Aug 16, 2012
Your funeral home’s phone is vital to making a positive first impression and securing new business. Too often, calls from telemarketers and recorded solicitations tie up phone lines, waste time and prevent critical calls from getting through. To help resolve this issue, ASD created “Solicitor Shield™”, a powerful, one-of-a-kind tool that provides you with added control over your calls and the ability to block unwanted callers.
On a recent June morning, phone lines throughout the country were flooded with a barrage of incoming calls, all tracing back to three toll free numbers. In a single minute, hundreds of lines were tied up by recorded solicitations. These “spam” calls would have been a nightmare for most call centers, but for the clients and employees of ASD, it was no different from any other day thanks to our company’s protective “Solicitor Shield™” feature. “Solicitor Shield™” effectively blocked over 1,000 spam calls from customer accounts on that Monday at 9:07 a.m., a time when many directors still have their lines forwarded as they catch up on work accumulated over the weekend.
We realize that the potential value of even one missed call can be substantial for your funeral home. Assisting callers without delay protects your reputation for excellence and lets families know they are a high priority every time they call. “Solicitor Shield™™” ensures that callers are never placed on hold. Currently, ASD answers 90 percent of all calls by the first ring and 98 percent by the fourth ring. This powerful spam-blocker helps us to forecast our call volume in advance and schedule accordingly, allowing ASD’s Call Specialist to answer calls at a faster rate than at other call centers.
In addition to blocking dial storms from spam callers, you can also select specific numbers that you would like ASD to block from tying up your funeral home’s phone line. Recently, ASD attended the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association Convention and spoke with funeral professionals from across the state about which ASD features and tools they found to be most helpful. Many directors spoke about the company’s “Solicitor Shield™”. Funeral Director Bill Rigby from Rigby Funeral Home stopped by ASD’s booth just to comment on how convenient it was to be able to enter a phone number on ASD’s website to block future calls.
“Funeral Directors rely on ASD to promptly and compassionately answer their phones when they cannot. “Solicitor Shield™” helps make that possible,” says ASD Vice President, Kevin Czachor. “Our clients also save money because they are not charged for calls from telemarketers. This is just one of the many details that sets ASD apart from the other thousand answering services in business today.”
You can see the benefits of “Solicitor Shield™” by logging onto myASD.com or listening to a message in your voice mail. For every call taken, ASD’s RingTracker™ tool displays the number of times the phone rang before it was answered by ASD. Our clients appreciate this level of transparency and the peace of mind knowing that just about every call is answered within the first two rings.
While other answering services make excuses for their long hold times, ASD has made provisions to ensure that calls are answered and dispatched promptly. “Solicitor Shield™” protects your callers from being placed on hold due to unpredictable high call volumes caused by marketing ploys. By closely monitoring our call volumes and creating defenses against dial storms from spam callers, ASD remains the number one choice for funeral homes that expect the highest quality of service.
To learn more about our Solicitor Shield™ feature, leave a comment and an ASD representative will follow up with you shortly or call 800-868-9950 for more information.
About The Author
Jess Farren (Fowler)
Jess Farren (Fowler) is a Public Relations Specialist and Staff Writer who has been a part of the ASD team since 2003. Jess manages ASD’s company blog and has been published in several funeral trade magazines. She has written articles on a variety of subjects including communication, business planning, technology, marketing and funeral trends. You can contact Jess directly at Jess@myASD.com
