Archive for August, 2012


Your Phones or Social Media?

Chris Brogan writes about how companies are jumping on the Social Media bandwagon as a customer service tool, while their existing customer infrastructure is in major need of a transformation!

So companies are going to the social media space to reach customers, and rightfully so. But in the rush to meet customers where they’re at, those same companies are forgetting that 91 percent of U.S. households have cell phones (Source: CTIA December 2009), and I have never walked into a business that didn’t have a landline of some sort.

The telephone as a tool to connect to customers may be the most overlooked “social media” tool there is. I talk to companies almost every day who have no idea what their customers hear when they call. These companies have spent thousands (and sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars on marketing and advertising, without considering how the Caller Experience they provide will impact that potential sale.

So while on one hand, social media is working hard to deliver customer satisfaction, at the same time, the Caller Experience is fighting against its efforts!

I’m all for social media. It’s certainly a very valid and current way to reach customers. But it would be a much more effective tool if customers weren’t turning to it as a last resort, out of frustration from the Caller Experience!

Fix the leak in your cup before filling it up. Your customers will thank you.


Night Answer Options

Having your phone system change the greeting when you’re closed is a very customer-friendly thing to do.

Think about this scenario: It’s 5:05 p.m. You need to order parts, so you pick up the phone, call the parts company, and your call is answered by its Auto-Attendant. It then puts you in queue for the parts department, and you wait. And wait. And wait.

Pretty soon it dawns on you that the parts company probably closed at 5 p.m. Or was it 6 p.m.? You simply don’t know! Do you continue to hold, not wanting to lose your place in the queue? Or are you the only fool holding while the phones ring incessantly in an empty building?

The only way to keep your customers from experiencing this situation is to use a night answer option. Program it to let your callers know instantly that you are closed. You can then give them options to leave a voicemail, route to specific people’s voicemail boxes, or even direct them to the web.

Some systems will enable you to count calls that come in after hours, so you can determine whether adjusting your hours would bring you more business. Don’t leave your customers in the dark! If you’re closed, let them know, and provide them with ways or times they can engage with you.


Voicemail Etiquette

Callers are going to get your voicemail at some time or another, and there are some specific things you can do on your greeting that will greatly help connecting with your callers!

Speak clearly

The greeting you record on your own voicemail box can be critical to how callers connect with you. Number 1 on the list of things to remember is: Speak Clearly. I’ve heard dozens of mumbled greetings, garbled recordings, speaking too fast. That is not a great way to start a relationship! Your greeting should be an invitation for people to connect with you. Speak clearly and distinctly. That doesn’t mean overly slow or robotic, but you want people to be able to understand you.

 

Use your name

“Hi. Leave a message” Hmmm, have I reached the right voicemail? Was that really that person’s voice I heard? I don’t want to leave this message for the wrong person and look like an idiot. Maybe I just won’t leave a message at all.

Use your name in your message. It provides confirmation to your callers that they have reached you, and that they’re not on some accidental mis-dial adventure that sends them off into Generic Voicemail Land.

 

Use your own voice when possible

Second to using your name, your voice most closely identifies your mailbox. Use it. Record your own greeting. Don’t leave it up to the phone installer, your secretary, or some person you find on the sidewalk. It’s your voicemail, so record it in your voice! And customize it beyond the default standard of “You have reached the voicemail of…<insert your name here>…please leave a message after the tone.”

Think of your voicemail not as a hassle, or a pain, but as a way to multiply your effectiveness. It allows you to be in two places at once. One, answering calls at your desk, and two, out where you want or need to be. So use your voice when you record your voicemail greeting.

 

Provide alternate means of connecting with you

If another way of reaching you is preferred, you want to give people the option; it’s a great way to let people know how to reach you. Leave your email address or cell phone. More than one or two alternate options is probably too many, but it might be easier to remind people about your email address than to play phone tag with them only to find out they wanted you to attach a file and email it to them! Remember, 51 percent of people are extroverted and would prefer to pick up the phone and call you, even when an email would be more efficient!

