Problems With Toll Free Numbers
Problems with toll free numbers can annoy your customers, cost you sales, and drive up your telecom costs. Luckily, there are many easy solutions to better manage your toll free number. Using your Call Recording feature will help you catch and correct many of them. In addition, setting up your voicemail, call forwarding, and time of day routing features will help resolve most of the common problems with toll free numbers.
Problems With Toll Free Numbers and Solutions
Having a toll free number is vital for many business. However, if you don’t monitor your calls, you’ll waste money on calls that don’t produce sales or that do not help customers with their problems. In this article, we will list several of the most common problems with toll free numbers and how to resolve them.
With most call forwarding services, you’ll have the option to record your calls for quality purposes. This is the most important feature that you should set up and use to ensure that your calls delivery quality service and sales for you and your customers.
1. Customers Are Left On Hold
Have you ever called a business, only to find yourself on hold for an excessive amount of time? Most of us have at one time or another. Reducing the amount of time customers are left on hold will not only result in shorter handle times, but will make customers more satisfied and your agents a lot happier. Reducing hold time will also save you from paying for dead air when customers call in on your toll free number and wait for sales or service.
A good first step is to listen to your recordings to find out how much time customers are wasting on hold, or being routed to non-answering phones.
Toll free numbers provide another tool that can ensure that no customer communication is ever missed. Time-of-Day-Routing is a feature that allows you to stay connected with clients, potential clients and remote agents. This feature allows you to forward calls to a specific extension, depending on what time and day the call is received. A simple example may be a business that has offices on both the east and west coast. Early morning calls can be routed to the office in the east, while calls after 5 PM can be routed to the west.
2. Voicemail Is Not Set Up
Not having a voicemail set up with your toll free number will not only frustrate your customers, but can make the cost of your toll free number skyrocket. When customers call a line that continuously rings with no voicemail, the amount of minutes they are on the line waiting for a representative will affect your overall cost. A voicemail message can be set up easily on the customer portal that comes with your toll free number.
Don’t waste your customers time or your money, set up a voicemail as soon as your toll free number is activated.
3. The Wrong Person Answers The Call
Avoid the wrong person answering your calls. Customers dislike waiting on hold while an agent tracks down the correct authority to help them.
Using the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) that is included with your toll free number can help get calls to the right person. Your IVR is an integrated software feature that speaks a voice menu to callers and listens to their voice responses to navigate your phone system. The system works directly with Auto Attendant to make sure the callers needs are understood so they can be directed to the correct representative. This feature eliminates the wrong person answering your calls or the need of an operator. Your customers will spend less time waiting on the phone and representatives will be able to handle more calls.
4. Customers Don’t Get the Right Help
All agents want to resolve their customers issues and reach a proper solution. Your agents need to be able to effectively manage their calls and provide great service.
One way to implement quality assurance and to help your agents is utilize Call Recording, in order to gain valuable insight by reviewing your calls. Call Recordings allow you to review your calls so you can make sure all of your clients needs are addressed and met. You can use insights gained from auditing your call recordings to improve your agent training curriculum, and to help coach your agents.
Recordings are accessible through the customer self-care portal usually provided with your toll free number, which is extremely convenient for reviewing calls. Calls can be stored online for up to 15 days but can always be downloaded and stored, as well.
5. Customer Call Routed To An Absent Person
Too often when a customer calls with a quick question, they are put on hold for another department and no one is available to help. Get internal departments to be more responsive with Sequential Ringing. This features allows calls to be forwarded to different phones in your company in a specified sequence. Anticipating customer calls but are out of the office traveling? Have calls sent to your office phone and then automatically forwarded to your mobile. Never miss an important call again with sequential ringing.