Despite all the social media, email and other modern methods of communication, all businesses require a telephone number. Whether it is potential customers, suppliers or your employees needing to contact the main office, the telephone must be answered, otherwise you risk losing business or salient information. Employing someone to answer the telephone may be worth the investment to save losing a sale. Do they need to sit by the phone throughout their working day when an automated phone system can help redirect calls to the appropriate person?
Most individuals have experienced an automated phone system where you are provided with a menu and you press 1 to be taken to a certain department and 2 for another, and so on. There is usually an option to press 0 or another number to take you to the equivalent of an individual answering a general enquiry to your business.
The idea behind these automated phone systems is to encourage the caller to make correct choices so they can get through to a suitable individual at the business without having to wait to be redirected.
Do They Save Companies Money?
The idea, in theory, is that they do save a company the time of organizing and paying for a full-time receptionist. In practice, they are also regarded as an annoyance for callers having to negotiate a system rather than speaking to a human being.
Employing an individual to answer your outside phone line is an expensive business. You must pay a good salary if you are to employ an individual who is suitable to represent your business as they will be the first point of contact with the customer or supplier. Then you need to employ someone to answer the phone when they are taking a break, having lunch, on sick leave or away on vacation. An automated phone system removes the need to hire an individual for this task. Your computerized phone system does not have to be retrained when an employee leaves your business.
Many of these phone systems are chosen because they provide a high level of consistency for anyone contacting your business and they can operate 24/7 and even on Christmas Day.
By programming your system correctly, you can develop an extremely professional presentation, identically, for every call and they do not have an off day or need to leave early to attend an appointment.
The difficulty with the system is trying to return to providing a human response to the caller while working as efficiently as an automated arrangement. The answer lies within interactive voice response systems.