Hiring an answering service to help ensure all your calls are answered in a timely manner and that appointments are being set without delay is a great way to improve your customer service level.
In fact, customers have told eMarketer that although they use the phone more often to handle customer service issues, they also find it the most frustrating of all contact channels. Because of that, 54 percent of Millennials, 50 percent of Gen Xers and 52 percent of Baby Boomers have completely stopped doing business with companies that make it hard for them to make contact this way.
It might seem like achieving excellent customer service is harder and harder these days, but the truth is that too many companies are giving their callers too little. That’s why tools like call forwarding can make such a difference. Your answering service partner can enable call forwarding for you, and really give your callers the personal touch they crave—and more.
Call forwarding can also allow you to make your business more flexible! Here are just a few ways:
Creating a virtual office. You don’t have to be in any particular place for call forwarding to work. Just set the right numbers to call the right smartphone and suddenly your virtual workplace has all the credentials of a physical office. Whether you go to your customers or everything is handled over the phone or email, there’s no reason to spend extra money on an office you don’t need.
Allowing an immediate connection, even on the go. Being stuck to a desk phone is fine if most of your work is done in the office, but when you have to check job sites or show rental units or even present cases in court, it’s important that you’re reachable when you’re on the go. Even if you’re an office of one, you can still service most of your callers when you’re on the move by simply forwarding your office phones to your smartphone.
Keeping communications open, even in an emergency. Although no one wants to think about having to deal with a disaster or a customer emergency, when these things happen, you have two options: be prepared and give your customers an undeniable sense of security or completely mess up the situation and lose them forever. Call forwarding allows you to answer the office phones no matter what’s happening, be that a local disaster or an after-hours emergency. Customers will talk about your above-and-beyond service in a time of crisis, there is no doubt.
Improving response times. If nothing else, setting up call forwarding with your answering service can improve your call response times. Instead of your customers being forced to your office voicemail, you can simply redirect them to your mobile phone while you’re away from your desk. Even when your callers get your mobile voicemail, it’s at your fingertips, making it faster and easier to respond to their messages.
Features like call forwarding can turn your answering service into more than just a phone answering company. It can become a tool that seriously maximizes your customer touch and increases your customer happiness. Using these tools smarter means you won’t have to work harder to make everybody happy.
