If you’re starting a business in 2018, the chances are that you’ll consider your online presence before anything else. We’re all about websites, contact forms, and social media accounts now. As such, you might not even spare a thought for your telephone communications in the early days. Who phones companies nowadays, anyway?
In truth, quite a few people. While online interactions are fantastic, they don’t suit everyone. On top of which, even an instant message doesn’t have quite the same speedy benefits as a phone call. When you’re actually talking to someone, there’s far more chance of reaching a swift solution to your problems. You certainly won’t have to wait for people to read your messages and then come up with an answer. So, in the same way that slow websites shrink sales performance, inadequate phone services can spell big trouble.
But, don’t panic if you haven’t taken care of this. You wouldn’t be the only one to focus their efforts on modern methods. All you need to do is shift your focus, and consider whether your current phone system is falling foul to these leading causes of hang-ups.
The Long Wait
Given that customers phone because they want fast solutions, a long wait here is never good news. In an ideal world, you want to answer customer calls as soon as they come in. Don’t think, either, that a decent hold song can cover your faults here. While music is better than silence, answering fast is best of all. Your best bet for ensuring this happens is turning to something like the VolP Solutions offered by Digitel. With these in place, you can ensure everyone in the office has a phone hooked up to your business number. Obviously, there’s nothing you can do to stop waits during busy periods. But, by putting everyone on phone duty, you’ll find there should always be someone free to answer incoming calls.
The Maze of Departments
Nothing’s more annoying than being transferred from one department to another. Each time a customer’s put on hold again increases the risk of their hanging up. And, given only 34% of hang-ups bother phoning back, that’s a real problem. Your best bet here, then, is to make sure customers land in the right department off the bat. You can do that by replacing your awful hold music with a useful guidance recording. By getting customers to navigate their way using their keypads, you can bet they’ll get exactly where they need to go.
The ‘Sorry What Was That’
Even when your customers find their way to the right person, they’ll fast hang up if they can’t hear what’s said. Whether the line is muffled or your staff don’t speak clearly, customers will soon lose patience. Make sure it doesn’t happen by investing in headsets with the clearest sound quality. Think, too, about training your team in phone manners. By focusing on pronunciation and measured speech, they should be able to get their message across during every call.