and enhanced operator based services including: call centres, contact centres, inbound telemarketing (order entry), paging, voice messaging, emergency dispatch, fax, and Internet-based services, among others. Please visit www.camx.ca for more information.

Now a four-time winner, MedCom Professional Services, Inc. earned the Silver Plus Award for four consecutive years. CAM-X extends its congratulations to the staff of MedCom Professional Services, Inc. on their proven TOP TEN quality service to their customers.

Win one FREE MONTH of Service!

Do you have something nice to say about MedCom? Has MedCom helped you grow your business?

Send us a short written testimonial and be entered to win a FREE MONTH OF SERVICE!

Are you willing to let our staff come to your location and record a video testimonial? Submit a video testimonial and you will get a second chance for a FREE MONTH OF SERVICE!

Enter by August 31st for your chance to win!

Click here to begin

Dr. Snyder discusses his experiences with MedCom

Dr. Snyder, a customer of MedCom for 24 years, discusses his wonderful experiences he has had over the many years. We are very happy to have built such strong relationships with our customers over the years!

"I think having MedCom as my answering service has made things smooth, and it has been one less thing to worry about, one less headache in the day to day running of my practice."

"They're always at the top of their game."

Has T-Mobile Customer Service Taken A Turn For The Worse?

After T-Mobile’s loss of the JD Power Customer Care award and a continuously growing stream of emails regarding unusually long wait times we begin to wonder just what exactly is going on with T-Mobile’s award winning customer service department. Well someone’s ears were ringing as two sources answered our question with a confidential look at what could be to blame. We’ve received two pieces of information that give us at least some form of an answer as to why T-Mobile’s customer service seems to have dropped from the top spot.

The first is related to the above image as T-Mobile has removed the ability to bypass the automated calling systempass Go and collect $200 instead requiring the customer to input a phone number to properly route the person to the correct place. T-Mobile says it’s taking this step in order to properly route customers and better answer of questions. I say its just another step in ensuring longer wait times by placing customers into a longer queue.

The second is a little more detailed and something we have to be a little more selective on our word choices as we were asked only to post certain things. The short version of the story is that in the past 12 months T-Mobile call centers have seen, in some cases a drastic reduction in staffing, outsourcing and as of late a drop in morale as almost every center believes they are closing when the AT&T deal finalizes. While call volume remains steady, reductions in staffing have lead to very high hold times and a whole lot of customer unhappiness. Our inbox speaks to that. Some call centers have seen reductions in staffing by the hundreds since early this year with some centers looking to further cut staffing as 2011 continues. In fact, some employees responsible for training new employees in the United States call centers are now being sent overseas to handle increases in staffing abroad.

So is T-Mobile looking to downsize ahead of the merger or are they looking to cut costs with outsourced service centers? Either way there is a clear indication that something is going on and there is something behind the recent spat of disappointed loyal T-Mobile customer complaints about lengthy hold times. We’ve begun to really hear a large number of complaints from our readers about call wait times including one reader, Anthony who has tried over the last 5 days just to get someone on the phone and has waited at least 45 minutes each time being unable to do so. Anthony has called from his T-Mobile phone and a desk phone without including his own number.

We’ve been unable to confirm all of the specifics contained within our ninja info but we have no reason to suspect it is incorrect based on the information we are hearing from everyday T-Mobile subscribers who are finding more and more calls being handled by overseas agents. For the moment we are growing increasingly concerned about the direction T-Mobile is headed as we begin the countdown to the AT&T takeover decision. Slowly but surely it looks like the T-Mobile we know and love is becoming the AT&T Death Star, even if the deal doesn’t go through we wonder what a post AT&T takeover talk T-Mobile would look like.

Via: http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/has-t-mobile-customer-service-taken-a-turn-for-the-worse/

Allgood Appraisal Group

Rich Allgood of Allgood Appraisal Group visited MedCom at our office to say thanks for all the great service we have provide him and his company.

"I have been a customer of MedCom's since 1994. They have always given me excellent service."

"The best part is their professionalism. It makes me look more professional."

Blackwell Memorial Home discusses their long relationship with MedCom

Betty Davis from Blackwell Memorial Home, a 10 year customer of MedCom, sits down to talk about some of her wonderful experiences with MedCom. Check out the video below.

"My clients they were very happy with the answering service and the quickness of their reply and getting in touch with me."

