Creating a Better Customer Experience, One Call at a Time

If you make money using the phone, then your phone system needs to be a business enabler – not an inhibitor. Your prospects must be able to reach you in a timely manner. Your customers need to be able to find you – whether you’re at the front desk, in a meeting, or outside the office. That’s how you want to serve people. That’s how people want to be treated. Your business communications system needs to ensure you have the best tools to help you do your best job with your customer … today and tomorrow. But when someone calls your company and the phone rings endlessly or it goes straight to “mystery voicemail,” they may question how capable your business is. You want to show them you can serve them the way they want to be served. In short, your phone system needs to work for you, not against you. Below are two ways an onsite phone system can improve how you do business with your customers:

Enhance Flexibility and Eliminate Latency

Phone system latency is sometimes referred to as the “mouth-to-ear” delay. It’s based on:

• The number of rings it takes for someone to answer the phone
• The number of transfers made before finding the right team member
• The phone connection itself – i.e. if it’s choppy, breaks up, or has echoes

Addressing latency gives you speed and flexibility in how you run your business and respond to your customers. An onsite phone system allows you to address latency by routing calls using the power of work groups. Work groups can be created to respond to what’s happening in your business. For instance:

You have a new advertising campaign and you need more people ready to answer the phone There are changing weather conditions and you need to re-route how support is handled You want to improve how calls are routed to a team and establish a “top down” or “longest idle” calling pattern You have a business with seasonal considerations – holiday greetings, auto-attendants, seasonal high call volumes, etc.

With work groups, you can organize your call volume and ensure your best sales person or call center consultant gets the next call. The right onsite phone system enhances speed and flexibility in how calls are answered and how your customers’ needs are met. This reduces call times, hold times, number of transfers, and dissatisfied callers. That’s a win-win for you!

Improve the Reachability and Availability of Your Employees

Some people don’t like the current standard of being constantly available – anytime, anywhere. But business reality is, if you aren’t available … if you aren’t set up to respond to your customers, your customers are going to go elsewhere.  How easy is it for your customers to contact you or a team member?  It’s not just how long it takes to reach you! How easily can your customers access you? An onsite phone system can help you be available by allowing your phone to find you or key staff members. It gives you the flexibility to use external assignment rules that make your phones ring wherever you are – whether in a meeting, traveling, or visiting another site. You can even have several phones ring simultaneously, i.e. your desk phone and smartphone. That way you never miss a call! Onsite phone systems with Unified Communications (UC) give you access to the tools you need such as Microsoft Outlook, desktop client, and mobility features like “Find me/Follow me.” These basic UC tools are a must in today’s business environment so you and your staff are accessible to your customers and to each other always.

Creating a Better Customer Experience

You pride yourself on how you serve your customers. But if your current phone system isn’t helping you be responsive and available, then it might be inhibiting your business. Is it time to consider how your phone system can help you better serve your customers? If you’d like to evaluate how your phone system can be a business enabler, give us a call at (317) 805-1090.