First Impressions – the Real Impact of your Business Phone System

Every day there are fantastic new opportunities to make first impressions with new potential clients. Each new client who calls you may represent new business and revenue opportunities to impact your company for years to come. An important question to ask is “What does my phone system say about my company?”

When I make calls to inquiring companies that have requested information from me on a daily basis, the impressions I get about them run the gamut from “Boy this is a SMALL business” to “Wow that was incredible. These guys sound like a fortune 1000 Company.” What turns out to be somewhat amusing is that the two companies may very well be the same size, with the same number of employees, and they just might have a similar phone system. So what are the keys to first impression that make all of the difference? And what are some of the mistakes that companies make in an attempt to save money? Let’s evaluate:

Live Answer Scenarios:

If you insist on answering your business calls live, the person answering your phones is vital to your company. They are absolutely worth their weight in gold depending on call volume, as they are the direct representation of your company’s image over the phone. This person must be well spoken, well trained, and be able to use the features your system offers efficiently. What mistakes are made here that impact your first impression?
• Hiring the lowest dollar person possible to “just answer phones.”
• Hiring someone without proper language skills. (Including heavy accents, poor grammar, too much slang, too much casual language (y’know man, dude, etc), and someone unable to properly handle angry or upset customers.
• Not having someone properly trained to park calls, put callers on hold, transfer calls, ask if they’d like to go to voice mail, and in general able to use the phone system features.
• Not hiring someone friendly. Who wants to do business with someone who acts like they have no desire to help you?
We have all dealt with one of the above scenarios, and it absolutely affects how you view that business from day one, and for every day after that.

Automated Attendant Scenarios:

Unless you answer your telephone system live every time it rings, you most likely implement some type of automated attendant system. An automated attendant system will answer your call with a message and give your new caller some choices to choose from. Programmed correctly, an automated attendant can assist your caller to navigate your company directly easily and conveniently. Done wrong, untold amounts of frustration can occur, and it WILL cost you business. What are the most common mistakes made with automated attendants?
• Never use a TTS engine. (Text To Speech) Always use a live person with an inviting voice to make your recordings. No wants to speak to a robot. Unless your TTS engine is state of the art and sounds real, don’t even think about using it.
• Make your introductory statement brief and to the point. (Your customer does not want to know your entire company history before they can get some help, and this is especially frustrating for returning callers who just want to get to the choices, but can’t remember them.)
• Absolutely, 100% of the time you need to have a zero out option at ANY time. Some callers simply will refuse to deal with an automated attendant, and in order to not lose out on those potential customers, it is wise to have a well spoken friendly person ready to take their call and assist them. (See above criteria)
• Have an easy to use directory, and keep it updated! (There is nothing worse than pressing numbers that lead to nowhere, that disconnect you, and leave you muttering unseemly things under your breath) Time is money in business. If you waste your potential client’s time, they will NOT give you their money.
• Do not create an automated attendant hell. Keep your options short and sweet. Automated attendants are helpful in getting people where they want to go, but too many options and layers of pressing buttons will frustrate them quickly. As a rule, go no more than 3-4 levels deep.
• Keep your option tree updated, and when people are sent to the wrong options, make sure your users know how to send them to where they need to go. It is very common for users to accidentally disconnect your potential clients because they do not know how to properly operate the system they are using. If they disconnect your potential customer, the chances they bother to call back to your organization is slim and none.
• Do not ask for information in your IVR, and then ask for it again as soon as the live person answers. Either automate your systems to capture that information, or don’t ask for it in the first place. It makes your company look as if you have no idea what you are doing, and your potential clients find it maddening.
• Use Messaging on Hold. If your clients every go on hold while waiting for their party, have professionally produced recordings for them to listen to that promote your most profitable and hottest moving products and or services. The impression your company gives when you have such recordings is off the charts, and most systems are capable of supporting them.
• And most importantly, choose the voice on your automated attendant carefully. Many companies will choose to have professional voices make their recordings and upload them to their system. Doing so gives your company an edge that makes you stand out from your competitors. There is a huge difference between a radio or studio quality voice and Bob or Susie in the back office. No offense Bob or Susie, but it’s true!

Using these tips as a guide, you can make your company sound as big as you’d like over the phone, or as small and service oriented as the neighbor business next door. You know your market better than anyone, and your system offers you the ability to cater to them appropriately. Avoid the major pitfalls, and take advantage of the impression building power your telephone system has to create the first impression of your company that will keep your clients coming back for years!