According to American Television giant CNN, the average caller spends an estimated 60 hours every year on hold, with the national average hold time for businesses with two or more phone lines is 55 seconds. As a consumer, there’s not much more frustrating than wasting your time battling to speakto the right person only to bestuck on hold with nothing but silence at the other end of the line. But as a business, how do we fix this?
Call Management Systems are important for any business using their phone lines as the main form of contact for their incoming traffic. Even if you’re just running a handful of employees out of a small office, small business telephone systems are essential for a few very good reasons.
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No Missed Calls
Despite many businesses heading to the internet for the bulk of their business, phone calls are still equally as important for many people, as it brings them closer to the company, especially important if you’re expecting people to part with their hard earned cash. Missed calls for any business, especially smaller ones can mean big losses in profit. Integrating a system into your workplace helps you track incoming calls both during and outside of work hours, giving you varied options to check what calls were missed and the ability to follow them up.
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Look Professional
If a potential customer rings your business and is met with a poorly recorded voicemail or a bad line, it doesn’t give them the impression you’re a big deal. However being greeted by a professional sounding message, well recorded hold music or the option to be put through to various departments, it gives them the impression that you’re a big businesses, making them more likely to invest their money in you.
- Tracking Incoming Business
Being able to track your calls gives you a better understanding of when, how and where your business is coming from. This then allows you to identify the trends in calling patterns and performance to make sure you’retaking full advantage of every call, and every customer. It also helps you increase your employees work flow if you can spot any unnecessary issues or unplanned downtime.
- Customers On Hold
In the unfortunate situation that your customers need to be put on hold for a long time, instead of playing the same pre-determined track like every other business, why not use a custom message containing news, facts and updates about your business such as opening times, upcoming events, new products/services or even just advice for your potential clients. Not only does this come across more professional, it also reduces the perceived hang time for the caller, and makes the call less boring.
Remember all the times you’ve been frustrated with a business or a professional phone call, and think of all the reasons why. These are areas you can easily avoid with your own business, or tips you can pass on to your boss, colleagues or even friends to help them increase their customer satisfaction, professional image and most of all, their overall profit.
