15 years in Telecom, hundreds of customer meetings, system installations and projects managed and I am still constantly amazed by some of the very common mistakes companies make with their business phone system.
If customer service is important to you then please read the rest of this article.
In no particular order:
Number 1:
Automated Attendant Greetings that go nowhere, or worse, they go everywhere!
AA greetings that go nowhere. A call into your main company number gets answered by an automated attendant greeting that suggests menu options, which when pressed gets disconnected or just rings and rings.
AA greetings that go everywhere. This one really gets me. I hate calling some companies, particularly the bigger organisations. You feel like you’re lost in the transfer window.
Is it time to review your you Auto Attendant greeting? If you have more than 3 choices off the automated attendant , if you probablyhave have too many.
Number 2:
Automated Attendant greetings that sound like they were recorded by your grandmother. I love my grandmother. She’s great. I wouldn’t get her to record the Adodo automated attendant greeting though. To some organisations this is a complete afterthought. Our technicians sit down with the company to record the greetings.
It is your company’s image. It is the first thing people hear when they call into your company, so it is important to get it right! Whether you get a well spoken member of staff to record it for you or hire a professional, we can help you find the suitable Attendant for your company.
Number 3:
Do not make it difficult for a caller to get live assistance. When you press “0” or hold to speak to a receptionist, you should always always always get a live body.
No live body around?
Then find one.
Number 4:
Hold Times Do Matter. No. It’s not OK for your callers to wait on hold for 5 minutes. Some companies, despite best recommendations otherwise, don’t even offer their callers the option of speaking directly to a person. There are no circumstances in which a caller will be satisfied with this.
Unless you aregiving away money, people just won’t wait. Or, if they have to wait they will be spoiling for a fight by the time they are picked up.
It’s simple really, monitor the calls, make it even easier and get some software that does it for you and make sure your callers are answered in less than 3 rings.
Number 5:
When you put your callers on hold, what do they hear?
A constant stream of beep beep? Maybe static like a badly tuned radio station? Maybe even silence, so they think they have been cut off?
Fix it.
Every phone system has a music on hold port so utilize it. Choose something that they can sing along to, something that will relax them, or maybe even use it as an opportunity to tell them about a special offer, but play them something!
There are is plenty more details to consider to make sure that you are making your investment work for you, but these 5 points should be covered at a very basic level. For any more assistance there is only one number to call!! FREE PHONE 0800 092 1471
It is well recognised that Japan are heads and shoulders above the rest of the world in mobile phone technology: handsets that can pick up TV channels have been standard for years and in many shops payments can be made by swiping a phone over a sensor.
