Having a professional answering machine service is essential for your business in many aspects, no matter if you are a large international firm or a single tradesperson. Your customers are your next pay cheque so taking good care of them is the most important part of the business.
The inevitable fact that you are not available for certain periods of time during your working day means that having a system in place to direct your customers to leave a message is essential to keeping your customers coming back.
Build your business relationships
Making a great impression on a new customer is always an important part of your business, so if a customer is not able to get through to you immediately, having a 24/7 professional message answering service is necessary for keeping client’s good opinion for your business.
Greetings are one of the most important parts of any kind of relationship within the business as that first impression can really make an impact on how you are judged by your customers. Great first impression sticks in the mind of potential clients, and a bad first impression can mean they search elsewhere.
Every Call is Important!
It's very important to never miss a business call to make a great impression on your customer. When organising your personal message answering service, there are certain things to avoid. Being unavailable in the first place is obviously the first roadblock for many people, so not having a professional answer machine message is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Leaving a message such as “we take your call seriously” is overused and often reminds your customers of all the other times they’ve heard this message and prompts them to immediately hang up, but there are other things you can do to start building relationships with your clients immediately!
Call Service tools for business
There are a number of tools you can use to help you out in this situation and help avoid missing those important business calls. One of the best ways to avoid a message machine in the first place is to use a Call Service to outsource your call answering services for you. This is often much more cost effective than hiring a personal assistant, though the services work in the same way.
With a call service, you can have a real person answering your calls, taking the caller’s information and have the call information sent to you via text or email, making it one of the most powerful tools for trades-persons out working in the field.
Making a great first impression is a key factor in helping you win new business. Some of the best tips to help create a good impression are:
- Try to avoid giving out too much information in a single message, keep it simple with an optimal voice message of around 25 seconds max.
- List the available alternative options to your potential customer in ways of getting in touch with you. For example email, alternative numbers etc.
- Let the customer know exactly who they have reached, and instruct them on whom should the message be left for, such as which department, employer and the reason for leaving the message.
- Ensure to apologise for not being able to take the call.
- Speak clearly in a friendly and inviting tone.
Be clear, concise and friendly
Leaving the perfect message answering service for your business doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult. Simply try to cut down on the amount of information you want to pack into the message and offer alternative options for getting in touch for you. Making a great impression is a simple case of speaking clearly and using a friendly tone.
As long as the customer knows that you are sincere about being sorry for not being able to take their call, and most importantly, apologizing for not being able to take their call when you do finally get in touch with them will often make a great first impression on a customer as a friendly company to do business with in the future.
