Answering Service Blog | American Inbound

Text messaging or SMS is a topic of nearly everyone’s dinner table. 

Answernet has written up a great article detailing the history of text messaging.  It all started with the pager.  Here are some protocols used over the years.

• Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol (TAP)
• SNPP (Simple Network Paging Protocol)
• WCTP (Wireless Communications Transfer Protocol)
• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - Email!)

I was not aware of the growing sms virus problem, but a google search revealed there have been many sms viruses over the years.

The good news is that Rising, a Chinese anti-virus software company, has released an anti-virus service for cell phones. So, if you’ve got sensitive data on your cell phone, maybe you should give it a try!

Nettel Holdings, Inc.’s (OTCBB: NTTL) has launched a new service for texters.  They allow you to send text messages to cell phones, home phones, email, and fax machines.  Even more shocking, you can set it up so that it automatically translates your messages in over 30 languages!

This all a little hard to believe, so here is the company’s demo.

Every cell phone has the ability to recieve emails.  However, many people are not aware of this.

It’s very simple to do. Let’s say the cell phone you want to email has the number of 1-555-555-5555, and their provider is Nextel. To send an email to this cell phone you would send an email to this address: 5555555555@messaging.nextel.com
They will receive your email as a regular text message!

Blog.realitors.org posted a nice table showing the hosts
that you would use for each provider.

So remember, it’s phonenumber@serviceprovider.host.

Happy emailing!

Deciding on an answering service can be a rough trial.  With Globalization and the rise of cheap, easy to get equipment, the number of answering services in the world is climbing. There are many tactics you can use to help determine which answering services are legitimate and which is right for you.

The first is the age of the company. How long have they been in the business?  Many new answering services are hurt by poor customer service. If it is an older company, then their customer service techniques are tried and true.  If they have been training employees for years and are still going strong, then they will surely be able to meet the needs of you and your clients.

Another important item to check on is if the answering service has any specialties. Today there are many nich specific answering services that deal only with one type of business. For instance: medical answering services, real estate answering services.  These are generally smaller companies that cannot handle large amounts of calls or varying types of calls. Most non-nich services also specialize, but train their operators to takes all kinds of calls. It is always good to ask and see. Especially if your business has needs that spread out over many areas.

Price is always a factor when you’re in the market. As with anything, you pay for what you get, but you must always keep your budget in mind. Price varies considerably with different companies so it is a good idea to shop around. Many services will allow you to pay by the month, rather than roping you into a year long contract. These are great because then it is possible for you to test them out.

Lastly, ask them for references. Any reputable answering service will have several clients who will be willing to provide testimonials. Make sure to pay special attention to references from people in the same line of work as you. For instance a plumber would not care at all how well someone’s operators can enter orders into a clothing website.

As always, use common sense and ask a lot questions. If you are expecting over 200 calls a night, it may not be a good idea to hire Nancy, who just set up a home answering service next door in her living room. If something seems fishy, ask questions in different ways, or go somewhere else. Answering services can be powerful tools if the business is a professional one.  I wish you the best of luck in finding the service that is right for you and your clients.

SMS text messaging is one of the hottest recent developments in answering service technology. Call center clients can use this much like a pager, receiving their urgent messages in a matter of seconds. If your call center cannot handle SMS messaging, I suggest you find one that can!

You should also refer them to this article:
Call centre technology checklist: SMS