Your Company’s Forgotten Entrance

Customers enter your business in three ways:

1. Your front door.
2. Your web site.
3. Your telephone.

You know how important first impressions are. You've chosen the right color of paint, the right furniture, maybe even hired an interior designer.

By now, every company has some sort of web site. Some are more functional than others, but the point is, you've thought about it. You know your customers go online, so it's important to have something for them as they enter your cyber door.

OK, now let's consider your telephone, or what I like to call, Your Company's Forgotten Entrance. Why "forgotten"? Because chances are, you have no idea what is happening right now when someone calls your company and has to wait anywhere within your phone system.

According to Inbound Outbound magazine, 94 percent of your marketing budget is spent trying to get the phone to ring, with 6 percent left over to handle the customer after they call. So what happens when a call comes in to your company? Chances are a transfer will take place to the appropriate person or department. Or they wait as someone is paged. Or they wait to go into voice mail. Or they hit zero to exit voice mail to see when that person will be available. In other words, they are waiting in your virtual "telephone lobby."

How much effort have you invested into decorating that lobby? In other words, what is occupying the attention of those customers that are interested enough in your company to want to pick up the telephone and call you? Do you make callers suffer through the voicemail jungle or do you staff your office with a warm friendly person? Did you know that Time Communications is able to capable of answering all of you incoming calls LIVE and transferring callers to the appropriate person or department?

"But no one goes on-hold at my company." Answer this: Is it anyone's job to watch the phone traffic and keep track? Does your phone system offer Call Accounting so you really know for sure? If so, are you using it? At Time Communications we can offer you reporting that shows every aspect of the calls we answer for you.

A survey of 30,000 callers by USA Business Telephone Today showed that 52 percent of callers hung up before they'd listen to 60 seconds of dead air!

Decorate that telephone lobby with specific information. Don't let them get up and walk out of your lobby (also known as caller hang-ups). Put that untapped asset of telephone air time to use. It's an asset you already own. Remember, THEY called YOU!