Thursday 24 October 2013
preOccupied: Yahoo!...It’s about making choices to support your...
preOccupied: Yahoo!...It’s about making choices to support your...: By Tim Allen, Director, Workplace Strategy and Alex Andel, Head of Client Solutions, EMEA As most preOccupied readers know, a confidenti...
Friday 4 October 2013
Thursday 29 August 2013
10% Off your printing for all Hot Office Clients
Just another one of the many benefits of being a Hot Office Client - #HotOfficeFamily
Wednesday 14 August 2013
Outtakes from our recent Telephone Answering Service video with James Waterman - Hot Office Business Centres
Its finally here!
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Hot Office Business Centres are specialists in flexible serviced
office space and virtual services, delivering a broad range of services including
private office suites, campus offices & coworking space, virtual telephone answering,
business post address services and meeting & training rooms. The Hot Office
provides award winning services for over 3,000 growing and established businesses
across the UK including within its portfolio Tesco, BT, Energiser Batteries,
Tropicana, Voxeo, British Gas and Unilever.
Monday 12 August 2013
What are serviced offices?
The flexible option for taking on commercial space
A serviced office, sometimes known as a business centre, provides office space with shared facilities for a regular charge that covers all occupation costs.
You can rent an office suite within a business centre for an hour, a day, a month or years. So it’s a little like hotel accommodation for your business. And there’s accommodation available to suit virtually any type of enterprise.
There is a range of services offered by business centres as part of a rental package. Check with individual business centres which of these services they have available:
You can take on basic, unfurnished office space (known as managed workspace) up to five star office accommodation. This top end of the market targets corporate high flyers with state of the art IT and communication systems in premium locations.
Many business centres now also offer short stay facilities – offering weekly, daily or hourly rates. Several companies have a worldwide network of serviced offices, often with the option of using their facilities in another country on a short-term basis if you’re on an overseas business trip.
Business centres began in the US, but the concept emerged in the UK in the 1960s, originally as co-operative arrangements where several businesses shared the cost of secretarial and other services.
Business centres have taken off in the UK. According to the Business Centre Association (BCA) 40,000 UK businesses currently use a serviced office, totalling around half a million individual workstations.
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Hot Office Business Centres are specialists in flexible serviced office space and virtual services , delivering a broad range of services including private office suites, campus offices & coworking space, v irtual t elephone a nswering, b usiness p ost a ddress services and meeting & training rooms. The Hot Office provides award winning services for over 3,000 growing and established business es across the UK including within its portfolio Tesco, BT, Energiser Batteries, Tropicana, Voxeo, British Gas and Unilever
Tuesday 6 August 2013
What to Look for in a Telephone Answering Service
A telephone answering service can be an
invaluable resource for any growing or established business. Providing good
customer service over the phone can be the difference between a one-time
customer and a recurring customer. If you choose the right company to outsource
your telephone answering to, you can rest assured that customers will have a
positive experience and give yourself the opportunity to focus time and
resources on other areas of your business. The following are a few things every
business owner should look for in a good telephone answering service.
No Long-Term Contracts
The world of business is incredibly fast paced and as such making commitments to services over a long period of time can be a bad move. If your business model changes or business doesn't go as well as you would like you can find yourself tied into contracts for things you don’t want or need. A good telephone answering provider will understand this and offer short term contracts to give you the flexibility you need.
The world of business is incredibly fast paced and as such making commitments to services over a long period of time can be a bad move. If your business model changes or business doesn't go as well as you would like you can find yourself tied into contracts for things you don’t want or need. A good telephone answering provider will understand this and offer short term contracts to give you the flexibility you need.
Affordable
Over recent years it has become increasingly common for people to outsource aspects of their business. There are of course many great reasons to do this but one of the biggest motivators for business owners is money. Typically, at least in small and medium enterprises, outsourcing is far more cost effective than hiring traditional employees. For this reason it’s important to find a cost effective, affordable telephone answering solution otherwise you may be somewhat defeating the point of outsourcing.
Over recent years it has become increasingly common for people to outsource aspects of their business. There are of course many great reasons to do this but one of the biggest motivators for business owners is money. Typically, at least in small and medium enterprises, outsourcing is far more cost effective than hiring traditional employees. For this reason it’s important to find a cost effective, affordable telephone answering solution otherwise you may be somewhat defeating the point of outsourcing.
