Telephone order processing

[scottgull]

Does anyone have any ideas on companies that will process telephone orders for an established web site. I want to continue to do the packing and shipping but I need someone to answer the phones and take the orders.

 

Thanks

Scott Gulledge

[kitchenniche]

Does anyone have any ideas on companies that will process telephone orders for an established web site. I want to continue to do the packing and shipping but I need someone to answer the phones and take the orders.

 

Thanks

Scott Gulledge

[email protected]

 

I don't know if there are companies that do that but I wouldn't recommend something like this anyway. Let's say i call your company and want to know something about your products, I'd find it very annoying to speak to someone that does not know your products very well. Therefore, I probably wouldn't order.

[ozEworks]

Why would people phone in their orders?

 

Anyway I would look for companies that provide "reception" services. You know the ones that will answer your phone and act like you are a huge company and you are a VIP? They could probably handle this sort of thing provided as the above post indicates it is a very simple "take an order" process.

 

But how would they then give the details to you?

 

Would it not be better to install the Customer and Order add features and hire someone to answer your phone and enter orders into Admin?

 

Get a person who wants to work from home (try craigslist). Pay them per order. Install Admin Levels so they can only access this part of the site.

[Guest]

We added an "answering service" about 1 year ago. Sales grew by about 30%. I was reluctant at 1st and had the attitude that if they want to buy from us they could use our site. Well after 1 year our stats show that many customers still do not trust the internet, or they just feel better talking to a human. Whatever the case is, there was a percentage of sales we lost because we did not have a dedicated team answering the phone to take orders in a timely fashion. WE now get 3-4 "Phone Orders" a day including weekends and the service pays for itself every month and then some. It also makes your shop look much more professional if you advertise that phone orders can be placed 24 hours a day coupled with a toll-free #.

 

There are specialty answering services that specialize in e-commerce shops. It's much work to setup upfront. You have to provide them scripts on every aspect of your business so the trained operators can answer customer questions just like they were actual employee's of the company! Some of these answering services are better than others. Some provide nice features like 24 x 7 service like we use. Some will even process the customers credit cards if you want them to. All this for less than what it would cost to hire and pay someone minimum wage.

 

Google answering service and you will find hundreds of companies that provide this service.