All business owners know that customers are the lifeline of your business and you need them if you want your business to see another day. About 50% of small businesses fail in the first four years, and according to a U.S. Bank study, a whopping 82% of businesses that fail do so because of cash flow problems.
To guarantee you capture customers from the start and ensure their return, it is vital that you provide superb customer service. When an individual calls your business, it may be the first time they are interacting with you, and unfortunately, a bad experience could contribute to you losing them as a customer forever. Do not let this be the case for your business. Here are three indicators that it may be time to partner with an answering service.
Unable to keep up with call volume
As your business grows, you may notice that you, your receptionist, or internal contact center are unable to keep up with the amount of calls you are receiving. Having a high call volume is never a bad thing, but if you are unable to keep up with the calls, it might not benefit your business either. One way an answering service can assist is by handling all of your incoming calls. Whether your callers have questions about your product or need some assistance with using it, they can handle it all.
Also, if there are only certain parts of the day when call volume tends to be higher than others, instead of hiring additional staff for sporadic periods of time, you could partner with an answering service to assist only during those peak hours. This will ensure that your customers receive a professional and friendly answer every time and are not spending minutes on end listening to hold music or a message letting them know their call is important.
Decreased Customer Satisfaction
If customers are constantly waiting on hold to get in touch with your company they will not be very pleased with your service. Studies show that after an average of 1 minute and 55 seconds of hold time most callers hang up annoyed – 34% of those callers who hang up will not call back. Unfortunately, hold times are not the only thing you have to worry about. Once the caller is speaking with a customer service representative, does the representative sound professional and knowledgeable?
Are they actually able to assist the caller? 57% of consumers said that companies are clueless; it sometimes feels like the consumer knows more about the company than the customer service agent. Additionally, another 51% of the same consumers mentioned that companies are impersonal and sometimes they can’t even get the customer’s name right.
Missing Calls
As the saying goes, “missed calls are missed opportunities” and overall they are just bad for business. If a customer is already upset and is unable to reach your business, it will likely only make them more upset. If a new prospective customer is calling and is unable to reach someone, they will likely just move on to your competition.
A recent statistic from Forbes magazine showed that 80% of callers sent to voicemail do not leave messages because they do not think they will even be heard. When you fail to adequately answer your customers’ calls, it causes them to feel frustrated, questioning if you are the right company to handle their business, and leaves their issues unresolved or their questions unanswered.
If you feel like your company could use the help of an answering service, don’t wait any longer! Contact us today to see how we can assist your business!
