Having too many customers is just about the best problem a business can have. Some people would call that an overflow of riches. When you are running a business, you obviously want to bring in as many customers as possible. Many seasonal businesses tend to run into problems, though. If, for example, you have a Christmas tree business, you probably don’t have much business during the summer. However, business obviously jumps incredibly during the winter. It’s very difficult to staff that business. So, do you staff for the summer when it’s incredibly slow or do you staff for the winter when it’s busy?
Many people choose to staff for the summer and then hire temporary workers during the busy season. Other managers will try to handle the influx of new phone calls and customer requests by implementing an automated system. That’s definitely the wrong way to go. Here is why:
Customers and Automated Systems
Recent research conducted by some business analysts has proven definitively that customers do not like speaking to automated systems. They don’t like the ‘Press 1 for customer service’ and so on. They don’t like voice activated systems, either. In fact, this research found that 80% of customers actually dislike it. It also found that 40% of customers will choose not to call a certain business because it has an automated system or will hang up when they realise it’s an automated system. That means you could be losing 40% of your customers.
So, why do businesses go with automated systems if everyone thinks they’re so annoying? Well, they think they’ll save money. Automation is cheaper than having an actual person answering your phone for you. However, if you’re annoying 80% of your customers and driving away up to 40% of your customers, you’re not saving any money. There is an alternative.
Message-Taking Services
Message-taking services offered by Netcall Solutions are a great example of a way to save money and still employ actual people to answer your phones. With a message-taking service, you don’t actually have to hire anyone. You simply forward your phone calls to the message service. The trained professionals there will answer the phone on your behalf. They’ll take messages from your customers and pass them along to you in whatever format you want.
You can save money for your business because you might not have to hire any additional workers. You can simply contract out a message-taking service that will handle your calls for you. With the very best services you don’t have to actually sign any sort of long-term contract. You can forward as many calls to them as you would like, and you can stop whenever you would like. That’s actually one of the most useful features of these services. You could, for example, forward your calls while you made a run to the store for more supplies. It could be that simple.
The bottom line is, your customers don’t want to talk to a machine, and you’ll cost yourself some money if you try to make them.