"I think they are very friendly and very willing to do anything I ask them to do, sometimes over and above what their requirements are."

Their professional services have been a great help to me."

Harris Comfort speaks to the Quality of MedCom's Service

Check out the video of Harris Comfort speaking to how MedCom has helped their business grow by providing excellent service over many years.

"We've been in business for over 50 years using at least other answering services before MedCom. They're the ones that have been the best of them."

"The experience has been very good, and I can't even remember a customer complaint."

Outstanding Service Earns National Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Charlene Glorieux

Monday, June 20, 2011 (866) 896-2874

Outstanding Service Earns National Award

MedCom Professional Services Inc. wins ATSI Award of Excellence

MedCom Professional Services Inc. of Levittown, PA has been honored with the exclusive ATSI 2011 Award of Excellence for the fourteenth consecutive year. This award is presented annually by the Association of TeleServices International (ATSI), the industry’s trade association for providers of telecommunications and call centre services including telephone answering and message delivery across North America and the UK. MedCom Professional Services Inc. was presented with the award at ATSI’s 2011 Annual Convention held at the Grand Hyatt, San Antonio, TX.

Independent judges are contracted by ATSI to evaluate message services over a six month period. The criteria for scoring include: courtesy, response time, accuracy and overall service to their clients. If the company scores 80% or better in ALL categories, they are presented with the coveted ATSI Award of Excellence. The program is now in its 15th year.

“ATSI prides itself in agent training through many mediums. The AWARD OF EXCELLENCE is one of the most rewarding. This “secret caller” program is an intense program extending throughout the year with test calls being made to registered participants and handled by random agents’, says ATSI President Michael Fultz. ‘I think there has always been a misconception of a company winning THE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE; however, member companies QUALIFY for this prestigious award. If a company qualifies for the AWARD OF EXCELLENCE they have set the bar for quality in the Telephone Answering Service Industry.”

Now a fourteen-time winner, MedCom Professional Services Inc. earned the Diamond Plus Award for fourteen consecutive years. ATSI extends its congratulations to the staff of MedCom Professional Services Inc. on their proven quality service to their customers.

About ATSI

The Association of TeleServices International was founded in 1942 as a national trade association representing live answering services. ATSI now encompasses companies across North America and the UK offering specialized and enhanced operator based services including: call centers, contact centers, inbound telemarketing (order entry), paging, voice messaging, emergency dispatch, fax, and internet services among others.

Coming soon: Call centers that don't suck

Just about every consumer who has dealt with a call center has faced the frustration of navigating through an unending sea of menu options or waiting eons to talk to a human being only to wind up with the least helpful employee.

Those annoyances and inefficiencies wear away at customers' satisfaction with the company they're dealing with, and that can ultimately cut into the company's bottom line.

But all is not lost. Real help may be on the way.

A new service developed by IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) and specialty insurance provider Assurant Solutions (AIZ, Fortune 500) plays matchmaker between customers and call center reps. IBM's service, called the Real-time Analytics Matching Platform (RAMP), connects customers with the call center employee best qualified to serve their individual needs.

Currently, most call centers only match an agent's availability and product mix expertise with the customer's particular product, making it an inexact science, to say the least.

"It's a little bit of a crap shoot regarding who you're going to talk to when you call a call center," said Toby Cook, analytics practice leader at IBM Global Business Services. "We combined our expertise in contact centers with our analytics to take it to another level. It's like speed dating for contact centers."

How it works
When a call comes in, RAMP instantly pulls up data about the customer, including past purchases and previous calls. The system then cross-analyzes that data with the skills of each call center agent.

Finally, RAMP uses its so-called "matching engine" to connect the customer with the best-suited agent within an acceptable amount of time.

For example, if a customer were to dial into a wireless company's call center, RAMP would be able to determine what phone the customer has, how much he or she uses it, what features the customer uses, and other identifying factors like the customer's age. The service would process all that information and match up the customer with a representative who has had past success with others who fit that criteria.

Traditional call centers might treat all customers who own the same BlackBerry models the same, but that can fall short when it comes to providing the best help. One BlackBerry user might be a global business traveler, while another user might be on a family plan and like to send a lot of text messages.

IBM's technology daily measures call center reps' success with a number of factors, including the number of customers they convince to stay with the company. RAMP also determines long-term success: some customers may be convinced to stay with the company after speaking to a rep, but then call back later to cancel.

