The phone system for your small business serves as a prime gateway between you and your customers, making it a crucial consideration in how you do business in the coming year. The non-stop trend of new in-person and e-commerce businesses continually entering the marketplace in all industries means that customer service focus is essential to stay competitive, CustomerZone360 says.
Do you feel satisfied with your phone system and how effective it is at helping your employees provide satisfaction to your customers? If you feel like it use some improvements, we have five hot small business phone system features that can boost your organization’s customer service experience in 2020.
1. Voicemail and Voicemail Transcription
Voicemail transcription and transmission to email or a text messaging system is a highly effective tool for today’s busy customer service representatives. Also referred to as “speech to text,” “voicemail to text” or “voice to text,” this service converts audio voicemail messages into text format, then sends each message to the designated user via email or text message.
Voicemail transcription eliminates the need for customer service employees to take time out of their busy call schedule to listen and decipher garbled messages. They can simply pull up an easy-to-read message and address the issue right away.
2. Call Accounting and Recording
Sometimes customer service employees encounter complex service calls that may need further review from management. Call accounting and recording can help by recording telephone calls and creating transcriptions to allow for more in-depth review to understand the dynamics of complicated conversations.
3. Voice over Internet Protocol
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is not new to the small business phone market, but it is an ever-evolving technology that continually assists businesses. VoIP is a method or a group of technologies set to deliver voice communications and multimedia capabilities over IP networks.
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This telecommunications strategy offers a huge menu of possibilities to improve customer service that include advanced functionality and flawless HD phone quality, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and conference bridges.
VoIP is increasingly referred to as “cutting the cord” since analog phone systems are going extinct in the marketplace. These systems will help bridge the transition from analog to digital telecommunications for small businesses.
One more highly attractive reason that people are opting for VoIP service is that it costs 75 percent less than traditional phone service, according to Business.com.
4. Tailored Music and On-Hold Messages
Depending on a business’s incoming call volume and staffing size, hold times can vary greatly, causing stress for customers and customer representatives trying to manage everything with courtesy and patience. As business leaders know, however, it is never ideal to put customers on hold for any longer than is necessary. Worse still, you don’t want them to sit in silence, wondering if their call has been forgotten or if they have been disconnected. Without audible cues, you risk losing valuable customers who are likely to hang up.
Tailor music and messages to support your brand and reinforce customer confidence. Provide information about your business, such as details regarding your marketing needs, corporate branding and upcoming events and promotions.
Each of these small business phone system features can help your customer service team thrive by expediting basic tasks with voicemail transcription, fostering customer comfort with unique hold messages, importing countless additional bells and whistles with VoIP and keeping accurate records of calls.