 

Change it frequently (daily)

Changing your voicemail daily might sound like a chore right now, but what a difference it makes in the connection you’re able to provide by updating people about your daily plans. Are you in the office today, but temporarily tied up? Are you out of the office all day, so they shouldn’t expect a call back today? Will you be out in the morning, but back in this afternoon? Or are you on permanent vacation? (in which case, maybe voicemail isn’t applicable to you! Send me your secret so I can join you!)

I’ve often appreciated reaching people who have updated their voicemail daily. Most phone systems will let you set a one-button speed dial to connect with your voicemail to change the greeting. Very quick and easy.

One caveat: Don’t forget to change your message back after a holiday, vacation, or being away. That’s easily solved if you do it every day, but if you forget, it’s a little embarrassing that your summer vacation greeting is what callers hear in November!


Repeat the greeting automatically

Set up your Auto-Attendant to repeat the greeting automatically, and if you can’t do that, select an option key for callers to press that will replay the message. Callers may miss the option they need the first time, and not realize it until later. Some systems automatically route the call to the operator if you don’t press anything. But don’t automatically route the call until after the message has repeated at least once.

 

I’ve heard Auto-Attendants that disconnect the call if you don’t make a selection quickly enough! Talk about not being customer-friendly! A recorded voice saying, “Goodbye,” simply because I was thinking about the option I needed, or didn’t realize I had reached the end of the menu, is a great way to lose a customer!


Make it easy to reach a live person

Always. Always. Always give the option for your caller to reach a live person. Make it easy. Don’t hide behind your phone system, forcing callers to do things the way you want them done. I can guarantee you that at some point, a customer will call with some issue that doesn’t fit neatly into your pre-programmed options, and connecting that caller to a live person will resolve the issue with less frustration on his or her part.

You can resolve this situation with the standard press “0” for the operator option, or by some other unique way. (“If you want to reach someone, anyone, just press 0, and we’ll be happy to talk to you!”)

Think about who should take those calls. It depends on your business structure, but consider not sending those calls to a receptionist or secretary. Think about it….What this caller needs hasn’t been addressed by any of the options in your Auto-Attendant. Do you think the secretary is qualified to handle the caller’s request? Likely not.

That doesn’t mean route the call to the business owner or president, but at least send those calls to a person (or group of people) who has the power to make things happen, answer in-depth questions, or otherwise generally make customers happy (which is, after all, the point of your business…isn’t it?)

Having said that, when calls come in that are simple, but will take more than a minute to answer, have someone designated to receive that call. There may be calls that come in that can be handled by the secretary. Have a plan simply to say, “Mrs. Jones will be glad to help you with that. May I transfer you directly to her?”

Always give the option to reach a live person in some way. Your customers will thank you for it!


Put the Most Popular Option First

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the Auto-Attendant and On-Hold messages at some companies. I mean, who are they kidding? Is your call really “very important to us”?

 

The Caller

By Frank Halliwell

“Good morning! Thanks for calling us!

We’re pleased to hear from you!

Your call’s important to us

So we’ve placed you in a queue.

Please find your account number and

Be sure it is correct.

It’s twenty digits long and if you

Mis-type, I’ll reject.

I’ll lead you through the whole routine

Please use your touch type phone.

Press eight and follow with the hash

After you hear the tone.

If you are a new client here.

Press two, if old, press three.

Press four in case we’ve done something

With which you disagree!

You have pressed four, please wait a moment

While I transfer you.

And please enjoy, while we play you

A symphony or two!

Our staff are all too busy now

To talk to such as you.

Your call is so important that

We’ve placed you in a queue.”

Time passes and the music lingers

On, and bye and bye.

My cheek and ear go fast asleep,

My wrist gets R.S.I.

But wait! It may be there is hope!

I hear a ringing sound,

At last a human voice is heard

After the runaround!

“Good morning, this is Ladies wear

And may we help somehow?

Complaints?. Oh! Just hang on a tick

I’ll transfer you right now!…”

“Good morning! Thanks for calling us!

We’re pleased to hear from you!

Your call’s important to us

So we’ve placed you in a queue.

Recently I was researching the features of a customer’s phone system at the manufacturer’s website, and the manufacturer had this to say about its On-Hold message:

 

The InterStellar Phone System gives you the opportunity to have music playing while a caller is on hold. Best of all you can insert interruptions during each recording in order to play a message.

