Effective communication is crucial in most relationships, especially in the relationship between a business and its customers. If the way you communicate with your customers falls flat, you’re more likely to push them away to competitors — even if you have a superior product or service.
How you handle incoming phone calls to your business is one of the most pivotal and under-valued ways you communicate with customers every day. Is your automated phone tree confusing? Are customers spending an hour or more on hold waiting for an answer? Here are several ways an answering service can help you communicate with customers and boost your business.
Provide Better Customer Service
The biggest way a live answering service benefits both you and your customers is by enhancing your ability to provide better service. By having a human answer every call, you eliminate the tedious experience of customers sorting through a confusing automated phone tree. For many consumers, automated answering systems slow down the process of getting what they need from your business. In fact, one survey revealed that 90% of people are unsatisfied with their experiences with automated systems.
Grow Through Happy Customers
Positive customer experiences are crucial to helping your business grow. When customers get what they need faster, they will likely be much happier with your business overall. According to a recent study, 49% of consumers said they would post a positive review after a good experience. Those positive reviews and word-of-mouth marketing help create new customers. Having a live human answer your phone every time a customer calls helps your customers be happier with your business, leading to more positive reviews and more business.
Build a Loyal Customer Base
There is an adage that says 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. The 80/20 rule is one of the core philosophies behind almost every customer loyalty program in existence. Customers who are happy with their experience with you are likely to keep making purchases with you, spending more money over time. Answering the phone when they call lets your most important customers know you care about their time. However, don’t neglect the other 20% of your customers. Even first-time customers can quickly become loyal after a single great experience.
Make Appointment Scheduling Easy
If one of the biggest reasons customers call your phone is to schedule appointments, you must respond to their calls as soon as possible. Few people want to wait on hold for half an hour for something that should take a couple of minutes. When every call is answered with a live service, you can rest assured that appointments are scheduled promptly and accurately. The faster your customers can book appointments and get back to their day, the happier they’ll be with your business.
Gather Better Customer Data
Unreliable automated voice recognition software and choppy voicemail recordings can leave you with incomplete or inaccurate customer data. Having an accurate callback number or physical address helps you stay in touch with customers and get invoices where they belong. By answering all of your calls with a live representative, you ensure your data is more complete. This allows you to provide better service in the long run.
Close the Voicemail Black Hole
Voicemail might seem like a good idea on the surface. After all, what better way to ensure you can get back in touch with a customer when you’re back in the office? However, many customers might perceive your voicemail as a black hole if you have a hard time actually calling people back. A 24/7 answering service helps you avoid lost voicemail messages, allowing you or your staff to respond to calls as soon as possible.
Avoid Time-Wasting Calls
Wrong numbers and calls from fax machines are an unfortunate reality of having a phone line. Since these incoming calls might be customers, your staff must stop what they’re doing to answer them. This wastes their time and disrupts their productivity. An answering service can help screen your incoming calls for time-wasting distractions.
Eliminate Spam
Customers likely don’t enjoy talking to automated answering systems when they call you business. Likewise, you probably don’t like having your time wasted with robocalls targeting your organization. Robocalls have been on the rise in recent years and businesses aren’t immune to the onslaught. Business phone lines are sometimes clogged with useless robocalls that disrupt operations. A live answering service can save you or your employees from annoying calls by keeping spam from reaching your phones.
Neither you nor your customers want to deal with negative experiences or have your time wasted. A live answering service can eliminate some of your biggest headaches and help you communicate better with customers. This can aid you in building strong and healthy relationships that will boost your business for years to come.
