You might think that voicemail offers the perfect solution to accessing your customers’ needs around the clock. It certainly offers a workable solution, but is it the right one?
The true cost of voicemail
Ideally, as a business, you want your door to be always open to customers, particularly if your marketplace goes beyond the domestic time zone. Depending on the services or goods you provide, your phone system is likely to be the front door to your business and having a live voice at the end of it could make all the difference.
Maybe it’s difficult to justify the cost of employing people to manage your phone lines around the clock but perhaps its worth addressing what might be considered as the hidden costs of using voicemail.
- Irritation factor – If a customer is contacting you with a problem or complaint it’s likely that being directed to voicemail will only increase their feeling of inconvenience. By the time you get around to returning their call, who knows to what level their frustration has risen already? In this scenario voicemail only serves to make an already difficult situation even worse.
- Lost business – Some people simply won’t consider using voicemail at all. If it is a potential new customer will they definitely call back? Even if it is an existing and already valued customer on the line it could be that at that moment they’re tempted to look elsewhere. Can you guarantee that they won’t find an equally good, or perhaps even better, service somewhere else? Again, depending on your business, the lifetime value of a customer could be huge. What cost voicemail now?
- Time management – For those that are happy to leave a message you still have to listen back to the calls and then make a note of the important information in order to proceed. Some callers may ramble endlessly before getting to the relevant part; others may talk too fast or incomprehensibly. You then have to trust the notes you make; have you definitely written that number down correctly?
How can call logging help?
Lanonyx’s Telestat Call Logging software gives you all the information you need regarding the flow of phones calls into your business. You can use the information to highlight training and resource issues as well as the benefit of knowing exactly who called, what time they called and how long the connection lasted.
It can also highlight the peaks and troughs in terms of when calls are received and provide vital information on the impact on your workforce. Maybe the information will flag up an opportunity to move work patterns around, providing cover for greater periods of time, offering a human connection at important times for the business, perhaps even negating the need for voicemail at all.
Incorporating call logging software into your system means that you can monitor important information on an ongoing basis, so if there are changing patterns in the dynamics of your business you’ll know about it as soon as possible. Information is most certainly power and means that you can meet the needs of your customers to provide them constantly with the service they deserve.
If you’d like to find out more about call recording or call logging software please don’t hesitate to give us a call; we’d be happy to tell you everything we know – which happens to be rather a lot! Drop us a line on 0333 0022 440, or contact us. We’re here ready to help