The success of your business is highly dependent on getting in touch with customers by offering reliable lines of communication and the broadest possible access. And, considering that many customers still prefer to handle major business decisions over the phone, ensuring that your business’ telecommunications presence is up to par is mandatory in the 21st century.
One of the most frustrating problems that businesses have is getting in contact with customers, only to have those same customers return the phone calls and not be able to reach your business. However, what happens if your business is doing everything it can to reach customers but for whatever reason, those customers cannot reach you?
You’ll be missing out on business calls, which negates your organization’s marketing efforts and wastes capital. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can maximize your communication efforts and avoid missing important business calls.
Opening Up Lines of Communication
Img source: engitechservices.com
Perhaps the first thing your business should do is open up lines of communication for inbound calls. Depending on where you wish to do business, you want to have a phone number that potential customers and clients can call that corresponds to the country’s unique area code and country code. For instance, your German business may be located outside of the United States, where you wish to do business.
By using US phone numbers, which route your Germany-based phone calls through the Internet, callers in the United States can you reach your business without having to pay long-distance fees and facing restrictions from their service providers. Remember, not every single customer has the ability to reach businesses located around the world, or they may not have the preference of doing business with non-domestic entities. Therefore, you can maximize your communication efforts. In this case, it can be highly beneficial to use virtual phone numbers to open up lines of communication.
Outbound Calling
Img source: nodacontact.com
One of the problems of virtual phone numbers is that when a business decides to directly reach its customers, a series of unrecognizable digits appear on the recipient’s caller ID instead of a recognizable phone number. This can be off-putting, and you may never truly know how receptive they will be to your business. The solution to this issue is to use an add-on known as ‘outbound calling’ in conjunction with virtual phone numbers.
Using an outbound-calling-enabled virtual phone number allows you to call potential customers and clients while having your chosen virtual phone number (see above) appear on their caller ID. Just this small detail alone can make a huge difference in the public image of your organization.
Simultaneous Ringing
As one of the most popular add-ons for virtual phone numbers, simultaneous ringing can make your business more accessible. Simultaneous ringing ensures that inbound phone calls aren’t lost due to an available employee being absent or busy with another caller. When inbound calls are made to your virtual phone number, devices that are linked to the system all ring simultaneously until the call is answered. This ensures that if a customer makes an effort to reach your business, their inquiries don’t go unanswered.
Img source: webhelp.com
Time of Day Routing
For business clients and customers, having the ability to transition between available staff members depending on the time of the day is a crucial way to ensure that your communication is as all-encompassing as possible. That’s where using the add-on of ‘time of day routing’ can customize how inbound calls are funneled.
For instance, considering a business in New York City that runs between the hours of 9 AM – 6 PM EST. Outside of this timeframe, calls are normally forwarded to a voicemail — which may have international customers seeking help elsewhere. Callers in London – which is 5 hours ahead – may want to speak to a company representative at 10 AM UWT (which is 5 AM EST). Businesses that use time of day routing can have those inbound calls forwarded to another branch office or call center, where calls can be processed to the best of their ability, offering the ability to ‘officially’ handle business when your headquarters starts its workday.
