How Does Your Business Sound?

Businesses often sweat the details of first impressions, from brochures to website design. Yet they neglect what is perhaps the most critical part of a company’s image: how they actually sound on the phone. For most midsize businesses the phone is the storefront — the first point of contact for both current and potential customers. Here’s how to give a good first impression:

Maximize the efficiency of your auto-attendant (the recorded menu most people hear):

• List most frequently requested extensions first. You may need to make an educated guess, or your phone system may be able to provide you the data. When people are dialing your main number but don’t have a particular extension in mind, they’re probably calling for either general info, customer service or sales.
• Keep the number of menu options manageable. In general, there should be no more than five or six.
• One option should be a company directory; another should be an operator or receptionist. If you don’t have a receptionist, set up a general voice mailbox, but be sure to assign someone to check it frequently throughout the day. On the general voice mailbox recording, give the customer some expectation as to when the call will be returned
• Keep things current. Somebody in your organization needs to “own” the maintenance of the directory list to make sure the auto-attendant’s info and directory are correct and up-to-date.
• Don’t be afraid to add some character to your recordings. Slow down and speak as clearly as possible, and if you have a bit of an accent, that’s fine. Clients like to feel that they’ve reached real businesspeople, not talking robots. If you don’t want to make the recording yourself, enlist an employee who has an appealing voice or hire a professional voice recording service to do it for a modest fee.

At our company, the sales team has adopted an idea presented to us by entrepreneur Jack Daly: They change their individual voice mail messages each day. They might mention the temperature in New York or Chicago, or who won the game last night. Customizing the voice mail with a little personality helps customers remember the salesman — and the company.

If your current phone system doesn’t give you enough voice mail options, consider a more updated phone system provider. Small to midsize companies do not often have the technical resources or capital required to support a phone system in-house. Therefore, many telephony providers host phone systems for clients and manage all the support and maintenance concerns as an outsourced service.

No matter what system you use, you’ll want robust voice mail and call routing services to ensure that incoming calls promptly go to the right person. The best systems for businesses allow on-the-fly adjustments to every aspect of the call flow, such as auto-attendant menus and after-hours emergency call routing.

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