Telephone answering services are used by many firms these days. Such call handling offerings enable companies to get on with their tasks without the disruption of having to deal with enquiries. At the same time, they ensure they will not lose business because customers could not get in touch with them.
However, telephone answering of this kind is not alone. A show that was staged last month in the West End named Bells are Ringing featured a different type of call handling.
A remake of Paul Foster’s 1950s musical, the show had a character whose job was to take calls for rich people in the capital of the United States.
Reviewing the show in the London Evening Standard, Fiona Mountford stated: “Susanswerphone is a telephone answering service for wealthy New Yorkers and manning the switchboard is sweet-natured busybody Ella Peterson (Anna-Jane Casey).
“She’s smitten anew each time she hears from client Jeff Moss (Gary Milner), a roaring boy playwright. Romantic confusions inevitably ensue.”
The presence of the character in the musical is testament to the length of time answering services have been around.
Indeed, they are an integral part of the whole telephone system.
While it is now possible to get automated call receivers, this is in many ways unsatisfactory compared with using a real person to take messages.
This is particularly the case in business because consumers can be put off if they are not able to speak to another human being on the other end of the line.
For this reason, many organisations make use of professional call handlers to deal with customer enquiries and to ensure that no potential leads are lost.
After all, efforts such as this can make the difference between the success and failure of a company, particularly in the hard times being felt across many firms in the UK and elsewhere at present.