We’ve moved but not far

Hello! We’ve moved from our wordpress.com [free] site to wordpres’s premium site. The new site has more flexibility, which is what we are looking for. Over the next several days we will be migrating our posts from here to the new site. Bynes Transcript and Typing Services’ site is up now, however we are still adding content. Right now, you are able to upload files to be transcribed and our helpdesk portal is available.

Other News

• March 7 2014 is our 9th year Anniversary. We will be offering superb discounts on that day only!
• Our help desk has been upgraded.
• We have a new toll free number with more features
• Product packages will be available
• New services plans will be available

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services has been in business since 2005. We have consistently maintained our presence online and in our community. It is our vision to help other business reach their full potential.

We specialize in

• General transcription
• Editing existing transcriptions
• Proofing and editing
• Contact management
• Customer support
• Invoice and Billing
• Data Entry/Wordpressing

Do you have a project that requires a little bit of everything? Contact us and will be in touch.

Frann Bynes

TeamBynes on Twitter

We are elevating our customer service support by letting you use Twitter to address your concerns and questions with us. Just tweet us at @bynescustsvc and our support team will address your issues in no time.

The reason why we have created this account is that we want to give you flexibility and ease when you contact us. We don’t want to limit you in your means of contacting us. This makes us more efficient in addressing your concerns. With this Twitter Customer Service Support, we provide you with an around-the-clock support so that you won’t have a hard time talking to us about whatever it is that you need to talk about.

We hope that you like this new feature that we have created just for you!

Do you have customer related issues or a Sales inquiry and need to speak with someone now? Complete the form below and we will be in touch! 

We need a new strategy!

There are many problems of varying manners and degrees that every kind of business faces. There are no exceptions to these and all are prone at one time or another. The transcription industry is no exception to this as well and one of the problems that a transcription company faces is dealing with difficult clients. Running away from this or ignoring this kind of problem will not make it disappear or fade. Being involved in a transcription company helps us understand this type of problem so that’s why in this post, we’re going to show you how you can deal with this effectively.

Listen

It may sound as a cliché in your work (it’s a transcription company after all), but this kind of listening is a different one. Aside from listening to the recordings that your clients want you to transcribe, it’s also important to listen to the clients themselves. If you receive a call from an agitated client, don’t just mute, interrupt, or take the receiver off from your ear. Instead, listen to them despite of all the shouting or screaming (if they are indeed shouting or screaming).

Find out why they’re agitated or angry. Give them some time to talk discuss the issues at hand before you respond. As you listen, make sure that you take notes of what the client is saying so that you will not miss anything. Also, always empathize with the client by letting them know you understand how they feel and that you are there to help them come to a resolve quickly and effectively.

Avoid Arguments

This goes hand in hand with empathic listening. At all costs, avoid starting arguments with the clients. This will not only leave you with a bad impression from the client, but it may also cost you clients as well. Remain calm and collected when talking to an agitated client either in person or by phone and email. It may be difficult to do this, but once you’ve made a conscious effort to do this and once you’ve realized that the complaint is not about attacking you personally, then doing this will not be as difficult as it sounds.

Always assure the customer that you understand how they feels and mean it. Let it show through your responses. Another thing that you should take into consideration is to avoid making moral statements or judgments. You’re not there to judge the other person, but rather, you are there to give your support and empathy to someone who feels that they’re being wronged by your organization.

Identify the Problem and Articulate It Back to the Client

Once the client is done venting out their frustrations, you then need to identify the problem through the notes you’ve taken while listening and through your memory. If you still can’t identify it, ask probing questions kindly in such a way that will not seem annoying. Once you’ve identified the problem, don’t make assumptions. Rather, confirm it by articulating it back to your client.

This way, there will be no misunderstandings and you will be able to address the issue correctly. This will also gain trust as they will feel that you understand their concern. As trust is gained, perhaps the tone will change.

Express Apology and Act on the Client’s Complaint

Even if it’s not directly your fault, always apologize to the client and own it. Since you are part of the company that the client is complaining about, it is still your job to protect the company’s reputation and integrity by owning this responsibility. Once you’ve apologized to the client, assure them that you will act accordingly and that it will be done effectively and efficiently. Always tell the client the course of actions that you and the company will be taking in order to resolve the problem.

Your turn!

What tips do you have to share about dealing with difficult clients? Better yet, do you have a story you can share. Make sure you include your resolve.

Bots 3 points and looking like they’re going to score again.

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services is down by 2 points. What’s going on, you ask? And why are we keeping score?

Well, we’ve been having serious issues with our phone service through Grasshopper.com.

Over the past few months, we have been receiving an enormous amount of calls from ‘dead air’. And this ‘dead air’ has been leaving messages on our voice mail, which is causing our bill to rise. Wait! What?  That’s one point for the bots.

When we called, Grasshopper advised us to send them our list of these numbers so they can block them from calling our number. This worked for one day. That’s one point for us.

We emailed customer service, which prompted us to consider suspending our account to discourage these bots. And after a succession
of emails of them telling us our account has been suspended, the bots returned. That’s point two for the bots.

