They very last thing you need in business is a frustrated, disgusted, or angry customer or potential customer! Yet, the “automated phone answering equipment” you are thinking about getting installed will be the very first aggravation your clients will deal with.
Some slick salesman has convinced you that automated equipment with make you more efficient, save you time, money, and make you look more professional. In reality, it makes you look like that big cable TV company or satellite TV service that simply sucks.
Today, it is often challenging to make your customers happy. Sadly, too many customers feel “entitled” and to try to take advantage. We’ve all been there and experienced that frustration.
Listed here are a few potential failures with automated phone systems:
- Public perception of these systems is negative.
- Often the “terminology” is confusing. (press 1 for collaboration tech support) or (press 2 for non-warranty technical help) or (press 7 if you would like to hear the menu again) “in case you weren’t paying attention the first three times, or you aren’t smart enough to know exactly which option you need.”
- There are often too many unclear choices.
- Even worse is when “your choice” isn’t listed
- It’s even worse when they don’t work perfectly.
- You are entrusting your “best first impression” to an oft problematic machine
- When things go wrong on the initial answer, (machine pick-up) there is rarely an opportunity to repair the damage.
- People repeatedly say they want a live person.
- The opportunity to quickly solve customer service issues in needlessly delayed, or even worse, it never gets resolved!
- Many times sales are lost as a result of caller frustration at not being able to get to the right person.
- The automated system enables employees to “distance” themselves from any urgency or immediacy.
- It creates a company environment where the caller is not most important.
- Bottom Line: It helps people hang up!
Today, the only real differentiation you have is your CUSTOMER SERVICE. Without the most awesome, incredible, problem solving customer service, you really aren’t much different from all your competitors.
As your author this isn’t some personal vendetta against technology! I have, however, experienced many negative calls into a company where the automated system was lousy or in many cases, so bad that I simply hung up and called someone else. Writing this article was prompted by several recent major frustrations – trying to do business with companies that used an automated (and terrible) system.
It should be quite obvious, that an automated phone answering system for your business can eliminate the cost of a receptionist to answer all calls personally. You might conclude that it’s an inexpensive way to expedite incoming phone calls, but you really need to re-consider. It’s kind of like stepping over a dollar to pick up a nickel!
By Dick Wagner, Co-Founder The CREST Network, LLC
Nationally recognized coach, consultant, trainer, and speaker
Creator of the renowned PREP™ pre-disaster program
Owner of AskDickWagner.com BLOG
Copyright© 2021 The CREST Network, LLC All Rights Reserved
be more cautious, accepting, and aware of others around us. Clients, customers, our employees, and the public at large are all fearful of the virus, and many are so fearful they don’t want to work in the office anymore with co-workers. This thought process is at work with many of your customers also. It is no longer “business as usual!” The world has changed, and your customers now expect you to operate at a high level of safety and cleanliness.
Many restoration marketers call on and solicit plumbing companies and plumbers. The hope is to be able to convince them to send your company leads and jobs when they arrive at a plumbing job and see a flooded home or a mold contaminated property.
If we really analyze the concept from a different angle, we could justify that we are paying a “commission” to an independent plumber. Just remember, you wouldn’t pay a commission to an employee where the commission represented 20 – 30% of the actual job! Furthermore, they would at the minimum receive a 1099 tax statement from you at the end of the year.
During my years of coaching sales and marketing people, I am often told by a salesperson that they are “old school” and prefer to stay that way because that has always worked for them. They don’t want to hear the world has changed. They don’t want to be told the way they used to sell won’t work very well today. They’ve spent 20 – 30 years selling a certain way, and quite likely during that time in the 70’s through the 90’s, they did OK or even very well. “Old school” is all they know, and they aren’t motivated to change. Little do they know that isn’t going to fly today.
they seek. Blogs are fantastic at creating that image for your customers. It’s been said many times, “people buy from people they like and people they trust.” Writing blog articles provides readers not only with great info about your products and services, but about a range of topics and activities related to your business. With the billions of different searches that happen every day, it means that your well-written blog article will likely be found and read. Blogs are the perfect way to showcase your expertise and trustworthiness; and offer content that your prospects will seek out. Most importantly, this must be an ongoing process, requiring you to update your blog posts often and keep content fresh.
a good picture or two with your blog post (or even Facebook post) increases the viewership and response by more than ten times! Pinterest is an excellent platform where you can capture your customers’ interest with quality pictures. Post pins (on Pinterest) with clear titles and unique, interesting, and entertaining images to stand out. This may require brushing up on your photography and web design skills, but the visibility is worth the effort, as Pinterest is one of the most visited websites each day. Buying pictures from online sources is a great way to get good quality, intense pictures. I have a Pinterest account and consistently post good pictures (with a weblink) about a variety of topics. One of the most popular boards on my Pinterest account is my board about Sales and Marketing!
Since we are talking about roofing, I recently (after Hurricane Irma) had to have a new roof installed. We interviewed a couple roofing companies and found a dramatic difference. They were all offering 35-year asphalt shingles, and one offered a synthetic underlayment, promoting the much better qualities and longevity.
It’s been my experience, having been in hundreds of “back offices,” that companies posting their daily, weekly, and monthly goals on a bulletin board (or large calendar) 
Only twenty years ago we used to say that about the Yellow Pages! In our case, the business was in a small (20,000 pop) mid-western community with the bigger cities 45 minutes east and west of us. We had to buy YP ads in 7 different phone books to get the exposure to all the markets we wanted. That YP invoice was a lot of dollars – 
