As a new subscriber to Phonepower®, we want to assure you that we are dedicated to provide you with premium quality service. We're proud that our
company has over a half-century of experience in the telemessaging business, and we're prepared to put that experience to work for you.
This page will guide you through some basic procedures, and help you to understand how to obtain additional help.
If there is something you do not understand, or if something is not working as you had hoped, please contact our Supervisors
who should be able to offer assistance, and explain your options. Be sure to check out the section below on Quality Control so that
you will know how to advise us of any issues that may arise.
If I can be of personal assistance at any time, please feel free to contact me directly. My toll-free office number is 877-505-0542, or you may Email me at
staceyr@ppower.com.
If you applied for service through our web site form, you were asked to PRINT out a copy of the results, SIGN it and SEND it to us. If you have not done this already, please do
it before your start date, to avoid delays.
(Need a copy of the form to sign? Just let us know and we'll be happy to Email it to you.)
How do you check in for messages? What do you do if you are paged that a message is waiting for you?
When you signed up for service, you were given two important numbers -- the Check-In Number and your special Passcode. This will help you to quickly determine if you have
messages, and be connected to a Dispatcher to receive messages that have not been delivered. Please note that there is NO CHARGE and no waiting during busy periods to determine
there are "no messages".
Here's how it works:
Dial the Check-In number. [You will immediately receive a special tone]
Enter the 5-digit Passcode.
One of two things will happen:
If you have un-delivered messages waiting, you will be directed to a Dispatcher, who will deliver your message.
If you have NO un-delivered messages, you will receive another tone. At this point you can hang up without incurring any billable operator time.
If you receive the "No Messages" tone, but still want to speak to someone, simply press the "0" key and you will be connected to the next available Telephone
Secretary.
When you need to make a change to your instructions, make permanent changes to an on-call list, or inquire about account features, you will need to talk to a Supervisor. Please
do NOT give this information to a Telephone Secretary, because they are not in a position to make permanent changes to an account.
Supervisors may be reached at the following numbers:
(or, "How do I let Phonepower® know about the quality of service?")
We're proud of our service. Phonepower® has won some pretty prestigious awards over the years. However, we can't rest on our laurels.
YOUR COMMENTS about our service are very important, especially if something is not working as planned. (We also appreciate hearing when things ARE going well!)
So please DO let us know when something needs attention.
Contact a Supervisor during business hours (800-827-9465).
Regardless of which method you choose, the Quality Control page should be your guide. It shows the basic information we'll need to
follow up on a specific call. The more details you provide, the better we can follow up.
When sending revisions to On-Call Lists and Updates to your Answering Service information, some subscribers send a complete NEW list "as it currently stands".
Unfortunately that procedure can be very time-consuming, because it means that our staff needs to compare the entire list as we currently have it entered with the new list
received. Since the formats may be different, or the names listed in a different order, comparing two lists is very inefficient.
Instead, simply send us a list with the following three headings:
ADDITIONS (New names, or other new information),
DELETIONS (Tell us what information to delete), and
CHANGES (A new phone number or address, a change of name due to marriage or divorce, or a new title).
This will reduce the task on a long personnel list to a small fraction of the time needed to compare two lists. Among the benefits will be a much smaller billing for account
maintenance time.
You can submit your Account Update information on line at our Update Page, OR
What happens when your line receives a call when it's really busy? If the call rings 4 or more times without being answered, our system will tell the caller "Thank you for
calling ... we'll be right with you".
You have the option -- at no additional charge -- to create a brief custom message identifying your company, giving business hours or other brief information, and then inviting
the caller to remain on the line for the next available representative.
For more information on this feature and how it works, click here.
Call-Forwarding procedures vary by local telephone company, but usually involve entering a code (such as "*-7-2" or "7-2-#"), waiting for a tone, and then entering
the number to which you should forward your calls.
Many subscribers ask "Do I HAVE TO talk to someone when I forward my calls?" Answer -- If you do not have to give or verify information, you DO NOT
have to talk to us. [Among other things, you would NOT be billed for a call if we do not speak to you.]
HOW TO FORWARD YOUR CALLS WITHOUT TALKING TO PHONEPOWER®:
[1] Follow your normal procedure, until the phone begins to ring.
[2] Hang up.