All of RAMP's analytics are done in a matter of seconds. And since the system matches the analytics with data about customers' acceptable wait-time thresholds, IBM says the time customers spend on hold has either stayed the same or, in some cases, improved.
A success story

Though RAMP only became commercially available in the past few weeks, it has been through about six years of testing.

In 2004, Assurant Solutions took note of its call center issues and developed the analytics-based routing technology that underpins RAMP.

"We took data that has been there for a long time, but hasn't been exploited,' said Cameron Hurst, director of Assurant Solutions. "There haven't been a lot of new ideas in call centers in a long time, but we think this is a new angle on an old business."

Though IBM's version of the system is enhanced and portable, Assurant's more rudimentary system still had a drastic impact on the company's sales figures.

The help desk
Assurant determined that matching customers with the best-suited call center agents for their needs not only improved customer satisfaction, but it also boosted the company's sales. After the first year of using its new technology, Assurant's revenue from its call center rose 29%, and sales through customer retention grew 37%.

The system improved Assurant's call-center attrition rate too. As the system matched up call center reps with situations they would succeed in, agent morale improved. Like at many call centers, Assurant's call center reps are paid on commission.

"The more customers they save and the more they sell, the more money they make," said Hurst. "The system has a knack of delivering the right customer to the right rep, giving the reps the highest opportunity for success. They love it, and it has resonated very, very well with our customers."

For the original article, please click here.

Folks losing homes dial 1-800; no one answers

• Many homeowners facing foreclosure say getting through to banks is nightmare.
• "After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady."
• Lenders say they're overwhelmed by the amount of calls, doing all they can.
• Lawyer: "In the meantime, lenders are continuing to move forward with foreclosure."

The entire ordeal has been draining, especially trying to reach somebody at the bank. "You call them. After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady. [Then] they send you to a Web site after you've been on the phone for an hour." Banks and lenders say that they have been overwhelmed with calls and that they're doing all they can to help ease the situation for Americans in distress.

Megan Cavallari waits on hold for more than an hour with her bank as she tries to save her home from foreclosure. Then she gets the "automated lady" -- again. It's happening to Americans time and again, with some put on hold for 2 ½ hours. "The waiting time is ridiculous," one attorney said. "They called 800 numbers that went into a black hole."

Read More

Escape Voicemail Jail and Long hold Times

Everyone has experienced calling a major corporation and put through their seemingly never-ending voicemail prompt system. Once you finally do reach a human operator, you’re most likely in the wrong department anyway. Then, you get placed back on hold to wait in line for the next available agent.

This list helps solve the frustrating process of reaching a human operator. It doesn’t eliminate all of the button pressing, but it will guide you to the fastest route to a human operator. The sooner you reach an actual human operator instead of prerecorded greetings, the more likely you will be satisfied with the results of your call. Waiting on hold for what seems like an endless timeframe (five minutes can seems like a half hour), can really hurt the overall customer service experience.

This list provides at least 740 different major companies with instructions on how to reach a human operator. I tried a few of the numbers myself for companies that I normally call and have a good feel for their average hold times. The time from dial to speaking with the first human operator from the “gethuman list” compared to the usual button pressing was vastly quicker, noticeable after only a few calls.

For the corporations that are listed, the phone numbers to dial along with the instructions to follow once you are connected are listed in their respective columns. There is also a column for consumer rating: a rating for each company’s phone support system. It also provides you the option to leave feedback on any of the companies and your experiences with them (1 through 5 rating plus the option of written comments).

Save yourself some time the next time you need to dial any major company and check this list first.

www.gethuman.com

The End of Human Help in Stores?

Imagine standing in a retail store desperately looking for help from someone, anyone, and being directed to … a computer screen.“No one here can help you," a clerk might say. "But someone 1,500 miles away probably can."This just might be the future of customer service. Two companies, with products named Live Agent and Live Support, hope that consumers who today wander aimlessly through store aisles looking for help would be happy to use video-conference kiosks instead.

read more | digg story

Outstanding Service Earns National Award

MedCom Professional Services, Inc. Wins ATSI Award of Excellence – Top Ten Score. MedCom Professional Services, Inc. of Levittown, PA has been honored with the exclusive 2008 ATSI Award of Excellence for the eleventh consecutive year. The award is presented annually by the Association of TeleServices International (ATSI), the industry’s trade association for providers of telecommunications and call centre services including telephone answering and message delivery. MedCom Professional Services, Inc. was presented with the award at ATSI’s 2008 Annual Convention held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in St. Louis, MO.

