Every company relies on great customer and client satisfaction. Once you get that initial business, encouraging brand loyalty is always the next step. Part of that relates to building a solid team. Another aspect is having the right systems in place to streamline your day-to-day operations. For that, communication is key. Although lots of customer interactions happen in-person, through email, or video conferencing, making phone calls will never go away.

3 Ways to Improve the Caller Experience

Knowing how to navigate calls professionally and maximize that customer experience is critical for growing a solid business. Reviewing these tips can help give you some ideas on how to make these moments even better—both for your employees, as well as the people you serve.

1. Are you using on hold recordings?

One quick solution that companies can overlook is how they utilize their callers’ downtime on the phone. If someone needs to be put on hold, it’s nice to be able to provide them with some pertinent information or something else of value while they wait. Even 30 seconds can make a big difference in how your brand communicates.

Effective on hold recordings focus on answering your company FAQs. Play the right ones, and you might address the caller’s concerns before they even get in touch with someone on your team. Another strategy is to share a little education that’s relevant to your industry or work environment. Do you have a fun fact to share? Some updates about your office policy taking effect next month? What about a special promotion? After that, you'll want to be sure to thank your caller for their patience.

2. Have you reviewed your training process?

Companies that actively track their customer satisfaction can also benefit from reviewing their customer service training schedule. If you only provide training during new employee on-boarding, maybe it’s time to plan some follow-ups or regular phone etiquette recaps for the whole team.

The basic tactics here really do add up. Smiling right away when you answer and then having a set rhythm or script helps start the conversation off on a positive note. Making an effort to speak clearly is also crucial, as is fine-tuning your company’s protocols for taking detailed messages. If a customer isn’t able to get the information they need right away, what’s the best way for them to get an answer quickly? Ideally, your business phone system would be able to transfer them to the right party so they could leave their own message.

3. Do you have business phones that keep things simple?

You have a variety of options for upgrading certain business phone systems to complement the way you work. One of the reasons why we choose to partner with Allworx communication systems is because they offer so many different software add-ons that can make your setup even better.

For example, you can give your front desk personnel a comprehensive call control dashboard with Allworx Interact. These work directly with desktops to make organizing calls and communication easy and fluid. Large organizations can also benefit from the Allworx Advanced Multi-Site software—because it connects up to 100 separate locations. And then with the new Allworx Reach solution, team members can get the flexibility they need to take business calls on-the-go, right from their iOS or Android devices.

If you’re interested in learning more about any of these business phone equipment upgrades, please don’t hesitate to contact our team at Enhanced Telecommunications. We proudly work with commercial clients throughout Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Give us a call at (208) 947-3900 to start the conversation!