Smart Tips to Make Sure Your Calls Are Always Answered
Ameeth Dubey
Founding Member - Growth at Atomicwork | Building Agentic Service Management for Enterprise IT | GrowthX (GX17)
There is nothing more annoying than customers not picking up your calls. If your organization wants to maintain a personal relationship with its valued clients, the first thing that you need to do is make sure that your calls are answered.
While this may seem to be a very simple thing, you will be surprised to find out just how often people just refuse to pick up phone calls. Since 92% of all customer interactions happen over the phone, you need to make sure to make all calls count and provide great service to clients.
Companies need to make cold calls to clients and market their products or services effectively. The average cold call is two minutes – short, crisp, and brief. Call agents must have a powerful script where they pitch an organization’s services and try to forge a rapport with a lead. But the major challenge is getting across to the customer – many refuse to pick up unknown numbers and hang up as they do not want to attend robocalls.
Investing in a market leader such as SoftwareSuggest can solve many of your problems. Many companies are nowadays getting contact center software to provide end-to-end business communication solutions. This increases the probability of successful call attempts and streamlines marketing campaigns.
There is no miracle cure that can make sure that each and every call that your employees make will be answered immediately. However, there are many tricks of the trade that you can follow to increase the chances of customers picking up your phone calls. Here are some smart tips that will make sure that clients answer your phone calls by a couple of rings:
Send A Legitimate Text Before Calling:
Your current customer base is scared and intimidated by robocalls and related scams. Every second, robocallers place 3,961 phone calls, and a majority of these are fraudulent in nature. This is a huge reason why your customers don’t pick up your cold calls. Your customers probably do not know how to filter spam robocalls or make sure they are not disturbed by unwanted numbers; hence you are unable to get through to them. Well, do not fear – in such cases, there is a very simple and effective solution. All you have to do is send a legitimate text message to your clients before you attempt to call them. This will prove the credibility of your number and will also generate interest in their minds. Service providers such as SoftwareSuggest have a number of mass text messaging tools – this can help businesses get in touch with their customers before starting cold calls.
In 2019, you need to approach your calling agenda with a twist – personalize your text message with the customer’s name and personal information to build a bond of trust. Introduce yourself and let the customer know a bit about your organization. Let them know that you are interested in speaking to them and even ask them to add their phone numbers to your database. Showing this professional courtesy will go a long way and increase the likelihood of your calls getting answered.
Since more than half of people receive at least one robocall per day, they impact the connection between customers and businesses. By sending text messages through professional apps, organizations can engage clients better and ensure that they open the multiple paths of two-way communication.
Know When To Call Your Clients:
Did you know that the day and the time that you call your customers can make an immense difference to the results? Most sales representatives know this, and they plan when to pitch their marketing speeches so that they have maximum chances of success. CallHippo conducted detailed research on the topic, and after researching thousands of successful phone conversations, they came up with some insightful facts:
- The best day to call customers is Wednesday. It is wise for marketers to schedule maximum client communication on Wednesdays, as there are high chances of calls being answered successfully.
- We should call customers according to their timezone. The best time to call customers is between 4-5 PM or between 11-12 AM. Calling too early or too late in the day may result in calls that are not attended by clients.
- It is not enough to just call your clients on the right day and at an appropriate time. It is equally important to persist as it may take up to 6 attempts to contact your customers for a cold call.
- It is also a smart move to call your leads an hour after they have shown interest in your product.
Use the Power of Voicemail:
Many times, you are not able to pick up customer calls and attend to their problems. In such times, voicemail is a real saviour as it allows marketers to give a personalized greeting to their customers. A voicemail greeting should be very friendly, appreciative, and warm. This will motivate clients to stay on the line and not disconnect the call when they hear an automated voice. Your voicemail message can include the company’s name, departments, and information about its various products and services. Your voicemail can let your customers know that you apologize for not receiving their call and give them the time window when they will receive a call from your representative. This will create a positive brand reputation and make your organization look professional.
The best part about voicemail is that you can ask your customers to the purpose of the call and let them know that you will call back. This will make sure that you don’t lose out any precious business opportunities and can keep your customer interactions seamless.
Schedule Your Calls with GlobalConnect:
It is a proven fact that when you call international clients, more than half the times, the call will go unanswered. So why does this always happen? Well, the prime reason is the lack of knowledge about time zones. When call agents are not aware of the global time zones, they may call an inappropriate time. If a call is made at the wrong time of the day, then you will not find your client available to talk or receive the call. This may lead to many unsuccessful attempts, waste precious time, and lead to frustration at both ends.
Well, using CallHippo’s dynamic GlobalConnect tool, you can easily find out in a few seconds whether it is the right time to call a particular customer or not. It allows users to find out details about the time zone of a particular number in mere fractions of a second. All you have to do is hover your mouse over the phone number – it could be in a CRM database or on your website. Global Connect will immediately display the country of the number and the day, date, and time at a particular moment. It makes sure that you never call a sleeping customer, and gives your organization the image of a responsible service provider. Knowing the country where you will be placing an international call can also help users plan their calling costs and decide the best medium of communication. It is a competent tool that is sure to increase flexibility, save the time and energy of your call agents.
Not having your calls answered can prove to be very detrimental to any company. It acts as a stumbling block for the team members of the marketing department and significantly lowers their morale levels. Your support representatives and advertising agents are unable to get in touch with their target audience. Hence, they cannot relay any important information regarding promotions or new campaigns to them, and this impacts the sales pipeline.
You can take matters in your hand by taking proactive measures while placing calls. Follow these simple tips before placing your calls to push up the chances that your call is picked up on the first ring. Invest in nurturing long term relationships by giving customers a holistic experience. This will make them want to keep the doors of communication open always, and they will make efforts to receive your phone calls. So, don’t waste any more time and train your call agents to make sure that they don’t miss out on any opportunity to communicate with customers!
Source: CallHippo