What is Diary Management?
Effective Diary Management is a must for any business owner to keep control of everything from internal and external meetings, making reminders, keeping a record of actions and deadlines as well as remembering your appointment with the dentist!
Ensuring that your day to day processes are running effectively and smoothly is crucial to every company. … Diary Management offer support meaning that no matter what time of the day it may be your company’s calls, appointments and meeting schedules will be answered and kept up to date.
Why is Diary Management important?
A work diary is essential for ensuring you complete every task at hand. … A well-managed diary displays everything in one place, making it hugely preferable to trying to keep track of deadlines on a stack of post-it notes.
Good Diary Management skills focus on:
Appointment scheduling with sufficient buffer time between them, to allow for travel time, pre-meeting preparation or even a much-needed lunch break.
Ensuring you are always aware of your commitments and don’t miss anything, even if your schedule is changed at short notice.
Making sure time is only set aside if there is a clear objective and agenda for each appointment.
Trying to match your natural working style with your diary commitments. Perhaps you’re an early riser and like to do breakfast meetings, or you prefer to work later and don’t like to have any commitments on Friday afternoons, your schedule should be set up to get the maximum out of your working time (not make you feel overwhelmed or ineffective!).
Preferably, syncing your diary with your inbox. If you delegate diary management, it’s often more effective if that same person has access to (and actively manages) your inbox too. Otherwise it’s easy for them to miss something and you also have to put in extra work, acting as a go-between between your inbox, your PA and your diary.
Checking you have the best technology setup for you. Whether that’s a cloud-based solution like Google G Suite or Office 365, or something a little less modern, but more convenient for you, a diary can only be managed effectively if you can, well, easily manage it! An effective Diary management system is very important.
The ultimate goal is to use your time as effectively as possible. That involves a combination of strong technique and the right tools for the job and will allow effective Calendar management.
Benefits of using outsourced Diary Management
Successful businesses have an efficient and organised diary. This helps ensure you are able to run your day to day processes effectively and smoothly. But this can quickly become a problem once the number of incoming calls start rising and customer demand exponentially increases. Appointment management becomes a hassle and time-consuming task especially if you are in a meeting.
A good idea is to outsource your diary to a professional service that can answer your calls and manage your diary. Your will free up your time to look after your clients rather than having to constantly answer the phone and book the meeting into your diary.
Outsourcing your Diary Management to a third-party company can have huge benefits for your company especially when it comes to improving both time management skills and freeing up valuable in-house staff working hours. By working closely with an outsourced administration manager, you can receive the following benefits:
- Efficient Scheduling
Professional Diary Management teams meticulously handle all your appointments and meetings, keeping you updated with an organised calendar. This is especially useful for medical practices, physiotherapists, aesthetic clinics, and beauty salons. The enormous and often continuous stream of clients quickly become a burden for you to manage, but a professional diary management team makes your job a lot easier.
- Better in-house performance levels
Administration tasks can be time consuming for all businesses. By outsourcing Diary Management, you can ensure that your in-house staff have the time resources available to them to continue providing customers with a high-quality standard of customer service.
Features of a Good Diary Management
Diary Management continuously handle multiple diaries, note down detailed information from potential clients, document data and schedule appointments. Their useful service allows you and your employees to focus on what you do best.
By outsourcing your diary, you let competent and experienced virtual assistants handle administrative aspects of your business. They will take an enormous workload from you so you can spend your time looking after clients.
Kendlebell Overview
Kendlebell was set up In Ireland in 2006 and now have 4 offices providing a diverse range of services to the SME market. We provide a range of Outsource Solutions to the Business Community. Among our services are:
Business Telephone Answering / Message Taking.
We provide a personal telephone answering service for your business calls. All your calls are answered by your own PA, giving you peace of mind that you’ll never miss another new enquiry again.
A call answering script is agreed in advance. All your business calls are answered in a professional and friendly manner as if we were part of your team. Our Business phone answering service is delivered at a fraction of the cost of employing staff, involves no administration and gives an excellent first impression. Messages are passed to you instantly by either text-to-mobile, email or you can phone in and speak to your Kendlebell PA at any time.
Virtual Reception services
The Kendlebell team will act exactly as you would expect any receptionist to operate. They will take all incoming calls and transfer them through to the direct dial or mobile of the member of staff sought.
If these individuals are not available, they can give callers the option to leave a voicemail or simply take a message which the PA will send on immediately.
They will do so immediately by text or email with an end of day report summarising all your calls being sent as well.
All of this is done seamlessly and without the company’s customers being aware that you are suing a virtual receptionist from Kendlebell.
Diary Management Services
Our PA’s can answer your calls and make appointments, saving you up to 70% of the cost of employing a receptionist.
While you are busy in meetings or with clients, your dedicated team of PA’s at Kendlebell can be taking calls and booking appointments for you as well as making entries into your online diary. We can access your online diary securely using a Username and Password. Their personal, friendly approach can really make an impact and promote a professional experience with your business contacts right from the start.
You can see your scheduled appointments any time online. We can take calls to fill in gaps in your diary or change appointments while you are busy.
Customer Helpdesk / Order Taking
Services include capturing caller’s details and asking qualifying questions to get further information you may require. With each client, we agree call handling instructions to ensure our services benefit your company, freeing up your time to concentrate on running your business. We can link to your CRM /Sales Systems remotely and securely. We also provide cold call screening as part of our phone answering services.
