The use of voicemails is declining, with major companies ditching their voicemail systems altogether. As a younger generation of consumers don’t use landlines and can often tell who called them from the screen of their phone, most don’t listen to voicemails.
Even as recently as ten years ago, leaving voicemails was an essential way to relay messages to a company, friend, or client. Now, voicemail technology seems antiquated. With companies embracing apps, chat modules, and SMS capabilities, voicemail is being left in the dust.
If you’re still relying on voicemails over a more responsive system or one with live operators, you’re at risk of falling behind.
Here are 5 reasons you should lose your voicemail before you lose customers.
1. Customers Face Different Challenges
Generic, cookie-cutter solutions will leave out customers in any industry. People are working on different schedules, families are functioning differently, and remote working is on the rise.
It is becoming more difficult to predict what times customers will attempt to reach you or your business. Your customers could be working remotely in another state and time zone which means that calling within normal business hours where they’re located doesn’t mean they’re calling within your normal business hours in your time zone. Even if all of your customers are local to your business, it’s extremely likely that they might call outside of what you consider to be your normal operating hours just because it’s what’s convenient for them. By attending to your customers’ needs when other companies are asleep at the wheel you have the opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition.
2. Customers Want To Speak To A Human Being
No one likes working through the labyrinth of a phone system or talking to robots. The only thing worse than that is speaking into a void following a beep.
Find a virtual receptionist service that allows your customers to talk to a live human being. If your customers call during a holiday, after you’ve just left the office, or when you’re away from your desk, let them speak to a real person because the alternative might be losing their business.
3. Voicemails Don’t Get Heard
You might have every intention of actually listening to your voicemails, but most of us simply don’t anymore. There are so many other forms of communication that are grabbing our attention first – like text messages, social media and emails. Why risk missing an important call because you didn’t clear out your voicemail box? This could ruin the image of your products and services in the mind of your customers.
Make sure everyone feels heard with something like an answering service.
4. Messages Don’t Get Updated
Accepting voicemails on your system means you have to update your messages regularly. If you have holiday hours, an unexpected closure, or a company party, do you ever remember to change your office’s message?
Partnering with a quality live answering service can help you avoid this pitfall. Many services will provide you with a holiday schedule and prompt you to keep your service updated with correct operating hours, etc.
5. Customers Expect A Response Within An Hour
Nearly 40% of customers now expect a response from a company within an hour. Are you available at 4 am to attend to their needs? Are your employees? And, even if your on-call technician is supposed to answer those early morning and late night calls, does she do so professionally? Probably now.
24/7 contact centers are staffed with trained Customer Service Professionals who can answer your after-hours calls promptly and professionally. And, with custom scripting and call routing, your staff can be alerted as needed. You’ll never lose business due to a slow response time.
Voicemail is Slowing Your Growth
If you’re still using voicemails, you’re putting a glass ceiling over the top of your company and you might not be able to break through it if you’re not available to all of your potential customers all of the time.
If you’re looking for a new way to approach customer communication, contact us to get started with something new.