Each time we receive notification from our Grasshopper account that we have a message [and we know it’s the bots calling], we forward it to customer service. By now, we’re aggravated.

Emails were sent to Grasshopper support to let them know that the suspension is not working that these annoying calls are still getting through. We were advised to give it another day to see what happens. Three points for the bots!

And we are still waiting for resolve. Finally, we were told that last resort, we may have to get a new number. Wait! What?!

…Let the games continue [we’re seeking a new strategy]

Keep the communications coming via EMAIL or…

Visit our customer support portal to reach us

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services

For service request, complete form and we’ll get back with you.

However, this is not something that you should do based on personal issues alone. It should be approached objectively and all things must be weighed carefully before pulling the plug off your business relationship with another person. So in this post, we are highlighting on when to fire a client and why you should fire them.

Why Would You Fire a Client?

Not all clients are the same and there are always rotten ones among the good ones. And these rotten ones can spoil the rest of the bunch. No matter what you do, they always spoil the others and ruin your business. So after a few attempts of fixing what’s wrong, the last resort that you will have to do is to cut off your business relationship completely from that person.

This is especially true for clients who treat you and your employees badly. If a client is causing you and your employees unnecessary stress, then it may be time for you to fire that client rather than delivering inferior service to them. Not only does this cause you to deliver sub-par service, but it also tends to create collateral damage–how your employees view your leadership. 

If clients are treating them badly, they may decide to quit especially if it’s getting worse. Rather than have your employees quit on you, it is better to fire the client which has caused the employee to quit.

Firing a Client Can Both Be Hurtful and Helpful to Your Business

When a client keeps on pushing for a cheaper and faster service from you and you’ve already set pricing rates and turnaround times, it’s better to let your client find other companies rather than compromise the value and quality of the services you offer.

If your business is still new in the market, lowering your price for new customers may be a good idea as this can gain you more customers. However, if your client is constantly persuading you to lower your costs and compromise the value of your services, then it’s time to send them off to another company.

This can be quite hurtful for your business as it can damage your reputation with that client who may in turn advise others against your business. However, in the long run, this is very helpful as it keeps your business firm and afloat in a competitive market.

As long as you provide quality services which are rightly priced, then you would not have to worry about firing clients that could compromise the value of your business.

Deciding to fire a client all comes down how you’re going to conduct your business and the standards you’ve set up for it. While this may lose you some revenue in the short term, it will be greatly beneficial for your business in the long term.

Whats your philosophy for handling a difficult client?

Grasshopper, our internet phone provider informed us that some of their clients, including us are experiencing phone spam.

Phone spam – like email, you are bombarded with phone calls with no one on the other end. And if they make it to voice mail, they leave. 2 sec dead air message.

This event is costing us money. When reached, Grasshopper said this

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry to advise that it appears that your number is the target of robocalls, often called spam calls. In this case, multiple calls are being directed to your Grasshopper number each with a different caller ID which cannot be traced back to the caller. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to stop unrelated calls to your Grasshopper number unless the calls are coming from the same person at which point we can block the number. We have recently posted a blog entry on the topic:

http://grasshopper.com/blog/2013/03/spam-calls-how-why-theyre-happening/

The good news is, in most situations the caller ID spoofing only lasts about a day or two. In some cases, suspending your service for 24 hours will stop the spoofed calls.

Currently, is requesting a list of these numbers so they can block these bots. They also readjusted our account, which is nice.

IF YOU REACH OUR PHONE NUMBER AND IT GOES TO VOICE MAIL, LEAVE A MESSAGE AND A REP WILL BE IN TOUCH.

In order to serve our clients and cater to their needs effectively and efficiently, the internal systems we are using should also be effective and efficient. That is why we have made this big change with regards to our System. We chose Insightly as our new CRM system because of its many features that Zoho CRM doesn’t have. It has features such as Automatic Address Book, Fast Search of everything you’ve stored, Track Opportunities/Pipelines, Project Management, Tasks and Milestones and many more. These features help streamline, making the work and meeting deadlines possible. Working Point also has many features that Zoho Books Accounting doesn’t have, which will serve us better (and thus serve the clients better) in the long run.

Another reason why we chose these two new systems is because they are more affordable compared to the old ones. With these, we can allocate more for the needs of the client and less on our own internal systems. This is also a better decision since not only do these new systems offer more, they’re also more affordable. So we have more for less.

Despite of these internal system changes, we are still committed to giving our clients number one satisfaction with the services that we offer. That will never change in this ever constant world.

Have you made any upgrades? Have you even thought about internal upgrades for your company? We’d love to hear from you.

That is why we’ve got two new additions in our company–the administrative assistant and the clerical assistant. These two assistants work hand-in-hand and are quite important for the company to succeed. We consider these two assistants as assets in the company for the work that they do.

Administrative Assistant

The administrative assistant is like a backbone of a company. She provides office services by implementing administrative systems, procedures, and policies, and monitoring administrative projects. She has the administrative skill sets required to do the job efficiently and effectively and has all the access to the sensitive and confidential files of the company.

