Hosted Business Phone Service Options For Enhanced Customer Service

VoIP business phone service is uniquely positioned to allow your company to provide customer service that goes above and beyond. There are many features which can be included to improve customer experience and satisfaction, first and foremost being quick access to a live person for important calls. You can sort calls according to importance using an automated greeting, and funnel the most important calls directly to an answered line for immediate attention.

The steps your customers should encounter when they call your business should include:

1. Greeting and Attendant Menu. Customers should be greeted politely and briefly, and presented with a short menu of options. The first option should be the ability to dial by directory – an invaluable timesaver if your customer has a pre-existing issue and needs to communicate with a representative who has already worked with them. This alone can increase customer satisfaction tenfold.

2. Other Menu Options. These can include a choice of ‘sales department’, which can be routed directly to the sales rep queue, ‘problem with an order’ which gets sent directly to customer service, or ‘other questions’, which can be routed to the receptionist for a determination of which department should take the call.

3. Groups. You can streamline your customers’ experience by enabling groups. This allows all phones in that group to ring simultaneously, with the first representative to pick up handling the call. You can also opt for phones to ring in a predetermined order (this works well for priority calls, especially if you have a tiered administrative structure – the secretary’s phone can ring first, then the assistant’s, then the manager – working up through the levels so the call is certain to be taken instead of simply bumped to voicemail.)

4. On Hold. If your customer must be placed on hold, a message can be put in place to play at regular intervals so they don’t feel like they were put on hold and left in limbo. The annoyance of a prolonged wait time can further be alleviated by background music or a friendly soft sell or informational message about your company.

5. Call Back. At times when you are experiencing extraordinarily high call volume, you can opt to add an option to your attendant menu, letting customers know their wait time may be extended, and offering them the option to be placed in queue for a call back. This allows your customer to get on with their day, without ‘losing their spot in line’.

Using VoIP business phone service options to make your customers happy instead of frustrated when they have reason to call you is good business sense. With the ability to route calls automatically, to prioritize them based on customer input, and to ensure calls are always taken or returned in a timely manner, you solidify your company’s reputation for sterling quality service.