Give Your Customers Confidence With a Business Phone System

A business phone system is a large investment for any business owner. Communication is the key to any successful business and having a phone system that accurately routes calls and delivers announcements in a professional manner gives potential customers a positive impression when they first make contact with the business.

Large corporations have utilized this technology for quite some time and now smaller businesses can use the same technology to compete with their larger counterparts. When a customer calls a business, hearing a professional message that allows them to make selections gives them the impression that the business is much larger than it really is. Having calls answered by an answering machine or receiving a busy signal can often lead customers to believe that the business may not be as qualified as they thought.

Customer confidence can be very fragile and once established is very easy to lose. When a customer interacts with the business, if the call is not handled appropriately they begin to question the business's ability to handle other issues and concerns. A business phone system should not only be reliable, but should be versatile enough to allow the business owner to change recordings when needed. For this reason, ease-of-use is essential when choosing a business phone system.

Using announcements provides a business owner with a way to inform customers of new services or products being offered as well as general information related to the business. This frees up time that employees might be spending providing customers with answers to commonly asked questions. Allowing the phone system to handle these questions means that the answers given are consistent for each customer. If the customer receives a different answer from different employees they're likely to lose confidence in the business.

Another way that customers become confused is when they are transferred incorrectly to the wrong person or put on hold for excessive amounts of time. Allowing the phone system to transfer the call based on caller selection removes the element of human error. This helps to minimize frustration on the part of the customer and ensures that calls are routed quickly and accurately. Not only do customers get a more pleasant phone experience, but employees of the business no longer have to worry about answering calls as they are automatically routed by the phone system.

Another way to improve communication with customers is to give the customer multiple options when they call. As an example, you could give the option of leaving a message as opposed to remaining on hold. This makes the customer feel as though they are in control and that you as a business owner value their time. This is very important since customer perception largely determines whether they are a repeat customer or not. If the customer feels that they've been largely ignored or given little consideration, they're likely to go to a competitor where they feel they are treated with high regard.

In a more sophisticated business phone system, customers can be given the option to check on the status of an order, the status of a trouble ticket, or balances on their account. This usually requires the addition of a voice recognition unit that interfaces with an external database. This can cost up front, however it can save a large expense in the long run through minimizing the need for staff to look up and answer these questions for the customer. Many customers prefer to get the information without having to wait for a customer service representative or other business associate to provide them with the information. Another benefit to a voice-recognition system is that it can provide a way to survey customers when they call for important feedback. Having a small survey available when the customers call in is a great way to find out how your business is doing in the customer's eyes. This information can then be formulated to show trends or areas of weakness that need to be improved upon as well as those areas where the business has been successful in making the customer happy.

The business phone system using VoIP technology also provides the customer with greater satisfaction because this newer technology supports a mobile workforce. The customer will no longer be met with voicemail when trying to reach a specific employee. The newer technology allows the call to be routed to the user's cell phone where the caller notices no difference. This ensures that when callers need to reach someone that the phone will always be answered by the intended party. When customers are repeatedly leaving voicemail, they're often left feeling like they don't matter. Reaching the intended party 90% of the time gives them a higher level of comfort in doing business with a particular company.

For smaller businesses, a business phone system takes communication to the next level. To compete with larger corporations, the small business owner must take advantage of the technology that many bigger companies are currently using. With this sophisticated phone system, customers will feel confident in return time and time again.

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