Do Your Customers Regret Working with Your Business?
Courtesy of Bob Bever, RLB Partners
Do you understand the potential revenue loss from each missed call? If your business has quantified the value of every phone call, you can grasp the impact of not answering or providing a negative call experience. Are you inadvertently fostering buyer’s remorse?
Small and midsized businesses often overlook the role of a strategic phone system in building customer loyalty. Many business owners fall into the trap of viewing their phone solution as a mere commodity, leading them to believe that cheaper is better and any solution will suffice. However, a strategic business phone system is not just a tool, but a crucial driver for business growth and customer retention.
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Accenture discovered in their 2023 research that nine out of ten customers have frustrations with calling a business. Does this statistic disturb you as a business owner? It should!
Customers still value the ability to call a business, but they often encounter significant frustrations. A survey of 13,168 consumers across 33 countries found that 91% were frustrated by the need to contact a company multiple times for the same issue. This highlights the urgent need for an efficient phone system to enhance customer satisfaction.
When consumers take time out of their schedule to call a business, and you do not answer the phone, their frustration level increases. If the person answering the phone cannot help them, or if they are put on hold and must wait to talk to someone who can, their frustration increases. Using a phone answering service, a virtual receptionist, or a call center may reduce wait times and prevent missed calls, but it will not help caller resolve their issue or get their desired answer. Consumers do not want to be bounced around from one person to the next. It only increases their buyer’s remorse and increases their regret.
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According to Avochato, most consumers expect to spend at least 5 minutes on hold when calling a business.
Why should consumers be expected to wait on hold? Why should they mentally prepare themselves before making the call to be put on hold? Why should they have to arrange their schedule to waste their time on hold? Why should a business owner who is frustrated when put on hold by their vendors allow their customers to be OK with being put on hold?
In a survey commissioned by Avochato, 92% of respondents said they expected to spend five minutes on hold before speaking to a real person. Don’t take that as a realistic customer expectation. It’s not, and it only reinforces a negative experience. If customers or prospects feel the need to set aside a block of time to ask a quick question, their buyer’s regret will increase. The bigger the commitment it is to interact with your business, the fewer interactions you will have. And that is not good for business.
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According to Source 411 Locals, small and mid-sized businesses miss about 62% of calls.
When you answer the phone and hear a frustrated customer on the other end, don’t blame them if you are not answering all your calls. 411 Locals monitored phone calls of 85 businesses spread across 58 industries for 30 days. The results emphasize why consumers express buyer’s remorse. On average, these businesses answered 37.8% of all inbound calls. Another 37.8% of callers wound up in the business’ voicemail box. 24.3% didn’t receive any response from the company – no one answered, and there was no opportunity to leave a voicemail.
Small and mid-sized companies struggle to have dedicated staff to manage the phones or the resources to hire an answering service. According to recent government data, 80% of US businesses are classified as “nonemployers,” meaning a single person runs their own company and has no employees.
So, it’s no wonder small and mid-sized businesses miss many more calls than enterprise-level companies. But that is not an excuse. Cutting your lifeline to your prospects and customers is the fastest way to cut your throat and bleed out. Whether you are a nonemployer or a mid-sized company, answering your phones is a must.
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According to Velaro, about one-third of consumers won’t wait on hold for customer service.
Are you willing to wait on hold for customer service? If you, as a business owner, will not compromise your time to wait, why would you expect your customers to be willing to stay on hold? In this study, Velaro found that 32% of respondents emphatically responded they were unwilling to wait on hold for any length of time.
This statistic does not contradict the statement made in the second point of this article. How long people are willing to wait (or if they’ll even wait) could vary from one industry, age group, or region to another. The takeaway from these statistics is that your customers hate to wait or be put on hold. In either case, consumers want you to answer the phone and immediately meet their needs.
A significant finding from this survey is that younger adults were less willing to wait on hold for any length of time. 40.8% of adults between 18 and 24 wouldn’t wait on hold for any reason, whereas only 27.7% of adults over 65 were unwilling to wait. So, you lose by not providing immediate service to customers who call.
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According to eVoice, 67% of people don’t listen to their business contacts’ voicemails.
You can’t skim a voicemail. It’s not a good use of your time. You have to listen to the entire message, decipher what the person wants you to do, and then add that to your schedule.
The impact of this statistic is shocking. It’s not that 67% of people do not reply to voicemail; it’s that 67% do not even listen to voicemail – even from business contacts. They recognize the number and even have it saved in their phone, but they ignore the voicemail. That means they’ll never even know when you need a client to send you some paperwork or change their appointment time. You have to keep calling. (Or try a more effective communication channel, like texting.)
So, what should a business owner decipher from these consumer behaviors? It is critical to have a strategic business phone strategy and invest in the appropriate solution to increase your prospects and customers’ loyalty. There is no one-right system for all businesses. A business must seek professional and trusted advice from a knowledgeable and experienced business communications specialist. So, do not fall for the myth that a business phone system is a commodity unless you don’t care about your business’s viability and success.
Like the more than 20 million small businesses in the US, you need a secure and reliable phone service that meets their specific needs. Don’t purchase your system because someone else has. Purchase what is the best solution for you. Remember what Oscar Wilder said. “Imitation is the greatest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” Your phone strategy and system are a cornerstone of your business success. Be smart by knowing what will drive your business to success.