After six months of intensive testing, an independent panel of judges scored call handling skills such as courtesy, response time, accuracy and overall service to their clients, the cornerstones of the call management industry. If a company scored better than 80% or better in ALL categories, they are presented with the coveted Award of Excellence. MedCom earned the score of 97.1%.

“The Award of Excellence is a ‘mystery shopper’ program that provides independent testing for quality assurance in customer service levels,” says ATSI President Allan Fromm. “We congratulate MedCom Professional Services, Inc. for their TOP TEN achievements.” In 2008, there were nearly 140 competing answering services enrolled in the program.

Now an eleven-time winner, MedCom Professional Services, Inc. earned the Diamond Award for eleven consecutive years.

ATSI extends its congratulations to the staff of MedCom Professional Services, Inc. on their proven quality service to their customers.

About ATSI
The Association of TeleServices International was founded in 1942 as a national trade association representing live answering services. ATSI now encompasses companies across the United States offering specialized and enhanced operator based services including: call centers, contact centers, inbound telemarketing (order entry), paging, voice messaging, emergency dispatch, fax, and internet services among others.

Deposit Checks from Work and Home

Today’s banking world is always growing and attempting to provide the best features available. However, more and more of these services are moving out of the physical bank location and towards the age of online banking. Most business and many regular customers have been paying bills automatically online for a few years now. The most recent feature starting to be offered by banks is depositing checks from your business location or home. This would eliminate the need to drive to the bank and wait in any lines.

“Online banking service provider CheckFree Corp. is rolling out technology that could mean consumers will no longer have to go to a bank branch to deposit checks. Called Remote Deposit Capture, the technology has been around for years and lets people scan checks through their home computers and deposit them electronically. But it has been used mainly for businesses. Customers want to be able to deposit checks without having to go to banks, said Rod Springhetti, CheckFree's vice president of global strategic marketing, and banks want to be able to offer that. ‘I think the ability to remotely capture a check will become part of the standard features and functions of online banking,’ Springhetti said. CheckFree said the service is available starting this week for any consumers who bank online, as long as their banks offer it.”

To read more of this article, please click here.

Is the Customer Always Right?

The old adage “the customer is always right” has been implemented into many business environments since the early 1900’s. The phrase implies that no matter what your customers say, demand, or even behave is tolerable by your company’s standards. The underlying question this ideology presents is by putting the customer first does that lead to better customer service or is it even good for business? The following are five examples of why the customer is not always right and in some cases the customer is even wrong.

Everyone does not know what is best for your company. People innately look out for their own best interests. This mentality leads them to believe that you should do whatever it is they want you to do. Companies that cave into each and every customer’s demand eventually find themselves stressed at keeping the customer happy. The more you give a customer; the more they feel they can get from you. Altering customary business practices for certain clients provides an unfair advantage to those customers that are the most demanding and abusive. Some customers you will never be able to satisfy. The best way to succeed at providing the best customer service is to keep your nice clients happy and invite the difficult and abusive clients to succeed elsewhere.

Walking away from bad deals is much harder for some companies to accomplish. More customers are not always better for business. Meeting each customer’s request can place a significant burden on your financial budget. Taking on a very large client may lead you to have to expand infrastructure, inventory, and even hire additional employees. If that customer was ever to not require your services and leave, you are stuck with the anticipated costs of servicing the client. Although turning down future revenue may be difficult, companies often don’t realize the hidden costs of acquiring that revenue. Walking away from bad deals is not always a financial decision. Some clients just cause too much disruption to your current service levels. Taking on one client can easily cause a decrease to the service levels provided to your current customer base. What you may think is a positive expansion, could lead to loyal long term customers to leave due to decreased overall customer service to the smaller clients.