Messages will be forwarded on to you immediately by email or text, alternatively we can save and forward these messages at an agreed time. You will also receive a daily email summary of messages.
Holiday Cover
You do not want to miss an important call because the signal is bad on the beach or up in the hills. Our Kendlebell PAs will take your calls, answer them, and let you know as per your instructions.
For the messaging service, a Kendlebell PA will answer your calls with your company name and take the caller’s name, number, and a brief message. These messages will be emailed to you daily at the close of business and you can decide whether to review while on holiday or at the end of the holiday.
To provide a booking service we need to know what is already booked. If you already use an online diary, we will need access. We will ensure that your diary is kept completely up to date, dealing with new appointments, cancellations or change of time / date of other appointments daily while you enjoy your holiday.
Overflow Call Answering
An overflow call answering service helps your organisation during periods of high call volume. To prevent callers from being forced to wait for an available staff member, or to leave a voicemail or wait for a return call, excess calls can be routed through to your Kendlebell Call Centre PAs who are trained and available to assist. This will, in turn lead to faster service and result in higher levels of customer satisfaction. By not missing a call, you will not lose out on a potential new customer. Potential customers who do not get through to the office could possibly just ring another supplier / competitor as they want an answer fast! Outsourcing your overflow calls will reduce training costs and everything else that goes along with hiring new staff. It will also allow you to increase sales by being able to handle higher volume of calls. There is no requirement to hire part time staff for sickness cover and annual leave. A good overflow call answering service can act as an extension of your office. The Call Centre PA’S will be trained to deliver service to the same standard as the company employees.
Telemarketing / Appointment generation
Kendlebell can follow up a direct mail shot or an email campaign by making a call and attempting to set up an appointment on behalf of our clients. This is a proven sales strategy and can be a very cost-effective method to grow your sales. We will agree a script with our clients in advance of the calls which can be adjusted depending on the success levels of the calls. In the case of Diary Management, we can call those on waiting lists and fill the gaps so fees can be generated while the client is busy with appointments.
Customer Surveys by telephone
We will work with our clients to agree a suitable script / questionnaire before undertaking the telephone survey work. Using a suitable contact list (usually provided to us by our clients), we will conduct the telephone interview and update either on the clients or our own systems. We can identify ourselves as making the calls on your behalf or we can say it is by an independent agency. At the end of the project, we will supply the client with a summary of the information sought in the survey in an agreed format.
Database cleansing services
Typically, we will be provided with a database from our customers that may be out of date, not checked recently or the contact person is not clearly identified. Our team will then take this data, phone the various companies and verify the data on the clients’ database. Sometimes, where we don’t have telephone numbers, we will verify the data by way of internet search. At the end of each project, our clients will be provided with an updated database
Back Office Processing
Are your back-office processes damaging your effectiveness and proving too costly? Does it take up much of your time doing basic administration? Is it routine work that could be outsourced? Do you have difficulty scheduling work when it is very busy Kendlebell can lower your costs and increase your productivity today. Whether you require help logging enquiries, need orders or data processed or outbound mailing we can assist you. We help clients provide training to their nominated Kendlebell PA’s, so we not only cater to your needs but exceed service levels. Kendlebell will agree a detailed specification of the services required with our customer and then agree a detailed modus operandi as how we will deliver the services on behalf of our customer.
Virtual Business Addres
Your new localised address can be used on all company stationery; letterheads, business cards, web site and any other promotional material. This will enhance your corporate image and ensure you give that all important professional first impression. We will collect all your new mail at this localised address and we will have it forwarded anywhere in the world, to any private address. Alternatively, if you are passing by, you can drop in and collect it. Our team will sort and forward your post efficiently and proficiently, ensuring that your mail is forwarded on to you as quickly as possible. If you want to look local , you need a localised business address.
Localised Telephone Numbers
Area call numbers – Kendlebell provide true local numbers e.g. Dublin 01, Cork 021, Limerick 061, Galway 091. We can provide this service for a wide range of customers both located in Ireland and abroad. Using these local numbers can increase the effectiveness of your localised adverts as you will appear to be in the same area as the customer.
- local telephone numbers – all 107 local telephone area codes covered
- UK, Northern Ireland and international numbers are also available
- Ideal for expanding your local reach in publication
Non-Geographic number – Kendlebell can also supply you with a 1800 (freephone number) or an 0818 Universal numbers).
We provide a very Personalised and Cost effective service. Kendlebell in Fairview currently have circa 200 customers ranging from quite large companies for whom we provide a range of the services listed above often connecting remotely to their in-house systems to start -ups and smaller companies where we are typically acting as their message centre of Virtual reception. We pride ourselves on providing a professional and effective service
We have recently received a Business All-Star Accreditation
This accreditation is an outstanding achievement and recognises the hard work and dedication of our team in providing a best in class service to all our customers. Business All-Star accredited companies are defined as; progressive, indigenous Irish businesses which meet the highest standards of verified performance, trust, and customer centricity. We would like to thank our customers who validated the mystery shoppers of the Business All Star Foundation who acknowledged our customer focus and continuous high standards.
The award is recognising best in class and Kendlebell are proud to hold this Accreditation and will continue to deliver high standards of professionalism and customer focus as these are the reasons that attract new customers and continue to hold onto existing customers. In achieving this accreditation, we join a unique group of businesses and we believe this continues to demonstrate our commitment to improving our service to our customers and suppliers. The three pillars of All-Ireland Business All-Star accreditation are Performance, Trust and Customer Centricity.
Our website address is: www.kbell.ie