 

You’ve experienced this kind of On-Hold situation whether or not you remember it. You’re On-Hold, listening to the music or messaging, when all the sudden “click.” The music is interrupted, and hope springs up within you that your call is going to be answered. Only to have your hopes dashed by the message, “Your call is important to us; please continue to hold.”

Can you say, “Disappointment”?

I was On-Hold with a company last week that interrupted its On-Hold music with this reminder that I was On-Hold every ten seconds! Never do this to your callers.

Just because you use an Auto-Attendant doesn’t mean it has to be a poor caller experience.

Want to know what your caller’s experience is like? Try a Caller Experience Evaluation service. It’s like climbing inside your customer’s head and hearing your business from his perspective. Very informative!

A recent client who used this service, gave this feedback: “Thanks for getting the report to me as fast as you did. I will be correcting a lot of the concerns you pointed out. Thanks again!”

Don’t give your callers the run-around.


Always Give the Option Before the Number!

As I approached the elevators to head to my fourteenth floor hotel room recently, I was met with the elevator selector pictured here. Someone on the design team of this elevator company felt 100 percent positive that this selector was designed clearly so I would have no trouble at all in choosing whether I wanted to go up or down. You may think so as well.

But look closely…

If you wanted to go Up, do you push the button that the Up arrow is pointing to? Or the button beside the Up arrow? It kinda looks a little circular to me, and that could get frustrating!

Here’s what this elevator selector has to do with phone systems. Too often, the Auto-Attendant is set up on the fly by whoever is installing the phone system. Sure, the installer has tried to get the business owner or manager to tell him what options to program, and what to say, but the truth is, the business owner is thinking “Phone System” at that point, not “Caller Experience.” See, those are two different parts of the brain!

How many times have you called a phone system that sounds like this: “Thank you for calling XYZ Corp, where we really value your business! If you know your party’s four-digit extension, you may enter it at anytime. Please press 1 for Sales. Please press 2 for Service. Please press 3 for Parts. Please press 4 for Accounting. Please press 5 for Human Resources, or press 0 to reach an operator. Press 9 to repeat this message.”

That’s even hard to write, must less listen to over the phone! And here’s why: When you give the number before the option, I have to hold that number in my head while I listen to the option, and I have to analyze whether or not that’s the option I need. After listening above, I’ve got a total of seven options in my head, and they are all jumbled together. Because I’m not calling to push a number…I’m calling to go to a department.

If you list the department first, followed by the option (“To reach sales, press 13”) the department name, “clicks” with what I’m looking for in my head, making it a very easy choice to press 1. If I don’t need the Sales department, I can simply forget about that option altogether, and move on to the next one.

There’s a time to answer the phones with a live person. And there’s a time to use an Auto-Attendant. (Do you know which one to use when?)

When you decide to use an Auto-Attendant, make sure the options are clear, and easy for your caller to understand—not confusing like our elevator. If you confuse your callers, they won’t know which way is up! (and they will go for the last option they hear by pressing 1″!)

So what does your Auto-Attendant sound like from the caller’s perspective?


And…we’re back!

For those of you keeping track, you may have noticed there haven’t been many (any?!) blog posts here in the past 2 weeks.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but we’ve succssfully transitioned to a newer (dare I say “better”?) host platform.

Now we’re ready to get back on track!

So, regular updates, posts from my latest book “Hold the Cheese! Transforming Your Caller’s Experience“, and information to help improve your customer experience are all on the way!

It was time to get back on this! Besides, my computer kept sending me images like this:


Repeat your Auto-Attendant options

When you have reached the end of your options, allow the caller to repeat, but let the caller know that is what is happening. You can give him the choice to repeat (“To repeat these options, press *”), or you can automatically repeat them (stay on the line to hear these options repeat).

Sometimes people do need to hear the options again, and simply to send them to an operator won’t serve them or your business the most effectively.

No matter what, NEVER simply disconnect the call after the options are played! That is a great way to make sure people never call you back!

Let callers know the number of options upfront. (“Please choose from the following six options.”)

Another way to manage your caller’s expectations is to let him know at the very beginning, how many options you will give him. That would sound like, “Please select from the following six options.” This information allows callers to know how long they’ll have to listen, and how many choices they need to keep in their heads before they choose a selection.