On the other hand, your business may
have reached the point where you do have an in-house member of staff or team to
handle your telephone answering. That’s great but what do you do when they go
on holiday or have long periods of illness? A telephone answering service can
be the ideal way to replace these staff members temporarily. Similarly, if your
in-house team is no longer enough to handle the volume of calls you receive but
you’re not sure you can warrant taking someone else on full-time, a phone
answering service is a great way to bridge the gap.
Based in the UK
When looking for a telephone answering service, you might be tempted to look overseas to bring the costs down even further. While some of these companies are probably very good, as a UK business your best bet will usually be to find a service in the UK. However good the service, a lot of people in this country seem wary of overseas call centres.
When looking for a telephone answering service, you might be tempted to look overseas to bring the costs down even further. While some of these companies are probably very good, as a UK business your best bet will usually be to find a service in the UK. However good the service, a lot of people in this country seem wary of overseas call centres.
Additionally, if you are an
international business looking to branch out into the UK market, choosing a UK
phone answering service provider can be the best way to do so. Potential UK
based customers are more likely to respond well to speaking to someone in the
UK than overseas. You might also consider investing in a UK address to affirm
your UK presence.
Friendly & Helpful Staff
Having friendly staff who are willing to help is possibly the most important thing of all to look for. At the end of the day, the fact that your telephone answering is outsourced is irrelevant, the person on the end of the phone is a representative of your business and their attitude will reflect on you.
Having friendly staff who are willing to help is possibly the most important thing of all to look for. At the end of the day, the fact that your telephone answering is outsourced is irrelevant, the person on the end of the phone is a representative of your business and their attitude will reflect on you.
One of the best ways to gauge how good
a telephone answering company will be in this regard is to phone them with your
enquiry rather than sending an email. The speed of response, friendliness,
professionalism and ability to deal with your needs are all good indicators of
how well they would represent your business.
Understanding of Your Business
Ideally when looking for a quality telephone answering service, the company you choose should be willing to gather all of the information on your business and train their staff accordingly. It’s one thing to be friendly but the people answering your phones really need to have a solid grasp on the business you’re in so they can make good decisions on how to deal with certain enquiries. That’s not to say they should be an expert in your field, they just need to know what your company is about and understand what you do.
Ideally when looking for a quality telephone answering service, the company you choose should be willing to gather all of the information on your business and train their staff accordingly. It’s one thing to be friendly but the people answering your phones really need to have a solid grasp on the business you’re in so they can make good decisions on how to deal with certain enquiries. That’s not to say they should be an expert in your field, they just need to know what your company is about and understand what you do.
Call Escalation
The needs of your business are likely very different to those of others and a phone answering service should be flexible to these needs. You should be able to choose how your calls are handled. This could mean having them patched directly through to you or having messages delivered by email or SMS.
The needs of your business are likely very different to those of others and a phone answering service should be flexible to these needs. You should be able to choose how your calls are handled. This could mean having them patched directly through to you or having messages delivered by email or SMS.
What is Hot Desking?
Proving to be very popular in the tough economy!
Hot Desking is one of several new terms which were brought into common use in the 1990's to describe a new set of working practices. It is believed that this term originated from old naval practices called "hot bunking"where shifts of sailors would share limited bunk space
Hot Desking (verb. "to hotdesk") is also known as location independent working, where workers do not have their own desks, but are allocated work space according to their needs. It can be refined to mean the sharing of a desk/seat/workstation arrangement by more than one member of staff.
This type of arrangement enables employers with workers who do not have overlapping shifts or staff who are frequently out of the office to make better use of the available resources. This system of working is also well suited to companies who have staff who are frequently out of the office, for example sales people who are mostly on the road, so that space within the office does not have to be allocated for them permanently.
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Hot Office Business Centres are specialists in flexible serviced office space and virtual services , delivering a broad range of services including private office suites, campus offices & coworking space, v irtual t elephone a nswering, b usiness p ost a ddress services and meeting & training rooms. The Hot Office provides award winning services for over 3,000 growing and established business es across the UK including within its portfolio Tesco, BT, Energiser Batteries, Tropicana, Voxeo, British Gas and Unilever
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