The fact remains that people want to talk to living human beings who care about their needs and have not wanted to talk to a machine because it will fall on deaf ears and their needs will not be prioritized or met.
Over the years, many companies have tried to find more effective ways to answer their phones – for example, using answering machines, voicemail, or even giving a once popular number pager. The truth is that the low cost of these products did indeed help to greatly reduce business expenses at the front desk, but when we take a closer look at what is the real cost of using an automated answering system to greet people callers, you can see the negative impact on bottom line profits. Businesses large and small spend a great deal of money to generate new customers through numerous forms of advertising, be it online AD via Google, Yahoo, Bing, or according to the old phone book standard (and its many forms). , mail order advertising, branded clothing, business cards, signs on trucks and cars not to mention the huge expense of television, radio advertising and highway billboards. After spending all this money to generate new customer phone calls, now the caller picks up the phone and dials their number and their first impressions are a voicemail scam or “please leave a message and I’ll get back to you when can “. This is just an invitation for your potential client to hang up your business and keep looking to meet their needs. The client called at that moment because they have the time and that moment to satisfy their needs not at their convenience but at theirs. How much does it cost you to lose a potential customer once a month? Once a week? Once a day?
There are numerous solutions to help businesses capture additional business calls. For example, you can hire a receptionist to sit at your front desk and take care of calls, this is a great option, but it is also usually the most expensive and limits you to office hours when your calls can be answered and We are living in a 24 hour world where people call at the strangest times that are good for them, not necessarily for us. You can divert the call to your cell phone, which was once a popular option, but many business owners find that if they have to take every call, they aren’t actually doing any work and have to be a slave to the phone. You can hire an answering service, which is what seems to be considered the best option for doctor’s offices in the last 10 years. This type of service also helps all types of businesses, from the plumber in your truck to large high-tech companies. A live outsourced secretarial service can provide that human voice option and handle your calls that are so important to a first time caller. They can design a format to effectively handle and filter your customers’ calls, so they only stream money-making or urgent calls directly to you and send you emails or eliminate annoying solicitation calls.
The harsh truth is that if a business is currently using an automated system that handles their calls, your competitors will want to thank you for giving them new business. In fact, another recent study showed that the second largest consumer complaint was the inability to reach a living human being when searching for products or services.