[3] Follow the normal procedure again.
(The SECOND time you do the procedure, you will probably get a "beep" or "busy" tone, rather than the usual ringing. This should be your signal that the
Call Forwarding has been properly set up. You can of course verify the forwarding by calling your own number and seeing if it routes to Phonepower®.)
This procedure works with MOST phone systems, but may vary somewhat from the above. Check with your phone line provider to verify the procedure for your location if you
encounter problems.
This procedure has been established by the phone companies in order for you to be able to forward calls in emergencies to unattended phones (when no one can answer
them), or to lines which are busy. It also works well with Answering Services, to avoid the need to wait for an answer during "check-out", which is the busiest part of
the day.
One of the best-kept secrets by the Phone Company is a relatively new feature called "ULTRA FORWARD".
It has all the features of regular Variable Call Forwarding, plus a very significant addition: you can add, delete, or change your call forwarding from ANYWHERE, using a
toll-free number and a pass code.
Usually costing only a few dollars extra per month, many subscribers have found it to be well worth the small additional charge. Some possible uses:
You forget to forward the calls -- and remember it when you are 10 miles from the office.
You wake up to find 2 feet of snow on the ground, and cannot get to your office on time. (You could temporarily route calls to your home or cell phone until the roads are
cleared.)
You temporarily want to have your calls go to your cell phone until you receive a very important call, after which you want them go to the answering service.
You discover that the Call Forwarding has malfunctioned and is no longer forwarding your calls to the answering service (a very rare situation, but it does happen!).*
With "regular" call forwarding, you need to be at the phone device connected to your line in order to add, delete, or change the programming. With "Ultra
Forward" you can do so from your cell phone, pay phone, home, or any other phone.
Your dial-tone provider can tell you whether this service (which may go by another name with some phone companies) is available in your area.
* Phonepower offers an optional service to check your line each evening (or more often if desired) to verify that your Call Forwarding is working properly.
If not, you would be notified to "fix" the problem so you do not miss important calls. Speak to a Supervisor or Customer Service Representative to arrange for this
service.
Your account may be set up to receive messages via Email or Fax on a scheduled basis, or as-received.
Check the appropriate link below to view a sample delivery (Choose Word or PDF format). (File will be opened in a separate window, and may take a few moments to display after
downloading)
Click on image to
get FREE Acrobat Reader to open and print PDF files.
[ Note that messages taken on forms on your web site will appear according to your formatting
and display parameters, and not follow the format found here. ]
In addition to one-time payments by Credit Card, some subscribers prefer to make ALL payments by Credit Card through our Automatic Payment System.
Rather than having to write a check each month, your balance will be billed each month to your VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover Card, and your invoice will
document the payment.
To sign up for automatic payments, provide a written statement to our Accounts Receivable Department with your
Business Name
Contact Name
Phonepower Account Number
Credit Card Type
Credit Card Number
Expiration Date
and a statement authorizing us to charge your monthly balance to your card until further notice.
NOTE: if you use the On-Line Payment form, it includes an option to regularly charge your account.
If you have an alphanumeric pager or digital cell phone, you have the equipment to receive (and sometimes SEND) text messages.
You may already be receiving text messages from Phonepower, but the question is: How can I or my office send messages to the same device?
In most cases it is NOT necessary for you to have any special equipment or software. (We CAN provide special Windows or MAC software designed specifically for sending text
messages if you would like it.) All you need to know is the "secret handshakes" and you are in business.
Most devices can receive messages either from standard Email, or by going to a special web page designed by your wireless provider. We have compiled a page of links and
instructions that apply to some major providers, and we add to it from time to time. To see if your provider is listed, click here.
If your provider is not listed, please let us know and we'll be happy to add it.
All calls to our live messaging services (Answering Service, Order-Taking Service, Alpha Dispatch) are recorded, for security and training purposes.
One of the ways that can benefit you is that if a customer or caller ever questions the accuracy of a message, or the professionalism of a Phonepower staff member, we can listen to
the actual conversation to determine what took place during the call.
Since Order-Taking calls take longer than the average Answering Service message-taking call, it is important that you take several key steps to help reduce the time for which you are
billed:
Probably the most important is to advise your callers to "HAVE YOUR CREDIT CARD READY"! It is not fair to you to have to pay while your customer either
decides which credit card to use, or roots through pockets and purse trying to find it. Your advertising should definitely request the caller's attention to this.