She provides administrative support to ensure that operations are maintained in an effective, up to date and accurate manner. Therefore she keeps the business running smoothly and seamlessly and makes sure that all deadlines are met.

Aside from directly assisting the manager, she is one of the main reasons for perfect maintenance of an organization or business. She generally provides support to specific departments in a business and is there to do administrative tasks when the manager is not available. She is vital to the company as she handles various administrative tasks to keep the business running.

Clerical Assistant

The clerical assistant on the other hand serves as an assistant to both the administrative assistant and the manager when they are unavailable. She especially covers up for the administrative assistant when she’s not available and does some administrative tasks as well.

She covers part of the marketing side of the business and is in charge of updating company blogs and social media websites to keep the business ahead from others. She establishes the online presence of the company by updating blogs such as Blogger and WordPress and social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

She is also in charge of other remaining tasks not included in the administrative side such as sending emails, creating flyer, and creating presentations. She is also important to the company as she fills in for the administrative assistant and the manager to keep the company moving forward.

Team members

• Ellen, administrative assistant
• Ruby, clerical assistant

Website http://www.bynestranscriptions.com

This is what Zendesk promises to bring to the table. With this new customer service support software, you’ll never get stressed out in meeting the demands and needs of your customer, you’ll be able to provide better tools for your customer support team so that they can better assist your customers, and you’ll be able to determine the satisfaction of your customers and the performance of your team!

Here are some of the features that Zendesk has to offer:

• Use beautifully simply support tools for better customer service
• Ask common questions with just one click (It’s that easy!)
• See the customer behind the ticket
• Work from anywhere (It’s that portable)
• Beautiful and useful analytics
• Offer support in multiple languages (Talk about a multiracial community)
• Focus on customer satisfaction (Customer is always number one on the list!)

As you can see on the features mentioned above, you’ll know that it’s easy and flexible. It’s easy to try out. You can buy for it directly from their website. It’s easy to set up and use.

So how can Zendesk be of use to you and your company?

Well, it works in three ways. It can be used by the Customer, the Agent, and the Manager.

For the Customer

In a transcription company setting, the customers or clients are always on the top of the list. We always give our best to give them what they need and when they need it. But sometimes, it cannot be avoided that they may have concerns and problems that need to be addressed promptly. Or maybe, they seek answers to questions that have been boggling in their minds.

Zendesk will answer that for you. Zendesk provides your customers with easy-to-use self-service options where they can find answers and solutions to concerns, questions, or problems that they may have while availing one of your services or products. Zendesk offers your customers a quick path to the answers they need with Knowledge Base and Community Features.

For the Agent

When you’re running a business, there are always the front-liners who are there to address the customers’ issues, concerns, and questions directly. With Zendesk, they’ll have an organized ticketing system that is built for speed. That way, they’ll be able to resolve your customers’ problems and concerns in no time. Zendesk will also simplify your support team’s workflow with Custom Automatic Actions, Meaningful Organization and Streamlined Systems for managing support content.

Also, Zendesk provides all the information that your support team needs in one place. They’ll have instant access to a Unified Customer Information when working with tickets, be able to search the Agent Knowledge Base and pull relevant data from other areas of your business. How convenient is that!

For the Manager

So how can the manager use Zendesk? As a manager, you will be able to measure your customers’ satisfaction and the performance of your support team by creating custom reports with data and insights for your business. You will have the following features:

• Support Team Performance

With over 20 pre-built reports, you’ll be able to measure agent metrics like first response and resolution times. You can even create your own custom report.

• Custom Reports

With Zendesk’s data visualization tools, you will get more out of your support stats. You can feature the most relevant data to your business with the custom reports.

• Customer Satisfaction

Your customers can provide you feedback with the automated customer satisfaction survey in just one click.

• Data Benchmarking

With Zendesk, a benchmark can be created for you and your peers. This will measure scale, efficiency and customer satisfaction about your business.

If you are still not convinced, check out their website and have a go with it. They have a 30-day trial period for you to try it and you get to try their Plus plan where you can get the best product overview.

Like any other companies, a great Transcription Company requires a strong backbone for their support team which offers great customer service to their clients and customers. With Zendesk, this will greatly improve your customer service support and thus, encourage more people to work with you as customer service is one of the points that customers consider when opting for a product or service.

For customer support, visit our client portal.

What applications are you using to facilitate complete customer care? Leave your comments in the section below.

Our website: Bynes Transcript and Typing Services

We are Success

Two weeks after our promotion ended, we are still getting orders! This is lovely, this is great. Because of the increased business, we’ve decided to run the promotion indefinitely. After reviewing our sales report, we noticed that there was not any particular class or industry that purchased our services. It was a mixture of sorts [creative directors, advertising agencies, students, radio, bloggers].

This information tells me that all types of industries are in need of services like ours. Before we make the official statement to continue to run our 8th Anniversary 15% off Promotion, we’d like to know if there are additional services or if you have additional information that would help us maximize this project.  We’d also like to thank all of our supporters. We couldn’t have done this without you.

Use the contact form box below..please allow 24-48 hours for feedback.