Even as businesses move increasingly towards online forms of customer service, telephone calls remain an absolute staple when it comes to one on one contact with clients, customers and potential sales leads. Depending on the nature of your business there are plenty of reasons why someone might be calling you directly. Whatever the nature of the call, the person on the other end of the phone has put the effort into contacting your business and therefore ought to be given the attention they deserve
This means that unanswered calls to your business can be hugely damaging to the reputation of your company. This damage can happen across 3 different levels:
Customers not feeling valued
Above all, telephone calls are much more personable than email exchanges. People find it’s much easier to get a point across, with much less room for things to get lost in translation than with emails. Missing a phone call can be the difference between a potential client feeling welcome and valued, and an annoyed customer feeling abandoned and undervalued.
Missed sales/upselling opportunities
As the lifeblood of most modern businesses, you can’t afford to miss those important sales calls. Whilst plenty of sales leads will be done online nowadays, the conversion rate when it comes to telephone exchanges will often be higher. If your office team are too busy to answer the phone, they could be missing out on crucial future income.
Decreasing your company’s credibility.
When you leave a phone call unanswered, not only are you denying yourself the opportunity to create a one on one connection with that person, you are also leaving them annoyed and unsatisfied. This means that far from the positive, helpful interaction they were hoping for, they will probably be left feeling well within their right to make a complaint, whether this is a 1-star review on Google or just telling their friends about their experience.