Be sure we are aware which credit cards you accept. Most everyone accepts VISA and MasterCard, but we must know whether you accept American Express, Discover or
others.
"How soon will I receive that" is a question everyone wants to know. We must have that information in order to tell the caller "Your order should arrive within
___ to ___ [business] days".
If we are taking orders on your web site, we strongly recommend that you have a SPECIAL order-page set aside for the orders we take. This page could be exactly the same as
your "regular" on-line order page, with a few exceptions:
Graphics would be reduced or eliminated to reduce "page-load time".
A special "hidden field" could be included to indicate that these specific orders were take by Phonepower, rather than entered by your callers.
You may wish to add a "comments" field, if it does not already exist.
If your order process consists of several steps for on-line orders, consider consolidating those steps into fewer (ideally, just one) steps or pages.
If you offer several modes of shipping, be sure to include COST estimates for each mode.
Be sure to include a means by which the total cost (including taxes and shipping) can be calculated, so we can tell the caller how much will be charged on their credit card.
Consider including links to a product cross-reference, information about the products (styles, colors, etc.), and anything else you feel the caller may ask about.
Consider having a link to a page of "Answers to the 10 most likely questions" about your product(s).
Links (see above) found on your order form page should open a NEW window whenever possible. [In some shopping cart or web commerce programs, when you use the same
window to jump to "reference info" (or anything else which is not on the current page, it is not possible to return to the order form without starting a whole new
"session" from the beginning of the process.] Using this method, the "reference window" can be closed without affecting or prolonging the
order-taking process.
When TESTING your web-based order form, we may need to have a special "CREDIT CARD TESTING NUMBER" in order to make the form work. This is especially true if
your form tests for a valid number, and verifies the status of the account during the ordering process. If your site does NOT validate the number, we will use something
like 9999-9999-9999-9999, or a similar obviously-invalid number. If you have a different "test number" or "test expiration date" that we should use,
please contact your Customer Service Specialist as soon as possible so that we can "make the form work", without getting error messages.
Be sure the customer has a means to contact you with questions about your products or orders. This could include a phone number, Email address, web page dedicated to
questions or order-tracking, etc. Phone numbers should indicate the hours of operation, and should ideally be toll-free unless your market is geographically very small.
Do you know someone who would benefit from a Phonepower® service or product?
Maybe you have a friend or business associate who could use live Answering Service, Order-Taking Service, a Cell Phone, Pager or something else we provide. You can help them --
and yourself -- by directing them to the Phonepower® folks who have been "Helping People Communicate Better" for almost a half-century.
Phonepower® pays up to $25.00 for referrals who become customers. For more information, go to www.ppower.com/referrals.htm.
Additional Phonepower® products and services include:
Published "now and then", and announced via Email, the newsletters contain information about your services, Tips and Tricks, notices of improvements and enhancements, and
even a comics section.
Check out the most recent editions now, and look forward to the next edition.
Have a question about your invoice? Want to add a feature? Did your address or phone number change? Need another Cell Phone? Want to switch from 1-way to 2-way
paging?
Contact information for these and other purposes can be found on the Contacts Page, which can also be reached from the menu bar at the top
and bottom of each page on the web site.
If you have subscribed to Voice Mail, or if you have asked for Pre-Screen or Custom Auto-Answer to be installed on your Answering Service or Order-Taking account, click
here for set-up and "how-to-use" instructions.
Instant contact, across town or across the country. Pagers make it happen at a very reasonable cost.
The hottest new pagers are 2-Way units that work throughout the US for the cost of a local service! Not only do you receive full messages (up to 100 alphanumeric
characters), but you can also SEND messages to any other text messaging device (pager, cell phone, or PDA), or to Email addresses throughout the world.
We can provide 2-way service for most markets in the US. The units can actually cost LESS than some digital pagers. Top-of-the-line units can also serve as your address
books, calendar and memo pad, and will even interface with your computer through a cable (provided, including software) or infrared port.
As indicated above, CONTACT INFORMATION including fax numbers and Email addresses for Phonepower® administrative and
Customer Service personnel can be found at the Contacts page.