A company that always sides with the customer tends to deal with unhappy employees. Employees are working for you everyday forming a bond with the company, while customers may come and go as they please. Creating a business environment where employees always feel subordinate to the customer leads to poor attitude where employees don’t care about the job. Employees that don’t feel valued by their company or respected by the customers have no reason to provide quality customer service. Without employees that care and have a positive attitude about their job, your company will eventually lose your customer base. Not that all employees can provide excellent customer service, but explaining poor service by saying the customer is always right is counter-productive and hides the true problem at hand. Hiding bad service by telling customers they are right doesn’t solve future complaints. Respect and support your employees and in turn they will respect and satisfy your customers. If you can fire bad employees, you can “fire” bad customers as well. Some customers just don’t fit your business model. For instance, companies that specialize in a certain industry may not wish to venture outside of that market. Whereas a company that services a general client base may not be able to successfully handle all the demands of a specialized client. Maybe refer the clients you can not handle or wish not to take to a friendly competitor. You never know they may respond by referring a client they don’t want that could be beneficial to your business. Each company needs to find its preferred level of diversification. You don’t want to service just one client in case they no longer require service; on the other hand, servicing too many different types of clients create the possibly of mistakes and not fully understanding those clients’ needs.

The ideology “the customer is always right” generally leads to bad customer service. Having employees know that the customer is always right develops the attitude of providing a fake quality of service to satisfy customers. Putting your employees first lets them know you will support them when they encounter difficult clients. Finally, it is important to note that you can’t satisfy all customers. Sometimes it is best to just walk away from a client and keep the bad clients from affecting other loyal customers.

Every Business Needs an Answering Service

Here Are Ten Good Reasons Why:

1. Time: We save customers time by answering their telephone calls on their behalf every hour of the day, by taking clear messages and relaying them in a timely manner.
2. Money: We save clients time and money. We are skilled at taking messages and specific information and routing telephone calls efficiently. For most businesses we answer their phones over 500 hours each month. On a cost per hour basis, we offer excellent value.
3. Differentiation: Simply put, using our service enables you to distinguish your business from your competitors. Every time we represent you and assist you in fulfilling your customers’ needs, we make our clients look good.
4. Cost Effectiveness: After hours, we provide quality customer service for far less than the cost of covering your telephone lines yourself.
5. Ubiquity: The telephone is the most widely used means of communication in our society. We provide telephone and communications solutions to our customers 24/7.
6. Human Element: We provide callers with greater satisfaction simply because they reach a real person. MedCom provides our clients with a dedicated staff of professionally trained and certified agents, dispatchers, and supervisors.
7. Reliability: Our equipment is reliable and has redundant features so that calls get completed. Our goal is 99.99% run time. Our staff is tested every month in our call monitoring program for quality assurance. These help increase confidence in your company and service too.
8. Expertise: We handle so many different kinds of calls that in many cases we can help streamline the information you may need and help deliver it to you effectively.
9. Technology: MedCom is equipped with some of the most advanced and user-friendly messaging technology available. We can custom tailor messaging solutions for specialized needs and we can create and or access data bases to help your customers.
10. Customer Service: Every business sooner or later needs help serving customer needs, especially during lunch periods, holidays, weekends, during staff meetings, and after hours.

Our First Post!

Welcome to MedCom Professional Services, Inc. Blog. We hope that you frequently visit this blog to stay up to date on current events with our company, staff, technology and customer service. We encourage you to post comments and feedback. This is an opportunity for you to keep in touch with us, share your thoughts and experiences, and maybe even learn something new every now and then.

About MedCom.
MedCom, located in Levittown, PA, began its 24/7 answering service with a handful of clients in 1987, many of which are still with us today. MedCom has grown into a nationwide answering service, handling clients in the medical, professional and commercial industries. From its inception, MedCom's commitment has been to provide the highest quality services to our client base. We have built our reputation and our business by growing in a controlled and steady manner. We offer our clients continued improvements in systems and technology and we maintain the highest standards of professional excellence. MedCom is fully committed to our staff of 30 employees. In an industry that traditionally compensates its staff with low wages, offers no benefits and experiences 50% employee turnover, MedCom stands out in employee compensation and loyalty. We offer our CSRs a living wage, comprehensive health benefits and profit sharing. Additionally, we provide significant bonus incentives to staff and managers alike. Motivated employees who have a personal stake and who care about their job will always outperform the competition. As a result of MedCom's management team and loyal staff's effort to provide the highest quality service, our company has been awarded the ATSI Award of Excellence for 10 consecutive years. In 2007, MedCom received the award for the top score as the nation's best answering service.







Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog. We look forward to this new way to communicate to our clients, staff and all other visitors to this forum. Again, we encourage everyone to respond with your comments and experiences. For more information about MedCom, please visit our website at www.medcom.us.