Frequently Asked Questions
Getting Started
If you have an established business phone number that you’d like to keep, you may want to forward that number to the one we provide. That way, your callers will still dial the same number they always have. The available features and exact procedure for forwarding your calls depends on your phone carrier and may be different for business and residential lines. Here are some common types of call forwarding and how to activate them with most carriers.
Standard Call Forwarding
If you want to forward all your calls, all the time, you usually dial *72 or 72# (again, depending on your carrier), followed by the number you want to forward your calls to (the local or toll-free number we provide). Generally, this can be deactivated with *73 or 73#.
Busy Call Forwarding
Maybe you only want to forward your calls to us when your main line is busy. For that, most carriers use *90 or 90# to activate, and *91 or 91# to deactivate.
No-Answer Call Forwarding
To forward your calls when you don’t answer after a specified number of rings, use *92 or 92# to activate and *93 or 93# to deactivate. Contact your carrier to set the number of rings your callers will hear before the call is forwarded. We recommend two rings—why make people wait?
Scheduled Call Forwarding
To set up a more customized call forwarding schedule, such as having your calls forwarded only during certain hours, check with your phone carrier—most will be able to accommodate you.
The number of calls we can answer within the minutes allotted for each plan depends on what we’re doing for your callers.
For basic services such as taking messages or basic lead capture, a good rule of thumb is two to three minutes per call. If we’re helping you with more advanced services, such as order-taking or appointment setting, or if your script is on the intricate side, calls may take longer.
We’re always happy to review your plan with you to make sure you’re in the right one.
We create a custom script for your account based on your requirements. Generally, this consists of an answer phrase followed by a “decision tree.” Our agents choose options based on what the caller says, which in turn opens new scripting instructions and new fields for the agent to complete.
In addition, the info page on your account tells us things like your location, hours, and names of staff. And who is On Call.
By carefully creating a script that is neither incomplete nor too complicated, we can maximize the efficiency and accuracy with which we answer your calls. At the same time, we don’t ask our agents to follow a script unthinkingly. We are most valuable to you when we can react to the situation at hand in a friendly and informed way.
We use Salesforce to create tickets that allow us to follow-up on any problems that might arise in answering your calls.
Mistakes happen, but this process allows our supervisors to provide our agents with coaching and guidance and allows our Quality Assurance team to track agents’ long-term performance.
The best way to submit a ticket is to send an email to support@alliancewireless.com with the details of your issue.
Call-Handling Feedback doesn’t get agents in trouble. It’s a valuable tool for coaching and improvement. Our agents will make mistakes from time to time, but our goal is to address any errors, whether it be with an Agent or script changes.
Call recordings help address call-handling issues by allowing our supervisors and quality assurance staff to review individual calls on your account.
Billing
We calculate your minutes based on the total time required to handle the call, including any after-call work our Agents do to take your messages.
You are not charged for any queue time between when the call reaches our system and when the Agent answers. This is generally not more than a few seconds, but the time is not billed to you.
For calls longer than thirty seconds, we bill by rounding to every 6 seconds. So, a call of one minute and twenty-two seconds would be billed as one minute and twenty-four seconds.
For basic services such as taking messages or basic lead capture, a good rule of thumb is two to three minutes per call. If we’re helping you with more advanced services, such as order-taking or appointment setting, or if your script is on the intricate side, calls may take longer.
We’re always happy to review your plan with you to make sure you’re in the right one.
No. However, if you find that you consistently wind up using fewer minutes than you have in your plan, contact us to talk about changing plans.
Auto-pay makes it easy for you to automatically pay your bill each month. You can use either a credit card or pre-approved payments. You can also set up e-transfers by sending your payment to finance@alliancewireless.com. Just make sure you include your account number in the details.