If you own a small business, customer satisfaction is crucial. Part of that customer satisfaction includes the way you manage your phone system. You probably already know how vital your phone is the success of your business. However, you might not realize that how you answer your business phone is one of the most important aspects of your business phone system. Customers need to know that when they call your business, their needs are going to be met. The last thing you want is a delay in the answering of your calls.
To alleviate that problem, you need to get rid of your phone-based answering machine, and switch to a live answering service. If you're still not sold on the idea of paying for a live answering service, here are four reasons the expenditure will benefit your business.
Reduction in Customer Frustration
When customers are greeted by a phone that continues to ring, they can become increasingly frustrated, especially when they're facing an emergency situation. The frustration can be even worse if they're greeted by a voice mail box that's filled. Unfortunately, both those scenarios are possible when you use a phone-based answering machine for your business.
When customers experience frustration, they can choose to take their business elsewhere. However, when have a live answering service for your business, your customers will be greeted by a person each time they call. No more unanswered phone calls, or voice mail boxes that are filled to capacity.
Reduction in Message Confusion
It's not uncommon for people to get confused or tongue-tied when they reach an answering machine. Unfortunately, that confusion can result in messages that are hard to understand, or that don't have all the necessary information. For instance, you may have a customer call with an emergency, only to leave a message that doesn't include a return phone number. Worse yet, the answering machine may cut off too soon, resulting in an incomplete message. When you use a live answering service, your customers will be able to leave a complete message, so you'll have an easier time responding to their needs.
Reduction in Hangup Calls
You might not realize this, but there are people who refuse to speak to a recording. That means you may end up with a lot of hang up calls on your answering machine. Each one of those hang up calls could be a missed business transaction, which means lost income for you. With a live answering service, the occurrence of hang up calls will decrease dramatically, which means you'll increase your business.