One Phone Number = Increased Trust

In the five years I worked as a professional telecommuter, my number one rule was always “be reachable”. This meant almost always having my work phone number routed directly to my home number or cell. I remember one memorable nighttime call from an Australian co-worker looking to leave me a voicemail. It was 1 AM EST but instead of answer intelligibly. While this extreme pursuit of ‘reachability’ isn’t for everyone, it instilled a great sense of confidence in my largely west coast team members in my commitment to the team and brought rewards at review time. It turned out many people found me easier to get a hold of than others a few doors down the hall who were often away from their desk phones.

At the time it took an expensive $100/month/line phone routing technology to keep me this connected, but today with services like RingCentral’s “>call forwarding. Sure, everyone has a cell phone these days, but why make your customer’s boss or co-worker track you down number by number, eating valuable time? Instead, instill a simple trust in your stakeholders: call this one number and I’ll be there. It only takes seconds to pop onto the website and change where your calls will be routed.

It may sound simple but eliminating the gaps in your day when you can’t easily be reached can make a world of difference in how customers and co-workers perceive your participation.

The “call to action” is a vital part of any marketing campaign. The whole point is to get potential customers to transform into actual customers by contacting you. Once they do, however, what happens? People will not jump through hoops or fight to give you their business, certainly not so long as your competition is bending over backwards to make the sale. You need to take your customers by the hand and make things as easy as possible.

Unfortunately, customers have the habit of not always calling when you’re sitting by your phone. If you’re not there, what do they hear? According to the North American Telecommunications Association, callers who hear silence stay on the line an average of only 40 seconds. If you replace that silence with a spoken message, that average leaps to three minutes.

While a professional greeting is a great start, nothing beats actually getting that customer talking to a real, live human being. Even if you can’t have a person always by the phone, modern auto attendants can prevent callers from feeling neglected or ignored by connecting them to the right people in your organization. And when that person isn’t available, leaving a message in an individual person’s voicemail imparts more confidence than a generic company-wide voicemail.

Once you’re talking to customers and closing the deal, it’s time to take an eagle’s-eye view of the situation. Who is calling? Where are they calling from? Who are they talking to? If your phone system can’t capture this data, you can’t know exactly what sort of return you’re getting for your marketing efforts. Even customers who don’t stay on the line or complete the sale with you can let you know who is responding to your marketing with interest in your products or services.

Photo credits: Sorosh, Daquella manera.

If you are moving out of your home office to a corporate location or moving your growing business to a larger space, you’ll spend some time in transition. Everything needs to be moved over and you need to make sure you don’t lose anything along the way. Most importantly, customers need to be able to find you and reach you if needed. Using virtual PBX for your new office phone line can help.

Old numbers can be forwarded and setup can be faster than installing the traditional phone line infrastructure. You can minimize the downtime and put customers in touch with your employees with the services provided by RingCentral. This way you won’t be missing anything after your move, including your customer base.

For any small business, its phone line is its lifeline. This is a way to communicate with vendors and provide support for customers. Making this small business phone line professional and efficient can help you save money, retain customers, and have more business flexibility.

To do more with your phone line for less money, all you need is a virtual PBX system, like the one offered by RingCentral. You can have an auto attendant to send calls to the right place, customized hold messages, call forwarding, and many other features usually only found in a more expensive phone infrastructure. Access voice mail from any phone and set up professional messages.

For a low monthly fee, you can have a small business phone line that will help you impress customers and win business.