4 Ways Your Phone System is Killing Your Brand

You might not think much about how your phone system affects your brand, but not surprisingly,

78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience.¹

 

Technology changes fast and so can your business. It’s time to upgrade if your business phone system suffers from the following death traps.

Busy Signals

If I’m still getting busy signals trying to reach your business, I know your technology is outdated and I’m probably not buying from you. According to a survey of millennials on phone interactions with small businesses,

consistent busy signals is a top issue with making calls to small businesses.²

 

As far as first impressions go, busy signals are a deal breaker. It takes on average 10 attempts to get a decision-maker on the phone.³ When they’re coming to you, make it count.

How do you eliminate busy signals?

If you are still getting phone service from your local cable provider therein lies the source of your problems. Landlines and on-premise phone systems are limited when it comes to supporting multiple simultaneous calls. Without purchasing additional rollover lines, your callers will get a busy signal anytime you’re on the phone.

Hosted phone systems, on the other hand, don’t work the same way since there are no physical lines to run and calls are sent over the internet. Your callers will NEVER get a busy signal, even if all your phones are ringing at the same time. At worst, you can send them to voicemail or place them in a call queue.

No Professional Greeting

If you don’t have a receptionist, you can have an automated menu. Make sure it’s not overly complicated and actually works, but it makes a difference in perception. Out of the group surveyed,

22% say the auto attendant greeting is the most influential factor on brand.²

 

Automated menus provide two benefits: raises your brand and gets callers to the right place. There is a right way and a wrong way to set up your IVR menu, and I write more about that here: A Phone Menu Can Make or Break First Impressions.

Unrecognizable Phone Number

The invention of caller ID also led to the rise of call screening. Unknown Caller must be the loneliest person in the world, because no one likes taking their calls.

28% of millennials cited problems with unrecognizable phone numbers.²

 

Do customers even know it’s you calling? There is an easy fix for this and it’s called CNAM. It’s a little service that providers like Telzio offer where you can customize your caller ID name. The name you specify will appear as your caller ID even if you’re not stored in the recipient’s phone book. It’s a better look when your caller ID shows up with a personalized name rather than Unknown Caller.

Unreachable Employees

An inefficient call routing system is an efficient way to tarnish your brand and process. The IVR menu will be your savior. Without paying for additional phones, lines, or labor, you can instantly route callers to anyone on your team.

Being a startup or having a micro budget is no longer a barrier to “sophisticated” phone system capabilities. It does not get any easier to configure a phone system where callers can dial employees by extension during the menu greeting. 

As the caller enters an option from the menu, you can route them to different employees, departments, and offices. Creating call groups, or “hunt groups”, with Telzio’s call forwarding feature.

If you recognize any of these issues in your phone system, sign up for a test run with Telzio.

¹http://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/
²http://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/small-business-pbx/
³https://www.siriusdecisions.com/Blog/2012/Jun/Making-the-Case-for-Teleprospecting.aspx