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Jun29

88% of people WILL leave a message on voicemail!

Posted in Surveys | 2 Comments

 

Here are the results from an online survey that asked people about how we use voicemail and answering machines in the UK.

Rather than make unfounded and sweeping generalisations like “80% of callers won’t leave a message on voicemail” we decided to survey a wide range of telephone users on their voicemail habits. And guess what? Nearly 90% will leave a message if they know the person they are calling. But most of people said they won’t leave a message if they’re looking to order products, responding to an advert or calling about customer service.

It supports what we have always thought – Voicemail is a valuable tool (indeed how did we ever survive without it?) for your close contacts but it is less suited to handling advertising response, supporting product ordering and in customer service situations if you want to build customer loyalty. We asked about the reason for the call, who they were trying to contact and what their relationship was with the person or organisation they were calling. We now hope that the survey will help organisations to decide when and where voicemail works best.

Over 500, both business people and members of the public, completed the  10 questions between April and June 2010.

The survey results are:

  • When calling a business during office hours in response to an advert more than half of people will not leave a message on voicemail

  • 83% of people are comfortable leaving voicemail messages on mobile phones

  • Nearly two thirds of people will not leave a message on voicemail if they are calling to make a complaint

  • The majority of people expect to be called back the same day if they leave a voicemail message

  • 88% of people will leave a message on voicemail if they personally know the individual they are calling

  • More than half of people leave less than 5 voicemail messages per week

  • 79% of people will not leave a message on voicemail if they are calling to place an order for a product or service

  • More than three quarters of people think that voicemail has a place in today’s fast moving business world

There’s no doubt voicemail is useful. But. Think long and hard before you rely on people to leave messages in response to adverts or if you are not giving your customers personal service. When they ring you they want to talk to you.

We will think a little deeper about what the results mean and we’ll use the blog to discuss our points. Because we answer telephone calls for lots of other organisations you may think, correctly as it happens, that we have a vested interest in encouraging people to rely on the telephone. So feel free to give us your comments to put a brake on our enthusiasm.

The full survey results can be obtained by contacting us at marketing@office-response.co.uk

By Steve West

Marketing and Business Development Manager

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Jun21

Should you advertise your telephone number on your website?

Posted in Tips, Knowledge and Experience | 2 Comments

 

 

One might think that the answer to this is an obvious one and that all websites should have a contact telephone number but there are points to consider;

Who are your customers?

If you sell business to business (B2B) then the answer if a definite ‘yes’! Even though buyers will use email or your website contact form to make their first enquiry some will want to call you. Whereas we think telephone numbers should be visible across all business sectors it seems to be common for companies within the internet marketing world not to use phone numbers on their sites. They do all the work to get the search engines to find their sites and then they don’t pubilcise a number. To me it’s lunacy.

And another small thing; when you do publish a phone number make sure you answer the calls!!!! I was looking for examples of business websites without telephone numbers so I’ve just searched Google for “internet marketing Bristol”, I was surprised that the first three sites all displayed telephone numbers so as a test I rang them all, would you believe that my first two calls went unanswered?

Now if your business deals directly with consumers (B2C) the decision to advertise a number or not depends on a few things;

How much money are you making per customer?

Over the many years that we have been managing calls we’ve had a fair few enquiries from companies where the average sale value has been so low that there has just been insufficient margin to justify the cost of call answering; either in house or by outsourcing it to us. Some business models just don’t warrant the cost of call answering.

A good example of this is a great business called worldstores.co.uk. They are very smart internet retailers selling products as diverse as beds for hundreds to Ipod accessories for just a few pounds. They’ll answer calls 24/7 on the bed’s sales line but you won’t find a telephone number anywhere on the Ipod site. The sites are run by the same management team but they’ve made very different decisions about telephone calls based on the economics of the products they are selling.

How well known is your brand?

Brands are all about trust and loyalty. Consider that you are going to use the internet to buy a bed. Tesco sells them online and there’s no telephone sales line number on their site. They are doing away with the cost of manning a call centre over long hours and letting their brand do the selling. Unsurprisingly the lesser known independent suppliers who are competing need to publilise telephone numbers to give buyers the confidence that the Tesco brand delivers. Many of our online retail customers find it hard to quantify the benefit we give them by having a 24 hour answering service supporting their online selling but they know it helps them to make sales by giving buyers confidence.

E-commerce businesses should beware of falling into the trap of thinking that everyone will order over the internet. Whereas lots of buyers are happy to tap in their credit card details others will want to order over the telephone if they are not comfortable about who you are or what type of service you provide.

By Martin Blain

Sales Director

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May17

The Great British Testimonial

Posted in Guest Blogs | No Comments

 

If you are in the process of trying to decide whether a telephone answering service will benefit your business you may find this blog article useful. Liz Duvall, Group Marketing Manager of Great British Mobility, outlines how our call handling services support their business objectives…

“I don’t know about you, but one of my pet hates is automated phone answering services.  You know the sort of thing……press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounts etc… and then you get another set of options, followed by a “all our operators are busy, please leave a message…etc” aaargh!!  I just want to talk to a human being!!

At Great British Mobility we offer a range of rise and recline chairs, adjustable beds, scooters and bathing aids.  Our customers are predominantly elderly or have mobility problems and we want them to feel that they are important right from the very first point of contact.  Therefore having the right people answering our phones is crucial to the success of our business. At Office Response not only are the staff human but they always sound like they have answered the phone with a smile on their face.

When a customer calls one of our freephone numbers, and enquires about our products, we want to talk to them.  However, if all our staff are already taking calls, how do we deal with the overflow?  Its very simple really; our phones ring for 4 rings and if they are not answered they then route to Office Response. A polite person will then capture their details and nature of their call.  This information is immediately emailed to the relevant department at Great British Mobility.

When I initially contacted Office Response I found the staff incredibly efficient and willing to help.  We had a portfolio of 126 freephone numbers and I assumed it would a complete headache to transfer everything over to Office Response destination numbers.  I couldn’t have been more wrong and the whole process was managed professionally and efficiently. This now equates to over 1000 calls a week that Office Response handle for us now and the service is exemplary.

We have had a few little teething troubles along the way such as the odd call script that needed a tweak, or a particular 0800 number that required the calls to be handled slightly differently and when queries have been raised they have always been dealt with promptly.

All in all, the move to Office Response has been made easy and dealing with the staff has been an absolute pleasure – from management and customer services to the agents answering the phones.  We know our customers are in safe hands and in a very competitive market its reassuring to know that Office Response value our customers as much as we do.

For more information on Great British Mobility’s full range of products you can visit them at http://www.greatbritishmobility.com/

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