Despite the emergence of online chats, more than half of customers prefer to solve the problems and discuss their orders during a phone conversation with an agent. The company's goal is to create conditions of convenient telephone communication for customers that will help increase the company revenue. Modern VoIP telephony has various services that target issues of business communication.
First Issue: Phones are Hot from Customer Calls, But There Are No Funds For A Secretary
First-time entrepreneurs often face situations where customer requests are starting to build up, but the efforts of a small team are not enough to handle all of the calls. At the same time, they cannot afford to hire a receptionist or a secretary that could respond to calls.
Solution: You can decrease the clutter in calls by using a VoIP service - Interactive Voice Response, or IVR. You can use pre-recorded audio messages to greet customers, inform them about the company's working hours, and let them redirect their call to a relevant manager or department. You can decrease your missed calls if you add a Callback feature to your IVR.
Second Issue: Office Uses Used Or Outdated Equipment, Which Leads To Voice Quality Issues, But Upgrading Everything is Expensive
Using the same telephony equipment over the years will eventually lead to voice quality issues. There could be noise during the conversation, or customers will be difficult to hear you. It's not always possible to have a technical specialist that can fix these issues on staff. But losing customers is not an option either.
Solution: The transition to IP telephony allows you to use office computers with softphones instead of old landline phones. It is easier to order a high-quality headset so that specialists answer customer calls than to re-equip an entire office. In addition, the IP provider Freezvon is in charge of maintaining the technical capacity, not the enterprise. All a company needs is high-speed internet.
Third Issue: There is a Lack of High-Quality Business Presentation and Few Customer Calls
Between a little-known company and one that already has a recognized brand, customers are more likely to choose the second option. The cost of advertising is also lower. But what to do when a business has recently entered the market or is not yet known, which makes it difficult to attract customers?
Solution: The first step in establishing customer trust is a phone number. Connecting a landline virtual number will allow you to better meet customer expectations and look more presentable. You can even use virtual numbers for advertising to track which sources are easier for you to reach target customers from.
Additional methods to increase the number of customers:
- Set up a branded welcome message for incoming calls. This will increase the company's recognition and improve its image.
- Work on website optimization and use the Callback widget to increase leads. A pop-up banner could appear on the goods page, offering a customer to order a callback. Customers won't lose their time looking for contact information, and the company has to call the customers back within 30 seconds, while their interest is still high enough.
Fourth Issue: Customers Leave Because the Manager Is Not Answering the Incoming Calls In Time and Does Not Process the Missed Calls
Have you noticed that there are more incoming calls to the company, but the quantity of orders stays the same? If the company does not have dedicated staff members for sales and support, then it is a probable situation. Managers cannot answer in time, forget to call back, are tired, and work slowly.
Solution: You need to find out the reason why customers leave, and you can use data for that. Your account at Freezvon will allow you to keep track of every virtual number: how many incoming calls there were, how many missed calls, how many outgoing calls made by your managers, the length of the conversation, even the cost. Check out the length of the call, and, with call recordings, the content of the conversation between a manager and a customer.
Possibly, you need to change a script of conversation or give your manager additional time to answer everyone. You should use a virtual PBX for that, then you will be able to set up a greeting message and manage call queues, distributing the calls between managers. If it is not possible to keep people on staff on a permanent basis, you can hire a remote worker with flexible hours and forward calls to them during peak hours or nighttime.
Fifth Issue: Low Control Over the Employee's Work, Negative Customer Service Reviews
As the number of employees grows, it's harder to keep an eye on their motivation. It happens that a manager does not understand the sector-specific issues completely, and because of it, cannot offer a good recommendation for a customer, or is not interested in the quality of the service. To understand whether your employees lack knowledge or motivation, which hinders good customer service, use VoIP tools.
Solution: Activate call recordings. If an employee does not work by the script or does not spend enough time on customer needs, they need training. But pay attention not only to business etiquette, but to how the missed calls are processed as well. If you're already using a virtual PBX, it and a CRM's combined efforts will help manage customers. You should also note the missed calls statistics and create reminders. Having automized your process, you will lower the risk that your employees will lose customers or conduct a call badly.
Using VoIP telephony will allow the company to become more flexible and faster react to any bottlenecks regarding customer interactions. Freezvon will help to adapt virtual PBX, VoIP services that your company requires, and set all of them up in a way that can minimize your telecommunication issues.
