Pictured above: William Copley

Midlands telecoms consultancy Armstrong Bell is reminding business owners and office managers to check the automated out-of-hours settings and pre-recorded messages on their phone systems before the Easter Bank Holiday.

Director William Copley said: "We're moving more and more towards a 24 hour business culture where we expect to be able to have access to any service no matter what time of day or night it is, so if a business is changing its usual pattern of availability over the up-coming Bank Holiday, it's important to make sure any automated systems and messages are updated correctly too.

"We've had clients in previous years where phones have simply been ringing out when their customers should have heard a pre-recorded message advising about special opening hours, or where phones are meant to redirect to an out-of-hours service but don't. Bank Holidays are particularly complicated this year, with a late Easter and an extra day for the Royal Wedding combining with May Day."

"Changing outgoing messages on most phone systems is very simple, but prone to error as operators may only have to make changes very occasionally. It is usual for us to receive support calls in the last hour of business before a Bank Holiday and we expect this Easter to be no different. We would suggest that businesses should call on the support of their telecom system provider should they be at all uncertain about how to make changes."

For further information about the services Armstrong Bell offers, call 01234 880 800 or email info@armstrongbell.co.uk.