I recently called the folks who usually cut my hair. I tried on a Saturday when I knew they were open. Instead of a live person I got voicemail and left a message.
Five days later.., I still hadn’t heard from them! On day 6 I got my blond and still not yet grey hair lopped back to neatness by a nearby salon that has been after my business for months and reached out to me in person!
Every year businesses invest vast sums of money and time in the attempt to both to a) gain new customers and b) keep their existing ones. Yet in those pursuits there are two extremely simple but important areas that many lose track of:
- answering the calls those efforts generate, and if unanswered
- promptly returning messages left as a result of those calls
Great effort and expense is put into encouraging folks to call only to drop the ball once the calls start coming in! This almost certainly costs American businesses billions in dollars in lost sales every year!
In the case of my “hair people” that tragedy is compounded because over the years they have done many of the right things needed to keep my business! First they gave me decent service at a fair price. Second if they hadn’t heard from me in a while now and again they would also call and check in with me. Yet after all those efforts when the time came that I was actually ready to use their service they dropped the ball both by not answering their phones and then by not returning my message requesting an appointment. Now I am taking my business someplace else. Someplace where they have shown they want my business even more because they do answer their phones and return my messages.
That scenario sound familiar? If you think about it you can take those exact same series of events and apply them to any business in America (including nonprofits) and the result would be the same …, a hard earned opportunity for business lost needlessly to a competitor due to things that could have easily prevented that business from going away! The solutions to prevent such losses are many and some are just plain common sense. They include:
To prevent missed busy and answered calls:
Make sure your business has enough incoming lines: We are an inpatient society. My experience is that about 60% of the time when a potential new client calls your office and gets a busy signal your competitor will immediately be the next person they call!
How to fix it
- First make several test calls to your office during peak times. If you get a busy signal immediately contact your phone vendor, local carrier or both to order additional phone lines. Run these tests at least once every 3 months. It will take you maybe 15 minutes per year and will be well worth your time!
- If instead of a busy signal your test calls don’t get answered and go to voicemail – look around your office: A week rarely goes by when I am not in some business where the phones ring off the hook while I see people that very clearly could be answering them! Create in your company a culture where it’s understood that those -incoming calls are the lifeblood of your business and therefore EVERYONE – even the CEO is responsible for answering them.
- If you look around your office and find that there truly are no unoccupied people to answer your phones- VOIP (Voice Over IP) can help:
One of the great things about VOIP is that you can put a business phone pretty much anywhere there is hardwired internet, which is great for…
… a stay at home parent or senior
… a college student - Anyone can answer a phone and at the very least put the call on hold and/or transfer it. This will make a huge positive difference for your company.
- If incoming calls still can’t be picked up, get a VOIP auto attendant that can give callers an option to be transferred someone’s mobile phone: There are two ways this can work:
- the VOIP auto attendant can provide callers the option to “be transferred to the “overflow customer service associate” which can be anyone anywhere who has a cell phone
- true VOIP solutions will allow staff members that are away from their desks to have calls directed to their cell phones either by manual transfer or directly from the auto attendant. My personal belief is that, during business hours, if even if someone is at lunch at the bank or doing anything that’s not sick time or previously stated personal time they are at work and should be available to take calls.
When messages do get left – solutions for prompt returning of calls:
First: All the technology in the world is useless without accountability.
Here at JHB our bottom line is that customer voicemail messages are to be returned within 2 and no more than 4 business hours – period! And we have consequences in place should that not happen.
Second: VOIP can help with that too: For instance copies of any of the messages left in through the voicemail in our Allworx VOIP telephone system are set up to be emailed to multiple people all of whom may chose to respond to such messages. It works! Customers, prospects, donors and patients usually are thrilled to hear from more than one person in response to a concern or question they had. They see it as excellent customer service.
Third: Insist that every staff member’s voicemail greeting includes their email address: This can be accomplished even with non VOIP systems. If an individual’s voicemail greeting promises a even faster response if the caller drops that person an email – the emails will come! The really cool thing about this is that while your staff member maybe tied up on the phone they still may be able to multitask and answer questions or even take orders by email. That too is considered excellent customer service!
Finally: In voicemail greetings always provide a set time when one can expect a return phone call: Ideally that time should several business hours and no more than one business day. Note: The generally accepted 21st century translation for “I’ll get back to you as soon as possible” has come to mean “don’t bother leaving a message for me because I could really care less about returning your phone call” Not the best idea if one is committed to excellent customer service!
Have questions or comments about this or any of our blogs? Please contact us! We’d love to hear from you!
John Benincasa