Your company likely opened its doors with the goal of providing a superior product or service. Yet, it’s usually not a good idea to simply hang out your shingle and hope for the best. Most businesses spend a significant amount of their operating budgets each year on marketing efforts that will both attract new customers and help retain existing ones. Have you ever considered the impact that your company’s phone system has on those marketing efforts?
In many cases, a customer or client has their first contact with your business over a telephone line. Customers might have questions that they need to be answered or want to discuss scheduling for a service. Before a prospect can become a sale, it’s important that there be as few barriers as possible to the next step in the process. If your phone system is old and antiquated, you are probably placing a needless barrier between that client and a successful sale.
Customers want to speak with you about your products and services, but if they can’t reach a live voice right away, the experience should be as simple and intuitive as possible. Leaving clients on hold for extended periods will cause you to lose business. On the other hand, having a live voice on the other end of the line may not always be the best option. Some surveys have found that as many as 98% of customers will report a poor experience with a company due to a bad first impression on the phone.
If you want your customers to have the best experience possible with your company, you will need to make sure that your phone provider is up to the task and that you have the right conferencing system in place. A few of the things that you should look for in a top-level phone service include:
Customer-Friendly Menus
There is no doubt that customer’s dislike having to work harder than you do to hand over their business. If your current phone system has a complicated “phone tree” that places customers into confusing or endless loops, you are probably going to either lose clients or make some of them unhappy. Any automated menu should be as friendly as possible, with a simple option to leave a message at any time.
Mobility Features
Most businesspeople today have escaped from their offices and are using mobile devices more than ever. Your phone provider should give you the option to forward calls to a mobile device and to re-route calls using mobile applications. Another useful option is to have voicemails routed as text messages.
Scalability
Hopefully, you are using a system that allows your business to grow and expand. For example, most cloud-based phone systems have the option to choose unlimited calls as well as the ability to add and remove employees. If your system isn’t scalable, you could lose customers during times of heavy call volume.
Technical Support
Not every business has a resident tech guru, so it’s important that your phone provider also delivers technical support. For instance, if you use a conferencing system, you might need assistance with the setup so that your meeting goes smoothly.
If your company wants to provide the highest level of service to its clients, an affordable digital business telephone service is the answer. VoxSun operates throughout the U.S. and Canada with a wide range of products and services for the business community. Find out how VoxSun’s VoIP business phone services can help your business get the most out of its marketing dollars.
